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MARSUPIATA.—-DIDELPHIDZ.
on their tails, but a sort of a scale, or hard crust,
as the beavers have. If a cat has nine lives, this
creature surely has nineteen; for if you break
every bone in their skin, and mash their skull,
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VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM.
leaving them for dead, you may come an hour after, and they will be gone quite away, or perhaps you may meet them creeping away. ‘They are a very stupid creature, utterly neglecting their safety. They are most like rats of anything. I have, for necessity, in the wilderness, eaten of them. ‘Their flesh is very white, and well-tasted ; but their ugly tails put me out of conceit with that fare. ‘They climb trees as the racoons do.
In the southern United States, where this animal
