310 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
Koala, or so-called ‘‘ Native Bear,’ has been 
commonly compared by zoologists with the 
Edentate Sloths; while in the most recently 
discovered marsupial, the Pouched Mole, we have 
a counterpart, in both form and habits, of the 
familiar European species. Finally, in the small 
American section of the Marsupialia, we meet 
with a type—the so-called Yapock, or Water- 
opossum — in which the resemblances to an Otter, 
in both aspect and its aquatic habits, are so 
marked that the animal was originally regarded 
as a species only of the Otter Tribe. 
The character of the marsupium, or pouch, 
differs materially among the various members of 
their order. It presents its most conspicuous 
and normal development in such animals as 
the Kangaroos, Wallabies, and the Australian 
Opossums or Phalangers. In the Tasmanian 
Wolf and the Bandicoots the pouch opens back- 
wards. In such forms as the Phascogale, or 
Pouched Mouse, the pouch is reduced to a few 
: PER i nr rudimentary skin-folds, while in the Banded Ant- 
Piste ie D La Suet} rent Milésinne eater its position is occupied by a mere patch 
ALBINO RED KANGAROOS of longer hairs, to which the helpless young 
; pees ones cling. On the same éucus a non lucendo 
Albino kangaroos and other Australian animals have been observed ae ees P 
to be the product of special, narrowly limited locations principle there is no trace of a pouch in the 
Koala, nor in those smaller species of the 
American Opossums which habitually carry their young upon their back. Even in these 
pouchless marsupials, however, the peculiar marsupial bones are invariably present, and in 
all other essential details their accord with the marsupial type of organisation and development 
is fully maintained. 
THE KANGAROOS 
The typical and most familiar member of the Marsupial Order is the KANGAROO — the 
heraldic mammal of that vast island-continent in the South Seas, whose phenomenal advance 
by leaps and bounds, from what scarcely a century since was represented by but a few 
isolated settlements, has been aptly likened to the characteristic progression of this animal. 
Of kangaroos proper there are some twenty-four known species distributed throughout the 
length and breadth of Australia, extending southwards to Tasmania, and to the north as far 
as New Guinea and a few other adjacent islands. 
In point of size the GREAT GREY KANGAROO and the RED or WOOLLY species run each 
other very closely. A full-grown male of either species will weigh as much as 200 lbs., and 
measure a little over 5 feet from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail, this latter important 
member monopolising another 4 or 44 feet. The red or woolly species more especially affects 
the rocky districts of South and East Australia, while the great grey kind is essentially a 
plain-dweller and widely distributed throughout the grassy plains of the entire Australian 
Continent and also Tasmania. It is to the big males of this species that the titles of “Boomer,” 
“ Forester,” and ‘Old Man Kangaroos” are commonly applied by the settlers, and the species 
with which the popular and exciting sport of a kangaroo hunt —the Antipodean substitute 
for fox-hunting —is associated. The pace and staying power of an old man kangaroo are 
something phenomenal. Fox-hounds would have no chance with it; consequently a breed 
of rough-haired greyhounds, known as kangaroo-dogs, are specially trained for this sport. 
