164 LEAVES FKOM THE 



Thylacinus cynocephalus, the dog-faced opossum, 

 vulgarly known as tlie zebra opossum and zebra wolf in 

 Van Diemen's Land, is about the size of a young wolf 

 The short, smooth, dusky brown hair, is barred on the 

 back, especially at the lower part and on the rump, with 

 some fifteen or sixteen black transverse stripes, broadest 

 on the back, and narrowing as they extend down the 

 sides. Two or more of these zebra-like marks descend 

 down the thighs considerably. The ground colour on the 

 back is of a blackish-grey hue. The tail is long, but not 

 large, nor does it look well-proportioned or symmetrically 

 set on. It has forty-six teeth : eight incisors in the upper 

 jaw and six in the lower, two canines above and two 

 below, and twenty-eight molar teeth, fourteen in the 

 upper jaw and the same number in the lower. There 

 are five toes on each of the fore-feet, and four on each of 

 the hind-feet. 



Mr. Harris has described this, the largest of the Aus- 

 tralian carnivorous animals, in the Transactions of the 

 Linnoian Society. He remarks that it utters a short, 

 guttural cry, and appears exceedingly inactive and stupid, 

 having, like the owl, an almost constant motion with the 

 nictitating membrane of the eye. The animal described 

 by him was taken in a trap baited with kanguroo flesh, 

 and lived only a few hours after its capture : in its stomach 

 were found the partly-digested remains of a porcupine 

 ant-eater.* 



The native abode of this curious animal is among the 

 caverns and rocks of the deep and almost impenetrable 

 glens near the highest mountains of Van Diemen's 

 Land. 



I first clearly saw a pair of these animals fairly out in 

 the light on the 26th May last, in one of the dens appro- 

 priated to the carnivorous animals in the Garden of the 



* Echidna aculeata. 



