TASMANIAN WOLF.
In this photograph are shown nearly all the chief characteristic points of the Tasmanian wolf.
The Tasmanian Devil.
Next in size to the thylacine, but possessing a more unenviable notoriety for the uncompromising sulkiness and savagery of its disposition, is the animal which, in virtue of the aforesaid qualities, is known by the title of the Tasmanian Devil. In shape and dimensions this marsupial carnivore somewhat resembles a badger; but the head is abnormally large, the masseter muscles which control the action of the powerful jaws monopolising a very considerable share of the face area. The limbs are short and also very powerful, the front paws being well adapted to its burrowing habits. There is some slight variation in the colours of this marsupial Apollyon; and, as the aphorism runs concerning his sable namesake, he is not always so black as he is painted. More or less or in fact mostly black he always is, but there is usually a redeeming thread or patch of white upon his coat. This may take the form of a small star-like spot only on the front of its chest, which not infrequently extends to a narrow crescent-shaped band or line continued round the neck almost to the shoulders. One or more supplementary spots of white may also be developed upon the flanks and hindquarters.
Photo by York & Son] [Notting Hill.
TASMANIAN DEVIL.
A small, but stout and powerful animal, very destructive, and absolutely untamable.
The destructive propensities of the Tasmanian devil, wherein the farmers' sheep and poultry are concerned, are in no way inferior to those of the Tasmanian wolf, and in consequence of their former much greater abundance the havoc these animals committed was the more serious. Placed, like the last-named type, under Government ban, these native devils have, in comparison with the earlier days of colonisation, very considerably ceased from troubling, and with the ever-progressing march of settlement and civilisation will probably be altogether exterminated at a no very distant date. A bag of no less than 150 of these marauders, in the course of one winter, was recorded from an upland sheep-station some twenty or thirty years ago. In common with the thylacine, it has been observed that the Tasmanian devil has a marked predilection for prowling along the seashore in search apparently of crabs, fish, or any acceptable flotsam and jetsam that may be cast up by the waves.
Examples of this most unamiable of mammals were brought in alive on several occasions to the Hobart Museum during the writer's residence in Tasmania, but in all cases obstinately resisted every attempt towards the establishment of a friendly footing. Their ultimate relegation to the specimen-cases was, under the circumstances, unattended by any very poignant manifestations of regret. A fact brought into prominent notice during subsequent post-mortem investigations was the extraordinary extent to which these animals are infested with vermin. Possibly this circumstance is to a considerable extent accountable for the creature's unconquerable irritability. The experiment as to whether a course of disinfecting treatment, by baths or otherwise, would not conduce towards the taming of this native devil, where all other applied methods have failed, would at all events be worth the trial. The bath pure and simple is a wonderful soporific for unruly tempers. As most schoolboys know, a pail of water, from which the patient is withdrawn when a watery grave is apparently inevitable, is an unfailing specific for the taming of mice and other "small deer." The writer's experience with a villainously savage cat which one night fell incontinently into an uncovered cistern, and was rescued by him at almost the last gasp, will not be readily forgotten. That cat, though still a vixen to the ordinary members of the household, forthwith attached itself affectionately to its rescuer, and would sit for hours awaiting his arrival on the doorstep when the business of the day was over. Other fierce creatures, including the Tasmanian devil, would possibly prove amenable to the judicious application of the "water cure."