LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



55 



only a few hours after its capture ; in its stomach 

 were found the partly-digested remains of a porcu- 

 pine ant-cater.* 



The native abode of this curious animal is among 

 the caverns and rocks of the deep and almost in- 

 penetrable glens near the highest mountains of Van 

 Dieman's Land. 



I first clearly saw a pair of these animals fairly 

 out in the light on the 26th May last, in one of 

 the dens appropriated to the carnivorous animals 

 in the garden of the Zoological Society in the 

 Regent's Park. They had been presented to the 

 Society by Mr. Gunn. I had, on a former day, 

 seen them imperfectly by getting into the outer 

 apartment of their den and looking into their dor- 

 mitory. When fairly exposed, they presented to 

 my eyes the images of the most extraordinary ani- 

 mals that I had seen ; creatures, I repeat, such as 

 one has beheld in dreams uncouth, loggerheaded, 

 oddly made up, as if Nature had been trying her 

 " 'prentice han' " at wolf-making, and as if they 

 belonged to a very ancient state of things in this 

 planet, as all the native Australian quadrupeds 

 do. The clumsy, ill-defined forms of these Thy- 

 lacines have puzzled men to give them a name. 

 " Wolves," "hyaenas," are some of the appellations 

 applied to them by the colonists, who saw a dog- 

 like or wolf-like head on a body striped with marks 

 resembling, in a degree, those of some of the 

 hyaenas. It is impossible for a palaeontologist to 

 look at them without fancying that he sees some 

 fossil animal recalled to life ; and, indeed, the ex- 

 tinct zoophagous marsupial Thylacotherium must, 

 as its name implies, have borne some resemblance 

 to the animals now under consideration. There 

 cannot have been any very wide zoological interval 

 between the forms of the Thylacine and of the 

 Thylacothere. 



The Thylacines, like all the true Australian 

 mammals, are strictly marsupial ; and the female 

 rejoices in as good a pouch after her kind as the 

 best-provided kangaroo of them all. 



And what a beautiful provision this is ! how 

 admirably adapted to the region in which the 

 marsupials live, and move, and have their being ! 

 Australia is proverbially wanting in rivers, and 

 during a considerable portion of the year the sup- 

 ply of water is very precarious. Most of these 

 quadrupeds drink very little ; and the mother, 

 instead of dragging hev young about wearily, to 

 look, perhaps in vain, for water, has them com- 

 fortably wrapped up in her pouch, and thrives 

 where a fox and her cubs would miserably per- 

 ish. 



The size of the foetus of the kangaroo at the 

 time of birth, together with the mode of its 

 attachment to the nipple of the mother and other 

 highly interesting particulars, may be collected 

 from the experiments of Mr. Collie, Mr. Morgan, 

 and especially of Professor Owen. From these it 

 appears that the young, as soon as it is born, is 

 removed by the mother's mouth in all probability 



to the pouch, which is held open by the mother's 

 fore-paws, and there held till it attaches itself to a 

 nipple. 



Professor Owen ascertained that the days of 

 gestation in the kangaroo* are twenty-nine. In 

 order to accustom the female to the examination 

 of the pouch, they were commenced at a very 

 early period of gestation, and were continued, till 

 at seven in the morning of the 5th October, 1833, 

 the fetus was discovered in the pouch attached to 

 the left superior nipple. On the preceding day 

 at the same hour a considerable quantity of the 

 moist brown secretion peculiar to the pouch was 

 noticed, indicating that determination of the blood 

 to that part had commenced, and at different times 

 during that day the female put her head into the 

 pouch and licked off the secretion. When ex- 

 amined at six o'clock in the evening, the only per- 

 ceptible change in the state of the pouch was a 

 slight increase of the secretion ; but none of the 

 nipples exhibited any appearance indicating that 

 she was so soon to become a mother. Closely 

 watched as she was she contrived, however, to 

 elude observation at the actual time of parturition, 

 which took place in the night ; nor were there 

 any appearances on the litter or about the fur of 

 the animal indicative of the event. 



The little one resembled an earth-worm in the 

 color and semi-transparency of its integument, 

 adhered firmly to the point of the nipple, breathed 

 strongly but slowly, and moved its fore-legs when 

 it was disturbed. Its little body was bent upon 

 the abdomen, its short tail tucked in between its 

 hind-legs ; and these legs, destined, if it had lived, 

 to be so gigantically developed, and to execute 

 such enormous bounds, were one third shorter than 

 the fore-legs ; but the three divisions of the toes 

 were distinct. Its whole length from the nose to 

 the end of the tail, when stretched out, did not ex- 

 ceed one inch and two lines. 



The professor was aware that the Hunterian 

 dissections, which may be seen in the preparations 

 exhibited in the noble museum of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons of England, as well as the 

 observations of Mr. Morgan and Mr. Collie, con- 

 curred in disproving the theory of a vascular mode 

 of connection between the mammary fetus and the 

 nipple ; but as Geoffrey St. Hilaire had stated 

 that a discharge of blood accompanies marsupial 

 birth, or the detachment of the fetus from the 

 nipple, Professor Owen determined not to neglect 

 the opportunity thus offered, and on the 9th of 

 October, separated the infant creature from the 

 organ that bound it to life. 



The following reasons urged him to this act. 

 First, it would decide the nature of the connec- 

 tion between the fetus and the nipple. Sec- 

 ondly, it promised to afford the means of ascer- 

 taining the mammary secretion at this period. 

 Thirdly, it might show whether so small a fetus 

 would manifest the powers of a voluntary agent in 

 regaining the nipple ; and, lastly, the actions of 



* Echidna aculeata. 



* Macropus major. 



