188 THE BOOK OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



tail itself measuring thirty-six inches. A well-developed male will 

 turn the scale at 200 lb. What feasts the black fellows must have 

 enjoyed when the hunters of the tribe brought in a "Forester " ! Can 

 you not picture them gathered around the wood fire gorging, as is 

 their wont, on the half-cooked flesh of the victim ? A circle of dark, 

 savage faces, with the firelight playing upon them, and the "gins" 

 in the background, eagerly snatching up such scraps as their lords 

 and masters choose to throw to them. Unlike M. rujus^ the Great 

 Grey Kangaroo is slender in form, slender and graceful, a beautiful 

 creature in motion and repose. The fur is short and woolly and of 

 a greyish-brown colour. The tail is brown with a black tip. Dark 

 "whisker marks" are present on the sides of the nose, which is 

 hairy between the nostrils. 



The Great Grey Kangaroo is distributed over the whole of the 

 Australian continent, and a variety is also found in Tasmania, that 

 pleasant island which is like a pendant jewel linked to the mainland 

 by a necklet of islets strung across the sundering seaway known as 

 Bass Straits. Known to the aborigines as the "Koora," the Great 

 Grey Kangaroo roams over plains and through forests. But it is 

 not now nearly so abundant as in the days of Captain Cook; the 

 pelt-hunters often referred to have persecuted it mercilessly, and tens 

 of thousands of skins are sent to market annually. And the tail is 

 not despised as a delicacy for the " manufacture " of soup. Kangaroo 

 flesh is not a favourite dish in Australia, although out in the wilds 

 it is often put in the pot by hungry camping parties. Some species 

 of Wallaby are more in favour for food, and the flesh of these, 

 properly prepared by a bush cook, is most palatable. The writer 

 has enjoyed more than one hearty meal of this kind on his natural 

 history excursions in Australian wilds. 



The Great Grey Kangaroo and other members of the family are 

 strong swimmers. When the dogs are close upon them they will 

 plunge unhesitatingly into any creek or river in the way of flight, 

 and cross it with ease and rapidity. The leaps made by this 

 Kangaroo are truly astonishing. Mr. Dudley Le Souef, C.M.Z.S., 

 director of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, who is an authority 

 on the Marsupials, mentions having once measured the distance 

 covered by a female travelling at full speed down a gentle incline; 

 the span proved to be twenty-five feet. It is said that a male of the 

 species would clear an even longer space of ground in a single leap. 

 In the "wild " country of South Australia the writer has seen "mobs " 



