MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA 189 



of the Great Grey Kangaroo bound across open spaces of consider- 

 able width. It is delightful to watch the big grey forms leap into 

 view and then go thumping away through the brushwood. You 

 think what splendid sport a Kangaroo race would make, if only the 

 Marsupials could be trained to keep to a set course and not infringe 

 racing rules. 



WALLAROO. — It is not the purpose of this work to give descrip- 

 tions of all the many species of Kangaroos and Wallabies; it would 

 require too much space, and so the more familiar and typical repre- 

 sentatives of the family have been selected for detailed description. 

 Among the "chosen ones" the Wallaroo, or Rock Kangaroo, cer- 

 tainly deserves a place. The Wallaroo (Fig. 148) is a big animal, 

 equal in size to the "Boomer," but differing from that form in being 

 stout and heavy. The fur is thick and coarse, and dark-brown in 

 colour, deepening into black at the extremities of the limbs and tail. 

 The Wallaroo is a lover of the ranges; it dwells among the wild and 

 lonely ridges where the bare rock-faces reflect the red beams of the 

 Austral sun. It never descends to the plains, content with its haunt 

 in the rocky hills where silence dwells. The Rock Kangaroo is 

 found in Queensland, New South Wales, and the centre of Australia. 

 It has a reputation for savageness, Lydekker stating that it will bite 

 fiercely when attacked, and strike out with its powerful fore-limbs. 

 John Gould, writing of this species, says — 



"On one of the mountains near Turi, to the eastward of the 

 Liverpool Plains, it was very numerous ; and from the nature of this 

 and other localities in which I observed it, must possess the power 

 of existing for long periods without water, that element being rarely 

 met with in such situations. The summits of the hills to which this 

 species resorts soon became intersected by numerous roads and well- 

 trodden tracks, caused by its repeatedly traversing from one part to 

 the other; its food consists of grasses, and the shoots and leaves of 

 the low scrubby trees which clothe the hills it frequents." 



BRIDLED WALLABY.— The Bridled Wallaby (Fig. 149), which 

 was first described by Gould in 1840, is a small, slender animal 

 with a sharp, woolly-haired nose and soft, thick fur on the body. 

 The general "colour scheme" is grey, but the chest is white, and 

 a portion of the back of the neck is black. A prominent white 

 shoulder-stripe is present, and there is a faint stripe on the thigh. 

 The tail is grey, with a black tip, and is furnished with a spur. 

 The head and body measure about twenty-two inches, and the tail 



