"[The wombat] burrowed in the ground whenever it had an opportunity, and covered itself in the earth with surprising quickness. It was quiet during the day, but constantly in motion in the night: was very sensible to cold; ate all kinds of vegetables; but was particularly fond of new hay, which it ate stalk by stalk, taking it into its mouth like a beaver, by small bits at a time. It was not wanting in intelligence, and appeared attached to those to whom it was accustomed, and who were kind to it. When it saw them, it would put up its forepaws on the knee, and when taken up would sleep in the lap. It allowed children to pull and carry it about, and when it bit them did not appear to do it in anger or with violence. "— Everard Home (1809)
5 comments:
I've had no luck in uploading a picture with this post. Even with the new Blogger version, are we not set up for that?
No idea. Check with Lyda. BTW: I love this quote. I'm a total sucker for Wombats. Did you know that they used to play wombat tennis with a stuffed animal on the Royal Yacht, Brittania?
We should be set up for pictures. I just took a quick look at my posting options and it seems to be there. I should say, though, that size matters. Blogspot appears to prefer very tiny pictures. So, if you're having trouble try resizing it, if you can.
Wombat. Great word. Feels furry in your mouth. Wombat, wombat. We need to find more ways to work 'wombat' into the vernacular.
Which brings to mind another speculatory animal oddity, the womb-bat.
Finally figured out how to upload our furry little friend. The photo comes from "common wombat pictures" at http://www.wombania.com.
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