258 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
any other animal with which we are acquaint 
ed. When it is shaken from a tree and falls 
among grass and shrubbery, or when detected 
in such situations, it doubles itself into a heap 
and feigns death so artfully, that we have 
known some schoolboys carrying home for 
a quarter of a mile an individual of this 
species, stating that when they first saw it, it 
was running on the ground, and they could not 
tell what had killed it. We would not, how- 
ever, advise that the hand should on such 
occasions be suffered to come too familiarly 
in contact with the mouth, lest the too curi- 
ous meddler should on a sudden be startled 
with an unexpected and unwelcome gripe. 
The opossum is easily domesticated when 
captured young. We have, in endeavouring to 
investigate one of the very extraordinary char- 
acteristics of this species, preserved a consider- 
able number in confinement, and our experi- 
ments were continued through a succession of 
years. Their nocturnal habits were in a con- 
siderable degree relinquished, and they followed 
the servants about the premises, becoming 
troublesome by their familiarity and their 
mischievous habits. They associated familiarly 
with a dog on the premises, which seemed to 
regard them as necessary appendages of the 
motley group that constituted the family of 
