CHAPTER XI - THE OPOSSUM

Summary

Characteristics.—Head long, conical; muzzle pointed; ears large, almost naked; tail long, scaly; the female furnished with a pouch containing thirteen mammae, arranged in a circle, with one in the centre.

Description.—Body stout and clumsy; mouth wide; moustaches on sides of the face, and a few over the eyes, which are high up in the forehead. Nails of moderate length and curved. Inner toe on hind feet without nails, and opposable to others, so as to form a hand. The fur is of two kinds; a soft woolly hair next the skin, with an outer coat of longer hairs, which are not long enough to conceal the under covering.

Colour.—Face near the snout pure white; ears blue. Hair on upper portion of the body is white at the base and black at the tips; the long hairs are mostly white; a line of dark brown beginning on the forehead widens towards the shoulders. The feet are brownish black, sometimes of a dark red tinge; the tail is brown.

Dimensions.—From point of nose to root of tail sixteen inches; tail twelve inches.

Weight.—Averages twelve pounds.

NOT only are deer ‘fire-hunted’ with an old fryingpan filled with pitch-pine knots, but there are several small animals which, being nocturnal in their habits, are rarely killed in the daytime. These are hunted chiefly by young white lads upon the plantations for the fun of it, and by the negroes for the fun and meat together.