324 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



are peculiarly short, thick, and round, and very unlike the long, 

 deer-like head of the larger kangaroos. 



The Brush-tailed Bettong is about as large as a hare, and its 

 tail is not quite a foot in length, though it appears longer in con- 

 sequence of a brush-like tuft of long hair which decorates the end. 

 It is a pretty creature, elegant in shape, extremely active, and the 

 white pencilings on the brown back, the gray-white belly, and the 

 jetty tuft on the tail are in beautiful contrast to each other. 



The home of this animal is a kind of compromise between a 

 burrow and a house, being partly sunk below the surface of the 

 ground and partly built above it. The localities wherein the 

 Bettong is found are large grassy hills whereon there is hardly 

 any cover, and where the presence of a nest large enough to con- 

 tain the animal, and yet small enough to escape observation, ap- 

 pears to be almost impossible. The Bettong, however, sets about 

 its task by examining the ground until it finds a moderately deep 

 depression, if possible near a high tuft of grass. 



Using this depression as the foundation of the nest, it builds 

 a roof over it with leaves, grass, and similar materials, not high 

 enough to overtop the neighboring herbage, and being very sim- 

 ilar to it in external appearance. Grass of a suitable length can 

 not always be obtained close to the nest, and the Bettong is there- 

 fore obliged to convey it from a distance. The task it performs 

 in a manner so curious, that, were it not related by so accurate 

 and trustworthy an observer as Mr. Gould, it could hardly be 

 credited. After the animal has procured a moderately large 

 bunch of grass, it rolls its tail round it so as to form it into a 

 sheaf, and then jumps away to its nest, carrying the bunch of 

 grass" in its tail. In Mr. Gould's work on the Macropidse of Aus- 

 tralia, there is an illustration which represents the Bettong leaping 

 over the ground with its grass sheaf behind it. After the nest 

 has been completed, the mother Bettong is always careful to close 

 the entrance whenever she leaves her home, and pulls a loose tuft 

 of grass over the aperture. 



To an ordinary European eye, the homes of the Bettong are 

 quite undistinguishable from the surrounding grass. The natives, 

 however, seldom pass a nest without seeing it, and destroying the 

 inmate. Being a nocturnal animal, the Bettong is sure to be at 

 home and asleep during the daytime, so that when a native passes 

 a nest he always dashes his tomahawk into its midst, thus killing 

 or stunning the sleeping inmates. 



