THE TASMANIAN DEVIL 213 



Tasmanian devil seems insensible to pain and, 

 though easily trapped with a bait of raw meat, will 

 readily bite off its own limb to effect its escape. 

 One of these amateur surgeons was retaken, and his 

 skin the biggest in the Australian (Sydney) Museum 

 at that time had only three legs, and not a trace of 

 a stump ! These animals will, on occasion, excavate 

 their own burrows ; doubtless with their long claws 

 it is an easy task. 



The Tasmanian devil was first described in 1808 

 by Mr. G. P. Harris, who states that it was then 

 very common near Hobart Town. Many were 

 destroyed on account of their depredations on 

 poultry ; the animals abounded in the neighbouring 

 woods, which were then unexplored. The convicts 

 ate the flesh, which was said to resemble veal. A 

 pair kept by Mr. Harris were very quarrelsome, 

 and when awake were always fighting, from dusk to 

 dawn. Perhaps the first live specimen seen in 

 Europe was the animal trapped on the Derwent 

 River by men in the employment of Mr. Davidson, 

 Superintendent of the Government Gardens. Still 

 untamed after eleven months of captivity, it was sent 

 to the Surrey Zoological Gardens in England, under 

 the care of Capt. Riddell, at some time previous to 

 1839. Dr. J. E. Gray's catalogue of the mammalia in 

 the British Museum in 1843 not only includes a 

 specimen presented by Mr. Ronald Gunn, but also 

 two given by Edward Cross, the well-known 



