MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA 187 



as in most places where they are found on the mainland, Wallabies 

 cannot be easily approached. They are too wary to come feeding 

 about the feet of man the destroyer. 



Having given a general account of the Kangaroos and Wallabies, 

 it is necessary to consider some of the species in detail. 



GREAT RED KANGAROO.— The Great Red Kangaroo (Fig. 145), 

 which is now becoming rare, owing to various causes, is the largest 

 living representative of its kind. The head and body of an adult 

 measures about five feet five inches, and the tail forty-two inches. The 

 fur is short and woolly ; in the male the colour is bright rufous above, 

 in the female slaty-grey ; below the fur is coarser and straight, and 

 of a pale-grey colour. The fur on the tail is also grey. The Red 

 Kangaroo is found in Central Australia and on the plains inland in 

 the Eastern and South-Eastern portions of the continent. This 

 species moves about in small "mobs," generally composed of ten or 

 at most a dozen individuals. It is very swift, the female at one time 

 being known to the colonists as the "Flying Doe." The male Red 

 Kangaroo is robust in form, but the female is rather slenderly built. 

 From the nature of its fur it is sometimes called the Woolly 

 Kangaroo. It has a preference for localities where there are "stony 

 rises " covered with box-trees, and open plain country on which the 

 pleasant sunlight falls. Professor Baldwin Spencer, F.R.S., writing 

 of this species, says that during the Horn expedition to Central 

 Australia it was seen feeding in parties of ten or twelve. "Amongst 

 these would be two or three large rufous-coloured males, while the 

 rest would be smaller blue-grey females and young ones. ... As 

 this is the characteristic Kangaroo of this country, there can be no 

 doubt whatever that it ranges into the inland parts of West 

 Australia." The reddish fur of the males is said to harmonize with 

 the hue of the desert and afford a certain amount of protection from 

 discovery — another example of that "protective" coloration which 

 is found in so many members of the animal kingdom. 

 ^ '' GREAT GREY KANGAROO.— This species (Figs. 146 and 147) is 

 so well known that it is often referred to as the "Common" Kan- 

 garoo. It is the species which Captain Cook discovered, as already 

 recounted, and the one known to early colonists by such names as 

 "Old Man," "Boomer" and "Forester." The scientific name, 

 giganteus, is well bestowed, for the Great Grey Kangaroo, although 

 lesser in size than its congener, the Red Kangaroo, measures when 

 fully grown about sixty inches from nose-tip to the root of tail ; the 



