Marsupials and Monotremes 



351 



last-named siiperlativelv memorable oeeasions. Tlie entire 

 tribe, men. women, and all capable youths, participate in 

 the sport. Fires are lit by one section of the tribe, accord- 

 ing to the direction of the wind, encirclini^ a vast area of 

 the country, while the other section posts itself in detach- 

 ments in advantageous positions to intercept the terrified 

 marsupials as they tly in the presumed direction of safer v 

 to escape the devouring element. S[iears and waddies and 

 bAMueraugs. in the hands of the exjiert natives, speedilv 

 accomplish a scene of carnage, aud the after feast that 

 follows may perhaps be best left to the imagination of 

 the reader. The encroachments of neisjhboming natives 

 on the happy hunting-grounds that time and custom have 

 conceded to be the sole monojoly of anv one particirlar 

 tribe is most strenuously reseiued. and constitirte one of 

 the commonest sources of their well-nigh perpetual inter- 

 tribal battles, 



A kangaroo battue, as carried into practice by European 

 settlers iu those few remaining districts where the animal 

 is sutficieutly abundant to constitirte a pest by its whole- 

 sale consumptiou of the much-prized jiastiurage. is far more 

 deadly in its results to the unfortimate marsupids. Kxist- 

 ing sheepi-fences. supplemented by a larsje suitablv en- 

 closed yard, are first specially prepared for the reception 

 of the expected victims. All the settlers, stockmen. 

 :uid larm hands from the country round are pressed into 

 service, aird assemble on horseback or on foot at the 

 apjxiinted rendezvous at break of day. A widely sjireadin^r 

 coixiou of beaters beius; told oti". a systematic drive is then 

 commenced, which resrrlts iu all the animals bein^ driven 

 towards aud collected within the enclosed yard. The cul- 

 minating scene is one of wholesale slaughter with club aud 

 gun. From these battues trone of the imfortunate animals 

 escape, a^ they aiv so closely hemmecl in. 



The first recoi\i of the existence of the kangaroo. cou}'led with its characteristic name, is 



found associated, it is interesting to observe, with the history of one of the earlier vovages of 



Captain Cook. The neighlx>m-hood of Cookto^vn. in Queensland, claims the honour of supp^lvintc 



the hrst example of the animal which was brought to Euroj^e aud astonished the zoolotrists 



of that time by the singularity of its form aud rejiorted habits. Captain Cook hapjiened — 



in July. 1770 — to hve laviuo; up his ship, the Endioniiu: for repairs, after narrowlv 



escaping total wreck on the neisjhbotmuir Great Farrier Keef. in the estuary of the river 



subsequently coupled with his ship's name. Foraging p>arties. dispatched with the object of 



securing, if px>ssible. fresh meat or came for the replenishment of the shipVs well-nigh 



exhausted larder, returned with rej>orts of a strange creatiue. of which they subsequently 



secm-ed sj>ecimens. Skins were jireserved and brought to England, but it was some little time 



before the zoolosiieal p>osition and atfiuities of the creatine were correctly allocated. By some 



naturalists it was re^rai-ded as representing: a huge species of Jerboa, its near relationship to 



the pre\iously known Americnm Opxissums being, however, eventually substantiated. The closer 



acquaintanceship with the pieculiar fauna of Australia that followed upx)n Caj'tain Cook's 



memorable vovaije of discoverv aloui: the coast-line of that island-continent soon familiarised 



natmulists with many other of the allied species of which the kangaroo constitutes the leading 



repireseutative. 



FOOT OF TBEE-KA^'GAKOO. 



Underside, showing peculiar skm-ccrracati. 

 the cnireil second and iMni toes. 



