The Tasmanian or zebra wolf is not a very large animal, but it is so strong and fierce that it well deserves the name of wolf. It plays the same part in its native land that the true wolves do in other countries. Its natural food consists of the smaller animals, shellfish, insects, and other such things as it could manage to pick up. It is in the habit of prowling along the seashore in search of various odds and ends that the waves wash up at every tide, and the mussels and other shellfish that cling to the rocks form a favorite diet of the Tasmanian wolf, which is sometimes lucky enough to find upon the beach the remains of dead seals and fish, and could easily make a meal on the shore crabs which are left as the tide goes out. 
 
Though not a very swift or even a quick animal, it manages to kill such agile pray as the lush kangaroo and the emeu. The Tasmanian wolf made sad havoc among the sheep flocks and hen-roosts of the early settlers, but by degrees it was driven away from his old haunts and being forced to live in the copses and jungles came to play the part of a hyena, as well as of a wolf. 
 
The emeu nearly equals the ostrich in bulk, its height being about five and 6 feet. Its feathers lie loosely on the body and its wings are small and hardly to be distinguished. The skin of the emeu furnishes a bright and clear oil,  on which account it is eagerly sought after. Its food appears to be wholy vegetable, consisting chiefly of fruits, nuts and herbage and it is, therefore, notwithstanding its great strength perfectly inoffensive. The length of its legs and the muscularity of its thighs enable it to run with great swiftness and as it is very shy, it is not easily overtaken.