first sight to a stranger. A very handsome "apron" for a fire-place in summer is made by hanging the skin of a large emu at the back of the open hearth.
In a wild state neither emus nor kangaroos will approach within five or six miles of the colonial towns, excepting under great pressure of thirst; but the opossum, who is assisted by his small person no less than his nocturnal habits in escaping observation, frequents every place where there are tall trees to climb, or fruit-gardens to be robbed.
The Australian opossum, or koomal, as the natives call it, differs in many respects from that of other countries. A description of it under the name of Vulpine Phalangist occurs in Mr. Woods' 'Illustrated Natural History,'[1] but his information that it is a "slow animal" can have been furnished him only by those persons who never saw an Australian opossum in its wild state. Dash, dart, spring, and scamper are the words which properly characterise its movements, and the nearest approach that it ever makes to a walk is a measured trot with a strange kind of swag, owing to its shoulders being so much lower than the hind quarters. When full grown an opossum is of the size and weight of a wild rabbit, the fur exquisitely soft and thick, mostly of a grey colour, but frequently dark brown tinged with yellow. We only once saw an opossum that was snow-white, and the kind was so uncommon that the old lady who brought it to our door for sale, asked us no more than we considered to be about twice its worth, in proposing that we should "give her a pound for it."
It is very common to see children with a young opossum for a plaything, but less so to find parents who will long
- ↑ See vol. i., pp. 466, 467.
