THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST. 
rocks were examined, and clearly ex¬ 
plained by Dr. Noetling. Numerous 
questions were replied to by the leader, 
and members expressed themselves as 
well pleased with the information im¬ 
parted. This excursion was highly suc¬ 
cessful. 
A general collecting outing was held 
at South Arm on November 30 per motor 
launch. Members separated immediate¬ 
ly on landing, gome dredged » small la¬ 
goon for entomostrnca; others collected 
plants or insects, while a few went over 
to the rocks towards the Derwent light¬ 
house and found some little penguins 
nesting. The locality, however, was 
not a good collecting one, thougu the 
trip proved most enjoyable. 
ffiandieoot. 
in’ I’. LOCKiWOOD, F.L.S. (N.S.W.) 
During my short but very profitable 
stay of fifteen montUs in the Patersonia 
district — which is situated on the 
Srottsda.le-road. at the foot of Mount 
Arthur, and about 17 miles from Laun¬ 
ceston—I became interested in the 
pouched mammals found in that locality, 
and none seemed more interesting to 
me t urn tiie bandicoot. The 'uaudicoot 
'belongs to tin* order Alavsupilin and the 
genus lVrameies, of which Tasmania 
possesses two species only—I’crameles 
obesiila and Peranieles gmmi—but there 
are about a dozen different species rang¬ 
ing over Australia and adjacent islands. 
They are nocturjia 1 in their habits, 
though om* little obesiila, which had hist 
his tail by some means or other, always 
came about inv house for the scraps in 
the daytime, and would occasionally 
quarrel with the eat. The pouch is 
situated on the abdominal surface of the 
body of tlis* female, and opens back¬ 
wards, w.iirli is the reverse of what we 
find in other marsupials. The vouugare 
produced in n imperfect state of de¬ 
velopment. At birth these imperfectly 
•developed creatures are transferred by 
the mother to her teats, which are 
situated within tin* pouch, and there they 
cumin until able to take care of them¬ 
selves. Of course, these undeveloped 
little ones cannot suck by tliem-clvo-. 
end nature lias accordingly provided 
that, their wants' uwi be supplied. Special 
muscles surround tile milk glands of the 
feinal". which by a spontaneous contrac¬ 
tion loinprea-s tiie glands, and thus force 
Hie milk down the throats of the help¬ 
less young. While they differ in bodily* 
form, all have long and pig-like snouts, 
but the length of the ears is variable. 
The three mi Idle toes of the forefoot 
are almost equfiI ill length, anil furnished 
with strong, curved claws. In the hind- 
foot there is a clawless first toe; the 
second and third digits have Hat, twisted 
nails, the fourth exceeding all the rest 
in length, and carrying a stout pointed 
claw, and the fifth similar, but smaller. 
The tail is tapering, and may be Clothed 
with short luiir, or almost bare. From 
personal experience I have found the tail 
somewhat brittle. Having caught an 
obesiila I male) once by the tail, lie gave 
one struggle, and left about a quarter 
of the appendage in my hand. Of onr 
two species. Peranieles obesiila is the 
most common about this district; he is 
a brovvuidi-grev animal, with coarse, 
bristly hair, while Peranieles gunui— 
named after Mr. (iuun, a Tasmanian 
naturalist, vlio (omul the. first specimen 
— is a very pretty little creature, with 
stripes across the lower part of the back, 
and divided in the middle by a dark line. 
The fur is of u much finer quality than 
the obesiila possesses. It is very amus¬ 
ing to watch the bandicoots after sun¬ 
down. I have seen them swarm out 
round the local school in this district to 
gather up the pieces of bread and cake 
thrown away <hy the children, who bring 
their dinners to school, and many a good 
•pecimen I have caught in a box-trap 
during their evening picnic. They are 
fond of household scraps, though tlheir 
bush diet consists of beetles, worms, 
grubs. and roots. For a nest 
they roll up most rapidly with their 
snout dried leans-, grass, and bits of 
sticks. Occasionally 1. have observed a 
bandicoot make a burrow similar to a 
rabbit, dig out the earth with wonderful 
rapidity, and then roll in the collected 
materials for a nos;, though my experi¬ 
ence has been that they more often 
sleep in hollow logs. I found it impos¬ 
sible to keep these little animals in a 
domestic state; they seem specially 
adapted for the roaming bush life which 
they follow. One little gunni, scarcely 
liglf-grown, appeared to thrive fairly 
well, sleeping in my study for the 
greater part of the day, only wakening 
for a little milk: in the evening the 
little chap was all alive, hopping about 
file house, apparently quite happy, but 
( 12) 
