objects better at a distance.
    At the present time I have six running together, my own three and three that I bought when in their motherâs pouch. All are tame, frolicsome, and lively. I can go in and have a bit of fun with them, and when I am outside their enclosure they frequently climb the wire-netting to the height of nearly six feet, and get their little black faces close to mine with evident delight. We have tried more than once to get them photographed, but it is impossible to keep them quiet, they are on for a scamper all the time. Recently an adult escaped, and it was discovered by a passing school-boy sitting on a high fence bordering the street, under the shade of some elm-trees, many people passing on the foot-path without observing it. They are, however, always very timid when coming down.
    They are fond of the sun, and look well when basking in it, the rays shining through make their ears appear a bright red, fore-feet parallel with the head, hind-quarters quite flat on the ground and turned out at right angles, somewhat as a frog.
    My sympathy with my little black âbrothers and sistersâ is intense, probably evoked by having suffered much mentally owing to the gross cruelties which have come under my notice, the result of capturing them in traps. Frequently three or four have been sent to me in a crate, only to find later on one with a foot shot off or a broken leg. In a consignment received some time ago, a dead one was found; it bore unmistakable signs of a snare previously, round the neck, one foot was gone (an old injury), and finally a recently smashed leg much swollen, the cause of death. I communicated with the S.P.C.A., and since then have had none from that district.
    I have derived much pleasure from studying the habits and disposition of the Tasmanian Devils, and have found that they respond to kindness, and certainly show affection and pleasure when I approach them. I have been led to believe that no case of their breeding in captivity has been recorded, and certainly not in Tasmania.
    Others who do not know or understand them may think of them as they like, but I, who love them, and have had considerable experience in keeping most of our marsupials, from the Thylacine down to the Opossum Mouse ( Dromica nana ), will always regard them as first favourites, my little black playmates. 7
Mary Roberts wasnât a trained scientist. But her Beaumaris Zoo not only popularised native animals until then considered loathsome, dangerous and expendable; it also attracted those few scientists who had begun devoting their energies to understanding and protecting the islandâs fauna. One was Clive Lord, Director of the Tasmanian Museum, who in 1918 compiled a list of about 50 known descriptions, classifications and drawings of the devil. He expressed concern that native species such as the devil were decreasing in numbers while very little was known about them.
Another was Professor T. T. (Theodore Thomson) Flynn, who occupies an important place in Australian zoology as a pioneering twentieth-century mammalogist. His works on the embryology and early development of native animals are rightly described as classics. In 1909 he had become the inaugural Professor of Biology at the University of Tasmania and for 20 years remained devoted to his research.
Professor T.T. (Theodore) Flynn, a biology lecturer and researcher at the University of Tasmania from 1909 to 1930, was the father of actor Errol Flynn. Theodore undertook pioneering laboratory work on devils, one result being this fine natural history illustration of the urogenital system and pup on teat. (Courtesy Collection Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery)
One of Flynnâs early publications was âContributions to a Knowledge of the Anatomy and Development of the Marsupiala: No. I. The Genitalia of Sarcophilus satanicus â. His research derived from a
    At the present time I have six running together, my own three and three that I bought when in their motherâs pouch. All are tame, frolicsome, and lively. I can go in and have a bit of fun with them, and when I am outside their enclosure they frequently climb the wire-netting to the height of nearly six feet, and get their little black faces close to mine with evident delight. We have tried more than once to get them photographed, but it is impossible to keep them quiet, they are on for a scamper all the time. Recently an adult escaped, and it was discovered by a passing school-boy sitting on a high fence bordering the street, under the shade of some elm-trees, many people passing on the foot-path without observing it. They are, however, always very timid when coming down.
    They are fond of the sun, and look well when basking in it, the rays shining through make their ears appear a bright red, fore-feet parallel with the head, hind-quarters quite flat on the ground and turned out at right angles, somewhat as a frog.
    My sympathy with my little black âbrothers and sistersâ is intense, probably evoked by having suffered much mentally owing to the gross cruelties which have come under my notice, the result of capturing them in traps. Frequently three or four have been sent to me in a crate, only to find later on one with a foot shot off or a broken leg. In a consignment received some time ago, a dead one was found; it bore unmistakable signs of a snare previously, round the neck, one foot was gone (an old injury), and finally a recently smashed leg much swollen, the cause of death. I communicated with the S.P.C.A., and since then have had none from that district.
    I have derived much pleasure from studying the habits and disposition of the Tasmanian Devils, and have found that they respond to kindness, and certainly show affection and pleasure when I approach them. I have been led to believe that no case of their breeding in captivity has been recorded, and certainly not in Tasmania.
    Others who do not know or understand them may think of them as they like, but I, who love them, and have had considerable experience in keeping most of our marsupials, from the Thylacine down to the Opossum Mouse ( Dromica nana ), will always regard them as first favourites, my little black playmates. 7
Mary Roberts wasnât a trained scientist. But her Beaumaris Zoo not only popularised native animals until then considered loathsome, dangerous and expendable; it also attracted those few scientists who had begun devoting their energies to understanding and protecting the islandâs fauna. One was Clive Lord, Director of the Tasmanian Museum, who in 1918 compiled a list of about 50 known descriptions, classifications and drawings of the devil. He expressed concern that native species such as the devil were decreasing in numbers while very little was known about them.
Another was Professor T. T. (Theodore Thomson) Flynn, who occupies an important place in Australian zoology as a pioneering twentieth-century mammalogist. His works on the embryology and early development of native animals are rightly described as classics. In 1909 he had become the inaugural Professor of Biology at the University of Tasmania and for 20 years remained devoted to his research.
Professor T.T. (Theodore) Flynn, a biology lecturer and researcher at the University of Tasmania from 1909 to 1930, was the father of actor Errol Flynn. Theodore undertook pioneering laboratory work on devils, one result being this fine natural history illustration of the urogenital system and pup on teat. (Courtesy Collection Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery)
One of Flynnâs early publications was âContributions to a Knowledge of the Anatomy and Development of the Marsupiala: No. I. The Genitalia of Sarcophilus satanicus â. His research derived from a
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