CHAPTER VIII. 
MARSUPIALIA -THE OPOSSUM — DESCRIPTION AND HAUNTS. — RO- 
DENTIA— THE BEAVER, ITS HABITS, AND DESCRIPTION OF ITS 
HOUSE AND DAM.— THE MUSQUASH OR MUSKRAT AND ITS 
PECULIARITIES. 
The Marsupialia or Pouched Animals, who get their name 
from the Latin word marsupium , a bag, were entirely 
unknown to the ancients, the Opossum being peculiar to 
America, and the Kangaroo to New Holland. 
Description . — About the size of the common cat; head like 
a fox : ears large and naked : mouth deeply cut, opening 
wide : tail long and tapering, hairy towards the body, the 
remaining part covered with scales, prehensile : legs short, 
color gray or mixture of black and white. 
The females of this species have underneath, a pouch 
formed by an elongation or fold of the skin of the belly, 
supported by two long bones connected with the muscles of 
the belly, and articulated or jointed at the pubis. This 
peculiar construction first occasioned their original describers 
to be considered rather as inventors than trustworthy wit- 
nesses, and it was a considerable time before they were 
correctly represented. Buffon, though learnedly and elabo- 
rately exposing the errors of other writers with respect to 
this singular animal or class of animals, has himself given a 
very inaccurate description of it, confounding the opossum 
of Virginia with the Australian Kangaroo, but giving for 
the former, a figure unlike either, though between both. 
According to Demarest, they differ from all other animals in 
the production of their young, which are apparently brought 
forth premature ; for when first discovered in the external 
pouch, they are incapable of movement, exhibiting but slight 
