THE DASfVSE. 



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a body about two feet in length, and the resemblance is tolerably correct in the fur, general propor- 

 tions of the body and limbs, and also in its gait and its actions. The Dasyure, however, has a longer 

 tail than the Bear, and never grows larger than a Badger. It is a short animal, with a round broad 

 head and rather a long snout, and the coarse black fur (brown-black on the head, tail, and beneath) 

 is marked by one broad white band across the chest and by another over the back, close to the tail. 

 The tail Is about half the length of the head and trunk. Harris notices that these animals were very 

 common on the British first settling at Hobart Town, and were particularly destructive to poultry, 

 and Mr. Gunn states that they commit great havoc among Sheep, and that notwithstanding their 

 comparatively small size, they are so fierce that they are a match for any ordinary Dog. 



As the settlements increased in Tasmania, and the ground became cleared, the animals were 

 driven from their haxints near the town to the deeper recesses of the forests yet unexplored. They 

 were easily procured by setting a trap in the most unfrequented parts of the woods, baited with raw 



flesh, all kinds of which they will eat indiscriminately and voraciously. They also, it is probable, 

 prey on dead fish and blubber, as their tracks are frequently found on the sands of the sea-shore. In a 

 state of confinement they appear to be untamably savage, biting severely, and uttering at the same 

 time a low yelling growl. A male and female which Mr. Harris kept for a couple of months, chained 

 together in an empty cask, were continually fighting. Their quarrels began as soon as it was dark, 

 as they slept all day, and continued throughout the night almost without intermission, accom- 

 panied by a kind of hollow barking, not unlike that of a Dog, and sometimes a sudden kind of 

 snorting, as if the breath were restrained a considerable time and then suddenly expelled. They 

 frequently sat on their hind parts, and used their fore paws to convey food to their mouths. The 

 muscles of the jaws were strong, and they crushed the largest bones asunder with ease. 



This Dasyure, like the others of the genus, has the incisor teeth equal, and there are eight of them 

 in the upper jaw and six in the lower. The four canines are large, and there are two powerful 

 premolars in each jaw and on each side. These are succeeded by four molars above and below, and 

 on both sides of the mouth. 



The incisor teeth, equal in size, are arranged in a semicircle in the upper jaw, and those of the 

 lower jaw have a corresponding direction, but they are rather the stoutei*. The canines are well 

 developed, and those of the lower jaw bite in front of those of the upper. They look eminently 

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