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third the entire weight of the head. The power of suction is such that the point of a 
pencil applied to the oral pore is held so strongly that the young can be partially lifted 
up by it. On March 14th the young weighed twelve grains, showing an increase of 
weight at the rate of two hundred and fifty per cent. in seven days; it was now one and 
one-tenth inch long. On March 18th weight was eighteen grains; the claws appeared 
on the hind toes; the testes had descended into a large scrotum; the eye-lids were still 
sealed, but movements of the eye-ball were visible beneath the skin. On May 22d Dr. 
Meigs found one of the young crawling on the body of the dam; its weight was forty- 
two grains; the eyes were open. This gave a term of gestation of seventy-four days. 
But the young return to the pouch for food and shelter until near the time for reception 
of a succeeding litter.” 
Distribution. The Hudson River, according to Audubon and Bachman, 
is the eastern limit of the Opossum ; in Texas and Mexico, and west to 
the Pacific, the western form replaces the Common Opossum. 
This animal is not uncommon in central and southern Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois; the northern portions of these States are not so congenial 
to it. Like the negroes, with whom the Opossum is associated in song 
and story, while it can thrive in the northern portions of the United 
States, its natural home is in the south. Opossums are not unfrequently 
captured in Marion county, Indiana. The writer has seen the carcasses 
and one live specimen exposed for sale the present month (December, 
1878), in the Indianapolis market. 
They are readily sold to the negroes, who, doubtless, remember the 
‘Coon and ’Possum hunts of the old plantation days, and the feast of 
’coon-grease and ’possum-meat that was almost sure to follow. The meat 
is too fat and rank to suit a refined, or, at least, an uneducated taste; yet 
they readily sell for from fifty to. seventy five cents to their equally strong- 
scented and dusky purchasers. 
Irwin Russell, in ‘Christmas Night in the Quarters,” Scribner’s Monthly, 
January, 1878, gives the only explanation the writer has noticed of the 
nakedness of the Opossum’s tail. -This subject, to be sure, belongs to 
speculative zodlogy, but the Opossum is so unique among our mam- 
malian fauna, that I see no reason why bard and minstrel should not 
contribute their legends and speculations, as well as anatomist and nat- 
uralists their facts and observations. To those grave and sedate readers, 
who do not know 
‘A little nonsense, now and then, 
Is relished by e’en the wisest men,”’ 
I would say, “‘ pass this by, but in so doing you will miss a good thing.” 
To the transcendental zoologist, I let it go for what it is worth. 
