igS MAMMALIA^ORDER XI.—MARSUPIALIA. 



hanging on the breasts between the fore-limbs, and the tail ia used as a 

 balancing pole. At first I could not induce the blacks to catch any of the 

 charibeenas, as they said that a full grown one would show fight, but when 

 I went with them and caught the first one myself with a lasso they saw how 

 easy it was, and have since always caught them in this manner, except when 

 o"ut of reach ; in this case they make the animal jump; as soon as it reaches 

 the ground one boy holds its head down with a forked stick while another 

 passes a bag over its hind-quarters and slips it over its head. The best time 

 to hunt them is early in the morning while the scent is fresh. A dingo, or 

 mongrel — the former preferred — is used, and follows the scent to the foot of 

 the tree which the kangaroo has climbed to camp for the day. If the 

 tree be a low one, it is tolerably easy to find the animal, but it often 

 happens that they go from one tree to another before they find a suitable 

 'camp,' and then it becomes necessary for a native to ascend a high tree in 

 the vicinity so as to be able to look down on the surrounding trees, as the 

 kangaroo sits right out in the sun and ia more easily seen from above than 

 from below. If one approaches quietly, it is quite easy to catch the animal 

 by the tail and slip it into a bag while up the tree ; but the least noise rouses 

 them, and it is surprising how quickly they can travel, jumping sometimes 

 20 to SO ft. from one tree to another, and I have seen one jump 

 fully 60 ft. from a high tree to the ground and not hurt itself at all. 

 When jumping it seems always to land on its fore-feet, and though I have 

 repeatedly shaken them down from great heights, I have never seen one 

 injured, as they always, like a cat, fall on their feet. The tail is never used 

 to hang by, only to balance with, though I have often seen one bend its tail 

 over a branch while it reached down below the branch upon which it was 

 sitting to secure some berries. These kangaroos can stifien the tail so that it 

 stands straight out like a rod. When caught and kept in captivity they soon 

 become quiet and take readily to eating bread, sweet potatoes, apples, 

 oranges, mangoes, and the rinds of sweet potatoes and yams ; also the leaves 

 of several of the eucalypti, white cedar, and many other trees, the names of 

 which I do not know. In the scrub they seem to have a partiality for the 

 bird's-nest fern, the moustera, and a small climber like the pepper-plant, and 

 eat almost any of the wild fruits which are so plentiful here. The males are 

 very pugnacious, and if two of them be put into an enclosure together will 

 often fight until one is killed. They spar with the fore-paws in quite a 

 scientific manner, uttering grunts all the time, till one sees an opportunity of 

 closing with the other, when he makes straight for the back of the neck, and 

 if he succeeds in getting a grip with his teeth, he shakes the other like a dog 

 does a rat. Some of the old males have quite a harem, and keep their wives 

 from straying apart, and do not let any other males go near them. I have 

 found several of these families numbering from three to five females and one 

 male. The young males, and also the very old ones, are generally found by 

 themselves, or two or three of them together without any females. I think 

 they breed twice a year, and have only one young one at birth. The 

 kangaroos are most plentiful among rocky hills, where the scrub is thick and 

 stunted, and though they feed both on the ground and in the trees and 

 among rocks, I fancy that they feed mostly in the two latter places." With 

 the single species of banded-wallaby {Lafiostrophus fasciatiis) from Western 

 Australia, we again come to a genus in wliich the general build is the same 

 as in Macro^ms; the nose being naked, the hind-feet covered with long 

 bristly hairs by which the claws are completely hidden, and the back marked 



