318 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
lection for the newly planted or 
more fully matured potato crops. 
The most abnormal group of 
the Kangaroo Family is undoubtedly 
that of the TREE-KANGAROOS, for- 
merly supposed to have been limited 
in its distribution’ to the island 
of New Guinea, but which has 
within recent years been found to 
be represented by one or more 
species in Northern Queensland. 
At the Melbourne Zoo they have 
been found, except in the coldest 
weather, to thrive well in the open — 
a moderate-sized tree, with a small 
fenced-in enclosure around it, being 
admirably suited to their require- 
GAIMARD’S RAT-KANGAROO ments, at the same time providing 
A species named after the French naturalist, Gaimard a most instructive exhibition of their 
peculiar forms and_ idiosyncrasies. 
Seen at its best, however, the tree-kangaroo, or ‘‘boongarry,” as it is known amongst the 
Queensland natives, is a most clumsy, melancholy-looking beast, which has apparently found 
itself “up a tree,” not as the outcome of its personal predilections, but owing to the force 
majeure of untoward pressure in the form either of relentlessly persecuting enemies or the 
failure of its normal terrestrial commissariat. Compared with the graceful and superlatively 
agile tree-frequenting phalangers, between whom and the ordinary kangaroos it has been 
sometimes, but erroneously, regarded as representing a connecting-link, the boongarry 
presents a most ungainly contrast. Its climbing powers are of the slowest and most 
awkward description, the whole of its energies being concentrated on its endeavour to 
preserve its balance and to retain a tight hold upon the 
branches of the trees it frequents, and to which it clings 
with such tenacity with its long sharp claws that it can 
with difficulty be detached. In its wild state, moreover, 
these claws can be very effectively used as weapons of 
defence; and hence the natives, with whom the animal 
is highly esteemed as an article of food, are careful to 
give it its quietus with their clubs or waddies before 
venturing to handle it. The tree-kangaroos inhabit the 
densest parts of the forests or ‘‘ scrubs” of New Guinea 
and tropical Queensland, and appear to confine their 
movements chiefly to the trees of moderate size, or the 
lower branches only of the taller ones. 
The species which constitutes the most natural known 
connecting-link between the typical Kangaroos and the 
family of the Phalangers, next described, is the FIVE-TOED 
RAT-KANGAROO, or PoToroo. As its name implies, it 
is a small creature of rat-like aspect and dimensions, and 
possesses, like a rat, a long, cylindrical, naked, scaly tail. 
It is the structure of the feet, however, that constitutes the 
important distinction. In place of the four toes only to the 
hind limbs it possesses the full complement of five, and the RAT_-KANGAROO FROM NEW 
first toe, moreover, is set farther back, and is opposable SOUTH WALES 
for grasping purposes. This animal is from Queensland. One of the small jerboa-like species 
Photo by York & Sen] ———— [Notting Hill 
F.Z.8. 
