THE BANDICOTE. 51 



up the country. They call our kangaroo rat the Paddy 

 Mellan, and describe the real kangaroo rat as being 

 nearly the size of a wallaby, and running on all fours. 

 If such an animal does exist, I never saw it. "VVe used 

 to call a species of wallaby, or small yellow-bellied kan- 

 garoo, which is, I believe, found on Phillip Island, the 

 Paddy Mellan. 



The bandicote is a large species of bush rat, in shape 

 and appearance resembling a very large shrew-mouse, 

 but nearly double the size of a common English rat. 

 We had, I fancy, two species ; at least, we used to kill a 

 large bush-rat of a dark brown colour, with very bristly 

 hair, much resembling the animal which we called the 

 common bandicote. This latter was, however, much the 

 commonest, of a light brown colour, the rump striped 

 with white crosswise ; the under parts white, and the 

 hind foot in shape like that of the kangaroo. They are 

 generally found in hollow logs, and a bush-dog here has 

 plenty of work in examining every dead log or fallen tree 

 that it comes to, in the hopes of finding a bandicote or 

 native cat. Both the bandicote and kangaroo rat have 

 more than one young one at a birth ; but, like the other 

 bush animals, only breed once in the year. There are 

 various smaller bush animals, such as field-mice and rats, 

 to which I paid very little attention. 



"We used to kill a large species of water-rat in the creeks, 



and occasionally on the coast, with a dark brown body, 



yellow belly, and blunt tail, tipped with white, which we 



called the leaver Sat. It is a little larger than the 



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