This curious animal belongs exclusively to America, and is familiarly
known in the milder parts of the United States. It is about the size of
a cat, but its legs are short, and its body broad and flat. The females
are remarkable for having an abdominal pouch, to which the young ones
retreat in time of danger. The hunting of this animal is the favorite
sport in some of the Middle States. Parties go out in the moonlight
evenings of autumn, attended by dogs. These trace the opossum to some
tree, between the branches of which he hides himself from the view of
the hunter. The latter shakes him down, and the quadruped, rolling
himself into a ball, pretends to be dead. If not immediately seized, he
uncoils himself, and attempts to steal away. The various artifices it
adopts for escape have given rise to the proverb of "playing 'possum."