Mr. Harris, who was the first to make this animal known, states that it lives among caverns and rocks, in the deep and almost impenetrable glens, in the neighbourhood of the highest mountains of Van Diemen’s Land. The specimen from which his description was taken was caught in a trap baited with Kangaroo’s flesh; it remained alive but a few hours, having received some internal hurt whilst being secured. From time to time it uttered a short guttural cry, and it appeared exceedingly inactive and stupid, and, like the Owl, had an almost continual motion of the nictitant membrane of the eye. Remains of an Echidna were found in the stomach of the animal. Waterhouse states, on the authority of Mr. Gunn, that these animals are common only in the remoter parts of the colony, and used to be frequently caught at Woolnooth and the Hampshire Hills. They attack the Sheep at night, but are occasionally seen during the daytime, upon which occasions, perhaps from imperfect vision, their pace is very slow. Mr. Gunn also observes that the Thylacinus sometimes attains so large and formidable a size, that a number of Dogs will not face it. That gentleman denies that the tail of the animal is compressed, as has been stated by some authors, and his observations do not confirm the aquatic habits which have been attributed to it. There are cartilages in the place of the marsupial bones; but the pouch is well developed in the female Thylacine, and there are four well developed teats, each four inches long, indicating that it may contain four young ones at a time. The marsupium, or pouch, opens backwards, not, as in the Kangaroos and most others, forwards.
SKELETON OF THE DOG-HEADED THYLACINUS.
GENUS PHASCOGALE (POUCHED WEASELS).—THE BRUSH-TAILED PHASCOGALE.[122]
This genus includes many species of small Weasel- or Rat-like Marsupials. They are small, insectivorous, and climb shrubs and trees in pursuit of their prey. The largest known is about the size of a common Rat. The brush-tailed kind inhabits New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia, and is a pretty little animal, having a long and soft fur, of a grey colour above and white or yellow-white under the body. The eyes are encircled with black, and there is a pale spot above and below the eye, and the hairs are blackest along the middle of the head. The ear is rather large and not furry; the tail is about equal to the body in length, or seven inches to nine inches, and there is a portion near its end of about two inches in length, which is clothed with short, stiff hairs, and the rest has long and glossy hairs, sometimes an inch or two long. An insectivorous little creature, its teeth are modified to meet its diet, and they are less carnivorous than the other Dasyurids. They have the two foremost incisors of the upper and lower jaw larger than the others. There are three premolars in each jaw on each side, and eight molars above and below, which are studded with prickly tubercles, those of the upper jaw having triangular crowns. There are five toes to the fore and hinder extremities, and the inner toe of the latter is in the form of a small nailless prehensile thumb. The brain-case is large and the skull comparatively smooth. The species just noticed is said to enter the stores of the settlers, and it makes a nest in the hollows of the trunks of trees or in the branches. The female has no pouch, but ten teats covered with hair. It is the Tapoa Tafa of White, according to Krefft.
Another species, about six inches long, not including a tail of three inches—the Freckled Phascogale—lives in the Swan River district and at King George’s Sound, being generally distributed over Western Australia. It has the fur freckled with black and white on the head and fore parts of the body. Mr. Gilbert found insect remains in its stomach, and he obtained a female specimen having seven young attached. They were little more than half an inch in length, and quite blind and naked. Above the teats of the mother is a very small fold of skin, from which the long hairs of the under surface spread downwards, and effectually cover and protect the young. This fold is the only approximation to a pouch which has been found in any species of this genus. The young are very tenacious of life, and those just mentioned lived nearly two days attached to the mammæ of the dead mother.
BRUSH-TAILED PHASCOGALE.
The Yellow-footed Phascogale is a kind which inhabits New South Wales and South Australia, and the White-footed Phascogale and a closely-allied kind live in South Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. In New Guinea, which constitutes a part of the Australian natural history province, there is a black, short-eared, and short-furred kind, about the size of a Rat, called Phascogale melas.
