CANNIBAL PROPENSITIES OF OPOSSUMS. 71 



upon it, were taken up, and afterwards let loose in their native 

 woods. 



" In the year 1829, 1 was in a portion of Lower Louisiana, 

 where the opossum abounds at all seasons, and having been 

 asked by the President and Secretary of the Zoological Gardens 

 and Society of London to forward live animals of this species 

 to them, I offered a price a little above the common, and soon 

 found myself plentifully supplied, twenty-five having been 

 brought to me. I found them extremely voracious, and not less 

 cowardly. They were put into a large box, with a great quan- 

 tity of food, and conveyed to a steamer bound to New Orleans. 

 Two days afterwards I went to the city, to see about sending 

 them off to Europe ; but to my surprise I found that the old 

 males had destroyed the younger ones, and eaten off their heads, 

 and that only sixteen remained alive. A separate box was 

 purchased for each, and the cannibals were safely forwarded to 

 their destination," 



