250 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
soon satisfied, and it early and slowly carries its 
fat and heavy body to its quiet home, to spend 
the remainder of the night and the succeeding 
day i in the enjoyment of a quiet rest and sleep. 
The whole structure of the opossum is ad- 
mirakly adapted to the wants of a sluggish 
animal, It possesses strong powers of smell, 
which aid it in its search after food; its mouth 
is capacious, and its jaws possessing a greater 
number and variety of teeth than any other of 
our animals, evidencing its omnivorous habits; 
its fore-paws, although not armed with retractiie 
claws, aid in seizing its prey and conveying it to 
the mouth. The construction of the hind-foot 
with its soft yielding tubercles on the palms and 
its long nailless opposing thumb, enable it to use 
these feet as hands, and the prehensile tail aids it 
in holding on to the limbs of trees whilst its 
body is swinging in the air; in this manner we 
have observed it gathering persimmons with its 
mouth and fore-paws, and devouring them whilst 
its head was downwards and its body suspended 
in the air, holding on sometimes with its hind- 
feet and tail, but often by the tail alone. 
We have observed in this species a habit 
which is not uncommon among a few other 
species of quadrupeds, as we have seen it in the 
saccoon and occasionally in the common house 
Jog—that of lying on its back for hours in the 
