THE KANGAROO 



rhinoceros, giraffe, etc. The newness of our acquaintance 

 with the kangaroo and other marsupials of Australia 

 appears to require to pass through several generations to 

 find its way into the minds of Europeans generally, as 

 upon a comparison of notes with our continental neighbours 

 the same want of knowledge and surprise is noticeable in 

 the untaught in Natural History. The excitement and 

 curiosity evinced by most persons when they witness the 

 young kangaroo protruding from the mother's pouch 

 naturalljr leads to the question, " How it got there ? " a 

 question not yet satisfactorily answered. Long have we 

 been trying to unravel the mystery, and some of the 

 ablest naturalists have bestowed considerable attention 

 upon it, and spent much valuable time with a view to 

 solve it. It is not, however, our intention upon the present 

 occasion to enter into that difficulty, but simply to speak 

 of the kangaroos as we find them, low in intelligence and 

 apparently unable to distinguish one individual from 

 another, an instance in proof of which may be worth re- 

 cording, viz. that if several females live together, the 

 young one on leaving the povich of its mother will take 

 possession of the pouch of another female ; thus the young 

 ones change about, the mothers either being unable to 

 distinguish or being quite indifferent to the rearing of 

 their respective offspring. An analogous state of things 

 is observable in our own species, on the part of those in 

 the most exalted positions in society and in the highest 

 state of civilization, and also in the lowest and most 

 abandoned of our race. 



There is nothing that indicates a lower condition of 

 intelligence in an animal than the heedlessness or in- 

 difference shown by it in regard to the welfare of its 

 young. Another proof of the want of intellect or power 

 of discrimination, and of the stupidity of the kangaroo, is 



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