20 NATURAL HISTORY SKETCHES. 



kangaroo-dogs in use out here, is a large broken-haired 

 Scotch deer-hound ; the general colour red, or badger- 

 pied. A good dog of this kind is valuable ; but we meet 

 with so many cross-bred mongrels, that half the dogs 

 which are called kangaroo-hounds are hardly worth their 

 keep ; and I do think a lazy, half-starved, good-for-nothing 

 kangaroo-dog is the biggest loafer one can see about a 

 tent. A brace of good dogs will soon " stick up " a 

 kangaroo in the open, if they start on fair terms, 

 and in wet weather, when the ground is greasy, it is 

 long odds against the kangaroo. In the beginning of 

 winter, a three-parts grown kangaroo is easily ridden 

 down. It requires a little judgment in a dog to pull 

 down a kangaroo at full speed, and save itself from the 

 hind claw. An old dog, up to this work, will run stride 

 for stride with the kangaroo, and watching its chance, 

 will spring at the neck, and throw it down on its side. 

 A young dog generally manages to get in the way of the 

 claw, but a deep cut or two soon teach it caution. 

 The very best kangaroo-dog I ever knew, was an old im- 

 ported snipe-nosed white Scotch deer-hound, such a one as 

 Landseer loved to draw. He was worn out ; but although 

 he had scarcely a tooth left, could manage a kangaroo 

 single-handed, and his scars showed him an old warrior. 

 We never used kangaroo-hounds for our work ; any bush- 

 dog is soon taught to drive, a sheep-dog as well as any 

 other ; and a kangaroo-hound would have been little use 

 to us unless he would " show," i. e. lead us up to the 

 dead kangaroo after he had killed it ; and such a dog is 



