MARSUPIALS AND MONOTREMES 



367 



they are familiarly known by the Australian colonists. The badger simile is perhaps the most 

 pertinently applied with reference to their habit of excavating huge earth-burrows as dwelling- 

 places, and out of which they customarily emerge only at night to feed. The TASMANIAN 

 WOMBAT, at all events, is essentially gregarious in its habits. In the neighbourhood of 

 Swansea, on the east coast, it is, or was, particularly abundant, forming regular warrens among 

 a light undergrowth of vegetation, through which traveling on horseback is a distinctly risky 

 proceeding. The temperament of the wombat is peculiarly placid ; and hence, as it might be 

 anticipated, they are essentially long-lived. One, Charlie by name, which has been domiciled 

 at the Zoo for the past thirty years, is still hale and hearty, and evidently disinclined yet 

 awhile to immolate himself on the altar of fame as a much-needed successor to the antique 

 effigy which has for so long represented his species in the British Natural History Museum. 

 Waiting for dead men's shoes is a proverbially tedious task, and for a coveted wombat's skin 

 evidently more so. 



The tough hide, with its thick, harsh fur, of the Tasmanian wombat, or " badger," as it is 

 locally dubbed, is somewhat highly prized in the land of its birth. For floor- and door-mats and 

 rugs the pelt is practically indestructible ; and as such, though scarcely a thing of beauty, the 

 special pride of the thrifty housewife. This animal is also not infrequently made a household 

 pet, and will waddle as complacently as an over-fed poodle around the premises after its owner. 

 The wombat, like the large majority of the marsupial animals, is for the most part nocturnal 

 in habits, and a strict vegetarian. 



The wombats present several interestingly distinct structural peculiarities. In the first 

 place, their teeth, which are twenty-four in number, all grow uninterruptedly throughout life, 

 and are consequently devoid of roots. The incisor teeth are represented by but a single pair 

 in each jaw, and, having enamel only on their front surfaces, wear away in a chisel-like form, 

 as in the beavers and other rodents. Superficially in both form and habits, as well as in the 

 character of their dentition, the wombats may in fact be aptly likened to some unwieldy 

 representative of the Rodent Order. Another structural peculiarity of the wombat is that it is 

 the proud possessor of two more pairs of ribs than any other marsupial. 



Of the three known species, the COMMON WOMBAT of the South and Eastern Australian 

 States is the largest, 

 attaining to a length 

 of as much as 3 feet. 

 The colour of this form 

 is subject to consider- 

 able variation, being 

 sometimes yellow, 

 yellow more or less 

 mixed with black, or 

 completely black. Al- 

 binism, as in the kan- 

 garoos and phalangers, 

 is of apparently rare 

 occurrence. The hair, 

 while coarse, is less so 

 than in the Tasmanian 

 species. What is known 

 as the HAIRY-NOSED 

 WOMBAT, inhabiting 

 South Australia, is in- 

 termediate in size be- 

 tween the common and COMMON WOMBAT 



the Tasmanian Varieties; A burro-wing animal about the sis* if a small fig 



Photo tj E. Landor 



