MARSUPIALS AND MONOTREMES 331 
they are familiarly known by the Australian colonists. The badger simile is perhaps the most 
pertinently applied with reference to their habit of excavating huge earth-burrows as dwelling- 
places, and out of which they customarily emerge only at night to feed. The TASMANIAN 
Wombat, at all events, is essentially gregarious in its habits. In the neighbourhood of 
Swansea, on the east coast, it is, or was, particularly abundant, forming regular warrens among 
a light undergrowth of vegetation, through which traveling on horseback is a distinctly risky 
proceeding. The temperament of the wombat is peculiarly placid; and hence, as it might be 
anticipated, they are essentially long-lived. One, Charlie by name, which has been domiciled 
at the Zoo for the past thirty years, is still hale and hearty, and evidently disinclined yet 
awhile to immolate himself on the altar of fame as a much-needed successor to the antique 
effigy which has for so long represented his species in the British Natural History Museum. 
Waiting for dead men’s shoes is a proverbially tedious task, and for a coveted wombat’s skin 
evidently more so. : 
The tough hide, with its thick, harsh fur, of the Tasmanian wombat, or “ badger,” as it is 
locally dubbed, is somewhat highly prized in the land of its birth. For floor- and door-mats and 
rugs the pelt is practically indestructible; and as such, though scarcely a thing of beauty, the 
special pride of the thrifty housewife. This animal is also not infrequently made a household 
pet, and will waddle as complacently as an over-fed poodle around the premises after its owner. 
The wombat, like the large majority of the marsupial animals, is for the most part nocturnal 
in habits, and a strict vegetarian. 
The wombats present several interestingly distinct structural peculiarities. In the first 
place, their teeth, which are twenty-four in number, all grow uninterruptedly throughout life, 
and are consequently devoid of roots. The incisor teeth are represented by but a single pair 
in each jaw, and, having enamel only on their front surfaces, wear away in a chisel-like form, 
as in the beavers and other rodents. Superficially in both form and habits, as well as in the 
character of their dentition, the wombats may in fact be aptly likened to some unwieldy 
representative of the Rodent Order. Another structural peculiarity of the wombat is that it is 
the proud possessor of two more pairs of ribs than any other marsupial. 
Of the three known species, the COMMON WoMBAT of the South and Eastern Australian 
States is the largest, 
attaining to a length 
of as much as 3 feet. 
The colour of this form 
is subject to consider- 
able variation, being 
sometimes yellow, 
yellow more or less 
mixed with black, or 
completely black. Al- 
binism, as in the kan- 
garoos and phalangers, 
is of apparently rare 
occurrence. The hair, 
while coarse, is Jess so 
than in the Tasmanian 
species. What isknown 
as the HAIRY-NOSED 
WomsaT, _ inhabiting 
South Australia, is in- 
termediate in size be- photo sy E. Lander 
tween the common and 
COMMON WOMBAT 
the Tasmanian varieties; A burrowing animal about the size of a small pig 
