418 
THE STORY OF THE OPOSSUM. 
animals of the Old Wodd. They are naturally forest-loving animals; but 
a few are found on the pampas of Argentina, where they have adapted them¬ 
selves to a ground life. In those species in which the pouch is poorly developed 
or wanting, the young are carried upon the back of their female parent, where 
they maintain their position by curling their tails round that of their mother, 
which is bent forward for that purpose. 
On first catching sight of the opossum, you would think it stupid ; but a 
very short observation convinces you that it is as full of tricks as the most 
cunning of foxes. One of its favorite devices, when it is surprised by the 
hunter, and finds escape impossible, is to- fall to the ground, apparently life¬ 
less, as if mortally wounded by its pursuer’s gun. If you think it really dead, 
and turn aside your gaze, or throw it carelessly into your game-bag, it watches 
for a favorable opportunity, and is off and away when, of course, you are least 
prepared. In this stratagem has^originated the popular phrase of “playing 
’possum.” Touch its head ever so-' lightly—so lightly that the touch would 
not kill a fly—and it immediately stretches out its limbs as stiff as a corpse; 
in a word it “plays ’possum.” In this situation you may torture it, cut its 
skin, almost flay it, and it will not move a single muscle. Its eyes grow 
dull and glazed as if covered with a film, for it has no- eyelids to protect its 
organs of sight. It will allow you even to throw it to your dogs, so complete 
is its acting, and so consummate its power of deception; but forget it only 
for a moment, and it opens its dull, glazed eyes, seizes its opportunity, and 
turns tail in the most rapid manner. 
In size the opossum equals a small dog, measuring about three and a quarter 
feet in total length; the head and body measuring twenty-four inches, and 
the tail sixteen. Its fur is of a grayish-white color, slightly shaded with 
yellow, and varied here and there by long white hairs with brownish tips. On 
the limbs these hairs are so numerous that the whole fur assumes a brown hue. 
It feeds upon young rabbits, mice, rats, reptiles of various kinds, insects, 
eggs, and young birds; and occasionally it makes a descent upon the poultry- 
yard, and regales itself with fowl or chicken. In these depredations it displays 
an astonishing amount of cunning and perseverance. 
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 “dorsigerus,” or back-bearing. 
At a very early age the young opossums are shifted to- the back of their 
mother, where they cling tightly to- her fur with their little hand-like feet, and 
