374 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



TASMANIAN DEVIL 



A small, but stout and powerful animal, very destructive, and absolutely untamable 



aphorism runs concerning 

 his' sable namesake, he is 

 not always so black as he 

 is painted. More or less 

 or in fact mostly black he 

 always is, but there is 

 usually a redeeming thread 

 or patch of white upon his 

 coat. This may take the 

 form of a small star-like 

 spot only on the front of 

 its chest, which not infre- 

 quently extends to a narrow 

 crescent-shaped band or line 

 continued round the neck 

 almost to the shoulders. 

 One or more supplementary 

 spots of white may also be 

 developed upon the flanks 

 and hindquarters. 



The destructive pro- 



pensities of the Tasmanian 



devil, wherein the farmers' sheep and poultry are concerned, are in no way inferior to those of 

 the Tasmanian wolf, and in consequence of their former much greater abundance the havoc 

 these animals committed was the more serious. Placed, like the last-named type, under 

 Government ban, these native devils have, in comparison with the earlier days of colonisation, 

 very considerably ceased from troubling, and with the ever-progressing march of settlement and 

 civilisation will probably be altogether exterminated at a no very distant date. A bag of no 

 less than 150 of these marauders, in the course of one winter, was recorded from an upland 

 sheep-station some twenty or thirty years ago. In common with the thylacine, it has been 

 observed that the Tasmanian devil has a marked predilection for prowling along the seashore 

 in search apparently of crabs, fish, or any acceptable flotsam and jetsam that may be cast up 

 by the waves. 



Examples of this most unamiable of mammals were brought in alive on several occasions 

 to the Hobart Museum during the writer's residence in Tasmania, but in all cases obstinately 

 resisted every attempt towards the establishment of a friendly footing. Their ultimate 

 relegation to the specimen-cases was, under the circumstances, unattended by any very 

 poignant manifestations of regret. A fact brought into prominent notice during subsequent 

 post-mortem investigations was the extraordinary extent to which these animals are infested 

 with vermin. Possibly this circumstance is to a considerable extent accountable for the creature's 

 unconquerable irritability. The experiment as to whether a course of disinfecting treatment, 

 by baths or otherwise, would not conduce towards the taming of this native devil, where all 

 other applied methods have failed, would at all events be worth the trial. The bath pure 

 and simple is a wonderful soporific for unruly tempers. As most schoolboys know, a pail of 

 water, from which the patient is withdrawn when a watery grave is apparently inevitable, is 

 an unfailing specific for the taming of mice and other " small deer." The writer's experience 

 with a villainously savage cat which one night fell incontinently into an uncovered cistern, and 

 was rescued by him at almost the last gasp, will not be readily forgotten. That cat, though 

 still a vixen to the ordinary members of the household, forthwith attached itself affectionately 

 to its rescuer, and would sit for hours awaiting his arrival on the doorstep when the business 

 of the day was over. Other fierce creatures, including the Tasmanian devil, would possibly 

 prove amenable to the judicious application of the " water cure." 



