94 
RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
The animal is usually a lowly builder, especially if a thick bush 
be selected, the nest may then be within seven or eight feet of 
the ground. In more open foliage it may be raised twenty or 
even thirty feet : in such cases a more careful attempt is made 
to conceal the structure, hanging bark, drooping moss, or a mass 
of foliage being pressed into service. 
The nest is carefully and neatly made. It has for foundation 
small sticks from which finer twigs are carried upwards and 
brought together in the form of an elongated dome. An aperture 
is provided at one end through which the } animal gains access ; 
thus giving a bottle-like appearance to the fabrication. Leaves, 
grasses, and mosses are skilfully woven into the structure, the 
mouth excepted ; this is narrowed and projects somewhat, and is 
usually composed of naked twigs alone. The interior is smoothly 
lined with fine grasses, and the whole forms a compact and fairly 
firm structure. 
We have recently received from Mr. J. M. Cantle a drey of 
this Opossum, wherein the usual type has been considerably de- 
parted from. Grasses and mosses have been entirely discarded, 
and their place supplied by the fronds of ferns. Ferns only are 
to be seen within, but I am inclined to think that the drey was 
not quite completed and that a smoother lining would have been 
provided. Mr. Thomas Whitelegge has identified the fronds as 
wholly of Pteris esculenta , Forst. This example measures : — Length, 
14 inches ; breadth, 11 inches ; greatest circumference, 36 inches. 
The drey is occupied only by the female ; but whether the male 
also takes part in its construction, I have been unable to learn. 
If any of my readers have made observations on this or any other 
matter connected with the animal, I shall be pleased to hear from 
them. 
Although one usually associates the drey as a habitation of the 
female while carrying young in her pouch, it would appear, as I 
learn from one or two sources, that the young are occasionally 
left in the drey during the absence of the mother, and Mr. R. 
Grant tells me that he once kept alive, two young Opossums 
which he obtained under such circumstances. 
If disturbed in her retreat, the mother may become very 
savage. On one occasion Mr. J. A. Thorpe having too incautiously 
sought to investigate the nest, received very severe wounds — the 
animal making its teeth meet in the fleshy part of the hand. This 
nest was placed in a small Eucalypt, and was reached from the 
ground by bending down the branches. 
It remains to be mentioned that the Ring-tailed Opossum does 
not enjoy a monopoly in nest making among members of the genus 
PseudoGhirus. As described elsewhere in this publication (p. 91), 
such a habit is practised by P. herbertensis , var. colletti , the nest 
differing only, as far as we know, in being more ball-like in shape. 
