TREE-LIVING KANGAROO 



kangaroos are essentially ground-hopping creatures. 

 Nevertheless there is a whole genus of kangaroos 

 known by the technical name of Dendrolagus, which 

 name, it will be observed, expresses the fact of their 

 arboreal proclivities, whose life is spent hopping along 

 branches and not bounding over the grass. There are 

 about three different species of these tree kangaroos, of 

 which a new one has been lately found and named after 

 the traveller Lumholz. The build of the kangaroo does 

 not seem at first sight to be suitable to nice balancing 

 and clambering upon branches. Yet it is highly 

 interesting to notice how, with the minimum expenditure 

 of energy in the way of alteration, Nature has been able 

 to convert a purely terrestrial animal into one which 

 is as distinctively arboreal. The long tail remains ; 

 but it is furry throughout and of somewhat more 

 slender dimensions ; it is no longer wanted as a prop 

 for the animal when progressing slowly along the 

 ground. It rather serves the Dendrolagus as a balancing 

 pole to aid in its successful leaps from branch to branch. 

 And for this purpose it need not be quite so massive 

 and so comparatively short-haired as in kangaroos and 

 wallabies. The toes also, which have greatly prolonged 

 nails in the leaping kangaroo, have these nails much 

 shorter in the tree-frequenting beast. The fore limbs, 

 too, are rather longer in proportion than those of kan- 

 garoos ; otherwise there is but little change in habit. 

 Dendrolagus has the mild somewhat asinine features of 

 kangaroos, the same two projecting under incisors 

 like French caricatures of the English " Mees," which 

 it is to be presumed can work upon each other like the 

 blades of a pair of scissors ; they can at any rate in 

 the common kangaroo, a fact which was shown a good 

 many years ago. In short, there is nothing of far 

 reaching importance either externally or internally, 

 that differentiates this creature from other kangaroos. 



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