468 WILD ANIMALS. 



bulk, far larger than the largest rhinoceros, for its head alone 

 was about three feet long. Therefore the great kangaroo is but 

 a pigmy descendant of its progenitors. 



The family of kangaroos is a numerous one, there being nearly 

 thirty different species or varieties differing from each other by 

 well-marked characteristics. 



The great kangaroo inhabits New South Wales, Van Diemen's 

 Land, and Southern and Western Austraha. 



The pecuharity of its structure, is the first thing that strikes 

 the observer as remarkable about a kangaroo. If it is sitting up, 

 which is the posture it generally assumes when not moving about, 

 it is readily seen that the upper parts of the body are much 

 slighter than the lower ones, so that the superior extremities 

 taper pyramidally from a heavy and solid-looking base of hind- 

 quarters, legs, and tail. The extraordinary difference in the 

 length, size, and shape of the fore and hind-limbs, is also apparent 

 when the animal is in this position, for the former are dispropor- 

 tionately short and slender, while the latter are disproportionately 

 long and of fair size. It will be seen that the animal rests upon 

 the fore-part of the foot or the bones of the instep, which are 

 exceedingly long. Each fore-paw has five toes furnished with 

 claws, but the hind ones have only two large and conspicuous toes, 

 of which the inner one is by far the larger, and is provided with 

 a very long and strong claw or nail. On the inner side, again, of 

 this large toe there is what appears to be a small toe bearing 

 two very small claws, which are in reality two diminutive toes 

 united together in the folds of the skin. These hind-feet are very 

 powerful, and the animal can not only take extraordinary bounds 

 or hops with them, which is the way it progresses when it requires 

 to move rapidly, but it can use them as instruments of defence, and 

 with such good effect occasionally that a large dog will be killed 

 with a single well-delivered blow, or even a man be ripped up if 

 he comes in too close contact with these formidable weapons. 

 The muscular force they possess can be surmised by the mar- 

 vellous exhibitions of agility they display. The tendons of the 

 lower joint of the legs are also exceptionally strong and efficient, 

 so much so, that one writer states adult kangaroos have been 



