122 MERIAN'S OPOSSUM. 
are extremely prevalent upon the limbs, which are almost wholly of the brown 
hue, which also surrounds the eye to some extent. The under fur is com- 
paratively soft and woolly, but the general character of the fur is harsh and 
coarse. The scaly portion of the tail is white. 
It is a voracious and destructive animal, prowling about during the hours 
of darkness, and prying into every nook and corner in hope of finding 
something that may satisfy the cravings of imperious hunger. Young birds, 
eggs, the smaller quadrupeds, such as young rabbits, which it eats by the 
brood at a time, cotton rats and mice, reptiles of various kinds, and insects, 
fall victims to the appetite of the Virginian Opossum, which is often not 
content with the food which it finds in the open forests, but must needs in- 
sinuate itself into the poultry-yard and make a meal on the fowls and their 
eggs. 
Preside the varied animal diet in which the Opossum indulges, it also eats 
vegetable substances, committing as much havoc among plantations and 
fruit-trees as among rabbits and poultry. It is very fond of maize, procuring 
the coveted food by climbing the tall stems, or by biting them across and 
breaking them down. It also eats acorns, beech-nuts, chestnuts, and wild 
berries, while its fondness for the fruit of the “ persimmon” tree is almost 
proverbial. While feeding on those fruits it has been seen hanging by its 
tail, or its hinder paws, gathering the “ persimmons” with its fore-paws, and 
eating them while thus suspended. It also feeds on various roots, which it 
digs out of the ground with ease. 
Its gait is usually slow and awkward, but when pursued it runs with con- 
siderable speed, though in a sufficiently clumsy fashion, caused by its habit 
of using the limbs of the right and left sides simultaneously in a kind of 
amble. As, moreover, the creature is plantigrade in its walk, it may be 
imagined to be anything but elegant in its mode of progress upon the ground. 
Although it is such an adept at “’possuming,” or feigning death, it does not 
put this ruse in practice until it has used every endeavour to elude its 
pursuers, and finds that it has no possibility of escape. It runs sulkily and 
sneakingly forward, looking on every side for some convenient shelter, and 
seizing the first opportunity of slipping under cover. 
The nest of the Opossum is always made in some protected situation, such 
as the hollow of a fallen or a standing tree, or under the shelter of some old 
projecting roots. 
In MERIAN’S OPOSSUM there is no true pouch, and the place of that curious 
structure is only indicated by a fold of skin, so that during the infancy of 
its young, the mother is obliged to have recourse to that singular custom 
which has gained for it the title of dorsiyerus, or “ back-bearing.” At a very 
early age the young Opossums are shifted to the back of their mother, where 
they cling tightly to their mother’s fur with their Jittle hand-like feet, and 
further secure themselves by twining their own tails round that of the parent. 
The little group which is here given was sketched from a stuffed specimen in 
the British Museum, where the peculiar attitude of mother and young is 
wonderfully preserved, when the very minute dimensions of the young 
Opossums are taken into consideration. 
Many other species of Opossums are in the habit of carrying their young 
upon their backs, even though they may be furnished with a well-developed 
pouch ; but in the pouchless Opossums the young are placed on the back at 
a very early age, and are retained there for a considerable period. 
It is a very small animal, measuring when adult only six inches from the 
nose to the root of the tail, the tail itself being more than seven inches in 
length, thus exceeding the united measurement of the head and body. Its 
general appearance is much like that of a very large mouse or a very small rat. 
