There are several kinds of Dasyure, which have been carefully noticed and described. One is called the Long-tailed or Spotted Dasyure,[118] and is about the size of a Cat. The fur is reddish-brown, pencilled with yellow, and is spotted with white both on the body and on the tail. It has a tail as long as the head and body together, and the under parts of the body and the fore-legs and feet are of a dirty yellow tinge. It lives in Van Diemen’s Land, and was, from its shape, at first called a Marten. The teats are six in number, three on each side, and seated within a slight fold only of the skin, so that there is no true pouch.
UPPER (A) AND UNDER (B) VIEW OF SKULL OF DASYURE.
MAUGE’S DASYURE.[119]
This is a small animal, not larger than a half-grown Cat. It has a longish bushy tail, a broad head, and is somewhat of greyish-yellow colour. There are white spots on the sides of the body and tail. In confinement this little creature is torpid by day, but lively as evening comes on, and it rushes about, with its tail extended, with great rapidity. It is very injurious to the poultry when in a wild state, and is called the Wild Cat in Van Diemen’s Land. A variety of it is the Viverrine Dasyure, which has the head and body spotted with white, the general colour being brown, black, or grey, tinted with yellow, the under parts being white. It has long hairs to its tail; rather large ears, the flesh of which is of a pale pink, as is that of the naked lips, the tip of the nose, and the soles of the feet, the latter being hairless, but covered with small fleshy tubercles. There is no trace of an inner toe to the hind foot, unless it be a slight swelling of the flesh, marking the situation of the rudimentary bone beneath. Both of these animals are to be found in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land.
The rest of the Dasyures are widely spread over the continent. The smallest kind is the North Australian Dasyure. Geoffroy’s Dasyure, which has a thin tail and an inner toe to the hind foot, inhabits Western and Southern Australia and New South Wales, is a great killer of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo, and they hunt and kill Mice or Rats as well as any Cat. They have not a pouch.
GENUS THYLACINUS.[120]—THE DOG-HEADED THYLACINUS.[121]
This is a Dog-like, slim, narrow-muzzled animal, with clean and rather short limbs, a foxy head, and a tail about half as long as the body, which in males is forty-five inches in length. It is about the size of a Jackal, and the fur is short, but rather woolly and greyish-brown, faintly suffused with yellow in colour. The fur on the back is deep brown near the skin, and yellowish-brown towards the tip. It has from twelve to fourteen black bands on the body, and the tail has long hairs at the tip only. The eyes are keen, large, and full, and they are black and have a nictitating membrane. The animal walks half on its toes and half on its soles or palms, and thus is a semi-plantigrade, the body being brought nearer the ground than that of the Wolf in running. There is a marsupial pouch, but the bones are mere cartilages. The Dog-headed Thylacinus, or the Zebra-Wolf of the colonists of Van Diemen’s Land, thus described, has often been taken for one of the Carnivora, and certainly there are great resemblances between it and the Dogs. The canine teeth are of large size, but they are recurved at the top, and in the upper jaw are separated from the incisors by a space, into which the point of the lower canine fits when the jaws are closed. This is different in the Dogs, whose lower canine passes on the outer side of the upper one when the mouth is closed. The premolar of the Thylacinus has a small cusp behind, but in the lower jaw the premolars are isolated, and do not form a continuous cutting and masticating ridge. It is also to be remembered that this animal has a peculiar lower jaw, as it is one of the Marsupials, and the angle is inflected. It is a Marsupial, with some structures which foreshadow those of the more highly-developed Dog.
DOG-HEADED THYLACINUS.