FLmders Island Wombat. 331 



repeatedly mentioned in the accounts of the early expeditions by 

 Bass, Flinders, Peron, and others. Flinders^ also states that 

 " Preservation and the Passage Isles do not possess it." 



Unfortunately these animals have been exterminated from all 

 the islands they were known to inhabit, with the sole exception, 

 so far as I have been able to ascertain, of Flinders, the largest of 

 the group on the eastern side of the Strait, 



The material obtained by the National Museum, which has 

 recently lieen dealt with by Professor Spencer and myself in two 

 separate papers,- and in which a full account of the literature on 

 the subject is given, proves that these animals also existed on 

 Deal Island in the Kent Group, and Kangaroo Island on the west 

 of Flinders. It is also very probable that they occured about the 

 same time on several of the adjacent islands, both on the east and 

 west sides of the Strait. 



During two separate visits tc the Bass Strait islands, under- 

 taken at the suggestion of Professor Spencer, Directoi- of the 

 Museum, with the object of finding if the Wombat still existed 

 there, I was fortunate in discovering it still living on Flinders 

 Island, and brought back two skins and an incomplete skeleton.* 

 Unfortunately, owing to the limited time available and the rough 

 nature of the country inhabited by them, I was not successful in. 

 obtaining a living specimen, and could only make arrangements to 

 have the first one captured sent to Melbourne. Their burrows are 

 usually constructed under the huge granite boulders and extend 

 for some distance. Exhaustive enquiries among the half-castes 

 and settlers on the islands, and the fishermen visiting there, 

 failed to reveal any evidence of its existence at the present time 

 on any of the adjacent islands. 



However, through the courtesy of Dr. J. W. Barrett, with 

 whom I visited the islands, and who kindly interested himself in 

 the matter, a living specimen captured on the northern end of 

 Flinders was received by the Museum on the 28th of Octol)er last. 

 This proved to be a female, and, as I found later, was carrying a 

 fairly developed young one in the pouch. 



1 Ibid. 



2 Memoirs of the Nat. Museum, No. 3, Feb., 1910. 



3 See „ „ ,, „ ,, p. V, 



