70 LIFE OF AUDUBON, 



of neighbouring squatters, and have gained sisters to themselves 

 by the marriage of their brothers." 



He introduces, among other episodes of natural history, an 

 account of the habits of the opossum — "the dissimulator." 

 The walk of this animal he describes as an amble like that 

 of a young foal or a Newfoundland dog. Its movements 

 are rather slow — it travels across the snow-covered ground 

 about as fast as a man could walk — snuffing at every step for 

 traces of the prey it searches after. Entering some cranny, it 

 pulls out a squirrel it has killed, and climbing a tree, secretes 

 itself among the thick branches to eat its repast. Exhausted 

 by hunger in the early spring, the opossum will eat young frogs, 

 and the green growth of nettles and other succulent plants, 

 Unscared by the watchful crows the farmer has killed, the pest 

 creeps into the hen-house, eats the chickens, robs the hen of the 

 eggs she is sitting upon, and commits its devastations with 

 address and adroitness. Prowling about after sunset it avoids 

 all sorts of precautions, and defies the farmer's guns and curs 

 alike. In the woods it eats the eggs of the wild turkey, and 

 ravenously devours the grapes of the grape vine. When 

 attacked, it rolls itself up like a ball, submits to be kicked and 

 maltreated without moving, feigns death, lies on the ground 

 with shut eyes, and cheats its assailants into the belief that it 

 has been destroyed. When its assailant has gone, life seemingly 

 suddenly returns, and regaining its feet, it scampers off to the 

 wilds. 



" Once while descending the Mississippi, in a sluggish flat- 

 bottomed boat, expressly for the purpose of studying those 

 objects of nature more nearly connected with my favourite 

 pursuits, I chanced to meet with two well-grown opossums, and 

 brought them alive to the " ark." The poor things were placed' 

 on the roof or deck, and were immediately assailed by the crew, 

 when, following their natural instinct, they lay as if quite dead- 

 An experiment was suggested, and both were thrown overboard. 

 On striking the water, and for a few moments after, neither 

 evinced the least disposition to move; but finding their situation 

 desperate, they began to swim towards our uncouth rudder, 

 which was formed of a long slender tree, extending from the 

 middle of the boat thirty feet beyond the stern. They both got 



