minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (01/17/84)
$ set term/la120/width=80 $ dtr VAX-11 Datatrieve V2.0 DEC Query and Report System Type HELP for help DTR> help wombat WOMBAT Wombats, general Wombats are native Australian or Tasmanian mammals. Like many other antipodean animals they have strange* reproductive habits (less so than the platapus which lays green eggs and is a monotreme). They also have constantly growing incisors allowing (nay, encouraging) them to chew on bark, wood, softer rocks, etc. (Wombats are friendly,loyal, nocturnal, and not over intelligent) (Sir Everard Home reports "In captivity it is as a rule amiable, the amiability being possibly associated with stupidity." He probably woke it from a nap.) * strange to us - they wouldn't have it any other way. Wombats, specific The family Vombatidae is divided into two groups, the naked nosed and the hairy nosed wombats. The naked nosed group constitutes the genus Vombatuis (or Phascolomis) and includes the Tasmanian wombat (V. Ursinus), from Tasmania and Flinders Island and the common Wombat (V. hirsutus) from south east Australia; they have coarse, harsh, blackish brown fur, a naked area on the muzzle and short ears. The hairy nosed group contains Lasiorhinus latifrons from south Australia and wombatula gillespiei from southern Queensland; these species have silky grizzled gray fur, a hairy muzzle and larger ears. The consequences of all this to wombat society is further complicated by the question of who has more ribs. Additional information available: ADVANCED WOMBAT Subtopic? advanced WOMBAT ADVANCED Wombats, particular Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a wombat who slept (during the day) in an epergne on the dining room table. He (the wombat) reappeared as a dormouse in Rev. Dodgson's book. Wombats, uses of live - conversation piece, alarm clock (third shift) dead - doormats; for food, see Wombats, food? Wombats, food grass, bark, leaves, fungi Epergne Who knows? ...clearly someplace wombats sleep. Marsupials Include bandicoots (which should be rabbits). koalas (which should be bears), tasmanian wolves (which should be coyotes), and wombats (which should be lethargic badgers). Pogo was a marsupial. Sexual habits are of interest only to other wombats, and then only between April and June. Wombats Prehistoric Pleistocene Giant Wombat was as large as a rhinocerous. Wombats, food? would you want to eat a doormat that ate bark and fungus? WOMBAT Subtopic? Topic? ^Z DTR> exit
wombat@uicsl.UUCP (01/21/84)
#R:decvax:-34600:uicsl:7500039:000:450 uicsl!wombat Jan 20 11:40:00 1984 Thank you, Mr. Minow, for bringing the true facts of wombats, harmless, amiable creatures that we are, to light. There are a few misstatements in it, but this is a family notesfile, so I won't go into the sex life of the wombat. What seems to be taken for Stupidity in wombats is actually Deep Thought and Heavy Contemplation. Excuse me while I munch on some bark and consider the state of the world ... Wombat ihnp4!uiucdcs!uicsl!wombat