THE KANGUROO. 159 
and vegetable creations. Their natural habits in a wild 
state are still, however, very imperfectly known. They 
appear to live in small herds, perhaps single families, 
which are said to submit to the guidance of the older 
males, and to inhabit in preference the neighbourhood 
of woods and thickets. They are, as might be inferred 
from the small size of their mouths and the peculiar 
character of their teeth, purely herbivorous, feeding 
chiefly upon grass and roots. Their flesh is eaten by the 
colonists, by whom it is said to be nutritious and savoury, 
an assertion which is confirmed by those who have par- 
taken of it in England. In order to procure this they 
are frequently hunted in their native country; but the 
dogs who are employed in this service sometimes meet 
with dangerous wounds, not only from the blows of their 
powerful tail, which is their usual weapon of defence, 
but also from the claws of their hind feet, with which 
they have been known to lacerate the bodies of their 
assailants in a shocking manner. But, unless when thus 
driven to make use of such powers of self-defence as 
they possess, they are perfectly harmless and even timid ; 
and, when domesticated, are not in the least mischievous. 
In several collections in this country, and particularly 
in the Royal Park at Windsor, from which the specimens 
in the Menagerie were obtained, they have become almost 
naturalized, and appear to be but little affected by the 
change of climate. When confined in a small enclosure, 
they uniformly make their path round its circuit, seldom 
crossing it or passing in any other direction except for 
the purpose of procuring their food. Their whole ap- 
pearance, and especially their mode of progression, is 
singularly curious and even to a certain extent ludicrous. 
