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THE WOOLLY KANGAROO. 



Nearly eight months elapse between the time when the young Kangaroo is first 

 placed in the pouch and the period of its life when it is able to leave the pouch and 

 seek subsistence for itself. Even after it has become too large to continue its resi- 

 dence in its former cradle, it is in the habit of pushing its head into the pouch and re- 

 freshing itself with a draught of warm milk, even though a younger brother or sister 

 should be occupant of the living cradle. The little animal weighs about ten pounds 

 when it becomes too heavy for its mother to carry. 



This Kangaroo is a very hardy animal, and thrives well in England, where it might 

 probably be domesticated to a large extent if necessary, and where it would enjoy a 

 more genial climate than it finds in many districts of its native land. One of the 

 favored localities of this species is the bleak, wet, and snow-capped summit of Mount 

 Wellington. 



WOOLLY KANGAROO. Macropus Laniger. 



At different times of the year the coat of the Kangaroo varies somewhat in its color- 

 ing and density. During the summer the fur is light and comparatively scanty, but 

 when the colder months of the year render a warmer covering needful, the animal is 

 clothed with very thick and woolly fur, that is admirably calculated to resist the effects 

 of the damp, cold climate. It is a very singular fact that those specimens which in- 

 habit the forests are much darker in their color than those which live in the plains. 

 The young Kangaroos are lighter in their coloring than their parents, but up to the age 

 of two years their fur deepens so rapidly that they are darker than the old animals. 

 After that age, however, the fur fades gradually, until it finally settles into the grayish- 

 brown of the adult animal. 



The eye of the Kangaroo is very beautiful, large, round, and soft, and gives to the 

 animal a gentle, gazelle-like expression that compensates for the savage aspect of the 

 teeth, as they gleam whitely between the cleft lips. 



THE largest of the Macropidae, of which there are already known upwards of eighty 

 species, is the WOOLLY KANGAROO, or RED KANGAROO, as it is more popularly called, 

 on account of its peculiarly tinted fur. 



