ON THE TASMAXJAN DEVIL. 575 



41. The Keeping and Breedino- of Tasmanian Devils 

 {Sarcophilus harrisi). By Mrs. Mary G. Roberts, 

 C.M.Z.S., M.R.A.O.U. 



[Received June 21. 1915 : Read October 26, 1915.1 

 (Text-figure 1.) 



Part I. 



Until I was asked by Mr. A. S. Le Souef, Director of the 

 Zoological Gardens, Moore Park, New South Wales, early in 1910 

 to obtain, if possible, Tasmanian Tigers {Thylacinvs cynocephalus) 

 and Devils (^Sarcophilus harrisi) for the London Zoological Society, 

 I had never thought of keeping either of these animals in my 

 collection ; in fact, they were quite unknown to me except as 

 museum specimens, although I had frequently visited remote 

 parts of our island. 1 have vivid recollections, however, of how, 

 when a young child at boarding-school in the late forties, some 

 of the girls from Bothwell, near the Lake District, used to give 

 graphic and terrifying accounts of the Tasmanian Devils with 

 their double row of teeth. This belief is not yet exploded, as it 

 was impressed upon me lately with the utmost confidence by a 

 country visitor that such was the case ; he not only believed, but 

 said " he had seen." The teeth have been desci'ibed to me by a 

 scientist as truncated. 



Shortly after hearing from Mr. Le Souef, by means of adver- 

 tising, writing, etc. 1 obtained three for the London Society, and 

 having then become thoroughly interested I determined to keep 

 some myself. Since that time a large number have passed 

 through my hands, and more than once I have been " a woman 

 possessed of seven devils.'"' 



In April 1911 I received a family (a mother and four yoving), 

 and again in September of the same year a similar lot arrived. 

 The former were very young, and I had the opportunity of 

 watching their growth almost fi-om their first appearance when 

 partly protruding from the pouch. When sending them, the 

 trapper wrote that •' the mother was so quiet, I need not be afraid 

 to pick her up in my arms." The little ones hung from her pouch 

 (heads hidden in it), and she lay still and motionless as if afraid 

 of hurting them by moving, and allowed me to stroke her head 

 with my hand. However timid they may be, and undoubtedly 

 they are extremely so, growling and showing their teeth when 

 frightened, they always evince this gentleness and stillness when 

 nursing little ones. 



The skin of the young, on arrival, had the appearance of a 

 slate-coloured kid glove, the tail darker towards the tip. The 

 hair could be seen growing black and velvety from the head 

 downwards, the latter being hidden in the pouch for some days. 



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