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PHASCOLOMYS WOMBAT. pp

Wombat.

et Les.

Phascolomys Wombat, Peron et Lesueur, Voy. aux Terres Australes, Atl
Ate ‘ ; ales 5) ;
" aterh. in Jard. Nat. Lib. Mamm., vol. x. Se) a - tab. 28.—Desm. Mamm.
in Proc. of Roy. Soc. of Van Diem. Land, vol. ii a 7 . Nat. Hist. of Mamm., v
» VOI. I. Pp. 90.

» part i. p. 276.—
ol. i. p. 246.—Gunn

, ___— fossor, Sevastianoff in Mém. de l’Acad. Imp. de St. Pétersb :
—__———— wombatus, Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. ii. p. 101. pl. 06 rsb., tom. i. p. 444.
—___—— fusca, Desm. Dict. des Sci. Nat., tom. xxv. p. 500 tab G44

fee Bassi, Less. Man. du Mamm., p. 229. 7% abpalls
______—. ursinus, Gray, List of Mamm. in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 95

Didelphis ursina, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. i. part ii. p. 504. ihe

Wombatus fossor, Geoff.

Opossum hirsutum, Perry, Arcana.

Amblotis fossor, I. Prod., p. 77.

Perameles fossor, Peron.

Womback, Bewick’s Quadr., 6th Edit. p. 522.

Wombat, Collins’s Account of New S$ Tales. vol. ij x

Badger, of the Colonists. ee ee meta

 

Tue Wombat may be regard f i
arded as one of the most curious Australi : :
ite \ | 8 ost curious of the Australian Mammals, ranking as it does,
respect to its anomalous structure and appearance, with the Koala and Ornithorhynchus. In no other part
of the world is the form to be found, and it 1s diffi P whi 7
‘ id it 1s diffiec ay “hic y ry :
| a emtog a cult to say of which of the great groups of placental animals
, ne representative in its own class—the Marsupiate. I obtained several examples in Van Diemen’s
and. but failed in procuring continental speci ; which Ir i ; |
_ ; c | procuring continental specimens, hich I regret, because it leaves the question as to there
eine more than one species of this form sti Slade a : : . : :
Beng 2 an one species of this form still undecided; nor can this point be determined until specimens
from South Australia have been sent to Europe, or until comparisons have been made in that country by a
Professor Owen informs us that a skull in the Collection

naturalist competent to set the question at rest.
nt differences from skulls

of the Royal College of Surgeons, sent from South Australia, offers sufficie
from Van Diemen’s Land to convince him that there are at least two species ; and when such a statement
the doubt that exists on the subject is much diminished. Mr. Waterhouse

is made by so high an authority,
to be distinct from the animal found in

also states, that in his opinion the continental species will prove
Van Diemen’s Land and the islands in Bass’s Straits. I may mention also that His Excellency Sir George
Grey has placed in my hands a pencil drawing of the head of a specimen killed in South Australia, to which,
from the great breadth of the head, the name of /atifrons, proposed by Professor Owen for the continental
therefore, good reasons for concluding that the continental animal
, and it is much to be regretted that both
After what has been stated, it
ocured in Van Diemen’s Land,

I met with it myself in the

animal, might apply. ‘There appears,
is really distinct 5 but the question still remains an open one
skins and skeletons have not been sent home, for its proper elucidation.
figure was taken from a specimen pr
ts, 1S extremely common.
hind Mount Wellington, and in many other situations
ands in Bass’s Straits, where the
In its habits it is nocturnal,

rging on the approach of

is almost superfluous to say, that my
where the animal, particularly in certain distric
ort Arthur, in the sterile districts be

It is also found in the isl
> vol. il. p- 153, was procured.
during the day, and eme
t immediately runs for safety on the

neighbourhood of Pp
where a similar character of country prevails.
‘«« Collins’s Voyage,’
ows, excavated by itself,
its stronghold, to which 1

however, that it sometimes 1n¢
averses the bottom of the

specimen first described, in
living in the deep stony burr
evening, but seldom trusting itself far
appearance of an intruder. The natives state,

and, if a river should cross its course, quietly
stream until it reaches the other side ; but I am unable to ¢
and docile in the extreme, s00n becoming
I may mention that the two specimen
Zoological Society in th
hed by all who choose
of various authors who have

from

lulges in a long ramble,
walks into the water and tr
onfirm this statement
familiar with and apparently attached
s which are now (1859),
e Regent's Park,
to make so

from personal observation.

In its disposition it is quiet
to those who feed it; as an evidence of which,
and have been for a long period, living in the Gardens of the
not only admit the closest inspection, but may be handled and scratc
m. The following notes are from the pens
yom was Mr. Bass, in “ Collins’s Voyage
t, thick, short-legged, and rather imactive quadruped. Its
a Bear; its pace; too, 1S hobbling or shuffling, and
, it is mild and gentle, but it bites hard and

and a whizz

Fay
Ne)

3e8

GC

» above referred to.

63

intimate an acquaintance with the
written on the Wombat ; the earliest of wl

“The Wombat,” says Mr. Bass, ‘‘is a squa
figure and movements strongly remind one of those of

not unlike the awkward gait of tha In dispositio1
and the

63GB

3

co ing sound, which

n utters a low cry between a hissing

\V/

becomes furious when provoked,

SERENE CRETE