MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA 205 



some half-caste fishermen. The natives in response to eager ques- 

 tions, said that there were plenty of "Badgers," the name by which 

 they know the Wombat on the island, and promised to procure 

 specimens. But this they failed to do, although as much as ten 

 shillings a-piece was offered for good skins. 



A few months later the writer again visited Flinders Island, and 

 renewed his quest for the mysterious Marsupial. Another mangy 

 skin was discovered (it was in use as a door-mat), but the island 

 fishermen had not succeeded in procuring fresh skins. It was 

 very disappointing. Naturalists, however, are not easily dis- 

 couraged, especially when on the trail of the unknown, and the 

 quest in this instance was not forsaken. Landing, a day or two 

 later, in a beautiful little bay, further round the coast, the writer 

 rambled along the lonely shore for some distance, when suddenly 

 he came upon the spoor of a large animal's foot-prints in the sands, 

 and followed them up to the entrance of a cave in the rocks on the 

 edge of the scrub. It was the home of the Wombat. All about 

 were evidences of recent occupation. But the cave was deep and 

 narrowed towards the end ; it could not be fully explored. 



It was a wild day ; the rain fell in blinding sheets, and the wind 

 moaned eerily about that desolate place, so full of interest and of 

 possibilities. A rough pencil sketch was made of the locality and 

 of the cave in the rocks. Then the signal of recall came from the 

 little steamer in the bay, a signal that on these coasts of reefs and 

 shoals and sudden squalls cannot be disobeyed, and the naturalist 

 was compelled to hasten away from his "find." He has the satis- 

 faction, however, of knowing that specimens of the Flinders Island 

 Wombat have at length been secured, and are now being "worked 

 out" by the zoologists of the Melbourne Museum. 



HAIRY-NOSED WOMBAT.— The last species to be described is the 

 Hairy-Nosed Wombat (P. latifrons), which is characterized by 

 having soft, silky fur, mottled-grey above and greyish on the under- 

 pays. It measures about forty inches, and is an inhabitant of 

 South Australia. 



MARSUPIAL MOLE.— The Marsupial Mole, which is found 

 only in Central Australia and adjacent parts of the Western State, 

 is a rare and very curious animal. Unlike the European Mole, it 

 does not make a permanent run, but burrows under the loose sand 

 of the surface in quest of food, going deeper into solid earth for 

 the breeding season. Professor Baldwin Spencer, F.R.S., of the 



