WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



the mother allowing her first young one, or any other, to 

 continue to suck after she has again become a mother, 

 and even the first young, after she has herself brought 

 forth a young one, still continues to suck her mother, so 

 that the first mother has at the same time her two off- 

 springs suckling, although one is itself a parent, suckling 

 her own young one. 



This degraded mammal (for so its organization leads us 

 to regard it) would doubtless prove one that might be 

 turned to great advantage as an article of food, the flesh 

 being excellent eating, but there are difiiculties in keeping 

 them ; one which presents itself is to prevent them from 

 wandering over the country. Our usual fences or hedges, 

 that are quite sufficient for cattle and sheep, are perfectly 

 useless for large kangaroos, which, at a jump or bound, 

 would clear anj^hing lower than six feet without the 

 slightest trouble ; once on the hop, seven or eight miles 

 would be a mere scamper for one of these long-legged 

 fellows, and it would be almost as difficult to catch and 

 keep as birds that fly. 



The power of leaping fences renders these animals most 

 troublesome in the country they inhabit, because, if it 

 suits them to visit your cultivated fields, you have no 

 means of preventing their depredations. Many of the 

 smaller species are now the great pest of the farmers in 

 New South Wales, as the cultivation of the various kinds 

 of crops prove tempting to these animals. Some of the 

 species have multiplied to such an extent that the-energies 

 of the inhabitants are greatly tried in endeavouring to 

 keep them down. 



It becomes, however, doubtful whether they will, with 

 the advancement of civilization, be able to resist the 

 slaughter that is carried on against them. The larger 

 species are already much on the decline, owing to the 



94 



