198 



MAMMALIA. 



this is the character of the greater number of our 

 summer visitants, are just as badly fitted for breaking 

 open those strong castles ; and therefore, while the 

 tropical countries contain the most abundant supplies 

 of food for the anteaters and other strong clawed 

 edentata, they would be a desert to those birds which 

 visit us during the summer. It is thus necessary to 

 the proper working of the general system of nature's 

 economy, that our insectivorous mammalia should 

 keep to the ground ; and it is just as necessary that 

 those of tropical countries should be capable of 

 climbing. 



The Dasyuri (which name is derived from their 

 tails being hairy or woolly and not prehensile) are 

 the true carnivora of New Holland ; but they have 

 not any thing like the strength or the courage of 

 mammalia of the same size ; and they are indiscrimi- 

 nately feeders upon insects, such warm-blooded ani- 

 mals as they can master, and carrion and all manner 

 of animal garbage which they can pick up. Their 

 leading characters are, eight incisors in the lower 

 and six in the upper jaw, all small and regularly 

 arranged ; large canines in both jaws ; six grinders 

 on each side of both ; the tw r o anterior ones com- 

 pressed, and with trenchant edges like the true car- 

 nivorous teeth of the mammalia, and the ones behind 

 with insectivorous or sharp points besetting their 

 surfaces. There is something in the structure of this 

 mouth which renders it less carnivorous than the 

 mouth of the mammalia with which the animal most 

 nearly corresponds. In them the false molars come 

 in between the canines and the great carnivorous 

 teeth, and thus each of these can perform its work, 

 separated to a distance from the other. The canine 

 is by this means more completely a wounding or 

 killing tooth, and the carnivorous more completely a 

 cutting and tearing one ; further, as the tearing tooth 

 comes in close juxtaposition with the wounding one, 

 those animals have what may be called a more dan- 

 gerous mouth than the carnivora ; and though they are 

 not so capable of wounding, they mangle a good deal 

 more. Another thing which lessens the power of 

 these animals is the concentration of a great portion 

 of their energy upon the large and powerful tail, and 

 on the marsupium and its apparatus; and their speed 

 is diminished by the possession of more perfect cla- 

 vicles than are possessed by any of the carnivorous 

 mammalia, and especially by those which are fleet 

 footed. 



Perhaps the most characteristic of them, though it 

 differs so much from the rest as to be considered a 

 different genus by some naturalists, is an animal about 

 the size of a wolf, of a yellowish brown colour over 

 the body generally, and streaked with cross bars of 

 black across the back. This has been found only in 

 Van Dieman's Land; and it has been termed D. 

 cynocephalus, or the dog-headed dasyurus. The name, 

 however, is not a very correct one, as the air and 

 even the shape of its head are by no means like 

 those of any species of dog, and the ears are short, 

 erect, and rounded. Neither this nor any of the 

 others is capable of climbing, and therefore they are 

 reduced to seek their food upon the ground j and 

 this one is known to prowl much about the wild 

 shores of Van Diemen's Land, and pick up such 

 animal refuse as is cast on the beach by the sea, or 

 brought down by the floods during the rainy season. 

 The other species, or perhaps the members of the 

 other genus, have different characters. Their bodies 



and also their heads are longer in proportion ; and 

 their tails are covered with much longer hair. The 

 largest of them has the coat very shaggy, something 

 resembling that of a bear ; others are smaller, less 

 shaggy, and not so dark in the colour ; and some of 

 them are very small. These animals are much dis- 

 liked by the colonists who reside in the neighbour- 

 hood of their haunts ; and they are accused of com- 

 mitting considerable depredations on the flocks of the 

 colonists ; but it is probable that a good deal of the 

 injury of which they stand accused is perpetrated by 

 the bushmen, and the dingo, or half-savage dog, which 

 is much more likely to do injury to flocks than 

 those prowling, cowardly, and comparatively feeble 

 animals. 



The genus Perameles (so named from a certain fan- 

 cied resemblance to badgers) are still to a considera- 

 ble extent carnivorous. They are ground animals, 

 and certainly answer in their manners to the badgers 

 of other countries ; for they are expert at digging in 

 the ground. These animals, like all animals which 

 are expert burrowers, have the muzzle long, the head 

 slender, the ears so placed as to turn down upon the 

 nape, the hair of the body short, and the tails much 

 more slender than those of marsupial animals in 

 general. Their hind feet are much longer than their 

 fore ones ; and they are formed something like the 

 feet of the kanguroo, so that they can either spring 

 from the toes or from the whole length of the tarsus. 

 The external and internal toes on their fore feet are 

 reduced to mere tubercles, so that their feet appear 

 only to have three toes, which toes are, however, 

 well adapted for digging, and furnished with strong 

 claws. The thumb on the hind feet is very short in 

 comparison with the others, and the two middle ones 

 are generally united by membrane, so that they can 

 offer a firmer point of support than could be given if 

 the toes were entirely divided. The females are 

 provided with a pouch (pera), so that perameles is 

 merely a translation of " pouched badgers," the name 

 given them by the settlers in Australia. As these 

 animals are still more obscure in their modes of life 

 than those to which we have already alluded, we are 

 less acquainted with their feeding. It is probable, 

 however, that the greater part of their subsistence 

 consists of ground insects, and other small ground 

 animals. 



Those which we have now enumerated comprise 

 all the marsupial animals which have any part of the 

 mouth decidedly carnivorous, though it may be said 

 that the insectivorous character predominates in the 

 whole of them, being that of the greater number of 

 their cheek teeth. We cannot therefore regard them 

 as being set, like the true carnivorous mammalia, to 

 watch over and regulate the numbers of an extensive 

 and varied population of mammalia ; this accords 

 with the character of the country in which the vege 

 table feeding marsupial animals are not very nurner 

 ous, and in which, until they were introduced, there 

 were hardly any true mammalia. 



Of the remaining division of marsupial animals, 

 some bear a slight resemblance to squirrels, at least 

 in some of their habits, and very partially in some 

 parts of their structure ; but the greater number may 

 be said to have hardly any types among the true 

 mammalia. Some of (hem live almost exclusively in 

 trees, in the holes of which they form their nests or 

 other abodes ; and many of them are furnished with 

 parachute membranes along the sides, by means of 



