172 LEAVES EROM THE 



St. Hilaire (who had even speculated on the anastomoses 

 and distribution of the continuous vessels in the neck of 

 the foetus to account for its junction with the maternal 

 nipple), and to come to what may be deemed the safe 

 conclusion as to the mode of the removal of the newly- 

 born foetus to the pouch, where it is probably conducted 

 to and held over a nipple by the mouth of the mother, 

 while the pouch is kept open by her fore-paws, till she 

 feels that her young one has, with its lips, laid hold of 

 the sensitive extremity of the organ from which it is to 

 derive its subsistence.* 



But to return to the thylacines. 



They were so very shy and wild, that it was some time 

 before they could be turned into their outer apartment 

 while their sleeping-place was being cleaned, without 

 actual danger to themselves, they threw themselves 

 about so recklessly, dashing themselves in their terror 

 against the walls and bars of their place of confinement. 

 When I saw them out they had a most wild and scared 

 appearance, and made haste to escape from the light of 

 day to the obscurity of their inner den.f 



The porcupine ant-eater, whose remains Mr. Harris 

 found in the stomach of his thylacine, is the hedgeJiog 

 of the Sydney colonists, and, together with the ornitJio- 

 rliynchus, belongs to that other anomalous tribe of qua- 

 drupeds to which Geoffrey gave the apt name of Mono- 

 tremes. In these the reptilian character still further 

 prevails, mingled with that of birds. 



Though they have no pouch, they possess the marsu- 

 pial bones, which, however, play a very different part in 

 them from that assigned to those bones in the kanguroo 



* See Professor Owen's admirable paper ' On the Generation of 

 the Marsupial Animals, with a Description of the Impregnated 

 Uterus of the Kangaroo,' Fhil. Trans. 1834. 



t They have since become quite reconciled, and bear the gaze 

 of the numerous spectators with tranquillity. 



