HABITS OF THE OPOSSUM. 
395 
travel through crooked bye-ways, instead of following the open road, and so blunder them- 
selves stupidly and sinuously into needless peril, from which their craftiness sometimes extri- 
cates them, it is true, but not without much anxiety and apprehension. 
When captured it is easily tamed, and falls into the habit of domestication with great ease. 
It is, however, not very agreeable as a domestic companion, as it is gifted with a powerful 
and very unpleasant odor, which emanates from its person with great force, whenever the ani- 
mal is irritated or excited. 
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 forming an 
appropriate receptacle for her young, the Opossum is assisted by her fore-feet, which are well 
adapted for digging. The nest itself is composed of long moss and various dried leaves. 
Sometimes the creature has been known to usurp the domicile of some other animal, not 
without suspicion of having previously devoured the rightful owner. On one occasion a hunter 
sent a rifle-ball through a squirrel’s nest, which was placed at some forty feet from the 
ground, and was surprised to see an Opossum fall dead on the ground. This creature has 
also been known to possess itself of the warm nest of the Florida rat. 
When the young of the Opossum are born, they are transferred by the mother to her 
cradle-pouch, where they remain for some weeks. From repeated experiments that have been 
made on this animal, it is found that the transfer is made on. the fifteenth day after the young 
have been called into existence, and that at that period they only weigh four grains, their total 
length being under an inch, the tail included. Their number is from thirteen to fifteen. 
After they are placed in tlie pouch their growth is wonderfully rapid, for in seven days they 
have gained so much substance as to weigh thirty grains ; and even at this early period of their 
existence their tails exhibit the prehensile capacity, and are often found coiled round each 
other’s bodies. In four weeks the little Opossums have gained sufficient strength to put 
their heads out of the pouch, and at the end of the fifth week they are able to leave it 
entirely for a short time. 
Very great trouble was required in order to ascertain these particulars, as it was found 
that the Opossum was in the habit of hiding herself in her den until she had placed her young 
in the pouch, so that it was needful to search the cavity for these concealed females, and to 
watch their proceedings by night and day, without intermission. 
There are one or two circumstances in connection with this subject that are well v r orthy 
of attention. 
The young Opossums are not, as has been often asserted, mere helpless lumps of animated 
substances, without sense or power of determinate action, but are wonderfully active in pro- 
portion to their minute size and their undeveloped state. If placed upon a table, 
they can crawl about its surface, and are sufficiently hardy to retain life for several 
hours after their removal from the warm cradle in which their tender bodies were shielded 
from harm, and the maternal fount which poured a constant stream of nourishment into their 
tiny systems. 
Another singular circumstance is, that when they are first placed in the pouch, they are 
blind and deaf, the eyes and ears being closed, and not opened until many days have elapsed. 
With partial blindness at the time of birth we are all familiar in the persons of kittens, 
puppies, and other little animals, but that the tender young of the Opossum should be deaf 
as well as blind, is truly singular. It appears that in the case of the kitten or puppy, the 
presence of light and the action of the atmosphere are needed in order to withdraw the 
obstacles that obstruct the sense of vision. In the young Opossum, however, it seems that 
the action of the atmosphere is needed in order to render the ears sensitive to the sounds that 
are transmitted through its mediumship, but that in most cases the little creature requires the 
absence of light until the time comes for it to open its eyes as well as its ears. 
What length of time elapses between the period of transmission into the pouch and the 
several opening of eyes and ears is not, I believe, as yet clearly ascertained, and would furnish 
an interesting subject for investigation. I would also suggest that the blood of the young 
animal be carefully examined in three of its stages, viz., just before it is born, immediately 
