354 



The Living Animals of the World 



Pkoto'by York 



[Kotting Hill. 



GAIMAUD'S RAT-KANGAEOO. 



A species named after the French naturalist, Gaimard. 



root-feeders, have acquired a special 

 predilection for the newly planted or 

 more fully matured potato crops. 



The most abnormal group of the 

 Kangaroo Family is undoubtedly that 

 of the TREE-KANGAROOS, formerly sup- 

 posed to have been limited in its 

 distribution to the island of New 

 Guinea, but which has within recent 

 years been found to be represented 

 by one or more species in Northern 

 Queensland. At the Melbourne Zoo 

 they have been found, except in the 

 coldest weather, to thrive well in the 

 open a moderate-sized tree, with a 

 small fenced-in enclosure around it r 

 being admirably suited to their re- 

 quirements, at the same time providing 

 a most instructive exhibition of their 

 peculiar forms and idiosyncrasies. Seen at its best, however, the tree-kangaroo, or " boongarry," 

 as it is known amongst the Queensland natives, is a most clumsy, melancholy-looking beast, 

 which has apparently found itself " up a tree," not as the outcome of its personal predilections, 

 but owing to the force majeure of untoward pressure in the form either of relentlessly 

 persecuting enemies or the failure of its normal terrestrial commissariat. Compared with the 

 graceful and superlatively agile tree-frequenting phalangers, between whom and the ordinary 

 kangaroos it has been sometimes, but erroneously, regarded as representing a connecting-link r 

 the boongarry presents a most ungainly contrast. Its climbing powers are of the slowest and 

 most awkward description, the whole of its energies being concentrated on its endeavour to 



preserve its balance and to retain a tight hold upon the 

 branches of the trees it frequents, and to which it clings 

 with such tenacity with its long sharp claws that it can 

 with difficulty be detached. In its wild state, moreover,, 

 these claws can be very effectively used as weapons of 

 defence ; and hence the natives, with whom the animal 

 is highly esteemed as an article of food, are careful to 

 give it its quietus with their clubs or waddies before 

 venturing to handle it. The tree-kangaroos inhabit the 

 densest parts of the forests or " scrubs " of New Guinea 

 and tropical Queensland, and appear to confine their move- 

 ments chiefly to the trees of moderate size, or the lower 

 branches only of the taller ones. 



The species which constitutes the most natural known 

 connecting-link between the typical Kangaroos and the 

 family of the Phalangers, next described, is the FIVE-TOED- 

 EAT-KANGAROO, or POTOROO. As its name implies, it is- 

 a small creature of rat>like aspect and dimensions, and 

 possesses, like a rat, a long, cylindrical, naked, scaly tail, 

 It is the structure of the feet, however, that constitutes the 

 important distinction. In place of the four toes only to the 



Photo by w. savuie-Kent, F.z.s., Miiford-on-sea. hind limbs it possesses the full complement of five, and 

 BAT-SANGAKOO FEOM NEW SOUTH WALES. the first ^^ moreover, is set farther back, and is opposable 

 one of the small jerboa-iike species. for grasping purposes. This animal is from Queensland. 



