THE KANGAROO. 



469 



This animal is rather prettily colored, the body being furnished with fur of a fine 

 gray color, warmed with a slight reddish tinge in the adult animal, and fading to a 

 whitish-gray in the young. The claws are considerably curved, and black ; and the ears 

 are tufted with long white hairs. In size it equals a small bull-terrier dog, being, when 

 adult, rather more than two feet in length, and about ten inches in height, when stand- 

 ing. The circumference of the body is about eighteen inches, including the fur. 



On account of the tree-climbing habits of the Koala, it is sometimes called the 

 Australian Monkey as well as the Australian Bear. 



THE animals which come next under consideration are truly worthy of the title of 

 Macropidae, or long-footed, as their hinder feet are most remarkable for their comparative 

 length, and in almost every instance are many times longer than the fore-feet. This 

 structure adapts them admirably for leaping, an exercise in which the Kangaroos, as 

 these creatures are familiarly termed, are pre-eminently excellent. 



TREE KANGAROO. Deadrologos ursinus. 



FIRST on the list appears the singular animal which is well represented in the engrav- 

 ing, and which, on account of its peculiar habit, is known 'by the name of the TREE 

 KANGAROO. In general form, this animal is sufficiently Kangaroo-like to be enrolled at 

 once among the members of that group of Macropods, but the comparative shortness of the 

 hinder feet and the length of the fore-feet, together with some peculiarity in the dentition, 

 have induced the later zoologists to place it in a separate genus from the true Kangaroo. 



The fur of the Tree Kangaroo is so remarkably dark that its deep tinting serves as 

 an infallible mark of distinction, by means of which it may be recognized even at some 

 distance. It is on account of the dark, glossy blackness of the.fur, that the creature is 

 called ursinus, or bear-like, as the hairs of its fur are thought to bear some resemblance 

 to those which form the coat of the American black bear. 



The coloring of its fur is generally as follows : the whole of the back and the upper 

 parts of the body are a deep, glossy black, the hairs being rather coarser, and running to 

 some length. These hairs are only of one kind, for in the fur of the Tree Kangaroo there 

 is none of that inner coat of fine, close, woolly hair which is found in the other Kangaroos 

 and which lies next to the skin. The whole of the fur is, therefore, composed solely of 

 long and stiff hairs that are usually found to penetrate through the interior covering of 



