444 POUCHED ANIMALS 



FAMILY DASYURID^E (DASYURES). 



What the colonists call Native Cats are carnivorous mar- 

 supials of civet-like appearance. Though they are mild and 

 inoffensive in aspect, in reality they are as bloodthirsty as 

 the stoats and weasels of the Northern Hemisphere. About 

 the size of an ordinary cat, the body is freely spotted with 

 white upon a groundwork of brown or grey. There are 

 five species, of which the Spotted Dasyure (Dasyurus 

 maculatus), Plate XLV. Fig. i, is well known in Australia 

 and Tasmania. They are all arboreal in habit, coming 

 out of the hollows in the gum-trees in search of birds and 

 smaller marsupials. But the outlying colonials' hen-roosts 

 often bear testimony to the fact that the Dasyures have a 

 liking for prey that calls for little trouble in the hunting. 



TASMANIAN DEVIL (Dasyurus ursinus). 

 Plate XLV. Fig. 2. 



The Ursine Dasyure is popularly known as the 'Tas- 

 manian Devil,' which appellation does not suggest that 

 the animal possesses any very lovable characteristics. Its 

 reputation, indeed, is blacker than its coat, which here and 

 there shows redeeming patches of white. Except for its 



longer tail this ugly Dasyure 

 generally resembles a bear, 

 or what a bear might be if 

 it grew no bigger than a 

 badger. It is shortish, with 

 a broad head, and its mouth 

 is furnished with teeth dis- 

 TEETH OF THE DASYURE. tinctly carnivorous in 



character. It is strictly a 



nocturnal animal, scarcely able to see in daylight, during 

 which it coils itself up in a cave, other rocky lair, or a 

 burrow of its own construction, from which at night it 

 issues to prey upon any living creature that it can over- 

 power. Mammals, reptiles, or even dead fish on the sea- 

 shore are all welcome to this voracious feeder. 



