490 THE PHASCOGALE. 
grey. A few black hairs are scattered sparmgly over the body. In almost every specimen 
that has been captured, a dark line is seen to run from the nose towards the base of the 
skull. 
The tail is clothed with fur of the same colour as that of the body for one-fifth of its 
length, but the remaining four-fifths are furnished with a bushy mass of long hair, each 
hair being about two inches in length. The colour of this graceful appendage is a jet 
black, which affords a very marked contrast to the light hues with which the body and 
limbs are tinged, and which gives to the animal a notably handsome aspect. The ears are 
rather large, and the head tapers rapidly towards the nose. 
The general appearance of the Tapoa Tafa is that of a gentle, peaceable little animal, 
unlikely to do any harm, and well calculated to serve as a domesticated pet. 
Never did animal or man hide under a specious mask of innocence a character more 
at variance with its mendacious exterior. 
For the Tapoa Tafa is one of the pests of the colonists, a fierce, bloodthirsty, audacious 
creature, revelling in the warm flesh of newly-slaughtered prey, and penetrating, in search 
of food, into the very houses of civilized men. Its small size and sharply-pointed head 
enable it to insinuate itself through the crevices which are almost necessarily left 
open in fences and walls, and its insatiate 
appetite induces it to roam through the 
store-rooms in search of any animal sub- 
stances that may have been laid up by 
the owners. Unless placed under lock 
and key, behind tightly-closed doors, pro- 
visions of various kinds are invaded by 
the Tapoa Tafa, for its powers of chmbing 
are so great that it can ascend even a 
perpendicular wall, unless its surface be 
smooth and hard, so that its sharp curved 
claws can take no hold. 
Fortunately for the farmers, the Tapoa 
Tafa is not possessed of the chisel-shaped 
incisor teeth which enable the European 
rat to gnaw its way through opposing 
obstacles, so that a wooden door will 
afford a sufficient barrier against its de- 
predations, providing it be closely fitting, 
and of solid material. It is said to be 
very destructive to poultry, and to pene- 
trate by night into the fowl-houses, creep- 
ing towards its prey so silently that its 
presence is not detected, and slaying the 
inmates as they are slumbering quietly 
on their perches. Were its size equal to 
that of the Tasmanian wolf, the Phascogale 
would be an effectual bar to civilization in any district which it might frequent. In its 
wild state its food is of a mixed vegetable and animal nature, and in the stomach of 
one of these creatures was found a heterogeneous mass of insect remains, mixed with 
portions of certain fungi. 
Not only is the Tapoa Tafa an object of destruction for the repeated acts of depreda- 
tion which it commits in civilized dwellings, but it has also earned a renowned name 
among white and black men for the extraordinary energy with which it will defend itself 
when attacked. Small though it may be, and harmless though it may appear, it deals 
such fierce and rapid strokes with its sharp claws that it can inflict extraordinarily severe 
lacerations upon the person of its adversary. So celebrated is the animal for its powers 
of resistance, that not even the quick-eyed and agile-limbed native will venture to trust 
his hand within reach of the claws of an irritated Tapoa Tafa. 
PHASCOGALE.—Phascégale penicillata. 
