The 'possum is a night prowler. On still, bright, moonlight nights whole 'possum families are out in the fields, woods and swamps hunting for berries, nuts, grain and roots. They eat insects, field mice, little squirrels and birds' eggs, too. But, best of all, they love the sweet, frost-wrinkled fruit of the persimmon tree. This weakness for persimmons often gets the little family in trouble. Sometimes they are caught in a tree by hunters with dogs.
Usually they get away in safety. On an alarm—just a rustle in the grass, the distant bark of a dog, or the smell of a man or gunpowder, the babies pop into their mama's pocket. The whole family scampers back to the home tree, and slips, in two packages, into the grass-lined nest in the hollow trunk.
Really, that nursery pouch idea is so clever, that one wonders why only the kangaroo and his little American cousin, the opossum, are provided with them.
