THE TASMANIAN WOLF. 



485 



Although not perhaps the fiercest of the Dasyurines, it is the largest and the most 

 powerful, well deserving the lupine title with which it has been by common consent 

 designated, and representing in Tasmania the true wolves of other countries. It is 

 not a very large animal, as needs must be from the nature of the country in which it 

 lives, for there would be but small subsistence in its native land for herds of veritable 

 wolves, and the natural consequence would be that the famished animals would soon 

 take to eating each other in default of more legitimate food, and by mutual extirpation 

 thin down the race or destroy it altogether. 



The natural subsistence of the Tasmanian, or Zebra Wolf, as it is sometimes called 

 by virtue of the zebra-like stripes which decorate its back, consists of the smaller 

 animals, molluscs, insects, and similar substances. The animal is also in the habit of 



TASMANIAN WOLF. Paragon Cyaocephalus. 



prowling along the seashore in restless seach of food among the heterogeneous mass 

 of animal and vegetable substances that the waves constantly fling upon the beach, and 

 which are renewed with every succeeding tide. The mussels and other molluscs which 

 are found so profusely attached to the sea-edged rocks form a favorite article of diet 

 with the Tasmanian Wolf, who is sometimes fortunate enough to discover upon the beach 

 the remains of dead seals and fish, and can easily make a meal on the shore crabs 

 which are found so plentifully studding the beach as the tide goes out. 



Though hardly to be considered a swift, or even a quick animal, the Tasmanian Wolf 

 contrives to kill such agile prey as the bush kangaroo, and secures, the duck mole, or duck 

 bill, in spite of its natatory powers and its subterranean burrow. When the animal is 

 hungry, it seems to become a very camel in its capability of devouring hard and thorny 

 substances, for it has been known to kill no easy matter and to swallow an apparent 



