374 



The Living Animals of the World 



Plwtu bii Yv.k A: !i„.'\ 



y.\.Aiu 



TASMANIAN DEVIL. 

 A small, but stout and powerful animal, very destructive, and absolutely untamable. 



aphorism runs concerning 

 liis sable namesake, he is 

 not always so lilack as he 

 is painted. .More or less 

 or in fact mostly black he 

 always is, but there is 

 usually a redeeming thread 

 or patch of white upon his 

 coat. This may take the 

 form of a small star-like 

 spot only on the front of 

 its chest, -which not infre- 

 quently extends to a narrow 

 crescent-shaped liand or line 

 continued round the neck 

 almost to the shoulders. 

 One or more supplementary 

 spots of white may also be 

 developed upon the flanks 

 and hindquarters. 



The destructive ]iro- 

 pensities of the Tasmanian 

 devil, wherein the farmers' sheep and poultry are concerned, are in no way inferior to those of 

 the Tasmanian wolf, and in consequence of their former much greater abundance the havoc 

 these animals committed was the more serious. Placed, like the last-named type, under 

 Government ban, these native devils have, in comparison with the earlier days of colonisation, 

 very considerably ceased from troubling, and witli the ever-progressing march of settlement and 

 civilisation will jirobably be altogetlicr cterininated at a no \'ery distant date. A bag of no 

 less than 150 of these marauders, iu die course of one winter, was recorded from an upland 

 sheep-station some twenty or thirty years ago. In common with the thylacine, it has been 

 observed that the Tasiiianian devil has a marked predilection for prowling along tlie seashore 

 in search ap})arently of cralis, fish, or any acceptable flotsam and jetsam that may lie cast up 

 by the waves. 



Examples of this most unamialile (jf mammals were lirouglit in alive on se\-eral occasions 

 to the Hobart .Museum <luring the writer's residence in Tasmania, Init in all cases obstinately 

 resisted every attempt towards the establishment of a friendly footing. Their ultimate 

 relegation to the specimen-cases was, under the circumstances, unattended In* anv very 

 poignant inanifestations of regret. A fact brought into prominent notice during subsecjuent 

 post-mortem investigations was the extraordinary extent to wdiich these animals are infested 

 with vermin. I'ossilily this circumstance is to a considerable extent accountable for the creature's 

 unconquerable irritability. The experiment as to whether a course of disinfecting treatment, 

 bv baths or otherwise, would not conduce towards tlie taming of this native devil, where all 

 other applied methods have firiled, would at all e\ents be worth tlie trial. The bath pure 

 and simple is a wonderful sojiorific for unruly tempers. As most schoolliovs know, a pail of 

 water, from wliich the patient is withdrawn when a watery grave is a[)parentlv inevitalile, is 

 an unfailing siiecific for the tainhig of mice and other "small deer." The writer's experience 

 with a villainously savage cat which one night fell incontiri(>ntly into an unco\ered cistern, and 

 was rescued by hiin at almost the last gasji, will not bo readily forgotten. That cat, thoucrh 

 still a vixen to the ordinary niemhers of the household, forthwith attached itself affi'ction;itely 

 to its rescuer, and w^ould sit for Injurs awaiting his arrival on the doorstep when the business 

 of the day was over. Other fierce creatiues, including the Tasmanian devil, would possiblv 

 prove amenalih^ to the judicious ajiplication of 11 water cure," 



