NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 



423 



Jrw^^'.V 



" I have seen a good deal of tliis beautiful little animal. It appears 

 very much like a squirrel when running on the ground, which it does 

 in successive leaps, with its tail a little elevated, every now and then 

 raising its body, and resting on its hind-feet. When alarmed, it gen- 

 erally takes to a dead tree lying on the ground, and before entering 



Fig. 14. Mtrmecobius. 



the hollow invariably raises itself on its hind-feet, to ascertain the 

 reality of appx'oaching danger. In this kind of retreat it is easily 

 captured, and when caught is so harmless and tame as scarcely to 

 make any resistance, and never attempts to bite. When it has no 

 chance of escaping from its place of refuge, it utters a sort of half- 

 smothered grunt, apparently j)roduced by a succession of hard breath- 

 ings." 



Fig. 15. Skull of Mtkmecobius. 



The other member of the family Dasyitridce, to which I call the 

 reader's attention, is a very different animal from the Myrmecohhis. 

 I refer to the largest of the predatory members of the kangaroo's 

 order ; namely, to the Tasmanian wolf. It is about the size of the 

 animal after which it is named, and it is marked across the loins with 

 tiger-like, black bands (Fig. 16). It is only found in the island of 

 Tasmania, and will probably very soon become altogetlier extinct, on 

 account of its destructiveness to the sheep of the colonists. Its teeth 

 have considerable resemblance to those of the dog, and it differs from 



