504 AUDUBON 



There cannot be a better exemplification of maternal 

 tenderness than the female Opossum. Just peep into 

 that curious sack in which the young are concealed, each 

 attached to a teat. The kind mother not only nourishes 

 them with care, but preserves them from their enemies ; 

 she moves with them as the shark does with its progeny, 

 and now, aloft on the tulip-tree, she hides among the 

 thick foliage. By the end of two months they begin to 

 shift for themselves ; each has been taught its particular 

 lesson, and must now practise it. 



But suppose the farmer has surprised an Opossum in 

 the act of killing one of his best fowls. His angry feel- 

 ings urge him to kick the poor beast, which, conscious of 

 its inability to resist, rolls off like a ball. The more the 

 farmer rages, the more reluctant is the animal to manifest 

 resentment ; at last there it lies, not dead, but exhausted, 

 its jaws open, its tongue extended, its eye dimmed ; and 

 there it would lie until the bottle-fly should come to de- 

 posit its eggs, did not its tormentor at length walk off. 

 "Surely," says he to himself, "the beast must be dead." 

 But no, reader, it is only " 'possuming," and no sooner 

 has its enemy withdrawn than it gradually gets on its 

 legs, and once more makes for the woods. 



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 

 favorite 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 experi- 

 ment 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 



