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race, is, according to Professor Baird, smaller and darker, with the head 
dusky above and below, and the tail as long as the trunk and head. This 
form replaces the eastern in Texas and California, and south to the city 
of Mexico. 
Description and Habits.—One’s first impression of the Opossum is so 
graphically described by Audubon and Bachman, that I transcribe them 
at length : 
‘We can imagine to ourselves the surprise with which the Opossum was regarded by 
Europeans when they first saw it. Scarcely anything was known of marsupial animals, 
as New Holland had not as yet opened its unrivaled stores of curiosities to astonish 
the world. Here was a strange animal, with the head and ears of a pig, sometimes hang- 
ing on the limb of a tree, and occasionally swinging like the monkey by the tail. Around 
that prehensile appendage, a dozen sharp-nosed sleek-headed young had entwined their 
tails, and were sitting on their mother’s back! 
“The astonished traveler approaches this extraordinary compound of an animal, and 
touches it cautiously with a stick. Instantly it seems to be struck with some mortal dis- 
ease; its eyes close, it falls to the ground, ceases to move, and appears to be dead! He 
turns it on its back, and perceives on its stomach a strange and apparently artificial 
opening. He puts his finger into the extraordinary pocket, and lo! another brood of a 
dozen or more young, scarcely larger than a pea, are hanging in clusters on the teats. 
In pulling the creature about in great amazement, he suddenly receives a grip on the 
hand—the twinkling of the balf-closed eye and the breathing of the creature evince that 
it is not dead, and he alds a new term to the vocabulary of his language, that of ‘play- 
ing possum.’ 
‘‘The whole structure of the Opossum is admirably adapted to the wants of a sluggish 
animal. It possesses strong powers of smell which aid it in the search for food; its 
qouth js capacious, and its Jaws, possessing a greater number and variety of teeth than 
any other of our animals, indicate its omnivorous habits; its fore paws, though not 
armetl with retractile claws, aid in seizing its prey, and conveying it to the mouth. The 
construction of the hind foot, with the soft yielding tubercles on the palms, and its long 
nailless opposing thumb, enable it to use these feet as hands, and the prehensile tail aids 
it in holding on to the branches of trees, whilst its body is swinging in the air; in this 
manner we have observed if gathering persimmons with its mouth and fore paws, and 
devouring them while its head was downward, and its body suspended in the air, hold- 
ing on sometimes with its hind feet and tail, but often by the tail! alone.” 
The Opossum is nocturnal like most predacious animals. Where it 
abounds, it may nearly always be found, on bright starlight or moonlight 
nights, when the weather is warm and calm, hunting its nightly range 
in search of food. Its gait is rather slow, heavy, and awkward, truly 
plantigrade, an amble or pace, advancing the two legs on the same side 
ut thesame instant. It travels no more than its appetite demands, rarely 
making a circle of more than a mile in a single night. The Opossum is 
not often met in cold or stormy nights. In spring and summer it is 
sometimes met with by day, especially is this so in places where it is not 
often molested. 
