NORTH AUSTRALIAN MAMMALIA. 207 



domesticus. It is not a very fast runner, and on horseback, in 

 open country, is easily overtaken. 



The young ones are at birth only the size of a very small 

 pea; and their number is, compared with that of other marsu- 

 pials, very great, nearly every teat of the mother carrying one. 



The crippled trees of the northern forests form the nightly 

 hunting-grounds of the species, and its food consists of insects 

 and small vertebrates. Occasionally it goes down to water to 

 drink. It is a nuisance in meat-stores, will greedily eat fat or 

 tallow, and with this as a bait is easily enticed into a trap. The 

 settlers accuse it of bloodthirstiness, and of wantonly murdering 

 fowls or chickens like the European Weasels, qualities which in 

 my opinion are more attributable to another representative of the 

 Dasyurida, the Phascologale penicillata. 



Phascologale penicillata. " Wombo." 

 This pretty little species, commonly termed " Brush-tailed 

 Rat" by the colonists, is one of the most widely ranging of 

 Australian Dasyuridcz. It is found nearly all over the continent. 

 In Arnhem Land it appeared to be most common towards the 

 central parts. In the coast country, and around the long tidal 

 river-mouths, I only once saw it, and the " Wombo," as the 

 natives call it, seems to be more adapted to the dry inland scrubs 

 than to the better watered jungles and forests of the coast. In the 

 low broken ranges between Fountain Head and Union Town, and 

 on the railway line, it generally occurred ; and also on the rivers 

 Mary and Katherine it was frequently observed. In fact, nearly 

 everywhere inland it was very constant, and on a moonlight walk 

 one would generally expect to see this little marsupial nimbly 

 climbing about amongst the twisting branches of the box tree, or 

 the red gum, whose hollow trunks serve it as a shelter during the 

 daytime. 



In the fowl-yards of the settlers it commits serious depreda- 

 tions, and at the store at Fountain Head two dozen fowls were 

 killed in three weeks by these little bloodsuckers, who seem to 

 possess the same devilish thirst for blood as the Weasels of 

 Europe. 



The " Wombo " is a smart and clever climber, and moves 

 with great swiftness in a sudden jerky manner, which enables the 



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