A STRANGE ANIMAL.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17756, 7 May 1923, Page 4

A STRANGE ANIMAL.

THE ANT EATING NUMBAT.

i>' AUSTRALIA'S LINK WITH DIM ''] AGES. ij :--y ji-Kuii or?, ow>r coniiEsroNDEST.j &j SYDXEY, April 25'. £.. ! ' Amongst' all the strange creatures ;■:• '■ which make Australia a happy hunting *J I ground for the zoologist the most '■•_': extraordinary is a tiny marsupial which -'' , ' survives in "Western Australia, but . ; which is rapidly nearing extinction. It v is said to be the solo living link with. , the dim past when our planet first be- ;." : gan to boast of animal inhabitants. The ?' I earliest fossilised remains of animals :'.;. j known to scientists are placed in the -*: ' Eocene period, and are those of the ?<' ; order microlestes. In t"he South of \[ ! Western Australia there lives this curifrom the point of his nose to the end 'y j of his long tail, and wearing a tran- ' versely striped coat of white and ■'■ ! brown, wno can clearly claim descent ~; j from the nrircolostes —millions of years ; ;. :i I back among the ages. This interest- % iug little animal wucee name is num- :% bat, though to science he is known as If. Mynacobious sascatus, was once plenIff tiful in the "Williams district, but land .$! settlement and consequently clearing is ;;,'! proceeding so rapidly that he is likely %i I to be extinct within a few years. Last || week the Premier of Western Aus- ;-/ ! trali» received a numbat as a present 'ii I from a member of < Parliament from "if that part of the State, and after inf\ j tspecting the little fellow he sent him :•;-, j across to tho Zoological Gardens. The |il j quently that he was turning the nevr ;$ ( arrival loose in the gardens. "We can- >■' ; not afford to keep him in captivity," is* | he explained, "for he lives entirely on ?| j ants, and it would take three men at j*j | 16s each per day to collect sufficient sj' ! food for him." fy. The numbat has the largest number jSi of teoth of any known animal —nearly '!] eighty. j! Unfortunately Australia's wonderful I animals and birds have been all too 1 poorly appreciated. Prohibition of exj>i| port which has just been imposed, has, i it is feared, come too late to save many $ interesting species from extinction. g Some timely remarks on this subject ?f were made by a visiting American I ornithologist, Colonel Casey Woods, of |g K"ew York, on his arrival on. a visit to 'f Australia a few days ago. He said that §] in his opinion we have In Australia the fi rarest and most wonderful collection of 3] birds to be found in any one country'. fi Tho lyre bird, with its wonderful M plumage and power of mockery, wnlch a surpasses even that of the American »Si mocking bird, is one of the most interesting birds to be found, anywhere. The !okl superstition about birds being songless is still extant in many places, but Colonel Casey Woods hopes, by lecturing in America, to dispel some popular illusions about our fauna. He is a) strongly opposed s to the wanton de- | etruction of bTrd : *lif© which la now y permitted, with so-called sportsmen U having heavy powered guns, against J! defenceless birds. TThess Birds, he says, I Should be preserved, not only for sen- | timental reasons, but also on account | of their tremendous value to the coun- || try. In his opinion the best way to I preserve the'birds is not so much Try g the passing of laws, but by the api pointmont of nature teachers, as in jjj America, to take the children out into 1 the country, where they may make Sfi "friends'' with the birds,