252 POUCHED MAMMALS. 



of limbs in a kind of gallop. Moreover, they never kick out with their hind-legs 

 after the manner of kangaroos and wallabies. The brush-tailed rat -kangaroo and 

 its kindred employ their prehensile tails in carrying grass and other substances for 

 the construction of their nests; the extremity of the tail being curled downwards 

 below the bundle. The nest, according to Mr. Gould, is made in a hollow specially 

 dug in the ground for its reception ; and as its upper surface thus becomes level 

 with the herbage, only the pi-actised eyes of the blacks are able to detect its 

 presence. During the day either one or two of these animals occupy a nest, in 

 which they completely conceal themselves by dragging herbage over the entrance. 

 Here they remain till evening, when they sally forth in quest of food. The rufous 

 rat-kangaroo may either form a somewhat similar nest beneath a fallen tree-trunk, 

 or under the shelter of some low bush, or may repose during the day in a seat 

 among the herbage like the "form" of a hare. On being pursued, this species 

 runs for a short distance with great speed, but as it always takes shelter in 

 hollow trunks it falls a prey to the blacks, by whom it is relished as food. 



Five-toed The rat-like little animal, scientifically known as Hypsi/prymr 



Kangaroo, nodon moschqtus, and which may be termed in popular language 

 the five-toed kangaroo, is one of those connecting links so interesting to the 

 evolutionist, but so extremely inconvenient to the systematic zoologist. This 

 creature stands, indeed, almost exactly midway between the common rat-kangaroo 

 and the phalangers, to be immediately mentioned; although the kangaroo-like 

 structure of its lower jaw has led to its being placed in the present family. 



The five-toed kangaroo is confined to Queensland, and is very nearly the size 

 of a large rat, to which it also presents a general external resemblance. The body 

 is clothed with close, crisp, velvety fur, of a grizzled rusty orange-grey colour ; the 

 orange tinge being strongest on the back, and almost disappearing on the lighter 

 under-parts. The head is sharply pointed, with rather large and nearly naked 

 ears; and the tapering cylindrical black tail is likewise naked, and also scaly. 

 The relative proportions of the fore and hind-limbs are not far removed from the 

 ordinary mammalian type. The fore-paws are small, with five toes, each provided 

 with a delicate claw: and the hind-feet differ from those of all the other members 

 of the family in having a first or " great " toe, in addition to the usual four. This 

 first toe is clawless and opposable to the others, and is placed high up on the foot, 

 near the heel : the second and third toes, as in all the other members of the family, 

 are slender and united in a common skin. The teeth generally resemble those of 

 the rat-kangaroos, but the permanent premolar in each jaw is short from front to 

 back, and is bent outwards from the line of the other teeth in the manner char- 

 acteristic of the phalangers. 



The best description of the habits of the animal is the one given by Mr. P. 

 Ramsay, who writes that the five-toed kangaroo " inhabits the dense and damp 

 portions of the scrubs which fringe the rivers and clothe the sides of the coast- 

 range in certain districts. The animal is by no means rare, yet, from its retiring 

 habits, and the dense nature of the parts frequented by it, it is at all times 

 difficult to obtain. Its habits are chiefly diurnal, and its actions when not dis- 

 turbed by no means ungraceful ; it progresses in much the same way as the 

 rat-kangaroos, but procures its food by turning over the debris in the scrubs in 





