354 TH E LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



GAIMARD'S RAT-KANGAROO 



A tpcciei named after the French naturalist, Gaimard 



lection 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, for- 

 merly supposed 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, being 

 admirably suited to their require- 

 ments, 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, 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 

 movements 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 

 RAT-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 ^ ^ sa 



hind limbs it possesses the full complement of five, and the RAT-KANGAROO FROM NEW 

 first toe, moreover, is set farther back, and is opposable SOUTH WALES 



for grasping purposes. This animal is from Queensland. o of the small jerbaa-Uke i 



