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As to its omnivorous character, the Opossum may be compared with 

 the Raccoon. In th } summer and autumn it breaks down the corn, espe- 

 cially sweet corn, of which, like the Raccoon, it is very fond. They eat 

 chestnuts and sweet acorns, beechnuts, and the like, and most wild ber- 

 ries and cherries. Its resort to the persimmon tree in the season of the 

 fruit is proverbial. Worms, insects, roots, and tender shoots of various 

 plants are scratched from the leaves and earth, and serve as food, espe- 

 cially in the early spring. Young ground birds, eggs of quails and par- 

 tridges, marsh robins, and other birds which build their nests low, are 

 readily devoured, as are mice and other rodents, and especially broods of 

 young rabbits. 



The nest or den of the Opossum is variously situated. Sometimes they 

 occupy the hollow of a fallen tree, but oftener under the roots of trees or 

 stumps. 



The animal excavates a cavity and lines it with whatever material 

 is at hand — grass, leaves, or rubbish. Often, in the South, the long, 

 hanging moss (Tillandsia) forms the bed. 



The Opossum does not take to its den when pursued, but to the near 

 est tree, where it calmly sits in some comfortable crotch, perhaps not 

 twenty feet from the ground, where it solemnly watches the dogs, rantil 

 the hunter comes to their aid, when, if the tree is a small one, the animal 

 is readily shaken down, doubled up like a ball, into the jaws of the dogs. 

 It does not offer much resistance, but sullenly growls and gives up the 

 unequal combat. If no dogs are present the Opossum doubles up into a 

 heap, and feigns death so artfully that boys have taken them up and 

 carried them home for dead. 



This protective device seems to exhaust the wit of the Opossum, as it 

 does not avoid the ordinary means of capture, readily entering any kind 

 of trap set for it. Captured young, thej' are easily domesticated, relin 

 quishing their nocturnal habits, associating with dogs and cats, and be- 

 coming troublesome by their mischievous habits. 



The Opossum possesses an unusual interest to the student of our fauna, 

 as being our typical and only North American representative of Marsu- 

 pials. Its curious appearance and habits have claimed the attention of 

 naturalists and historians from the time of the early settlement of the 

 country. 



Lawson says, in his History of Carolina : " She is the wonder of all an- 

 imals. The female doubtless breeds her young at her teats, for I have 

 seen them stick fast thereto when they have been no bigger than a small 

 raspberry, arid seemingly inanimate. * * * If a cat has nine lives, 

 this animal has nineteen; for if you break every bone in their skin, and 



