EXISTING SPECIES OF THE GENUS PHASCOLOMYS. 
sent to Europe up to the year 1800. Bewick gives no -scientific 
name to the animal, but above Hunter's letter appears a quaint 
figure of the animal, which is entitled “The Wombach.” There 
can be no doubt that this account formed the source of information 
upon which Shaw founded his very brief description of Didelphys 
ursina. 
His description reads as follows :—* 
“ Ursine opossum.” 
“ Didelphis ursina. D. flavescens labio superiore bifido. 
Yellowish O. with bifid upper lip. 
The largest of all the opossums: size of a badger: colour, pale 
yellow: fur, longish and sub-erect: nose strongly divided by a 
furrow. 
Native of New Holland: a species very lately discovered and 
not yet fully or satisfactorily known or described.” 
The letter from Hunter, and Shaw’s brief description, seem to 
have attracted no attention, but when, in 1802, Collins} published 
his Account of the English Colony in New South Wales he 
included in it Bass’ description of the specimen that was captured 
on Cape Barren Island. It is, at least, a curious fact that in this 
lengthy account no reference whatever is made to Hunter’s specimen ; 
on the contrary Collins speaks of Bass’ finding on Cape Barren 
Island “a new quadruped which was also a grass eater.” He goes 
on to say—* This animal, being a stranger, appears to merit a par- 
ticular description. The wom-bat (or, as it is called by the natives 
of Port Jackson, the Womback) is a squat, thick, short-legged, and 
rather inactive quadruped, with great appearance of stumpy strength, 
and somewhat bigger than a large turn-spit dog.” It is difficult to 
account for this, because certainly Flinders, and without doubt 
Bass also, were well aware of the previous capture of wombats on 
Clarke Island ; it is indeed, as pointed out previously, quite possible 
that the first specimen was actually captured by Flinders himself. 
In describing the animal from Bass’ notes, Collins says that it 
head measures 7 inches in length, the body 23,5, inches, and that its 
weight was from 25 to 30 lbs. The animal was a female, and 
amongst wombats this sex is heavier than the male. Collins de- 
scribes how Bass chased one “‘ and with his hands under the belly 
suddenly lifted him off the ground and laid him upon his back, 
along his arm, like a child. . . . . He carried the beast up- 
wards of a mile, and often shifted him from arm to arm, sometimes 
laying him upon his shoulder, all of which he took in good part, 
until being obliged to secure his legs while he went into the brush 
to cut a specimen of new wood, the creature’s anger arose with the 
* General Zoology, 1, Pt. 2, p. 504° 
t lst Bd, Vol. ii., p. 153; 2nd Ed., 1804, p. 466. In this work an account is given of Bass 
and Flinder’ voyage in the Norfolk, during which they finally proved Tasmania to be an island. 
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