THE RED FOX. 257 
and it hangs suspended for a few moments only 
by its tail, in the meantime trying to regain its 
hold with its hind hands: but another sudden 
jerk breaks the twig, and down comes the poor 
animal, doubled up like a ball, into the opened 
aws of eager and relentless canine foes; the 
poor creature drops, and yields to fate with- 
out a struggle. 
In this manner half-a-dozen or more opos- 
sums are sometimes captured before midnight. 
The subsequent boasts about the superior noses, 
speed, and courage of the several dogs that com- 
posed this small motley pack—the fat feast that 
succeeded on the following evening, prolonged 
beyond the hour of midnight, the boisterous 
laugh and the merry song, we leave to be 
detailed by others, although we confess we 
have uot been uninterested spectators of such 
scenes. 
“Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 
Their homely joys and destiny obscure, 
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile, 
The simple pleasures of the humble poor.” 
The habit of feigning death to deceive an 
enemy is common to several species of quad- 
rupeds, and we on several occasions witnessed 
it in our common red fox. But it is more 
stnkingly exhibited in the opossum than in 
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