Four feet, wings, and fins . babies born .f* asked Frank. Down in the thick bushes, at the foot of sometree. With the help of her mate, she collects aquantity of fine, dry grass. This is loaded on herstomach, and then her mate drags her with her loadto the nest, by her tail. The children laughed, heartily. When the little ones are first born, they are notmuch larger than beans, and immediately retreatinto her pouch, all naked and blind as they are, andfasten themselves as close to their mother as if theygrew there, in order to nurse. Soon as they gettheir strength, their sight, and their hair,
Four feet, wings, and fins . babies born .f* asked Frank. Down in the thick bushes, at the foot of sometree. With the help of her mate, she collects aquantity of fine, dry grass. This is loaded on herstomach, and then her mate drags her with her loadto the nest, by her tail. The children laughed, heartily. When the little ones are first born, they are notmuch larger than beans, and immediately retreatinto her pouch, all naked and blind as they are, andfasten themselves as close to their mother as if theygrew there, in order to nurse. Soon as they gettheir strength, their sight, and their hair, theyundergo a kind of second birth. After that theyonly run into their mothers pocket as a refuge intime of danger. If they are surprised and have not 112 A RACCOON IN CHURCH. time to scamper into this pocket, they seize holdher tail, and try to escape with her in that is a smaller kind of opossum that has nopouch in which to carry her babies, and all the littleones scramble upon her back, and twist the end of. their little tails tightly around hers, as she carriesit elevated over her back, and in that way theytravel about with their mother, wherever she goes. 113 A RACCOON IN CHURCH. Opossums feed on fruit, eggs and insects. Theybelong to the order Marsupiala, and to the familyDidelphidcer Are the kangaroos related to the ^asked Frank. They ^eem to be allied to the opossums in onerespect, only — in being furnished with the pouchin which to carry their young. The kangaroo belongsto the order Marsupiala, the sanie as the opossum,but to a different family, called Macropodidce. Theyare natives of New Holland, and are very muchlarger than opossums. They have been known tomeasure as many as nine feet from the tip of thenose to the end of the tail, and to weigh a hundredand fifty pounds. The fore-legs are scarcely evermore than nineteen inches in length, while the hinderones are some three feet and a half long. Fromits formation, it is able to leap great dis
Size: 1696px × 1473px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1879
