THE OPOSSUMS.

We now arrive at a race of Quadrupeds, so singular in their conformation, as, on their first discovery, to have excited the surprize and admiration of mankind in general. The females of most of the species are furnished with abdominal pouches for the protection and preservation of their young in some of these are two, in others three distinct cavities, which can be shut or opened at pleasure, being provided with two bones for that purpose. In these pouches the young remain, hanging to the nipples, till they are large enough to run about.

These animals are principally confined to the New Continent, and only one species has yet been discovered as native of Europe.

Besides the abdominal pouch already mentioned, the characters of the present genus are, ten frontteeth in the upper, and eight in the lower-jaw; in the former of which the two middle ones are the longest, and in the latter the two in the middle are broader and very short. The canine-teeth are long, and the grinders indented. The tongue is somewhat rough, being furnished with pointed papillæ.

THE VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM*

Is about the size of a small Cat: it appears, however, from the upright growth of its fur to

SYNONYMS. Didelphis Virginiana. Shaw.-Didelphis Marsupialis Didelphis Opossum ? Linn.-Opossum. Fhil. Tran.-Virginian Opussum. Shaw,---- „Shaw's Gen. Zool, pl. 107.

its fur to be much thicker. Its general colour is a dingy white its head is long, and sharpened; its mouth wide; ears thin, naked, round, and blackish, but edged with a white border. The tail is about a foot long, prehensile, hairy at its origin, but afterwards covered with a scaly skin, which gives it very much the appearance of a snake. The legs are short, blackish, and all the toes, except the two interior ones, which are flat and rounded, with nails like those of the Monkey-tribe, are armed with sharp claws.

When it is on the ground the Opossum appears to be a very helpless animal: the formation of its hands prevents it from either running or walking very fast, but in recompence for this apparent defect, it is able to ascend trees with the utmost facility and expedition; and, by the help of its prehensile tail, it is more active in this situation than most quadrupeds. It hunts eagerly after birds and their nests, and is very destructive to poultry, of which it sucks the blood without eating the flesh.. It also eats roots and wild fruits.*

When it is pursued and overtaken it will feign itself dead, till the danger is over; and, if we may believe the account of Du Pratz, it will not, when taken in this situation, yield any signs of life, though even placed on a red-hot iron; and when there are any young in the pouch of a female, she will suffer both herself and them to be roasted alive rather than give them up. They never move

* Church.

till their disturber is either gone to a distance, or has hidden himself, on which they endeavour to scramble, with as much expedition as possible, into some hole or bush.*

They are very tenacious of life, and cannot, without great difficulty, be killed. Although in some instances that Dr. Brickell mentions, the skull was shattered to pieces, and they appeared perfectly lifeless, yet, in the course of a few hours afterwards, they have in some measure revived, and he has seen them in the act of creeping about. In North Carolina it is a well-known adage, "If a Cat has nine lives the Opossum has nineteen."†

When the female is about to litter, she selects a place in the thick bushes, at the foot of some tree. Assisted by the male, she then collects together a quantity of fine dry grass; this is loaded upon her belly, and the male drags her and her burthen by the tail to the nest. She produces from four to six at a time. As soon as they come into the world, they retreat into a pouch or false belly which she has, blind, naked, and exactly resembling little foetuses. They fasten closely to the teats as if they grew to them. Here they remain, adhering as though inanimate, till they arrive at some degree of perfection in shape, and obtain their sight, strength, and hair: after which they undergo a sort of second birth. From that time they use the pouch as an asylum from danger. The female carries them about with

*Du Pratz, 265.

Pratz, 265.

Brickell, 125.-Lawson, 120. ‡ Du

the utmost affection, and they may frequently be seen sporting in and out of this false belly. Whenever they are surprized, and have not time to retreat into the pouch, it is said, that they will adhere to the tail of the parent, and thus still endeavour to escape with her.*

The American Indians spin the hair of the Opossum, and dye it red, then weave it into girdles, and other parts of their dress. The flesh is white, welltasted, and preferred by the Indians to pork; that of the young eats very much like sucking-pig.†

THE MERIAN OPOSSUM.

We have little other description of this small animal than that inserted in Madame Merian's splendid illustration of the insects of Surinam, from whom it has received its name. The following is her account of it: "By way of filling up a plate, I have represented a kind of Wood-rat, that always carries her young ones (of which there are commonly five or six) upon her back: she is of a yellow brownish colour, and white beneath when these Rats come out of their hole, either to play or to seek their food, they run about with their mother, and when they are satisfied with food, or apprehensive of danger, they climb up again on her back, and twist their tails round that

*Penn. Arct. Zool. i. 74. † Brickell, 125.-Du Pratz, 265. SYNONYMS.-Didelphis Dorsigera. Linn.-Surinam Opossum. Kerr. -Philandre de Surinam. Buffon-Merian Opossum. Penn.-Shaw's Gen. Zool. pl. 108.

of the parent, who runs with them into her hole again."

The paws resemble those of the Ape, having four fingers and a thumb, with small rounded nails. The hind feet have four sharp claws, and a round nail on the thumb of each.*

THE KANGUROO TRIBE.

THE Kanguroos, of which only two species have yet been discovered, and both of these in New Holland, are furnished, like the Opossums, with an abdominal pouch. This, and a few other characters that they have in common with that tribe, caused them to be arranged, by Linnæus, in the Systema Naturæ, along with the Opossums: they have, however, since, been taken into a separate genus, with the following characteristics :

Six front teeth in the upper jaw, emarginated; and two in the lower, very large, long, sharp, and pointing forwards: grinders five on each side, in both jaws, distant from the other teeth. Fore legs very short, and hind legs very long; and in the female an abdominal pouch containing the teats.†

* Kerr. i. 195.-Shaw, i. 485.

+ Shaw, i. 505. »