keeps the earth above from falling in and
scattering its dirt about the doorway. These
hollows are always overgrown with grass, and
appear to have been inhabited by many
generations of departed Wombats. The
remains of the defunct—well-bleached skulls
and bones—lie scattered on the surface of the
soil, as if the hairy patriarchs had dragged
themselves from their dark burrows to die
under the sun-light; or as if reversing the
common order of things, having expired
decently in their family tombs, they had been
solemnly hauled out by their successors; for,
with this tribe, the living occupy the graves,
and all the dead are carefully turned out of
them. I have examined many hundreds of
these holes, but never saw one that bore any
marks of having been made recently, or even
enlarged since its first formation. The green
banks that surround the warren are marked
out into the high roads of the Wombats'
well-worn tracks, which branch off in a great many
directions to the choicest feeding grounds.

The Wombat is covered with a thick coat of
strong hair of a lightish brown colour, or
sometimes an iron-grey. The back is very
broad and flat; the legs short, and the belly
almost touches the ground. On each of the
fore feet are five, and on the hind feet four
powerful claws; and the short massive jaws
are furnished with strong molar teeth, twenty
of them, and four broad sharp incisors. The
head is flat, and is so hard and solid that I
have seen a ball flatten like dough upon it.
The skin, too, is very thick, especially about
the neck and fore-part of the body. Wombats
feed chiefly on grass, cropping it very close to
the roots. They come out only at night, and
are found rarely at any distance from their
burrow. The flesh is excellent eating, though
because of the sluggish habits of the animal it
is apt to be too fat. Native Australians prefer
it to all other food. On being disturbed, the
Wombat makes straight for its burrow, heedless
of any obstacle, and at such times it
makes a shrill, hissing noise of a peculiar
kind that may be heard on a still night to a
considerable distance. This, except an
occasional low grunt, is the only vocal sound ever
produced by any of the marsupials.

The Native Devil (dasyurus ursinus)
burrows like the Wombat, but is in all other
respects an entirely different animal. It is a
very ugly, very savage brute, fortunately
(forgive me, naturalists, for the sentiment,
which is, I know, a wrong one) fortunately
now almost extinct. It is never discovered
beyond the limits of Tasmania, where it was
formerly a terrible pest to the settlers; for
it destroyed their poultry, and often went so
far as to kill and devour young lambs. It is
about as big as a small bull-dog, covered with
coarse, black hair, and ornamented with an
enormous head not unlike that of the hyaena.
It has a very wide mouth garnished by a set
of forty-four sharp teeth, which, when in
confinement, it is continually gnashing together,
jerking out at the same time a short vicious
snarl. I had one of these little "devils'" in a
cage for several months. He was trapped
near Both well in Tasmania, being lamed
slightly in the capture. He certainly was
the most vicious and ill-tempered beast I ever
had to do with. During the day he slept
incessantly, and his only reply to an attempt
to awaken him was a savage snap accompanied
by the habitually angry snarl. Even the
offer of food would not arouse him while the
daylight lasted; he was a veritable Prince of
Darkness. At night he became active,
eagerly seized food, and sitting on his hams
with the meat held between his fore-paws,
tore it wolfishly to pieces, crunching up large
bones with the greatest ease, and often
swallowing at one meal nearly his own weight in
victuals. For some time I fed him only in
the morning, before he coiled himself up for
his day's snooze; and then, all night long lie
continued to prowl about the cage, growling
and tearing at the bars. In his gait and
mode of sitting on his hams, he has a slight
resemblance to the bear, from which, I
suppose, he derives his zoological title of
"ursimis."

Another animal related to the Devil, and
differing but slightly from it in its habits, is
found in the mountainous districts of
Tasmania. It is named by the colonists the
Zebra-Wolf, and is larger but handsomer than
the dasyurtis. The skin of the Zebra-Wolf is
smooth and glossy, somewhat resembling in
its colour that of the Bengal tiger; a dark
yellow, crossed with black stripes. In size
and appearance it is like a wolf, though the
head is larger, the muzzle blunter, and the
mouth deeper. Zebra-Wolves are now
extremely scarce. In many journeys through
the unfrequented parts of the island, I never
met with one. My knowledge of the variety
is derived from a stuffed specimen.

Again, there are in Australia several smaller
flesh-eating marsupials belonging to the same
family, commonly known as native Cats,
though they bear no resemblance to the cat,
except in having predatory habits. The
native Cat is twelve or fifteen inches long,
with a long furry tail. It has a sharp head,
a large mouth containing fifty-two little
pointed teeth, and small erect ears. In colour
it is white, with yellow spots; sometimes
with glossy black spots; the latter variety
being usually the finer of the two. These
animals are found in all parts of the colonies,
especially where quails abound. They are
expert and cat-like in their way of capturing
those birds; lying in wait among thick tufts
of grass and pouncing upon them as they run
by unsuspiciously.

But there is a very numerous Australian
family whose habits differ from all those
heretofore described, and which is
remarkable as being the only genus of
pouch-bearing animals represented in another
country.