THE TASMANIAN WOMBAT. 
Phascolomys wombat. 
Plate XXXII. 
Two species of the peculiar form of Marsupials, called Wombats, exist in Australia. One of these, the subject 
of the present illustration, is found in Tasmania, New South Wales, and the islands in Bass’s Straits; the 
other, the Broad-fronted Wombat (Phascolomys latifrons) of Professor Owen, is peculiar to Southern Australia. 
The pair of the Tasmanian Wombat now belonging to the Society, had no sooner been placed in the 
inclosure appropriated to them in the centre part of the Southern Gardens, than they began to excavate a 
burrow. In this they lived for a long time, at first showing themselves but rarely by day time, and, after the 
usual habit of Marsupials, coming out to feed at dark. They are now become much more bold, and may be 
seen at almost any time of the day, nor do they object to being handled or scratched by any person who chooses 
to make acquaintance with them. The Wombats bred in their enclosure in 1858, producing a single young one, 
which, together with its mother, is represented in the accompanying plate. 
Mr. Gould, who has figured the Tasmanian Wombat in the Seventh Part of his “Mammals of Australia,” 
tells us that this animal is extremely common in a wild state in some parts of Yan Dieman’s Land. “I met 
with it myself,” he goes on to say, “in the sterile districts behind Mount Wellington, and in many other 
situations where a similar character of country prevails. It is also found in the islands in Bass’s Straits, 
where the specimen first described, in ‘Collins’s Voyage,’ vol. ii. p. 153, was procured. In its habits it is 
noctural, living in the deep stony burrows, excavated by itself, during the day, and emerging on the approach 
of evening, but seldom trusting itself far from its stronghold, to which it immediately runs for safety on the 
appearance of an intruder. The natives state, however, that it sometimes indulges in a long ramble, and if a 
river should cross its course, quietly walks into the water, and traverses the bottom of the stream, until it 
reaches the other side.” 
Although but two species of Wombat are now found in Australia, a third member of this genus of 
Marsupials is known to have existed there in a former geological epoch. The caves of the Wellington Valley 
contain fossil remains of a Wombat allied to the recent species, but Avhich Professor Owen, after a careful 
comparison, has been induced to regard as distinct, and to call Phascolomys mitchellii. 
The Wombat appears to be very hardy in constitution, and bears the vicissitudes of the English climate 
without the necessity of any further protection than a wooden box well supplied with straw. 
