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tlements, their appearance and their habits from actual experience. 



The scientific name of this extraordinary animal is Phascolcmys 

 Wombat; and we would here remark how much we approve of the 

 native names being used specifically as in this case, for it facilitates 

 conversation with the aborigines, when wishing to learn from them 

 any particulars relative to indigenous animals or plants. 



The wombat belongs to the Marsupial family (having a pouch, 

 from which we have ourselves taken the young) ; a thick, short, 

 clumsy-looking quadruped, about four feet in length, and weighing 

 nearly a hundredweight (to which our shoulders have often borne 

 witness).* It is covered with a thick coat of strong, stiff hair, of a 

 light brown or grey colour, the back broad and flat, legs very short, 

 the belly almost touching the ground; in fact it has, as Swainson 

 describes, " a shapeless body ;"f yet his drawing is that of an arched 

 barrel-shaped animal, higher from the ground than is natural. 



The toes in the fore feet, five in number, are all clawed ; but in 

 the hind toes four only are clawed, the fifth assuming a tubercled 

 or rounded appearance. The eyes very much apart; head flat, 

 covered with a very thick skin, as is the hinder part of the body, 

 which is in great repute for saddles. 



Unattractive as these creatures are, they are perfectly harmless, 

 and social in their habits, feeding on grass ; and from the immense 

 number of wombat holes on the sea-coast, seem to have some very 

 extensive settlements " under the sod." They burrow through 

 masses of the shelly sandstone peculiar to this place, being furnished 

 with strong nails; — and during the breeding season we have never 

 seen the male in the same hole with the dam. 



There is something particularly exhilarating and inspiriting in 

 the shooting of wombats : the stealing out at dead of night with 

 stealthy footsteps, now and again stopping your breath almost to 

 listen for the sound of the animal grazing, or scratching to rid him- 

 self of the enormous ticks by which he is tormented; the stalking 



* Mr. Swainson, in his "Classification of Quadrupeds," p. 3-39, says, "Its size is 

 that of a rabbit;" and Bulwer, in his clever novel, "The Caxtons," p. 414, speaks 

 of it as "between a miniature pig and a small badger." 



+ " Swainson's Classification of Quadrupeds," p. 338. 



