Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/224

196 and will with great tenacity adhere to her teats when pulled out of the hollow trunk where she is hiding.

At night the animal roams about searching for food, which chiefly consists of the fruits of the Corkscrew Palm, Pandanus odoratissimus. Its movements are sudden and jerky, and the animal is a fast and clever runner, as well as a splendid climber. Being smart and well built, and in possession of a very irritable and savage temper, the bite from its strong jaws is by no means insignificant, and a nasty gash in the hand may easily be the result of a clumsy attack on the Nunjala.

Owing to its size and savoury flesh the natives pursue it, and the animal is caught by simply chopping a hole in the hollow tree where it sleeps, and pulling it out by the tail. When colonisation reaches the forest, the Nunjala, like other species of the genus, becomes a domestic parasite, and also a very noxious one.

It is said that the European Muridæ in the southern parts of the continent are gradually extirpating and replacing the aboriginal representatives of the Coniluridæ, and I shall not contradict the statement. I only feel confident that even Mus decumanus would find the "Nunjala" a worthy antagonist.

This little species occurred most plentifully in the neighbourhood of "Hermit Hill," and the natives brought me great numbers of it. According to them the animal invariably sleeps in the corners of the stiff leaves of the common Corkscrew Palm, Pandanus odoratissimus.

The animal may be seen at night flitting about in the trees, and in Arnhem Land is everywhere common in the vicinity of water. It is extremely savage, and bites viciously. Whenever I kept a number of them together in captivity they would always fight, and very often kill each other. Their gnawing power is very great, and they would in very short time bite their way out of any basket or cage I might put them in.

Wherever a house is built in the forest and people settle, this species, like most other Coniluridæ, abandons its original habits, settles in and around the house, and becomes a domestic parasite.