22 OUT OF DOORS. 



the ingenious and cleanly animal picks up the grass, 

 takes it to the water, and washes it carefully before it 

 will condescend to nibble a single blade. 



The honey-ratel, with his dark waistcoat and grey 

 coat, was in great force, running about his cage in 

 quite an excited fashion, and even climbing up the 

 wires as if to survey the prospect. In the summer 

 time of the year this animal has a habit of running 

 continually about its den in an oval-shaped course, 

 which is marked by the continual tread of the feet like 

 the sawdust in a circus. The oddest part of the per- 

 formance is that whenever it reaches either extremity 

 of its course it puts its head to the ground, turns a 

 somersault, and recommences its race. The fine speci- 

 men of that very fierce animal, called from its evil 

 temper the Tasmanian devil, was occasionally to be 

 seen in the open air, but it preferred the warm retreat 

 of its straw-sheltered shed. 



The winter aviary, which is ingeniously constructed 

 so as to admit of glazed casements in addition to the 

 wires, is employed as the home of several valuable and 

 delicately constituted animals. In the central com- 

 partment is a remarkably fine specimen of that curious 

 animal popularly called the Tasmanian wolf, but which 

 really is not a wolf at all, but one of the marsupial tribe, 

 related to the opossum and their kin. The beautiful 

 yariamas thrive well ; and as they sat on their perch 

 with bent knees, and head sunk so deeply upon the 

 breast that the curious feathery crest that decorates the 



