THE KANGAROO. 9 



might perhaps answer. The kangaroo lies up by day 

 during the hot summer weather, in damp thickly-scrubbed 

 gullies, in the winter on dry sandy rises. Here, un- 

 less disturbed, they will remain quiet for hours ; and 

 it is a pretty sight to watch a mob camped up, some of 

 them playing with each other, some quietly nibbling the 

 young shrubs and grass, or basking in the sun half asleep 

 on their sides. About Christmas the young ones appear 

 to leave their mothers' sides, and congregate in mobs by 

 themselves. I have seen as many as fifty running toge- 

 ther, and very pretty they looked. The kangaroo is a 

 very clean animal. Both sexes seem to keep together, 

 and, except in the rutting season, when desperate battles 

 take place between the old males, they appear to live at 

 all times in a state of domestic felicity. As far as I 

 could see, the sides run pretty equal. Like sheep, they 

 can be driven in almost any direction that suits the 

 driver, and a good driver is half the battle in kangaroo- 

 ing. It is next to impossible to turn a mob of kangaroo 

 when fairly off; they may divide ; but they will keep on 

 the way they are heading. Like sheep, they always 

 follow a leader. Their principal food appears to be the 

 tender sprouts of small shrubs and heather, quite as 

 much as grass ; but there is a small kind of spike-grass, 

 brown on the underside, called the kangaroo-grass, to 

 which they are very partial. They will also come at 

 night into the small bush inclosures, and nibble off 

 the young blades of wheat, oats, &c. I often fancied 

 they might be kept out of such places by encircling the 



