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1ALMATFEUS JBILLARBIERI.
HALMATURUS BILLARDIERL
Tasmanian Wallaby.
H e a d a n d f o r e p a r t s , o f t h e s i z e o f l i f e .
As the Rabbit is to us one of the commonest and most numerous of our native quadrupeds,
so is the Tasmanian Wallaby to the colonists of Van Diemen’s Land. Exceeding a Hare
in size, this useful animal is most numerous in all the scrubby and humid situations of
the island. Its physiognomy, which is striking and singular, is well portrayed in the accompanying
illustration, while the reduced figures will give a just idea of the entire
animal. It will he seen that this species is much darker in colour than most of its
allies, and that its coat is longer and more shaggy—a character of fiir which is well
adapted to its more southern, wetter, and colder climate, while its hue is in unison with
that of the herbage amidst which it dwells. The interior of the forest, amid stranded
trees and rank vegetation, are the situations in which this animal forms its runs, and from
which it is not easily driven; but for these and for all other details respecting the species
the reader is referred to the page accompanying the reduced figures.