2l8 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



back) ; the loins are marked with about sixteen black 

 bands arising from a line running along the spine. 

 One of these bands is frequently double ; young 

 animals are darker than their parents, judging from 

 the family group mounted in the Liverpool Museum. 

 The muzzle is purplish-black during life ; on each 

 side of it and on the chin are a few white hairs. In 

 spite of its pseudo-canine appearance the tiger wolf is a 

 true marsupial like the kangaroo ; the pouch, 

 however, opens backwards and the young ones 

 scramble into it upside down. A male which died 

 in London in 1885 weighed 33lbs. 



The thylacine was discovered soon after Tasmania 

 had, in 1804, been exploited as a convict settlement ; 

 the names Zebra Wolf and Zebra Opossum were 

 already in common use when on April 21, 1807, Sir 

 Joseph Banks communicated to the Linnean Society 

 Mr. G. P. Harris' " Description of two new species 

 of Didelphis from Van Diemen's Land." The 

 descriptions were accompanied by sketches by Mr. 

 Harris^ depicting a thylacine in a sitting position 

 (apparently drawn from life) and also a Tasmanian 

 devil discovered near Hobart Town about the same 

 time. Two thylacines only — both males — had at 

 that time been secured ; the type specimen lived but 

 a few hours, having been taken in a trap and thus 

 injured internally. It was remarkable for its low 



1 Not Oomwallis Harris, who at this date was a child only twelve 

 months old. 



