Other days indeed, Robin. I have seen an unpublished
manuscript by Miles Franklin, which includes the following extraordinary passage:
<< At one time my father sent large numbers of our quolls
to England, where they were used for quoll racing in the northern counties.
We were told they bred them there, and one of ours, named ‘Roman Holiday’,
became a champion at a form of racing that involved leaping over
obstacles. In due course Roman Holiday sired a son of even greater
reputation which was named ‘Italian Vacation’, and this, being a
rather long name, was usually shortened to ‘Itty’. He was
housed at a sporting establishment in the Liverpool area, where the stable had
a great rivalry with another such establishment in Leeds. On one
occasion, Italian Vacation was nominated by the Merseyside owners for a match
race against the Leeds champion quoll. I have been told that two days
before the great race Italian Vacation, unfortunately, appeared to suffer
a groin strain, and there was concern that he might need to be withdrawn from
the race. The owners sent him to Manchester to be examined by the most
famous veterinary surgeon in the north of England. As I have been told
the story, the owners were greatly relieved when they received a telegram:
“THE QUOLL ITTY, OF MERSEY, IS NOT STRAINED”. >>
From:
Robin Hide [
Sent: Friday, 19 February 2010 9:48 AM
To: Ian Fraser
Cc: canberra birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Quoll in Charnwood [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Perhap worth recalling Miles Franklin's quoll memories in
her "Childhood at Brindabella: My first ten years (orig.
1963)" (pp. 97-8). After moving from "Bobilla" to
"Stillwater",
"The native cats were a definite excitement. We had not been familiar with
them at Bobilla because of the variety of dogs that abounded. At Stillwater
they would clear a roost in a night, leaving piles of corpses with only the
blood sucked from their necks. They were long-snouted and bloodthirsty with
dark soft coats dotted with white like hailstones. Firm defensive measures were
necessary. The free birds, including the turkeys, had to be confined to
specific roosting trees, the trunks of which had wide collars of tin. Ladders
that helped the birds up were taken away after dark.....
The men laid traps to lessen the pests,. We would find as many as six or eight
dead at a time. With the lack of squeamishness of our years, we use to rifle
the pouches of the females for the rows of kittens like hairless mice. What
glorious furs these cats would have provided. Mother made us little tippets and
muffs for frosty days. but no one then or there wore fur coats...
I never saw a native cat after that.Since their extermination the imported
foxes have increased to take their places and to make secure fowlhouses still a
necessity.
One day in later years inChicago I saw one of the McCormick ladies wearing a
beautiful fur coat that so took my taste that I stroked it, remarking "Its
exactly like the native cats of my childhood".
"I'm interested to hear that. I have never seen another coat like it. The
fur people can't place it, but where I bought it in Vienna they told me it was
Australian wild cat."
Other days!
Robin Hide
Ian Fraser wrote:
Good try Martin, but no cigar on this occasion..... I'm not
entirely convinced that even two healthy quolls are going to make too much of a
dent on the wild bird population, though they might account for the odd
back-yard chook or so.
These characters (ie this one and the one a month or so back in the same area)
have almost certainly done what a couple of previous West Belc Qs have done -
ie been young blokes chucked out of the family territory in the Brindies or
Tindbinbillas, followed the Murrumbidgee down, and then trundled up the Jerra
Creek to suburbia (maybe drawn by the smell of chooks...). They're not happy in
suburbia and are probably quite relieved to be back in the bush (as long as dad
doesn't catch them...).
cheers
IF
martin butterfield wrote:
An astonishing record. In
view of the diet of quolls, it might explain a shortage of birds in the area!
Martin
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Marnix Zwankhuizen <>
wrote:
UNCLASSIFIED
Not bird related but very interesting nonetheless.
UNCLASSIFIED
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