THE OPOSSUM. 245 



of suffocation is avoided by the elongated and conical form 

 of the upi:)er extremity of the larynx, whicli is embraced by 

 the soft palate, as in the Cetacea, and thus respiration goes 

 on freely, while the milk passes, on each side of the laryn- 

 geal cone, into the oesophagus." (Huxley.) 



Long after the yonng are weaned, and when they are 

 partly grown, they run into the pouch upon tiie approach 

 of danger, or enter it when tired, and, there safely ensconced, 

 peeping out to see if the danger is piast, they present a 

 comical sight. 



The lowest marsupial is the Tasmanian wolf, which is 

 rather smaller than the true wolf. The Tasmanian devil 

 is a vicious creature, troublesome to settlers; it is about 

 the size of a badger. 



The opossums inhabit North and South America. Tliey 

 have a long, nearly naked, scaly tail, and tliey walk, like 

 bears, on the sole of the wliole foot. The species range in 

 size from being a little larger than a mouse to tlie size of 

 a cat, and they live on birds and their eggs, i-eiitiles and 

 insects. The Virginian opossum {Didelphys Virginiana, 

 Fig. 285) lives for the most part in trees. Lawson says 

 that " the female doubtless breeds her young at her teats, 

 for I have seen them stick fast thereto when tliey have been 

 no bigger than a small raspberry and seemingly inanimate. 

 She has a paunch, or false belly, wherein she carries her 

 young after they are from those teats, till they can shift for 

 themselves. Their food is roots, poultr_v, or wild fruits. 

 They have no hair on their tails, but a sort of a scale or 

 hard crust, as the beavers have. If a cat has nine lives, 

 this creature surely has nineteen; for if you break every 

 bone in their skin and mash their skull, leaving them for 

 dead, you may come an hour after and they will be gone 

 quite away, or perhaps you may meet them creeping away." 

 ("Perfect Description of Virginia," 1649.) 



\* 



* Gosse, in his "Letters from Alabama," llius describes tliis ani. 

 mal'? trick of "playing 'possum." TUe creature had been worried 



