THE KANGAROO RAT’ 115 
to one Side, so as to throw the dogs off the scent. She lies perfectly stillas the 
dogs rush past her place of concealment, and when they have fairly passed 
her she quietly makes good her escape in another direction. When young, 
and before she has borne young, the female Kangaroo afiords good sport, 
and is called, from her extraordinary speed, the “ Flying Doe.” 
The Kangaroo is a very hardy animal and thrives well in England, where 
it might probably be domesticated to a large extent if necessary, and where 
it would enjoy a more genial climate than it finds in many districts of its 
native land. One of the favoured localities of this species 1s the bleak, wet, 
and snow-capped summit of Mount Wellington. 
The eye of the Kangaroo is very beautiful, large, round, and soft, and gives 
to the animal a gentle, gazelle-like expression that compensates for the savage 
aspect of the teeth, as they gleam whitely between the cleft lips. 
The KANGAROO Rat, called by the natives the POTOROO, is a native of 
New South Wales, where it is found in very great numbers. 
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KANGAROO RAT.—(Aypsiprymnus minor.) 
It is but a diminutive animal, the head and body being only fifteen inches 
long, and the tail between ten and eleven inches. The colour of the fur is 
brownish black, pencilled along the back with a grey white. The under parts 
of the body are white, and the fore-feet are brown. The tail is equal to the 
body in length, and is covered with scales, through the intervals of which 
sundry short, stiff, and black hairs protrude. 
This little animal frequents the less open districts, and is very quick and 
lively in its movements, whether it be indulging in its native gamesomeness 
or engaged in the search for food. Roots of various kinds are the favourite 
diet of the Kangaroo Rat, and in order to obtain these dainties the animal 
scratches them from the ground with the powerful claws of the fore-feet. 
It is not so exclusively nocturnal as many of the preceding animals, and 
seems to be equally lively by day as by night. When the animal is sitting 
upon its hinder portions, the tail receives part of the weight of the body, but 
is not used in the same manner as the tail of the true Kangaroos, which, 
when they are moving slowly and leisurely along, are accustomed to support 
the body on the tail, and to swing the hinder legs forward like a man swinging 
himself upon crutches, 
12 
