228 AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN ANIMALS 



particularly large in the typical nail-tailed wallaby (Onychogale iinguifera) 



a species with the tail measuring about 26 inches, and the head and body almost 



as long. This wallaby is a rather rare inhabitant of the north-western and 



northern central districts. The bridled wallaby and the crescent wallaby (0. 



frenata and 0. lunata) are characterised by their rather shorter tails ; the latter 



species being about the size of a rabbit and living in the west and south, while the 



former is confined to the eastern side of Australia. 



The members of a small group of wallabies restricted to the 

 Hare-Wallabies 



Australian continent and the islands off the coast are readily dis- 

 tinguished by the inferior size of their upper incisor teeth, and the great length 

 of the fourth claw of the hind-foot, which is not concealed in the hair, as well as 

 by the somewhat short, evenly-haired tail, devoid of a horny spur. They have 

 received the name of hare-wallabies from their superficial resemblance to hares. 

 The typical Lagorchestes leporoides, which recalls a hare both in colouring and 

 mode of life, inhabits the treeless districts of the interior of South Australia and 

 New South Wales, especially the flats bordering the Murray River, where it is 

 comparatively common. Very similar in habits is the rufous hare-wallaby (L. 

 hirsutus), of western Australia, characterised by the ruddy colour of the hair of 

 the hind parts of the body. A third species, the spectacled hare-wallaby (L. 

 consjyicillatus), inhabits the islands off the north-west coast, and is replaced on 

 the mainland by the more brightly coloured L. leichardti. 



The members of the kangaroo family are by no means restricted 



to a life on the plains or in the hills, for certain species inhabiting 

 the primeval forests of northern Queensland and New Guinea have adopted a 

 completely arboreal existence. In these tree-kangaroos, constituting the genus 

 Dendrolagus, the relative proportions of the fore and hind limbs are nearly 

 normal ; the hind-legs being only a little longer than the front pair, while the 

 inner toes of both pairs are provided with claws nearly equal in length to the one 

 on the outer toe, that of the hind-foot being distinctly curved. By means of these 

 claws, added in some degree by the tail, which, however, has no prehensile 

 power, tree-kangaroos cling so tenaciously to the boughs of forest trees that it is 

 frequently difficult to dislodge their bodies after death. Nevertheless, although 

 most of their life is spent amid the boughs, their movements when climbing are 

 decidedly awkward and slow. Perhaps this may be an indication that these 

 kangaroos were not, so to speak, born to this mode of life ; for although it would 

 not be unreasonable to suppose that they represent the original type from which 

 the leaping kangaroos of the plains were evolved, yet it is perfectly evident that 

 this is not really the case, and that tree-kangaroos represent a kind of retrograde 

 modification from the leaping type. 



A considerable number of species of this group are now known, the majority 

 of them being Papuan. Of the Australian species, the Queensland tree-kangaroo 

 (D. lumholtzi) inhabits the densest and most inaccessible forests of the province 

 from which it takes its name, where it may best be observed on moonlight nights. 

 For it is a shy creature, believed to chiefly frequent only one particular kind of 

 tree, on which it sleeps away the daylight hours in company with one or two of 

 its own kindred, repairing in bad weather to trees of lower growth. Although 



