118 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



country early reduced its numbers and broke up and dispersed its larger 

 colonies, it was still far from uncommon even as late as 1910, and scattered 

 bands were still to be found in suitable localities. The chief of these were 

 along the edges of the long strip of grass country extending from a little 

 north of Millicent to the vicinity of Bull Island and Reedy Creek, and 

 known locally as Avenue Valley, on the Biscuit Flat between Robe and 

 Kingston, the Mosquito Plain between Naracoorte and Penola, and in the 

 country between Clay Wells and Conmurra, and probably also in the sand- 

 hill country of its northern district. Its rapid disappearance in the last 

 twenty years may be attributed with some confidence to the invasion and 

 enormous increase of the English fox, which has been proved without doubt 

 to take a heavy toll of the young, even of the large kangaroos, and indeed in 

 the almost unoccupied desert country where man has had little influence on 

 its destinies, it seems that the fox has been the sole factor in effecting its 

 extermination. Its chief natural enemies [sic] before the advent of the white 

 man and the fox seems to have been the wedge-tailed eagle (Uroaetus audax), 

 which, like the latter, chiefly attacked the young. These attacks were by no 

 means always successful, and were sometimes thwarted by the courage of the 

 females. . . . 



I learn from another source that small boys in a certain district were in 

 the habit of periodically visiting the sites of eagles' nests to recover the 

 scalps from the remains of young toolaches to be found lying underneath; 

 this at a time when a bonus of sixpence was paid on all marsupial scalps. 



By 1923 the species had become exceedingly rare. Isolated pairs were no 

 doubt scattered through the rougher stringy-bark country, but the sole 

 remnant of the Toolach population which continued living in country and 

 under circumstances which might be regarded as typical of that formerly 

 obtaining, was a small band of perhaps fourteen individuals, located on the 

 south end of Konetta sheep run, some twenty-six miles south-east of Robe. 



Public attention was first called to the rapidly approaching extinction of 

 the Toolach by Professor Wood Jones, who repeatedly stressed the urgent 

 need for rigid protection of this group at Konetta. In May, 1923, as there 

 appeared little prospect for effective conservation in the south-east, an organ- 

 ised attempt was made on a considerable scale to capture living specimens 

 for transference to the sanctuary on Kangaroo Island. This, and a later 

 attempt in 1924, failed in their main objective, since as a result of overmuch 

 driving the four examples obtained were either dead or died shortly after 

 capture, but were not altogether fruitless, as much-needed Museum material 

 was thus acquired. 



The subsequent history of the species consists of a resumption of the 

 exterminating process. Owing to the extensive publicity given to the two 

 expeditions noted above, local attention was focussed on the Toolach to a 

 degree hitherto unknown. Much of this attention was sympathetic to the 

 idea of conservation, but the realization of the great rarity of the wallaby 

 roused the cupidity of an unscrupulous few> and that survivors of the 1924 

 attempt have been wantonly killed for the sake of the pelt as a trophy, 

 is an assertion based on the admission of at least one of the slayers. The con- 

 stant hunting of foxes with dogs over the Toolach country has been made the 

 excuse for some of this killing, the plea being advanced that it is impossible 

 to prevent the dogs running anything and everything that is put up. ... 

 Interrogation usually elicits the fact that "nothing spoils a dog like checking 

 him." This peculiar solicitude for the dog's training has borne very heavily 

 on the Toolach and still bears very heavily on his cousin the brusher. Occa- 

 sionally, however, a better spirit prevails, and recently a Toolach doe was 

 promptly rescued from two kangaroo dogs which had seized her, and, in the 



