CHAP. II. SMELL OF THE KANGAROO. 51 



and silently, so as not to make the least noise among 

 the bushes, otherwise their hearing is so exceedingly 

 quick, that they would instantly take alarm, and move 

 far away to some more undisturbed spot ; or, becoming 

 furious, pursue their enemy, whose only chance of 

 escape, when the enraged animal makes a run at him, 

 is to spring suddenly on One side. Yet the sight of 

 the rhinoceros, notwithstanding the perfection of his 

 scent and hearing, is very imperfect, probably on 

 account of the excessive srtlallness of the aperture of 

 his eye, which only measures one inch in its greatest 

 length.* 



(66.) The sense of smell in the kangaroo must be 

 marvellously acute, if the following whimsical anecdote 

 be not exaggerated. Jt is part of the relation of a 

 New Hollander's hunt after this interesting animal, 

 and is given in the words of the narrator.t ' ' He is now 

 almost within reach of his victim, and in another step 

 he will discharge his unerring spear ; but it is arrested. 

 Suddenly he sees the kangaroo, with her short fore hand- 

 like paw, kill one of the large flies which had settled on 

 some vulnerable part of her skin. She scents the blood ; 

 and, with an anxious gaze, soliloquises, { White fellow's 

 bullock all about.' J She then resumes her food, but 

 with more anxiety, and taking a longer hop, so as to 

 come near her young one. Suddenly she again erects 

 herself, kills another fly, smells the blood, and seems 

 to say, c Black fellow all about/ As instantaneously as 

 sight, the hunter perceives the new discovery she has 

 made, and his spear falls short of his victim only by 

 the distance of her first bound ; having, in this brief 

 moment, pouched her young, and commenced her flight 

 into the depths of her native solitudes." 



(67.) Monkeys possess the sense of touch in a very 

 perfect degree ; and this, not only in their four feet, all 

 of which perform the office of hands but in the long 



* Burcheli's Travels, vol. ii. p. 72. 



t A Month in the Bush of Australia, by an nonymous author. - 



j Meaning, we presume, that the white man's oxen were not far off. 



E 2 



