REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
55 
They will laboriously erect sheep-proof or pig-proof slab fencing, which 
is 'much stronger than paling fences, and will imbed the slabs for about 
eighteen inches, to give a really strong foundation. It is pig- or sheep- 
proof, but the wombat comes along, and when he finds that he can neither 
climb over it nor squeeze through it he at once proceeds to burrow under 
it. The speed with which he can dig is marvellous. He can excavate 
faster than a man with a spade. In this he resembles that other 
lightning sapper, the echidna. He digs down one side of a fence, turns 
on his back, and then burrows up the other side. Of course, by this 
time, the slabs have lost their protecting foundation, and the farmer 
discovers them spread out in wondrous confusion next morning, and it 
is to be feared that he forgets to count ten before saying what he thinks. 
A CUNNING RUSE. 
The wombats live in holes burrowed through hill-sides, and perhaps 
go in for six or seven feet. Sometimes they burrow under fallen trees. 
In the Wombat Ranges they burrow under rocks. It is an exceedingly 
A Master of Strategy. 
difficult matter to shift them from any spot if they once can get a grip, 
even on a very precarious foothold. Mr. Wilkie has watched strong men 
pulling at them by the hind leg to move them from a cave, but as long 
