49 



THE PHASCOGALE. 



gray. A few black hairs are scattered sparingly over the body. In almost every 

 specimen that has been captured, a dark line is seen to run from the nose towards the 

 base of the skull. 



The tail is clothed with fur of the same color as that of the body for one-fifth of its 

 length, but the remaining four-fifths are furnished with a bushy mess of long hair, each 

 hair being about two inches in length. The color of this graceful appendage is a jet 

 black, which affords a very marked contrast to the light hues with which the body and 

 limbs are tinged, and which gives to the animal a notably handsome aspect. The ears 

 are rather large, and the head tapers rapidly towards the nose. 



The general appearance of the Tapoa Tafa is that of a gentle, peaceable little 

 animal, unlikely to do any harm, and well calculated to serve as a domesticated pet. 



Never did animal or man hide under a specious mask of innocence a character more 

 at variance with its mendacious exterior. 



For the Tapoa Tafta is one of the pests of the colonists, a fierce, bloodthirsty, audacious 

 creature, revelling in the warm flesh or newly-slaughtered prey, and penetrating, in search 

 of food, into the very houses of civilized men. Its small size and sharply-pointed head 

 enable it to insinuate itself through the crevices which are almost necessarily left open 



in fences and walls, and its insatiate 

 appetite induces it to roam through 

 the store-rooms in search of any animal 

 substances that may have been laid 

 up by the owners. Unless placed under 

 lock and key, behind tightly-closed 

 doors, provisions of various kinds are 

 invaded by the Tapoa Tafa, for its 

 powers of climbing are so great that 

 it can ascend even a perpendicular 

 wall, unless its surface be smooth and 

 hard, so that its sharp curved claws 

 can take no hold. 



Fortunately for the farmers, the 

 Tapoa Tafa is not possessed of the 

 chisel-shaped incisor teeth which enable 

 the European rat to gnaw its way 

 though opposing obstacles, so that a 

 wooden door will afford a sufficient 

 barrier against its depredations, provid- 

 ing it be closely fitting, and of solid 

 material. It is said to be very de- 

 structive to poultry, and to penetrate 

 by night into the fowl-houses, creep- 

 ing towards its prey so silently that its 

 presence is not detected, and slaying the 

 inmates as they are slumbering quietly 



on their perches. Were its size equal to that of the Tasmanian wolf, the Phascogale 

 would be an effectual bar to civilization in any district which it might frequent. In its 

 wild state its food is of a mixed vegetable and animal nature, and in the stomach of 

 one of these creatures was found a heterogeneous mass of insect remains, mixed with 

 portions of certain fungi. 



Not only is the Tapoa Tafa an object of destruction of the repeated acts of depreda- 

 tion which it commits in civilized dwellings, but it has also earned a renowned name 

 among white and black men for the extraordinary energy with which it will defend it- 

 self when attacked. Small though it may be, and harmless though it may appear, it 

 deals such fierce and rapid strokes with its sharp claws that it can inflict extraordinarily 

 severe lacerations upon the person of its adversary. So celebrated is the animal for 

 its powers of reistance, that not even the quick eyed and agile-limbed native will ven- 

 ture to trust his hand within reach of the claws of an irritated Tapoa Tafa. 



PHA5COQALE. Phascogale pe nidi late. 



