﻿68 ALLEN^S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



Ch'jracters. — Fur soft, close, and thick. General colour griz- 

 zled grey ; under-parts white ; sometimes an indistinct white 

 hip-mark. Legs white ; feet white or pale brown, with long 

 bristly hairs nearly concealing the claws ; tail coloured above 

 like the back, the upper hairs not forming a distinct crest, 

 below pale brown or white, with the tip white. Length of 

 head and body about i8 inches; of tail 12 inches. 



Distribution. — South and West Australia. 



Habits. — Writing more than thirty years ago, KrefTt ob- 

 serves : " This burrowing species has long retreated before the 

 herds of cattle with which the plains bordering on the Murray 

 are now stocked, and it is no longer to be found south of that 

 river, — so, at least, the natives assure me, — and whenever we 

 went out hunting for it, we always had to cross to the New 

 South Wales side. 



" It is a truly nocturnal animal, which always leaves its bur- 

 row long after the sun is down, in fact, never before it is quite 

 dark. I often watched near their holes, gun in hand, listening to 

 their peculiar call ; but I always had great difficulty in procuring 

 specimens, as they were very shy, and hardly to be distinguished 

 from the surrounding objects. The best plan is always to dig 

 them out, an operation in which the black-fellows are very ex- 

 pert, though it is rather tedious work, as the holes run into 

 each other, and, being sometimes ten feet deep, several 

 shafts have to be sunk, before a couple of * Boomings,' as the 

 animals are called by the natives of the Murray district, can 

 be secured." 



Although but a single offspring is produced at a birth, the 

 writer quoted believes that this species, and probably also its 

 allies, breed several times during the year. 



In captivity these Rat-Kangaroos are wild and intractable, 



