more merciful or more prudent, the opossum might have been kept within
the woods, where it would have been satisfied with a squirrel, a young
hare, the eggs of a Turkey, or the grapes that so profusely adorn the
boughs of our forest trees. But I talk to you in vain.
There cannot be a better exemplification of maternal tenderness than
the female oppossum. Just peep into that curious sack in which the
young are concealed, each attached to a teat. The kind mother not only
nourishes them with care, but preserves them from their enemies; she
moves with them as the shark does with its progeny, and now, aloft on
the tulip tree, she hides among the thick foliage. By the end of two
months they begin to shift for themselves; each has been taught its particular
lesson, and must now practise it.
But suppose the farmer has surprised an Opossum in the act of killing
one of his best fowls. His angry feelings urge him to kick the poor
beast, which, conscious of its inability to resist, rolls off like a ball. The
more the farmer rages, the more reluctant is the animal to manifest resentment
; at last there it lies, not dead, but exhausted, its jaws open, its
tongue extended, its eye dimmed ; and there it would lie until the bottlefly
should come to deposit its eggs, did not its tormentor at length walk
off. " Surely,1' says he to himself, " the beast must be dead." But no,
reader, it is only " 'possuming,1' and no sooner has its enemy withdrawn,
than it gradually gets on its legs, and once more makes for the woods.
Once, while descending the Mississippi, in a sluggish flat-bottomed
boat, expressly for the purpose of studying those objects of nature more
nearly connected with my favourite pursuits, I chanced to meet with two
well-grown Opossums, and brought them alive to the " ark." The poor
things were placed on the roof or deck, and were immediately assailed by
the crew, when, following their natural instinct, they lay as if quite dead.
An experiment was suggested, and both were thrown overboard. On
striking the water, and for a few moments after, neither evinced the least
disposition to move; but finding their situation desperate, they began to
swim towards our uncouth rudder, which was formed of a long slender
tree, extending from the middle of the boat thirty feet beyond its stern.
They both got upon it, were taken up, and afterwards let loose in their
native woods.
In the year 1829, I was in a portion of Lower Louisiana, where the
Opossum abounds at all seasons, and having been asked by the President
and the Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, to forward live
animals of this species to them, I offered a price a little above the common,
and soon found myself plentifully supplied, twenty-five having been
brought to me. I found them excessively voracious, and not less cowardly.
They were put into a large box, with a great quantity of food, and
conveyed to a steamer bound for New Orleans. Two days afterwards, I
went to the city, to see about sending them off to Europe; but, to my
surprise, I found that the old males had destroyed the younger ones,
and eaten off their heads, and that only sixteen remained alive. A separate
box was purchased for each, and some time after they reached my
friends the RATHBONES of Liverpool, who, with their usual attention,
sent them off to London, where, on my return, I saw a good number of
them in the Zoological Gardens.
This animal is fond of grapes, of which a species now bears its name.
Persimons are greedily eaten by it, and in severe weather I have observed
it eating lichens. Fowls of every kind, and quadrupeds less
powerful than itself, are also its habitual prey.
The flesh of the Opossum resembles that of a young pig, and would
perhaps be as highly prized, were it not for the prejudice generally entertained
against it. Some " very particular" persons, to my knowledge,
have pronounced it excellent eating. After cleaning its body, suspend
it for a whole week in the frosty air, for it is not eaten in summer; then
place it on a heap of hot wood embers; sprinkle it when cooked with
gunpowder; and now tell me, good reader, does it not equal the famed
Canvas-back Duck ? Should you visit any of our markets, you may see
it there in company with the best game.