THE TASMANIAN THYLACINE 219 



guttural growling, for its stupid ferocity, and for its 

 habit of continually drawing the nictitating membrane 

 over its eyes. " Ears rounded, erect, and covered 

 with short hair " says Harris decidedly ; this point is 

 confirmed by examination of menagerie specimens, 

 although a wellknown naturalist has stated that the 

 tiger wolf never pricks its ears.^ 



The type specimen figured by Harris is no longer 

 in existence : it would be interesting, however, to 

 know whether it was the same individual which in 

 1 81 2 was exhibited in Bullock's Museum as a 

 "thylacine or Zebra Opossum, the only known 

 specimen in any museum." Now the animal which 

 Harris trapped was clearly immature, as shown by 

 Temminck's comparison with an adult skull in the 

 Leyden Museum ; besides, at a scientific meeting 

 held in London on June 8, 1824, it had been inde- 

 pendently noticed that Harris' description of his 

 specimen did not in the number of molar teeth 

 correspond with a thylacine skull, certainly adult, 

 then before the meeting. Temminck has distinctly 

 told us that there was a smallish specimen in the 

 Linnean Society's Museum in 1824; Bullock's 

 collection was sold by auction in 1819, and the 

 Linnean Society is known to have been a purchaser 

 at the sale, having bought the specimen of the 

 rare black emeu. Since, however, the type thylacine 



1 Tlie remains of a prickly anteater or echidna were found in the 

 stomach. 



