216 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



The animal walks half on its toes and half on its soles or palms, and thus is a semi-plantigrade, the 

 body being brought nearer the ground than that of the Wolf in running. There, is a marsupial 

 pouch, but the bones are mere cartilages. The Dog-headed Thylacinus, or the Zebra- Wolf of the 

 colonists of Van Diemen's Land, thus described, has often been taken for one of the Garni vora, and 

 certainly thei-e are great i-esemblances between it and the Dogs. The canine teeth are of large size, 

 but they are recurved at the top, and in the upper jaw are separated from the incisors by a space, 

 into which the point of the lower canine fits when the jaws are closed. This is different in the Dogs, 



DOG-HEADED THYLACINUS. 



whose lower canine passes on the outer side of the upper one when the mouth is closed. The pre- 

 molar of the Thylacinus has a small cusp behind, but in the lower jaw the premolars are isolated, 

 and do not form a continuous cutting and masticating ridge. It is also to be remembered that this 

 animal has a peculiar lower jaw, as it is one of the Marsupials, and the angle is inflected. It is a 

 Marsupial, with some structures which foreshadow those of the more highly-developed Dog. 



Mr. Harris, who was the first to make this animal known, states that it lives among caverns 

 and rocks, in the deep and almost impenetrable glens, in the neighbourhood of the highest mountains 

 of Van Diemen's Land. The specimen from which his description was taken was caught in a trap 

 baited with Kangaroo's flesh ; it remained alive but a few hours, having received some internal hurt 

 whilst being secured. From time to time it uttered a short guttural cry, and it appeared exceedingly 

 inactive and stupid, and, like the Owl, had an almost continual motion of the nictitant membrane 

 of the eye. Remains of an. Echidna were found in the stomach of the animal. Waterhouse states, 



