Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

"Their food consists of fish when near the coasts, but when in the woods, of oppossums [sic], bandicoots, and almost any animal they can catch."

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 143:

"The sharp guttural noises of opossums."

Ibid. p. 174 [`The Native Woman's Lament']:

"The white man wanders in the dark,
We hear his thunder smite the bough;
The opossum's mark upon the bark
We traced, but cannot find it, now."

1853. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 324:

"The opossums usually abound where grass is to be found, lodging by day in the holes and hollows of trees. The most common species is the Phalangista vulpina (Shaw), under which are placed both the black and grey opossums. . . . The ringtail opossum (Phalangista or Hepoona Cookii, Desm.) is smaller, less common, and less sought after, for dogs will not eat the flesh of the ringtail even when roasted."

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 200:

"Dogs, immediately on coming into the Australian forest, become perfectly frantic in the pursuit of opossums."

1883. `Encyclopaedia Britannica' (ed. 9) [On the Australian animal], vol. xv. p. 382: