The little opossums are born in the spring, and the mother packs them all in her fur pocket, and carries them about with her until they are able to run, and to feed themselves. When they begin to go alone they keep near the mother, and if alarmed rush to her and try to nestle back in their safe early quarters. The Virginia opossum is particularly fond of the banana-shaped fruit of the pawpaw tree, and on the moonlight nights in the autumn when these are ripe, the opossums gather from far and near about the low, wide-spreading trees, and have a grand picnic. It is useless to try to shake the animals from the trees; for, wrapping their flexible tails about the branches, they hold on with a persistency that defies the rudest jar. When caught, the opossum feigns death, and no abuse, less than putting a live coal to its nose, will cause it to give sign of life. Happily this cruel test cannot often be applied. Many an opossum, caught robbing a poultry yard, has been left for dead by the farmer, and as soon as his back was turned has nimbly picked itself up and glided away. So, too, many a negro has brought home from a “’possum hunt,” a captive, which he designed for his favorite feast; but as he kneeled by the hearth to stir up the smouldering fire, the wily opossum lying where it had been flung on the floor, stealthily opened one eye to investigate the situation, then like a flash leaped from door or window, and was back to the woods. Opossums live in clefts of rocks, holes in the earth, and in hollow trees. When hunted they take refuge in the first hollow tree they can find, and many a tree is felled by the ’possum hunters that they may cut the animal out of its retreat. The flavor of the flesh is much like that of a young pig. In South America the opossum seems to fill the place of an insect eater, occupied in other countries by the true insectivora,--the hedge-hog, mole, and shrew. Probably in countries where they are plentiful, the opossum eats more insects than all other insect eaters put together. Its teeth are provided with numerous little points which enable them to grind, as in a mill, the horny bodies of insects. Young birds, and young barn-yard fowls, eggs, such little animals as mice, moles, toads, and the young of rabbits and hares, tempt the appetite of the opossum, who is a general depredator. In return, either for vengeance, or to obtain its flesh for food, the opossum is preyed upon, and were it not for its enormous yearly increase would soon be exterminated.