MARSUPIALS AND MONOTREMES 



35 1 



last-named superlatively memorable occasions. The entire 

 tribe, men, women, and all capable youths, participate in 

 the sport. Fires are lit by one section of the tribe, accord- 

 ing to the direction of the wind, encircling a vast area of 

 the country, while the other section posts itself in detach- 

 ments in advantageous positions to intercept the terrified 

 marsupials as they fly in the presumed direction of safety 

 to escape the devouring element. Spears and vvaddies and 

 boomerangs, in the hands of the expert natives, speedily 

 accomplish a scene of carnage, and the after feast that 

 follows may perhaps be best left to the imagination of 

 the reader. The encroachments of neighbouring natives 

 on the happy hunting-grounds that time and custom have 

 conceded to be the sole monopoly of any one particular 

 tribe is most strenuously resented, and constitute one of 

 the commonest sources of their well-nigh perpetual 

 inter-tribal battles. 



A kangaroo battue, as carried into practice by European 

 settlers in those few remaining districts where the animal 

 is sufficiently abundant to constitute a pest by its whole- 

 sale consumption of the much-prized pasturage, is far more 

 deadly in its results to the unfortunate marsupials. Exist- 

 ing sheep-fences, supplemented by a large suitably en- 

 closed yard, are first specially prepared for the reception 

 of the expected victims. All the settlers, stockmen, 

 and farm hands from the country round are pressed into 

 service, and assemble on horseback or on foot at the 

 appointed rendezvous at break of day. A widely spreading 

 cordon of beaters being told off, a systematic drive is then 

 commenced, which results in all the animals being driven 

 towards and collected within the enclosed yard. The cul- 

 minating scene is one of wholesale slaughter with club and 

 gun. From these battues none of the unfortunate animals 

 escape, as they are so closely hemmed in. 



The first record of the existence of the kangaroo, coupled with its characteristic name, is 

 found associated, it is interesting to observe, with the history of one of the earlier voyages of 

 Captain Cook. The neighbourhood of Cooktown, in Queensland, claims the honour of supplying 

 the first example of the animal which was brought to Europe and astonished the zoologists 

 of that time by the singularity of its form and reported habits. Captain Cook happened 

 in July, 1770 to be laying tip his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs, after narrowly 

 escaping total wreck on the neighbouring Great Barrier Reef, in the estuary of the river 

 subsequently coupled with his ship's name. Foraging parties, dispatched with the object of 

 securing, if possible, fresh meat or game for the replenishment of the ship's well-nigh 

 exhausted larder, returned with reports of a strange creature, of which they subsequently 

 secured specimens. Skins were preserved and brought to England, but it was some little time 

 before the zoological position and affinities of the creature were correctly allocated. By some 

 naturalists it was regarded as representing a huge species of Jerboa, its near relationship to 

 the previously known American Opossums being, however, eventually substantiated. The closer 

 acquaintanceship with the peculiar fauna of Australia that followed upon Captain Cook's 

 memorable voyage of discovery along the coast-line of that island-continent soon familiarised 

 naturalists with many other of .the allied species of which the kangaroo constitutes the leading 

 representative. 



I 



] 



P>Mt kf D. Li Soutf, MMturnt 



FOOT OF TREE-KANGAROO 



Underside^ showing peculiar skin-corrugations and 

 the united second and third toes 



