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As to its omnivorous character, the Opossum may be compzred with 
the Raccoon. In th3summer and autumn it breaks down the corn, espe- 
cially sweet corn, of which, like the Raccoon, it is very fond. They eat 
chestnuts and sweet acorns, beechnuts, and the like, and most wild ber- 
ries and cherries. Its resort to the persimmon tree in the season of the 
fruit is proverbial. Worms, insects, roots, and tender shoots of various 
plants are scratched from the leaves and earth, and serve as food, espe- 
cially in the early spring. Young ground birds, eggs of quails and par- 
tridges, marsh robins, and other birds which build their nests low, are 
readily devoured, as are mice and other rodents, and especially broods of 
young rabbits. 
The nest or den of the Opossum i is variously situated. Sometimes they 
occupy the hollow of a fallen tree, but oftener under the roots of trees or 
stumps. 
The animal excavates a cavity and lines it with whatever material 
is at hand—erass, leaves, or rubbish. Often, in the South, the long, 
hanging moss (Tillandsia) forms the bed. 
The Opossum does not take to its den when pursued, but to the near 
est tree, where it calmly sits in some comfortable crotch, perhaps not 
twenty feet from the ground, where it solemnly watches the dogs, until 
the hunter comes to their aid, when, if the tree is a small one, the animal 
is readily shaken down, doubled up like a ball, into the jaws of the dogs. 
It does not offer much resistance, but sullenly growls and gives up the 
unequal combat. If no dogs are present the Opossum doubles up into a 
heap, and feigns death so artfully that boys have taken them up and 
carried them home for dead. 
This protective device seems to exhaust the wit of the Opossum, as it 
does not avoid the ordinary means of capture, readily entering ay kind 
of trap set for it. Captured young, they are easily domesticated, relin 
quishing their nocturnal habits, associating with dogs and cats. and be- 
coming troublesome by their mischievous habits. 
The Opossum possesses an unusual interest to the student of our fauna, 
as being our typical and only North American representative of Marsu- 
pials. its curious appearance and habits have claimed the attention of 
naturalists and historians from the time of the early settlement of the 
country. : 
Lawson says, in his History of Carolina: “She is the wonder of all an- 
imals. The femaie doubtless breeds her young at her teats, for J have 
seen them stick fast thereto when they have been no bigger than a small 
raspberry, and seemingly inanimate. * * * If a cat has nine lives, 
this animal has nineteen ; for if yon break every bone in their skin, and 
