THE TASMANIAN TIGER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13812, 17 July 1919, Page 1

THE TASMANIAN TIGER.

11 irf remarkable io find two such interesting and large animals as the tiger and the"devil in forms peculiar to lasmania. states "F.R.,'' in tJu* Australasian. It is cciuaHy remarkable to hud thai the two were common enough on the mainland quite recently As a matter of fact, it. is not certain that there are nut living specimens ot at least one—the devil—ill \ ictona todtiv. The. devil is a most engaging rascal". It is a very fierce animals and mosc dog- are alraid of it. A dog, m fact, has to be really trained to deal with it. Its strong and canine teeth are ics ' chief protection. It is rough' and evil-looking. Its hsad _ is large and vc-rv power!nl, and its limbs, though small, ai£! powerful. ft is impossible to tame it, and Mr Ijc Soaei .savs it retains its ferocity ill captivity. The wolf, another carnivorous annua., is mucli largc-r than the devil, and bears much resemblance to some of the wolves of the Northern Hemisphere. It was. fairlv common once, but it soon became s.d noted for its on the set tl CI\ = . slierp that a high price was -jjlacec! on its head. Twenty ago the sum of 't-'i was given for each wolf s hOiuL and. as in llu i cast* of the wolves of England, this soon had the effect of thinning it'out. Mr'Clive Lord, secretary .of' the Hobart .Museum, has sent me a good account of the last-named animal: — . .

•'The 'tigir' of the settler is. the marsupial wolf, or thylacine of the _na-turalis-t. Its scientific designation. Thylncinus cynoceijjialus, has been literally translated as 'the pouched dog with the "wolf-like head.' It belongs to the marsupaiia, as distinct from the placental mammals; and, as with other marsupials which progress on all lours through the scrub, its pouch opens backwards. The presence of the pouch, and the fact that tils- tail merges into the hindquarters, and does not form a separate unit, as it does in dogs, etc., denote its near relationship to the kangaroo and other such marsupials. .This iiue]-:'sting mammal is now found alive only in Tasmania, but fossil remains of a similar or- closely related species have been found in"the tertiary formations of the mainland. Owing to the war of extermination waged against this specks by the shcepfarmets, tliev .are now scarce, -and are found" only In the rugged portions of the. back- country. To obtain a. good specimen for museum purposes at the present- time an expenditure of £'2o is necessary.''