The Days of a Man 1907 



Primitive The native mammals are, with a few exceptions, 

 mammals marsil pi a l s animals of primitive type and simple 

 structure, allied to our opossum. The kangaroo, 

 wombat, and wallaby reach a considerable size, and 

 one beast from the cold hills of Tasmania, a species 

 of phalanger locally called "opossum," carries re- 

 markably beautiful, woolly, dark-brown fur. This 

 last fact I have good reason to know, as Hoover gave 

 me a big, deliciously warm, much-prized rug made 

 from its coat. Still more primitive than marsupials 

 are the monotremes simplest of all mammals 

 hairy creatures laying leathery eggs like those of rep- 

 tiles. Of each of the two species still extant in the 

 world, the Australian duckbill Ornithorhynchus 

 and the Australian porcupine Tachyglossus I 

 secured specimens for Stanford. 



In Australia the aviary is a common attachment to 

 a well-kept garden, and often an incongruous variety 

 of birds may be induced to live together in harmony. 

 Dining once with the chief justice of an Australian 

 state, I noticed through the window an enclosure full 

 of gulls, curlews, snipe, and various seabirds and 

 waders, as well as parrots and pigeons. "Sir Samuel 

 has a curious taste in chickens," I remarked cheer- 

 fully to my hostess. For the rest of the meal she kept 

 poultry solemnly explaining that it was not a poultry yard 

 but an aviary, and the birds were not chickens! 



Hoover was on his way from Melbourne to the 

 mines of Broken Hill on the edge of New South Wales. 

 He was then thirty-three years of age, a quiet, boy- 

 ish-looking, soft-spoken young man, but with very 

 positive opinions and high ideals. After I had intro- 

 duced him to Kernot, the latter said: "Your friend 

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