Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/131

112 snouted Bandicoot (Perameles nasuta), climbs about the fallen timber. We have a specimen before us as we write; it measures from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail 16 inches, the tail itself being 2 inches. Iris very dark brown, upper parts of the body dark grey, the lower white, the tail slightly hairy, certainly not scaly, as some writers state (at least in the individual before us), head very long, with slender naked muzzle; fore feet with five toes, the two middle very long, with long claws, the third much shorter, and two clawless rudimentary ones placed some distance behind the others. The hind foot has four toes, the middle one remarkably long, those on each side being only half the length, and the fourth some way back, also rudimentary. One of the claws on the side toe is bifid. We have taken the young from the pouch about September, at which time also the Flying Squirrel breeds.

The Natives avow that the Koala, (Phascolarctos cinereus;) never drinks water, and as we have elsewhere remarked, we are inclined to believe that not only it, but all the animals of this country can subsist for a considerable time without; yet in confinement we have frequently seen it thrust its head into a pan of water, probably to supply the moisture which it missed in the dry long gathered gum stalks and leaves which formed its food,—when these were not fresh, the stems were always devoured first, but when new and moist the leaves were eaten with infinite relish. There always appears to us something cruel in keeping any animal of this kind in confinement, where not only it is deprived of its requisite food, but is unable to follow