UG. 15 , I 908 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
251 
1 cases the nests were discovered while the 
t ales were at work. These sets were merely 
out of the dozen or more that have passed 
iugh my hands, and in every instance but 
the eggs were twenty-four in number. A 
ale, together with her eggs, has been pre- 
;ed in the university collection for a number 
years. The collector, a Baptist minister, in¬ 
ns me that when he first discovered the 
: the lizard was in the act of depositing the 
s and paid no attention to him, although he 
ched her for several minutes. He then left, 
on his return an hour later, found her at 
k filling up the hole. 
The usual site selected for the nesting bur- 
is the base of a slanting bank of earth or 
i The hole seldom goes straight down, but 
isually dug at an angle of about 45 degrees. 
: animal’s fore feet are used in digging, while 
hind feet assist in pushing the earth out of 
burrow. As soon as one layer of eggs has 
1 deposited the lizard fills in around and over 
All of those in one set are usually of the same 
shape, but when several sets are compared they 
show considerable variation. The length in 
about seventy specimens is about the same, but 
the diameter varies considerably. The average 
type measures five-eighths of an inch in length 
by seven-sixteenths in diameter. In the fresh egg 
the color is yellowish-white. Those in the set 
collected on July 10, 1906, are almost black, as 
they were buried in a bank composed largely 
of coal dust and cinders. 
“When first hatched the young are smooth 
and tender, but in a short time are very active 
in their movements and fully able to take care 
of themselves. They do not receive any care 
from the mother, who probably never returns 
to the spot where she buries the eggs. 
“This species, in common with other mem¬ 
bers of the genus, has the habit of occasionally 
squirting blood from the corner of the eye. This 
is only done when the animal has been injured 
by rough handling. One afternoon I collected 
Breeding of the Opossum. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A friend and neighbor of mine tells the fol¬ 
lowing story, which is of special interest from 
the fact that the narrator is a man whose word 
is beyond question. He says: 
“We caught a female opossum alive, and at 
the time of the capture there was attached to 
each of her teats a lump of what seemed to be 
an enlargement of the end of the teat, about the 
size of a hazel nut. The lump resembled fat in 
texture, except that it was not firm, being more 
like stiff paste. We took the animal home and 
watched it for several months. The lumps on 
the ends of the teats increased in size, and be¬ 
came elongated in shape. When they were 
about the size of a full-grown mouse, legs and 
a tail began to develop, and black spots began 
to show where the eyes and ears were to be. 
At this time there was no sign of mouth or 
nose. The union between the young animal’s 
mouth and the mother’s teat appeared 
to be a solid one. The growth of the 
young ones up to the time the limbs and 
tail began to develop seemed quite slow; 
perhaps several weeks, as we did not 
take any note of time. After that 
period the growth was very rapid; in 
fact, we could almost see them growing. 
When they were the size of a striped 
ground squirrel or chipmunk the growth 
of hair on their bodies began, and the 
corners of the mouth began to be visi¬ 
ble, and the eyes and ears were pretty 
well developed. The attachment to the 
teats was still quite firm, and a sharp 
pull on the tail did not detach the young 
ones from the teats. They remained 
attached to the teats until they were the 
size of a full-grown rat, and it was 
some weeks after they were detached 
before they left the mother’s pouch. 
After they were old enough to come 
out. and to some extent care for them¬ 
selves, they still remained with the 
mother, and when she wanted to travel 
about, she laid her tail over her back 
and the young ones got on her back and 
HORNED TOAD AND SWIFT. 
Key * 
11 with earth and is ready for the next lot. 
pne nest examined by me the eggs were ar- 
| ted in four layers of six each. It is really 
! velous how hard and firm the earth is packed 
the burrow. The period of incubation is 
it forty days, but I presume that this de¬ 
ls largely on the condition of the weather 
| the location of the nest. Several eggs 
hed out in my office on the thirty-fifth day, 
I am certain that these were several days 
bated when they were brought in. In my 
ler notes I mention a set of eggs that were 
id under an old railroad tie. This seems 
J er a peculiar case when we consider the fact 
the eggs are usually buried to a depth of 
or seven inches, but at the time this set was 
id it had been raining steadily for several 
and the ground was wet and soggy. These 
'! litions may account for the seeming neglect 
he lizard mother. Had I not captured the 
lie I might have at first thought that these 
were those of some other lizard. 
’he breeding season extends from the middle 
^pril into the latter part of July. The eggs 
: a tough, leathery, non-calcareous shell. 
twenty-three specimens, and when I was ready 
to start home my shirt looked as though I had 
been present at a hog killing. Judging from 
my experience I would say that this habit was 
more common with our species than with any 
of the others. An old superstition among the 
country people and negroes is to the effect thac 
when a horned toad ‘spits’ blood its bite is 
‘suah’ death.” 
A Sparrow Tragedy. 
A report from the Soo tells of a tragedy 
enacted at the fish pond in the Government 
Park. It appears that the pond is a congregat¬ 
ing place for thirsty sparrows and others of 
the smaller variety of the feathered tribe. A 
sparrow was performing his ablutions when a 
big rainbow trout got his eyes on him, and 
quicker than a flash had the bird securely in 
his jaws. The sparrow did his best to escape, 
but the fish had his victim secure and made a 
breakfast of his catch. The fate of their com¬ 
panion did not seem to act as a warning to 
his mates, for the birds use the pond for drink¬ 
ing and bathing, as before.—Detroit Free Press. 
wrapped their tails around the tail of the old 
one.” O. H. Hampton. 
[The breeding of the opossum is a subject 
that was long very obscure, and early writers 
on the subject made somfe durious errors, which 
were not corrected until about 1848. when Dr. 
John Bachman read before the Academy of 
Natural Sciences in Philadelphia a paper on 
the subject, giving the results of his investiga¬ 
tions. 
Early authors spoke of the young opossum 
as being gelatinous bodies. Writers in the early 
part of the nineteenth century were wholly at 
sea on the subject and as late as 1842, when 
Dekay published his work on the Quadrupeds 
of New York, he repeated the errors of earlier 
writers and said, “The young are found in the 
external abdominal sac firmly attached to the 
teat in the form of a small gelatinous body, not 
weighing more than a grain.” 
Before that, however, Richard Owen and 
others had studied the breeding habits of the 
kangaroo, the largest of the Marsupialia and 
had thrown some light on its habits, and those 
investigations justified the inference that the 
