170 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Kangaroo is the best example ; the Great Kangaroo, however, 
is becoming scarce, though the Red Kangaroo, now only found 
in the interior of New South Wales, is much rarer. The most 
common Tasmanian species is Bennett’s Kangaroo, of which 
the meat is said by Mr. Gould to be excellent, and which it is 
believed might easily be acclimatized in our southern counties. 
The Tasmanian Devil (Dasyurus) could not fail to attract 
notice from its repulsive bear-like form, which is matched by 
its destructive habits ; though the first settlers in Hobart- 
town repaid their devastations among the poultry by eating 
them. The flesh is said to taste like veal. The largest carni- 
vorous marsupial, however, is the Tasmanian Wolf (Thylctciims), 
of which living specimens will be found in the Zoological 
Gardens, — a dog-like annual, striped on the back, fierce and 
agile, and the terror of the herbivorous Kangaroos and 
Opossums, though it is said it will not touch the Wombat 
( Phascolomys ). A very beautiful case of male, female, and 
young of these animals, mounted by Ward, was in the Tas- 
manian court, and is now deposited in the Liverpool Museum. 
In the pleistocene deposits, however, has been found the skull 
of a great carnivorous marsupial, termed Thylacoleo by Owen, 
equalling' the lion in size and strength ; and in the New South 
Wales court was exhibited the skull, measuring three feet in 
length, of a vast marsupial, allied closely to the Kangaroo, and 
called by Owen, Di/protodon, another relic of the pleistocene 
deposits of this singular island. 
Some interesting birds were observable in this department. 
Like the quadrupeds of these regions, the birds are also very 
strange and peculiar; as, for example, the Apteryx, which 
inhabits Australia and the islands of New Zealand, and of 
which three species are now known. These wingless birds, 
belonging to the Strutliious division (which includes such birds 
as the Ostrich and Cassowary), are almost the only representa- 
tives of a class which not long since were tolerably plentiful. 
As many as twenty species, from the size of a turkey to twice 
that of the ostrich, have left incontestable evidence of their 
existence in quite recent times, though now only three, or 
perhaps four, remain. The wings are reduced to the merest 
rudiments ; the feathers have no accessory plume, and then' 
shafts are prolonged beyond the back. They differ, too, from 
other birds in having a complete diaphragm, and no abdominal 
air-cells. These birds are nocturnal in .their habits, of weak 
powers of resistance, and therefore easily fall victims to pre- 
datory animals ; while their skins are also eagerly sought for by 
the native chiefs, who ornament their dress with the feathers. 
They live on worms, insects, snails, &c. In the Exhibition of 
1851, it will be remembered that another wingless bird, 
