THE OPOSSUM 
HE only way we can under- 
stand why the opossum devel- 
oped a pouch in which to hide 
and carry her young, is to think 
of the enemies the ancient opos- 
sum families had to meet; for 
Zi the opossums appeared first 
during the Mesozoic period, the 
age of terrible reptiles. At that 
time there were various species 
of opossums scattered over all Europe and North 
America. Whether the reptiles ate them, pouches 
and all, and so destroyed them, we shall never know; 
but now the opossums have disappeared from all 
countries except South and Central America, and 
one species in the Southern United States; and this 
species is certainly having a hard struggle for exist- 
ence because it is preyed upon by most wild animals 
that eat meat, and by one tame one, that eats a great 
deal of meat, i. e., man. Mr. Sharp says of our 
opossum that ‘‘He is an eternal surprise. Either 
he is the most stupidly wise animal of the woods, 
or the most wisely stupid. He is a puzzle. Appar- 
ently his one unburied talent is heaviness. Job, the 
fat boy, was not a sounder, nor more constant sleeper, 
nor was his mental machinery any slower than the 
*possum’s. The little beast is utterly wanting in 
swiftness and weapons, his sole hope and defense 
being luck and indifference.” 
The opossum builds its nest in hollow logs or 
stumps, or in hollows about the roots of trees. It 
Ill 
