WORK FOE THE PLAYFUL 'POSSUM. 



(i!» 



4 If we take our list in regular or- 

 der from low to high, we must begin 

 with the opossum, which does not exist 

 far towards the north, so that he doesn't 

 often encounter very severe cold ; when he 

 does, it seems only to make him more dili- 

 gent. During the spring and summer he 

 feeds very largely on insects; but as autumn 

 ripens the wild fruits, and winter preserves 

 them, while cutting off his beetles and fresh 

 grubs, he becomes a voracious vegetable-feed- 

 er. Stealing through the orchards and thick- 

 et o 



ets (of the middle States, at least), lie finds 

 and devours great numbers of persimmons, 

 gum- berries, frosted apples, and like deli- 

 cacies, varying this fare with fat, white 

 larvae of beetles dug from rotten logs. Dr. 

 Abbott tells me that in New Jer- 

 sey he has seen 'possums run- % 

 ning over the snow in „jsJ 

 broad daylight when the 

 thermometer marked zero. 



Hares find the winter a 

 poor time for them, not only 

 because they have to 

 work harder then for 

 a living, but because 

 the farmer- boy sets 

 his traps in the very 

 places they like best to 

 poor Bun- 



