372 



THE DOG-HEADED-OPOSSUM. 



in the same manner among the flocks of the colonists, belongs, like 

 most of the Australian Mammals, to the sub-class of Marsupials. 

 There is also much analogy, in many of its osteological characteristics, 

 with the extinct genera of the Hyenodons and Pterodons ; but the 

 latter are in reality Monodelphia, and should be ranged among the 

 Carnivora properly so called. The English settlers in Van Diemen's 

 Land give the thylacynus the name of Zebra Wolf, because it has, in 

 effect, the greater portion of the dorsal region and the base of the 



THYLACYNUS CYNOCKPHAXUS. 



This 



tail marked with transversal brown lines, like zebra stripes, 

 carnivorous animal is also their Dog-headed Opossum. 



"Allied to other Marsupials by the totality of its anatomical 

 characteristics, it is nevertheless easy to distinguish generically ; in 

 the first place, it is of great size, and its exterior recalls that of the 

 Wolf, though it has a longer head and a tail garnished with very 

 short hair ; the latter is, at the same time, a little depressed. More- 

 over, it numbers forty-six teeth, with wide intervals between each. 



