54 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



To the uninitiated, a commencement of an ac- 

 count in the following manner, would look very 

 like a narrative proceeding from the pen of the 

 renowned Captain Lemuel Gulliver. 



The country of the marsupiates, or purse-bear- 

 ers, is of enormous extent, and forms a fifth quar- 

 ter of the globe. Their young are born in an 

 embryotic state, and conveyed to a comfortable 

 marsupium or pouch belonging to the mother, 

 where there are teats, to which these foetuses at- 

 tach themselves by their mouths. Here they 

 stick, like little animated lumps, till the small 

 knobs which exist at the places where the mem- 

 bers Jiight to be, bud and shoot out into limbs. 

 By and bye these limbs become more and more 

 perfect, and the extremities are completely formed ; 

 till gradually the development of the creature 

 reaches its proper proportions, and it is able to 

 go alone. It is right pleasant to behold these 

 curious little animals hopping or running about 

 their parents, and on the most distant approach of 

 danger flying for refuge to the purses of their 

 mothers, where they disappear till it is past, and 

 from whence, if they think they may safely ven- 

 ture, they peep out to see whether the coast is 

 clear. 



This, however, is an account of the Marsupia- 

 lia, the Animalia crumenata of Scaliger, uncolored 

 by the slightest exaggeration. 



New Holland is the head-quarters of these 

 anomalous creatures, and there the great type of 

 the group is placed ; nor does it extend far beyond 

 the main land among the adjacent islands. In 

 America it is scantily represented by the opos- 

 sum ; but neither the colder parts of that country 

 nor its southern extremity, know it ; neither do 

 any representatives of the family occur in Europe, 

 Asia, or Africa. Here, then, we have two far- 

 distant regions presenting themselves as the two 

 points of development of a form which has not 

 spread over other portions of the earth ; and, in 

 truth, this, combined with the palaeontological re- 

 searches of Dr. Lund -in Brazil, and of our own 

 Owen, relative to the quadrupedal fossil remains 

 of New Holland, is a strong argument for those 

 who look upon these countries as two distinct foci 

 of creation, and as affording examples, among 

 many others, militating against the notion of a 

 unique centre of origin of the animals now in ex- 

 istence. 



These marsupials are, as far as observation has 

 gone, of a low grade in the scale of intelligence, 

 and their vocal powers are exceedingly limited. 

 A growl, or a sort of hollow bark, is the nearest 

 approach that is made among them to a completely 

 developed sound, and a half-hissing, half-wheezfng, 

 guttural attempt at a cry, is the noise most fre- 

 quently emitted by them when under the influence 

 of irritation. I have in vain looked for that at- 

 tachment to their keepers, and to those who are 

 kind to them, which characterizes the more highly- 

 developed quadrumanes and quadrupeds in captiv- 

 ity and their manners seem to remind the observer 



of the reptilian rather than of the mammalian 

 class. The wombat's loud serpentine hiss, when 

 provoked, cannot fail to raise this idea in the mind 

 of any generalizing naturalist who hears it ; and 

 as for the kangaroo, its larynx absolutely wants 

 the necessary apparatus for producing a vocalized 

 sound, to which the noise that the animal emits 

 bears no resemblance. 



The brain in these creatures is in accordance 

 with the stupidity which renders them so unlike 

 those mammiferous quadrupeds in which that 

 organ exhibits a more advanced state of develop- 

 ment. The examination of those marsupials that 

 have fallen under the notice of comparative anato 

 mists, indicates the impossibility of their manifest- 

 ing those qualities which have so deservedly en- 

 deared the dog to man. They have no corpus 

 callosum ; and, without being very presumptuous, 

 that portion of the brain may be pronounced, upon 

 the authority of those who have not leaped to con- 

 clusions, but have humbly and patiently drawn 

 them from a long course of study and experiment, 

 to be the principal seat of memory. This defect 

 at once accounts for the stupidity and want of 

 attachment above alluded to. These marsupials 

 seem to have just as much intelligence as will en- 

 able them to perform the animal functions, and no 

 more. One of the Thylacines in the Regent's 

 Park, when shut out of his dormitory, spent his 

 time in walking round and round in a narrow circle, 

 without even examining the extent or nature of his 

 place of confinement, or expatiating ; no, he went 

 round and round, as if he had not sense to do any- 

 thing more. 



But we must introduce this brute form more 

 particularly to our friends. 



Thylacinus cynocephalus, the dog-faced opossum, 

 vulgarly known as the zebra opossum and zebra 

 wolf in Van Dieman's Land, is about the size of 

 a young wolf. The short, smooth, dusky brown 

 hair, is barred on the back, especially at the lower 

 part and on the rump, with some fifteen or sixteen 

 black transverse stripes, broadest on the back, and 

 narrowing as they extend down the sides. Two 

 or more of these zebra-like marks descend down 

 the thighs considerably. The ground color on the 

 back is of a blackish gray hue. The tail is long, 

 but not large, nor does it look well-proportioned 

 or symmetrically set on. It has forty-six teeth ; 

 eight incisors in the upper jaw and six in the 

 lower, two canines above and two below, and 

 twenty- eight molar teeth, fourteen in the upper 

 jaw and the same number in the lower. There 

 are five toes on each of the fore-feet, and four on 

 each of the hind-feet. 



Mr. Harris has described this, the largest of the 

 Australian carnivorous animals in the Transactions 

 of the Linncan Society. He remarks that it utters 

 a short, guttural cry, and appears exceedingly 

 inactive and stupid, having, like the owl, an almost 

 constant motion with the nictitating membrane of 

 the eye. The animal described by him was taken 

 in a trap baited with kangaroo flesh, and lived 



