OF January.] NEW SOUTH WALES, ' 57.
with his grafs-cutting teeth. Their friend {hip was here at an end,
and the creature remained implacable all the way to the boat,, ceal-
ing to kick only when he was. exhau fled. .
This circumftance ieemed to indicate, that with kind treatment
the .»Wom-bat might, foon be, rendered extremely docile, and probably
ailcciionate ; but.let his tutqr beware of giving him provocation,
at Jeaft if he. fhould he full grown.
Befides. Furneaux’s jlflands,. the Wom-bat inhabits, as has been
feen, the mountains to the weftward of Port Jackfon. In both
thefe places its habitation is under ground, being admirably formed
for burrowing, but to what depth it defcends does not feem to be
aicertained. According to the account given o f it by the natives,
the wom-bat o f the mountains is never feen during the day,' but
lives’retired in his hole, feeding only in the night; but that of the
iflands is feen to feed in all parts o f the day. His. food is not yet
well known ; but it feems probable that he varies it, according to
the fituation in which he may be placed. The ftomachs o f fuch
as Mr. Bafs examined were diftended with the coarfe wiry grafs,
and he, as well as others, had feen the animal fcratching among
the dry ricks of fea-weed thrown up upon the fhores, but could
never difcover what it was in fearch of. Now the inhabitant of
the mountains can have no recourfe to the .fea-fhore for his food,
nor can he find there any wiry grafs of the iflands, but muft live upon
the food that circumftances prefent to him.
The annexed R e presentation o f thi$ new and curious addition
to the animals o f New South Wales was taken from a living
fubjedt, which was a female, arid had the charadteriftic mark which
clafled it with the opoflum tribe, the pouch or bag for its young.
Cape Barren Ifland, befides the kangooroo and wom-bat, is inhabited
by the porcupine - ant-eater; a rat with webbed feet; parro-
quets, and fmall birds unknown at Port Jackfon, Lome few of which
were of beautiful plumage. Black fnakes with the venemous fangs'
were