﻿KANGAROOS AND WALLABIES. 1 7 



in all conceivable postures, at times lazily scratching them- 

 selves with one paw. The fierce heats of summer compel 

 them, however, to seek protection from the sun's rays in the 

 cool and thickly- wooded gullies, from which they only venture 

 forth with the falling shades of evening. 



The pairing-season generally takes place about January or 

 February, and the young are born soon after. Although the 

 pouch of an old doe usually shows three teats which have been 

 suckled, only a single offspring is generally produced at a birth, 

 and there is but one birth in a year. The young helpless 

 Kangaroo is believed to remain attached to the teat in the 

 pouch for about sixty days, not relinquishing its hold till fully 

 developed. For some time after its removal from the teat, how- 

 ever, it spends the greater part of its existence in the pouch, 

 not leaving it for long till able to run by the side of the dam. 

 Even then, however, the " Running Joey," as the young is then 

 called by the colonists, seeks refuge in the pouch at the first 

 sign of danger ; and it is remarkable with what agility the 

 female will pick up and consign to her pouch the young Kan- 

 garoo, even when both are going at their best speed. When 

 ensconced in the pouch the " Joey " always has its face pro- 

 truding. Although the female will do her utmost to protect 

 her young, when hard pressed she generally ejects it from the 

 pouch in order to try and save her own life. By September 

 the young are always able to run well, although they may 

 occasionally be seen in full activity by the middle of July. 

 About the latter part of December — the Australian mid- 

 summer — the young generally finally leave their mothers, 

 whose pouches they are then too big to enter, and retire to 

 form herds by themselves. 



For the greater part of the year the two sexes of the Great 

 Grey Kangaroo live together in the most perfect amity, but 

 during the breeding-season the old males frequently engage in 

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