INTRODUCTION. 17 



feed most harmlessly on roots and other vegetable substances ; 

 they are the Rodents of their own Order, and the represen- 

 tatives of the Capybaras of South Ameriea. "With this group I 

 terminate the first volume; the next is devoted to the great 

 family of the Macropodidce or Kangaroos. This, the most im- 

 portant of all the Marsupial groups, both as to diversity of 

 form and the number of species, is so widely and so universally 

 dispersed over the Australian continent and its islands, that 

 its nicmbcra may be said to exist in every part of those 

 countries. They are found in great abundance in the southern 

 and comparatively cold island of Tasmania, while three species, 

 at least, tenant that little-explored country. New Guinea, 

 and some of the adjacent islands. Varied as the physical 

 condition of Australia really is, forms of Kangaroos are there 

 to be found peculiarly adapted for each of these conditions. 

 The open grassy plains, sometimes verdant, at others parched 

 up and sterile, offer an asylum to several of the true Macropi ; 

 the hard and stony ridges and rocky crowns of the mountains 

 are frequented by the great Osphranters; precipitous rocks are 

 the home of the Petrogales ; the mangrove-swamps and dense 

 humid brushes are congenial to the various Ilalmaturi ', in the 

 more spiny brigaloe- scrubs the OnycJiogalea form their runs, 

 and fly before the shouting of the )iatives when a hunt is the 

 order of the day ; among the grassy beds which here and there 

 clothe the districts between the open plains and the mountain- 

 ranges — the park-like districts of the country — the Lagorchesies 

 sit in their " forms," like the Hare in England ; and the BcU 

 tongice and Hypsiprijmni shroud themselves from the prying eye 

 of man and the eagle in their dome-shaped grassy nests, which 

 are constructed on any part of the plains, the stony ridges, and 

 occasionally in the open glades among the brushes. The species 

 inhabiting New Guinea (the Dendrolagus ursinus and D. inustus) 

 resort to the trees, and, monkey-like, ascend and live among 

 the branches. Of the Filander of the same country we know 

 little or nothing. How wonderfvdly are all these forms adapted 



