DORCA AND RAT KANGAROOS 
or coursing. Its powers of leaping are also extraordinary. While out on 
the plains of South Australia I started a hare kangaroo before two fleet 
dogs. After running to a distance of a quarter of a mile, it suddenly doubled 
and came back to me, the dogs following close to its heels. I stood per- 
fectly still, and the animal had arrived within twenty feet before it observed 
me, when, to my astonishment, instead of branching off to the right or to 
the left, it bounded clear over my head, and, on descending to the ground, 
I was able to make a successful shot.... It is strictly nocturnal.” 
The dorca kangaroos (Dorcopsis) of New Guinea form a 
transition from the ground-running kinds to the tree climbers 
of that island and north- 
ern Australia, whose fore 
arms are relatively long in 
adaptation to their arbo- 
real habits; the Queens- 
JERBOA RAT KANGA- 
ROO. 
“Their appearance,” 
says Gould, “* when 
leaping toward their 
nests with their tails loaded with 
grasses, is exceedingly amusing.” 
It is an interesting fact that our 
North American opossums use 
their tails in the same way. 
land species is notably pretty in its blended colors, — golden 
brown and white, with black-gloved hands and feet. Add- 
ing the thicket-loving ““banded”’ kangaroo of West Australia, 
we complete the catalogue of this subfamily. 
To another group belong the diminutive rat kangaroos, 
which are ratlike in form, colors, and manners, running rather 
than leaping, and dwelling among ‘“‘scrub” and Rat Kan- 
grass, scratching the ground all day in search of the **"°°* 
roots upon which they feed, and making havoc in the fron- 
tiersman’s potato patches. Several of them have prehensile 
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