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third the entire weight of the head. The power of suction is snch that the point of a 

 pencil applied to the oral pore is held so strongly that the young can he partially lifted 

 up by it. On March 14th the young weighed twelve grains, showing an increase of 

 weight at the rate of two hundred and fifty per cent, in seven days ; it was now one and 

 one-tenth inch long. On March ISth weight was eighteen grains ; the claws appeared 

 on the hind toes ; the testes had descended into a large scrotum ; the eye-lids were still 

 sealed, but movements of the eye-ball were visible beneath the skin. On May 2^d Dr. 

 Meigs found one of the young crawling on the body of the dam ; its weight was forty- 

 two grains; the eyes were open. This gave a term of gestation of seventy-four flays. 

 But the young return to the pouch for food and shelter until near the time for reception 

 of a succeeding litter." 



Distribution. — The Hudson River, according to Audubon and Bachman, 

 is the eastern limit of the Opossum ; in Texas and Mexico, and west to 

 the Pacific, the western form replaces the Common Opossum. 



This animal is not uncommon in central and southern Ohio, Indiana, 

 and Illinois ; the northern portions of these States are not so congenial 

 to it. Like the negroes, with whom the Opossum is associated in song 

 and story, while it can thrive in the northern portions of the United 

 States, its natural home is in the south. Opossums are not unfrequently 

 captured in Marion county, Indiana. The writer has seen the carcasses 

 and one live specimen exposed for sale the present mouth (December, 

 1878), in the Indianapolis market. 



They are readily sold to the negroes, who, doubtless, remember the 

 'Coon and 'Possum hunts of the old plantation days, and the feast of 

 'coon-grease and 'possum-meat that was almost sure to follow. The meat 

 is too fat and rank to suit a refined, or, at least, an uneducated taste ; yet 

 they readily sell for from fifty to seventy- five cents to their equally strong- 

 scented and dusky purchasers. 



Irwin Russell, in "Christmas Night in the Quarters," Scribner's Monthly, 

 January, 1878, gives the only explanation the writer has noticed of the 

 nakedness of the Opossum's tail. This subject, to be sure, belongs to 

 speculative zoology, but the Opossum is so unique among our mam- 

 malian fauna, that I see no reason why bard and minstrel should not 

 contribute their legends and speculations, as well as anatomist and nat- 

 uralists their facts and observations. To those grave and sedate readers, 

 who do not know 



" A little nonsense, now and then, 

 Is relished by e'en the wisest men," 



I would say, " pass this by, but in so doing you will miss a good thing." 

 To the transcendental zoologist, I let it go for what it is worth. 



