﻿15S Allen's naturalist's library. 



teeth in each jaw ; and all the teeth much weaker than in the 

 preceding genus. 



To the settlers the members of this genus are commonly 

 known by the name of Native Cats, but since such names, as 

 we have already had occasion to mention, are decidedly objec- 

 tionable, we prefer to take an Anglicised form of the scientific 

 title. These animals range not only over Australia and Tas- 

 mania, but likewise occur in New Guinea and the adjacent 

 islands. Unlike the Thylacine and Tasmanian Devil, which are 

 purely terrestrial, the majority of the Dasyures are more or less 

 arboreal in their habits ; while they are both carnivorous and 

 insectivorous. Mr. Thomas suggests, however, that certain spe- 

 cies {Dasyurus viverrinus and D. geoffroyi), in which distinct 

 and striated pads are lacking on the soles of the feet, are pro- 

 bably far less arboreal than the others, since the organs in ques- 

 tion seem to be dQ\Q\o-^Q6. pari passti with the scansorial powers 

 of their possessors. Obnoxious, and at the same time well 

 known, to the settlers on account of their depredations to the 

 hen-roost and the dove-cot, the Dasyures may be regarded as 

 playing in Australia the role of the Martens and Weasels in 

 Europe, since they subsist very largely upon birds and, at one 

 season of the year, on their eggs. 



I. SPOTTED-TAILED DASYURE. DASYURUS MACULATUS. 



Viverra viacuhita, Kerr, Linn. Anim. Kingdom, p. 170 



(1792). 

 Dasyurus macrourus^ Geoff., Ann. Museum, vol. iii., p. 358 



(1804). 

 Dasyurus maculatus^ Fischer, Zoogn., vol. ii., p. 584 (1813); 



Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., p. 263 (1888). 

 {Plate XXV.) 



Characters.— Size large ; form stout and heavy ; fur thick and 

 close. General colour dark brown (never black) with a rufous 



