PASYURID.E. MAMMALIA. DASYVRID.E. 



215 



neath. By all accounts these ursine opossums are 

 perfect pests, and prove terribly destructive to poultry, 

 sheep, &c., hardly anything coming amiss to them. 

 According to Mr. Harris, they were extremely nume- 

 rous when the first attempts were made to settle at 

 Hobart Town; but they appeared to have done good 

 sendee in affording supplies of fresh food to the con- 

 victs sent thither ; their flesh is said to eat like veal. 

 As the settlement increased, their numbers diminished, 

 and they were driven into the forest, where they are 

 still pursued and secured by traps. They are ex- 

 tremely rapacious and savage, both in the wild and 

 semi-domesticated state. They utter a hollow barking 

 noise, something like that of a dog ; and judging from 

 their resentful persecuting behaviour, appear to have 

 well earned the colonial appellation by which they are 

 so significantly characterized. 



Several other species are known to exist; and of 

 these we may mention The Longtailed Dasyure (D. 

 macrourus), having a rudimentary hallucinar wart, by 



which it is distinguished from the two following 

 Mange's (D. Mangii), a smaller species of an olive 

 ground colour; and Shaw's Dasyure (D. viverrinus), 

 or Wild Cat of the Tasmanians Plate 31, fig. 97 

 which has a black fur. All three are marked by large 

 white spots on the body, and in the two first the tail is 

 similarly distinguished. 



THE THYLACINE (Thylacinus Harrisii) is a native 

 of Van Diemen's Land, and is variously termed by the 

 colonists " pouched wolf," hyaena, tiger, zebra, opos- 

 sum, and so forth. It enjoys the distinction of being 

 the largest of all the carnivorous marsupials, and is 

 about the size of an ordinary fox-hound, but stouter 

 built, and standing lower on the legs. The fur exhibits 

 a dusky brown color, the crupper being barred trans- 

 versely by sixteen deep black bands running parallel 

 from side to side (fig. 89). The Thylacines are highly 

 carnivorous, and prove terribly destructive to the flocks 

 of sheep, which they seem to prefer to any other kind 

 of animal food, though formerly they must have sub- 



Fig. 89. 



The Pouched Wolf or Thylacine (Thylacinus Ida 



sisted, almost entirely, on phalangers and kangaroos. 

 They are seldom captured alive, and appear to be very 

 wary animals. The Thylacine is nocturnal in its habits. 

 It is furnished with forty-six teeth; but the circum- 

 stances most worthy of note are seen in the strongly 

 carnassial character of the molar teeth, and in the 

 great size of the canines, as compared with other non- 

 placental mammals. No other living species exists ; but 

 a fossil Thylacine has been discovered in the tertiary 

 gypsum beds of Paris a fact of extreme interest, taken 

 in connection with other extinct marsupial remains 

 elsewhere found in Europe, and demonstrating the wide 

 geographical distribution these creatures maintained in 

 former times. 



THE COMMON PHASCOGALE (Phascogale penicil- 

 latus.) The present genus embraces three or four 



very small marsupials, whose dental formula is pre- 

 cisely the same as that of Ihylacinus ; whilst the only 

 differences appertain to the less carnassial character of 

 the molars serving to approximate them more closely 

 to the insectivorous type and to an elongation of the 

 central incisives, which is more particularly manifest 

 in the upper series. All the species are remarkably 

 minute; one of them the Antechimis minutissimus 

 of Gould being the smallest living marsupial, and 

 measuring less than two inches and a half long, ex- 

 clusive of the tail. In 'many particulars these animals 

 resemble the entomophagous opossums. The common 

 Phascogale is about the size of our common rat. The 

 fur is short, thick, and woolly, and of a uniform ashy 

 color above, passing into white beneath. The tail is 

 well developed, and very bushy towards the tip. Its 



