Page:A primer of forestry, with illustrations of the principal forest trees of Western Australia.djvu/119

113. little damage to young trees and saplings, but some smaller wallabies and rat kangaroos, such as the "Quokka," the "Tammar," or "Bounan" and the "Boodie" feed upon shoots and roots and so might, under certain conditions, damage vegetation of economic value. The damage done by these small wallabies in certain parts of the South-West, where their natural enemy, the dingo, is becoming rare, has already been referred to. It would seem that the growers of potatoes and vegetables are the chief sufferers, although fruit trees also are attacked in a dry season, when the normal food supply is scarce.

The common and the ring-tail opossum are arboreal forms, living mainly upon young leaves and shoots, but also including the flowers of eucalypts in their diet. These animals if very abundant might become a menace to the forester, but any harm they might do would be compensated by the insects they destroy and eat, for they are not strict vegetarians.

The root-eating wombat was once rather common near Eucla, his only home in Western Australia in recent times, but is now considered to be extinct in this State.

5. Polyprotodont Marsupials—Bandicoots, Dalgytes, Native Cats, etc.

All the animals of this group possess three or more pairs of incisor teeth in the lower jaw, the middle pair not being markedly larger than the others. The bandicoots, the dalgytes, the native cats, the pouched mice, and native squirrels are all creatures whose food consists chiefly of insects, although the native cat is often largely carnivorous. In spite of the birds they destroy at times, these animals must all be regarded as friends of the forester, because of the war they wage upon insects and other vermin.

Of special interest is the remarkable Numbat or Banded Anteater, a rather rare and local animal, which is not nocturnal, like the rest of our marsupials, but very active in day time when it searches for its favourite food, ants.