152 LLOYD’S NATURAL HISTORY. 
Thylacinus breviceps, Krefft, Ana. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. 
il., p. 296 (1868). 
(Plate XXIV.) 
Characters—Fur short, close, and crisp. General colour 
pale, finely grizzled, greyish-brown, with a faint yellowish or 
tawny tinge ; under-parts somewhat paler; edges and bases of 
the ears, as well as a patch round each eye, nearly white ; 
hinder part of back marked with some sixteen blackish-brown 
transverse bands, descending in the region of the rump nearly 
to the knee. Soles of hind feet naked and coarsely granulated, 
without distinct pads. Tail with indistinct crests of hair on 
its upper and lower surfaces, with its tip blackish. Length of 
head and body about 44 inches; of tail 21 inches. 
It may be mentioned as a somewhat remarkable fact that 
traces of a rudimental pouch are found in the male Thylacine, 
and it should be added that such a rudimental pouch, which 
may be either permanent or transitory, has been detected in 
the males of several other Marsupials, most of which belong 
to the Polyprotodont division of the order. 
Distribution.— Tasmania. 
Habits— Known among the colonists by the names of Native 
Wolf, Tiger, or Hyzena, the Thylacine was at one time an abun- 
dant animal in its native island. The damage which it inflicts 
on the flocks of the settlers has, however, given rise to a 
relentless war of extermination, which has resulted in the al- 
most complete extinction of this, the largest of the Australasian 
Carnivores, in the more settled portions of the country. 
So like in general appearance to a Wolf is this animal, that 
the name of Tasmanian Wolf might well receive general adop- 
tion, were it not for the circumstances that the application of 
the name of a placental Mammal to a Marsupial is best, when 
possible, avoided. And on this ground alone we prefer to 
