ORDER MARSUPIALIA I MARSUPIALS 



33 



Its range in South Australia was formerly very wide. On Kangaroo Island 

 it appears to have been always more or less of a rarity. Thirty years ago it 

 haunted the shores of the [Murray] river and lakes, being there very partial 

 to a fish diet. To-day, if it exists at all in this State [South Australia], it 

 must be an animal of the utmost rarity. Although there is no doubt that 

 the influences which have been at work in the general process of the extermina- 

 tion of the Australian fauna have operated to the full on the Native Cat; 

 it is possible that another factor has come into play during the final scene 

 of its passing. The animal has been trapped, poisoned and persecuted through- 

 out the country .... The Native Cat, with its cunning and its activity, was 



FIG. 1. Common Eastern Native Cat (Dasyurus viverrinus) 



well able to look after itself, despite the fact that it was an extremely easy 

 animal to trap. Its rapid decrease started about the year 1900, and during 

 that and the two following years the so-called "common" Native Cat practically 

 disappeared from South Australia. Much the same thing happened in Victoria 

 and in New South Wales, with the exception of the district immediately 

 round Sydney. It would seem that some epidemic disease must have spread 

 through the Dasyures, and that after a lapse of twenty years the remnant 

 has not succeeded in re-establishing itself. In the Animal Protection Act of 

 1919 the Native Cat is not even mentioned. The evil or the good that it did 

 has ceased to be a factor of any economic importance. 



At the present time it "still haunts the coastal cliffs and moun- 

 tains about Sydney, also parts of Tasmania, Victoria, and New 

 South Wales, where survival seems assured" (E. Le G. Troughton, 

 in Hit., April 16, 1937) . 



In Victoria, according to C. W. Brazenor (in litt., March 3, 1937), 

 it occurs in greatest numbers around Lake Corangamite but is also 



