l6o FIELD AND FOREST. 



special commission, and with great expense. These were said to ex- 

 hibit great restlessness and activity, dashing and leaping about, when 

 alarmed, even bounding to the roof of the den in which they were 

 confined, giving frequent utterance to a short gutteral cry, bearing 

 faint resemblance to a bark. Their shyness may be attributed in part 

 to their imperfect vision by day, and partly to their resemblance in 

 character to the wolf, whose treachery and suspicious manners must 

 have struck every one who has gazed upon this "gaunt savage" in 

 confinement. 



In size the Tasmanian wolf approaches that of a setter dog; aver- 

 aging, perhaps, five and a fourth feet in length from tip to tip, of which 

 measurement the tail claims twenty inches. Specimens measuring 

 six or seven feet over all are, however, occasionally though rarely met 

 with. The height at the shoulders is about twenty or twenty-two 

 inches ; the humerus has the inner condyle perforate. The bottoms 

 of the feet are defended by rough pads, and the toes are all provided 

 with short, straight and powerful claws of a brownish color ; the fore 

 feet have each an inner or fifth toe, which is lacking on the hinder 

 ones. 



The head, as the name indicates, resembles that of the dog, pos- 

 sessing a narrow and elongated muzzle, and a white gristly upper lip, 

 from which grows a few long black bristles ; a few of the latter are 

 also seen upon the cheeks and over the eyes. The ears are short, 

 pointed and erect, very broad at the base, and covered with hair upon 

 both outer and inner surfaces ; eyes sharp, full, black, and provided 

 with nictating membranes, which, in the day time, are constantly 

 drawn over the eyeballs, after the manner of the owl, to shut out the 

 unwelcome light. In front of the orbit is found a small black patch, 

 which is continued around the eye as a narrow dark line. The incisors 

 are twelve in number, eight in the upper and four in the lower jaw, of 

 which the outer are slightly the largest. The canines of the upper 

 jaw, two in number, are separated from the incisors by a deep con- 

 cavity, which receives the points of those in the lower when the teeth 

 are closed, in this differing from the carnivora, in which the lower 

 canines pass outside the upper jaw ; all are very long, powerful and 

 sharply pointed. Of premolars there are six in each jaw, three to a 

 side, separate from each other and from the molars, of which there 

 are four on each side of both jaws. The latter have one large central 



