KANGAROOS 



All these marsupials possess also a pair of bones diverging 

 from each other like a " V ", which support the walls 

 of the pouch, and are not found in any of the higher 

 mammals. These can be easily felt through the skin ; 

 and though it has been said that the dog possesses a 

 similar pair of structures, it is not by any means clear 

 that there is a real correspondence. It will be noticed 

 that these bones, although they support the wall of the 

 pouch, are not in the least developed to that end ; for 

 they occur in the male as well as in the female. With 

 the exception of the American opossums and a small 

 creature known as " Raton runcho," or technically as 

 Ccznolestes, the marsupials are at the present day only 

 found in Australia and some of the islands to the north 

 of that continent as well as in Tasmania in the south. 

 They do not get to New Zealand, which is an island with- 

 out indigenous mammals at all except a bat or two. 



THE GIANT KANGAROO 



One of the principal improvements at the Zoo of late 

 years has been the formation of a respectable paddock 

 for the enjoyment of the leaping kangaroos, who can now 

 show us something of their strength and agility. For- 

 merly the cooped up series of backyards in which they 

 vegetated gave no chance to realize that a kangaroo 

 can clear at a single leap a space of some twenty feet. 

 The kangaroo is certainly like no other animal, except, 

 of course, its own immediate relatives the other kan- 

 garoo-like genera. Its rather small head with long 

 ears is not unsuggestive of that of a donkey ; it has a 

 mild look which is not an index of its nature, for the 

 kangaroo when at close quarters and with its back 

 against a wall is not by any means a mild antagonist. 

 The body with its huge tail, powerful hind legs, and 

 diminutive fore limbs is only paralleled by the jerboa 



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