188 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
in the interior, wild regions in mountains, forests, swamps, and un- 
cultivated yet fertile districts to which the animals, driven before 
advancing civilization, can retreat. So far as the western and southern 
parts of Australia are concerned these natural sanctuaries do not exist. 
The interior of the continent is not a place of refuge for the native 
fauna; it is a place in which competition for every blade of grass is 
raised to a standard unattainable by the very unsophisticated marsupial. 
It may be said that the Austrahan marsupial has two slender chances 
of self preservation. It may be driven to the interior where in times of 
drought the severity of the struggle for food and water is marked by 
the carcasses of the introduced herbivores that have perished. Or it 
may be driven to the more populous districts where food is in com- 
parative plenty; but where man, cats, alid foxes are all intent upon 
compassing its destruction. 
Among the animals that have chosen this last alternative, Tn- 
chosurus vulpecula typwus stands out conspicuously. Universally, 
and certainly permanently, known throughout Austraha as the ^‘opos- 
sum, this phalanger is to a great extent a suburban animal. In 
Adelaide at any rate, the opossum (for it is useless to persist in naming 
it the common, or vulpine phalanger) has adapted itself to modern 
circumstances better than any other marsupial. Wherever sufficient 
native timber has been permitted to remain, so as to afford a shelter, 
there will opossums be found. More than this, the animal has to a 
large extent adapted itself to become independent of the big eucalypti, 
in the holes of which it has its natural home. It has learned that 
the space under the roof of the usual type of suburban bungalow 
affords an excellent shelter and in such situations it freely takes up its 
residence. In this opossums have earned the ill will of the suburban 
householder, as their activities are nocturnal and noisy. 
They are also in ill repute since disfiguring stains on ceihngs often 
mark the site of their residences above, and contamination of gutters 
is an important thing in a place where water collected from the roof is of 
the utmost value. Moreover, the fondness of opossums for rose buds, and 
for the fresh young shoots of vines and fruit trees renders them un- 
popular with the suburban gardener. Practically every man’s hand 
is against them, and yet they survive in a surprising way right up to 
the limits of the town. 
Trichosurus is the only marsupial which seems to possess sufficient 
adaptive plasticity to be able to compete for survival in a suburban 
environment with any degree of success. And yet it must be owned 
