K A N G U 11 () O. 



9 



the period of gestation being now ascertained, every 

 endeavour will he made to clear up this part of the 

 problem c.r visit." 



Various species of kanguroo have been mentioned 

 by different naturalists, but the distinctions between 

 them are chiefly those of size and colour ; and as 

 there are several of them which have been described 

 from an occasional sight of a single specimen, it is 

 not easy to determine whether some of them may 

 not be accidental varieties, and others variations of 

 appearance arising from age, sex, or pasture. Under 

 these uncertainties, we shall make our notices of the 

 species very brief. 



GREAT KANGUROO (A", labialus). This is the most 

 interesting species, the typical one, and the one on 

 which the general descriptions are founded. Its 

 proper native country is New Holland, where it is 

 the largest native animal, and by no means rare in 

 those parts of the country where there is a supply of 

 food for it. Besides being the largest native animal, 

 it is the favourite game both of the natives and of the 

 European settlers; and the superior means of destruc- 

 tion possessed by the latter have thinned its numbers 

 in all parts of the country which are even moderately 

 peopled. In more remote places, the straggling set- 

 tlers, whose cultivated patches are insignificant spots 

 in the wilds around them, derive a good deal of their 

 subsistence from the flesh of the kangaroo. We be- 

 lieve that the flesh of this, and indeed of all marsupial 

 animals, is much inferior to that of placental mam- 

 malia living upon similar food ; but the supply of 

 human subsistence in the Australian wilds is so scanty 

 and of such inferior quality, that the flesh of the kan- 

 guroo is considered as a dainty. The greater part of 

 the flesh is accumulated on the hind quarters, so that 

 when the hunter has a long distance to return home, 

 he sometimes leaves the fore part of the animal to 

 the carrion birds, and takes with him only the hind 

 quarters and the skin, which is made into leather and 

 used for various other domestic purposes. The 

 favourite mode of dressing the flesh is by making it 

 into a sort of stew, which is provincially termed a 

 " steamer ;" and those who have partaken of it, sea- 

 soned by the sauce of a thirty miles' scramble in the 

 woods and wilds, describe it as being by no means 

 unpalatable. 



This species varies a little in the colour, but in 

 general it is of a reddish ash grey on the upper part, 

 white on the under, with a grey streak across the 

 chin ; and the legs and upper side of the tail blackish. 

 It is an animal of considerable size, sometimes attain- 

 ing a height of six feet, which, however, is to be 

 understood of it not as standing on all fours, but as 

 erect, or resting on the soles of the feet and the ex- 

 tremity of the tail. It was discovered by Captain 

 Cook in 1789, and it has been introduced, and is 

 bred readily, in Britain and in other parts of Europe ; 

 and it has also been introduced into the grounds of 

 several of the more wealthy settlers in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Sydney. Its singular appearanee and 

 habits attract some attention, and it no doubt forms a 

 variety in a park ; but it is neither a pleasant nor a 

 profitable animal. It appears to be almost, if not 

 altogether, destitute of that sensibility to kindly 

 treatment and gratitude to those who treat it well, of 

 which not even the most ferocious, or separated from 

 man in their habits, of the placental mammalia are not 

 altogether destitute. There are instances mentioned 

 of the lion yielding his ferocious disposition, and not 



only playing with those who fed and attended him, 

 but even making pets of small animals ; we have also 

 some recorded instances of the delight, expressed by 

 the hysena on recognising one who had forr-aerly 

 been kind to it, even after a separation of many 

 months ; nor are there wanting instances in which 

 the seal has voluntarily left its native element, to visit 

 the abode, sleep on the couch, and watch, with all the 

 vigilance of a dog, those who have treated it with 

 kindness. No such affection, and indeed nothing 

 that can be called affection at all, has ever been dis- 

 played by the kanguroos. It is perfectly indifferent 

 to every species of treatment, and will attack just as 

 readily those by whom it is fed and attended as those 

 who treat it harshly. This appears to be a general 

 character of marsupial animals. They evidently 

 belong to a lower order of animalisation, if the term 

 may be allowed, than those animals which mature 

 their young by internal gestation. None of them 

 have much courage, or apparently many resources ; 

 and those which approach the nearest to the carni- 

 vorous animals in their dispositions are scavengers 

 rather than hunters. Some of them tear sheep in a 

 most unscientific manner, so to speak ; for instead of 

 first killing and then eating the animal, as is done by 

 the members of the dog or cat family, they set about 

 tearing and eating it alive, at any one part they hap- 

 pen first to get hold of; and we believe it is not un- 

 usual for some of the genus Dasyurus to gnaw off the 

 tails of sheep and young cattle, on their nightly 

 prowlings, without daring to assail any other part of 

 the body. One might perhaps expect this conduct 

 from the marsupial animals, for there is unquestion- 

 ably a physiognomy of animals as well as of human 

 beings. It is difficult to reduce this physiognomy to 

 system, and to point out the specific disposition which 

 the eye and the air of an animal indicate ; but still there 

 is not the least doubt that if there is spirit in the animal 

 there is always speculation in its eye, and if there is 

 energy in the action of the animal, that energy will 

 tell in its attitude, even when it is in a state of repose. 

 In so far as one can judge analogically of this indica- 

 tion of the disposition of animals from their expres- 

 sion, it may be said that the susceptibility of the 

 animal is always in proportion to the extent of change 

 which the expression of its eyes can undergo ; and 

 in the case of the kangaroo, and indeed of all marsu- 

 pial animals, so far as is known, there is little, if any, 

 change of this kind. One might address the whole 

 race of them in the same terms as Macbeth addresses 

 the ghost of Banquo : 



Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 

 Which thou dost glare with. 



For under the most kindly and the most cruel treat- 

 ment, they have the same blank and vacant expres- 

 sion ; and though kanguroos are very prone to do 

 mischief, they do it without any previous sign of ex- 

 citement, much in the same manner as if they were 

 passive engines. Some of the marsupial animals, it is 

 true, never offer any violence to human beings ; and 

 the wumbat and the koala may be beaten without 

 showing the least diposition to retaliate, and hardly 

 any even to escape. They are thus usually denomi- 

 nated gentle creatures ; but their gentleness is some- 

 thing analogous to the gentleness of a stone, which 

 breaks no one's toes unless it be run against, and the 

 injury be the act of the sufferer. It is in fact the 

 passiveness of stupidity, and a very strong evidence 



