zi8 AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN ANIMALS 



produced at a birth, when, despite the size of their parents, they are no bigger 

 than young rats. Young marsupials are transferred to the pouch by their mother 

 taking them, as soon as born, in her mouth ; and many of them return to this warm 

 nursery at intervals when they are of such an age as to be able to run by the side 

 of their mothers. 



The thylacyne, which is the largest living member of the carnivorous group of 

 marsupials — the polyprotodonts, as they are termed by naturalists, from the relat- 

 ively large number of their incisor teeth — has been generally included by naturalists 

 in the family Dasyuridce, typified by the so-called native cats of Australia, but by 

 American naturalists it has of late years been made the type of a distinct family, 

 the Tltylacynidce, the other members of which are extinct, and are known by 

 skulls, teeth, and bones front the middle Tertiary deposits of the Santa Cruz 

 district of Patagonia. If, as seems to be the case, these extinct carnivores, such 

 as Prothylacynus, are rightly associated with the Tasmanian wolf, it is a most 

 remarkable fact in the geographical distribution of animals, and affords practically 

 conclusive evidence that Australia and Tasmania were at one time connected with 

 one another by land. The fact that the nearest living relatives of the Tasmanian 

 wolf and the native cats of Australia are the true opossums of South America 

 (of which one or two have made their way north of the Isthmus of Panama) 

 affords corroborative evidence in the same direction. 1 



To describe the thylacyne on the present occasion would be quite superfluous, 

 and it must accordingly suffice to state that fossil bones and teeth preserved in 

 formations of late Tertiary age indicate the former occurrence of this or a closely 

 allied animal on the Australian mainland. On account of its sheep-worrying 

 propensities the thylacyne has been relentlessly persecuted by European farmers 

 in Tasmania, where it has been driven to the mountains, and even there is now 

 becoming comparatively scarce, although it was once common all over the island. 

 Thylacynes do not bark, but utter a mournful kind of whining cry. 



Tasmanian Still more mischievous and destructive is the smaller animal 



Devil. which has been branded by the settlers with the opprobrious title of 

 Tasmanian devil. If the thylacyne be regarded as representing a family group by 

 itself, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus ursinus, or S. satanas) will be the 

 largest living member of the Dasyuridce. In its thick and clumsy head, broad 

 and shortened muzzle, and large, rounded ears, this cordially detested animal 

 distantly recalls a very small bear, although the resemblance is marred by the 

 presence of a thick tail of medium length. On the other hand, bear-like 

 characteristics are displayed in the animal's gait and general movements, as well 

 as by the circumstance that the body stands somewhat higher in front than 

 behind. In colour the thick close fur is, as a rule, uniformly black or blackish 

 brown, although there are usually a pair of white spots on the neck, and others 

 on the shoulders and at the root of the tail. In size the Tasmanian devil may be 

 roughly compared to a badger. As in that animal, its teeth and jaws are 

 immensely powerful, the molars approximating in structure to those of the 



1 The writer may be permitted to take the opportunity of mentioning that this view — based on recent 

 increases in our knowledge — is to be taken as replacing opinions previously expressed by himself on 

 this point. 



