AUSTRALIAN “ NATIVE CATS” 
larger than a small house cat, and with their sharp muzzles, 
brightly colored and usually spotted coats, and long, orna- 
mented tails, they remind one of civets. This is especially 
COMMON DASYURE, OR AUSTRALIAN “NATIVE CAT.” 
true of the common little Australian one. Naturally bird 
hunters and nest robbers, all are pests to farmers interested 
in chickens or pigeons. Their haunts and habits are much 
the same as those of a weasel; but they are more apt to take 
to a tree for refuge when chased by a dog. They have a wea- 
sel’s reckless boldness and bloodthirst. 
“They prefer to take up their abode with civilized man when they find 
out that he keeps plenty of meat about his habitation or rears poultry. 
They are very savage for their size, and five of them kept in a cage without 
sustenance for a day only had almost reduced themselves to the state of 
the famous tabbies of Kilkenny. They are stubborn in the extreme, and 
appear to care about nothing. We have noticed them to come quite uncon- 
cerned into a tent at night, and take up a cosy place near the chimney, 
from which a fire stick only could dislodge them.” 7 
Near relatives of these alert marauders are a large number 
of tiny dasyures of the genus Phascologale, which are widely 
scattered and ‘in places very numerous. The Australians call 
them ‘“‘pouched mice,” for none are as large as a rat, but they 
are really more like the Malayan tree shrews, scrambling 
about the bark and branches after the insects which form 
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