THE TASMANIAN THYLACINE 223 



with Dr. Grant, of Launceston, sent a pair of 

 immature thylacines to the Regent's Park collection 

 They had been snared on the St. Patrick's River, and 

 the female at least was fairly tame. Shipped on the 

 barque "Stirlingshire," they arrived in London in 

 splendid condition ; Captain Gwatkin had done his 

 duty well, and no doubt the twelve fat sheep 

 thoughtfully provided for their consumption e^i route 

 had contributed materially to this result. The male 

 seems to have died previous to 1856, for in April of 

 that year the Zoological Society purchased another 

 example — doubtless to fill the gap. Both the 

 thylacines sent by Mr. Gunn in 1852 died before 

 reaching- adult agre.^ 



In 1868 the thylacine, owing to constant persecu- 

 tion, had been extirpated from the more settled 

 districts of Tasmania, though it still abounded in the 

 wilder and less accessible regions. Mr. George 

 Masters, Assistant Curator of the Australian Museum 

 at Sydney, having collected a series of Tasmanian 

 vertebrates, brought back with him skulls of what 

 Mr. Krefft asserted to be a new species of thylacine — 

 the "Bull-dog tiger" {Tkylacinus breviceps) having a 

 shorter skull and larger teeth than the typical or 

 "Greyhound tiger." A copy of Mr. Krefft's paper 

 on the Tasmanian fauna having been presented by 



1 Attention is drawn to this list of menagerie sj)e(;iniens, as a well- 

 known naturalist has made the amazing statement that tlie pair of 

 thylacines presented to the Zoological Gardens in 1849 (sic ) have never 

 been replaced. 



