182 



AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



tree will be found a family of the Dasyurida or native cats, beautiful 

 spotted creatures, the size of a half-grown cat, whose sharp face and con- 

 tinuous activity betray at once a restless and a wicked disposition. It is 

 carnivorous, fierce and intractable. The marsupial pictured on page 183 is 

 a specimen of an elegant variety of the common opossum, found principally 

 in the neighbourhood of the Bass River, 

 Victoria. The common opossum is found 

 everywhere. 



While the native cat is the only 

 mischievous carnivorous marsupial on the 

 Australian mainland, Tasmania is pos- 

 sessed of two much larger and more 

 destructive animals, the Thylacinus or 

 ' tiger-wolf,' and the Sarcophihis or ' Tas- 

 manian devil ; ' the former is nearly as large 

 as a wolf, and is shapely and handsomely 

 marked with stripes on the flanks. The 





The Sarcophihis or ' Tasmanian Devil.' 



latter is a smaller animal. It has been described as 'an ugly bear-like cat.' 

 It is a thick-set creature, black in colour, with white patches, and its hideous 

 appearance and its untameable ferocity quite entitle it to its popular designa- 

 tion. Both 'tiger' and ' devil ' are nocturnal, and both have been so hunted 

 and trapped by the settlers, whose sheep and poultry they killed, as now to 

 be very scarce. Neither has ever been known to attack man. At one 

 time, as geological examination shows, the marsupial ' devil ' and his 

 relative were both found in Australia, and the wonder is that they should 

 have so completely disappeared from the scene as they have done. 



