206 



THE HERBIVOROUS MARSUPIALS. 



THE HERBIVOROUS MARSUPIALS 



(POEPHAGA). 



The members of this group are above all 

 remarkable for their powers of climbing. 

 The fore-legs are very much shortened, but 

 capable of a great variety of movement, en- 

 abling them to serve as hands. They are 

 always five-toed and provided with strong 

 claws. The hind-legs, on the other hand, are 

 very long and stoutly built; they carry the 

 whole weight of the body, have no hallux 

 (great toe), and have the second and third 

 digits so slim and so closely united that they 

 might be taken to be one; the fourth digit is 

 long and strong, and like the fifth carries a 

 sharp claw. Of the six upper incisors, which 

 are set far forwards in the mouth, the middle 

 pair are always the strongest and sometimes 

 resemble canines in form. The two lower 

 incisors are directed horizontally forwards. 

 The canines when present are always weak, 

 but usually there are none at all ; in the lower 

 jaw they are always wanting. A wide inter- 

 val separates the front from the cheek teeth. 

 The single premolar is very variable; the 

 four molars exhibit transverse ridges. 



Dental formula: — ^ '- — ^=28 to ?o 



I . o . I . 4 ^ 



teeth. 



The Kangaroos. 



When mention is made of marsupials every 

 one is sure to think first of all of the singular 

 forms of the kangaroos, so frequently seen in 

 our zoological gardens. People stare with 

 astonishment at these animals with their 

 small heads and large hinder parts, sitting on 

 their two strong hind-legs and powerful tail 

 as on a tripod, looking about them with erect 

 ears, and perhaps scratching their back with 



their fore-paws. They are astonished to see 

 them when eating resting on their small fore- 

 paws, and sticking their long hind-legs be- 

 tween the former in order to glide onwards; 

 and probably still more astonished to see the 

 flying leaps which they are able to take, first 

 resting with their body inclined on their long 

 hind-legs and outstretched tail, and then dart- 

 ing through the air to a great distance, and 

 scurrying through the bushes in a very few 

 leaps. And they are no less astonished when 

 they see the elegant little head of a young 

 one peeping forth from out of the pouch in 

 front, and then, after a few glances round, 

 springing out on the grass, dancing for 

 a little round the mother, and afterwards 

 leaping back head foremost with the greatest 

 dexterity into the pouch, whenever any move- 

 ment is made to alarm it. 



The kangaroos are in fact wonderfully 

 adapted to the arid withered savannahs and 

 prairies of Australia. They formerly inhabited 

 these regions in great herds. Excessively 

 timid, and, at the same time, rather stupid, 

 and not very adroit in resisting their enemies, 

 they nevertheless multiplied rapidly notwith- 

 standing the incessant pursuit to which they 

 were exposed on the part of the natives; but 

 the advance of the Europeans has materially 

 altered the conditions of existence for these 

 creatures, and at the present day the kan- 

 garoos have been forced back into remote 

 regions, into which the bush-settlers with 

 their sheep-dogs and fire-arms have not yet 

 penetrated.^ Besides birds they form the sole 



' Nevertheless, in some of the pastoral districts of Queensland 

 they are still so numerous and destructive that the Queensland 

 government offers a reward of Sii. for each kangaroo and 4rf. for each 

 wallaby scalp. Wallaby is the popular name for the members of 



