BY II. II. S< OTT \M> CUVE I.. LOUD. 



ficial study of the subject has revealed various osteological 

 parallels, with the similar trend in ungulates, a table of 

 which we hope to supply later on, by waj of a recapitula- 

 tion of the several facts that may be noted in pa 

 Owing bo th< u tion of our knowli ■ cting the 



larger pleistocene mammals of the Genera Procoptodon, 

 Palorchestes, Thylaculeo, etc., it is al pr sent quite im- 

 possible to say how fully t Hi^ combath developed 

 before i acini extinction an accomplished fact, but 

 that such mighty < (all powerfully clawed), if not 

 otherwise the tendency u> : a, is, 

 thi 1 a I of it, unlikely. A modern !• Kan- 

 garoo (J/, giganteus), wrb a at bay. is a t 



a Palorchestes, or a Procoptodon, with their • 



• and limb, must ha units 



11 order. A little modern Wombat, when Btirred 



H to bitx and la 

 the hand of a child Li manner, 



causing on ndi r wh 



the pari of ai I Phascolonus would I. 



to! 'i ts in the 



1 circum if their p 



with a body bulk t<> thi although it might 



not produce the public ex cutioner" of former disp 



quota to arsupial : 



in an effecti i manner '\ win a w remember that 



the whole construction ol Thylacoleo, as far as we know 

 it, indica Mani itil th whole history 



of tb 



I bones, rather than — a- at present— listed, and i 



olated fragments, it will b< quite impossible 

 to do more th ilitiesj but, it' the swamps 



of Tasmania contin yield up such evidence a 



(Dm. to light since the the day of i xact know- 



should not ' ant on< , 1 1 has be< n at 



that the Diprotodon was as harmless as a Tapir, bul 

 Tapir- in a rapt i to quit i 



denly manil 91 "fit of irritation, plunging about, lunging 

 "violi ntly with their head-, and snapping with their 

 "t .th"; while in a state of nature, it is said of the 

 American Tapir — "when hard pressed it defends itself 

 ly with its t >eth, inflicting terrible wounds." As 

 the skull of the Diprotodon, according to the late Pro- 



r Stirling '-. is still a matter of speculation, in 



us parts of i ■ i bvious thai 



hitherto unsounded notes are yet to be heard before we 

 can close the octave of thai i story. Certainly 



(1) Monograph of PhascolontiB. Roy. Soc. S. Aust., 1913, p 177 



