out, they continue to use this singular nest as a place of
repose, and a refuge in case of attack by an enemy!

The pouched animals are not entirely confined to the Australian island.
The large island of New Guinea possesses some of them; and there are
species in Java, and others of the Asiatic islands. America (both North
and South) has the opossums, in numerous species; but it is in
Australia, and the contiguous islands of Van Diemen's Land and New
Guinea, that we find both the genera and species in greatest numbers.
These countries are, in fact, the head-quarters of the marsupial
animals.

The true genera are not numerous, though the species of most of them
are; and it is but natural to suppose that many new ones--both genera
and species--will yet be discovered, when the vast _terra incognita_ of
Australia comes to be explored. In fact, every expedition into the
interior brings home with it some new animal that carries a pouch!

As the opossums were the first of these animals whose habits became
generally known to Europeans, we shall speak first of them; and it may
be remarked, that although there are several species in the Australian
countries resembling the true opossums, and are even called opossums,
yet among naturalists the name is usually limited to the pouched animals
of America.

The old writer, Lawson, gives as succinct an account of the habits of
the best known species--the Virginia opossum--as may be found anywhere.
We shall adopt it _verbatim_:--"The possum," says he, "is found nowhere
but in America. She is the wonder of all the land animals--being of the
size of a badger, and near that colour. The female, doubtless, breeds
her young at her teats, for I have seen them stuck fast thereto when
they have been no bigger than a small raspberry, and seemingly
inanimate. She has a paunch, or false belly, wherein she carries her
young, after they are from those teats, till they can shift for
themselves.

"Their food is roots, poultry, or wild fruits. They have no hair on
their tails, but a sort of 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 smash their skull, leaving them
quite dead, you may come an hour after and they will be quite gone away,
or, perhaps, you may meet them creeping away. They are a very stupid
creature, utterly neglecting their safety. They are most like rats than
anything. I