346 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by J). Li HoufJ^ 



ALBIXO RED KANGAROOS. 



[J/c(iol</-/lc. 



Albino kangarooB and otlier Australian animals liave been observed 

 to be the product of special, narrowly limited locations. 



Koala, or so-called " Native Bear," has been 

 commonly compared by zoologists with the 

 Edentate f^loths ; 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 marsupiuni, or jiouch, 

 differs materially among the various members of 

 their order. It presents its most consi:)icuous 

 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 JMouse, the pouch is reduced to a few 

 rudimentary skin-folds, while in the Banded Ant- 

 eater its position is occupied by a mere piatch 

 of longer hairs, to which the helpless young 

 ones cling. On the same lucus a non lucendo 

 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 j^resent, and in 

 all other essential details their accord with the marsupjial type of organisation and develoj^ment 

 is fully maintained. 



The Kangaroos. 



The typical and most familiar member of the jNIar.supial 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 otlier adjacent islands. 



In point of size the Great Grey Kangaroo and the Bed 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 4i- 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 pojjular 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. Our home country fox-hounds would have no chance with it ; 

 consequently a breed of rough-haired greyhounds, known as kangaroo-dogs, are specially trained 



