HABITS OF GREAT KANGAROO 
young buck, just killed, will vary up to about 120 Ibs. Some of the ‘old 
men’ reach to an immense size, and I have often killed them over 2 cwt. 
“In habits the kangaroo much resembles both the sheep and the fallow 
deer. Timid and shy, their senses of sight, hearing, and smell are most 
acute. Like the hare, they appear unable to see an object wabits and 
directly in front of them when running; at least I have often Food. 
stood still and shot one down as it came running straight up to me in the 
open forest. It is not a ruminating animal, and the four long front teeth, 
two in each jaw, are sharp, flat, and double-edged, peculiarly adapted for 
cutting or browsing; and the thick blunt crushing molars betoken a purely 
herbivorous animal. They are very gregarious, and are always to be met 
with in smaller or larger droves. I have often seen as many as 150 in a 
drove, and our general mobs used to average 50 or 60. After the rutting 
season, the ‘old men’ will often draw away from the mobs and retire by 
themselves to the thickest scrub. Each drove frequents a certain dis- 
trict and has its particular camping and feeding grounds. The mobs 
do not appear to mix, and when the shooter once obtains a knowledge 
of the country, he has no difficulty in planting himself for a shot. Their 
camping grounds are generally on some open timbered rise, and they. have 
well-trodden runs from one ground to another. They feed early in the morn- 
ing and at twilight, and I think also much by night... |The meat is dark in 
color, soon dries, and in appearance and taste is similar to poor doe venison. 
“The kangaroo lies up by day during the hot summer weather, in damp, 
thickly scrubbed gullies, in the winter on dry, sandy rises. Here, unless 
sturbed, they will remain quiet for hours; and it isa pretty sight to watch 
a mob camped up, some of them playing with each other, some quietly 
nibbling the young shrubs and grass, or basking in the sun half asleep on 
their sides. About Christmas the young ones appear to leave their mothers’ 
sides, and congregate in mobs by themselves. I have seen as many as 
fifty running together, and very pretty they looked. The kangaroo is a 
very clean animal. Both sexes seem to keep together, and, except in the 
rutting season, when desperate battles take place between the old males, 
they appear to live at all times in a state of domestic felicity. Like sheep, 
they can be driven in almost any direction that suits the driver, and, . . . like 
sheep, they always follow a leader. Their principal food appears to be 
the tender sprouts of small shrubs and heather, quite as much as grass; 
but there is a small kind of spike grass, brown on the under side, called 
the kangaroo grass, to which they are very partial. They will also come 
at night into the small bush inclosures, and nibble off the young blades of 
wheat, oats, etc. 
2K 497 
