This is a small animal, not larger than a half-grown Cat. It has a longish bushy tail, a broad head, and is somewhat of greyish-yellow colour. There are white spots on the sides of the body and tail. In confinement this little creature is torpid by day, but lively as evening comes on, and it rushes about, with its tail extended, with great rapidity. It is very injurious to the poultry when in a wild state, and is called the Wild Cat in Van Diemen’s Land. A variety of it is the Viverrine Dasyure, which has the head and body spotted with white, the general colour being brown, black, or grey, tinted with yellow, the under parts being white. It has long hairs to its tail; rather large ears, the flesh of which is of a pale pink, as is that of the naked lips, the tip of the nose, and the soles of the feet, the latter being hairless, but covered with small fleshy tubercles. There is no trace of an inner toe to the hind foot, unless it be a slight swelling of the flesh, marking the situation of the rudimentary bone beneath. Both of these animals are to be found in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. The rest of the Dasyures are widely spread over the continent. The smallest kind is the North Australian Dasyure. Geoffroy’s Dasyure, which has a thin tail and an inner toe to the hind foot, inhabits Western and Southern Australia and New South Wales, is a great killer of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo, and they hunt and kill Mice or Rats as well as any Cat. They have not a pouch. GENUS THYLACINUS.[120]--THE DOG-HEADED THYLACINUS.[121]