THE AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS. 



HEY have in Australia nearly one hundred and 

 sixty varieties of mammalian animals, and yet 

 they have among them, as native, no horses, oxen, 

 sheep, goats, antelopes, apes, elephants, wolves, bears, 

 pigs, hares, rabbits, or squirrels. In their stead they 

 have kangaroo, dingoes, sloths, bandicot, wombat, fly- 

 ing fox, flying opossum, and a variety of climbing 

 opossum, and the native cat. 



Nearly all of these are marsupial. This is a charac- 

 teristic of Australian animals, and is unknown, or 

 nearly so, in all other parts of the world. 



THE KANGAROO. 



There are not less than forty different species of 

 kangaroo. This number includes, of course, those 

 which are generally called wallabies. There are the 

 great kangaroo, which is, when full grown, of about 

 two hundred pounds weight. The sooty kangaroo, 

 western kangaroo, red kangaroo, rock kangaroo, brush 

 kangaroo, and nail-tailed kangaroo. The hare kanga- 

 roo, very fleet, six kinds. The bettong or jerboa kanga- 

 roo, weighing from three to six pounds; they climb 



