354 



The Living Animals of the World 



P;.u(u b^ X'urk a.' So.L] [XuUi.nj 11, IL 



(iAIJIAUIj'.S JIAT-KANGAEOO. 



A species named after the French naturalist, Gaimard. 



root-feeders, have acfjuired a special 

 predilection for the newly ptlanted or 

 more fully matured potato crops. 



The most abnormal grou^) of the 

 Kangaroo Family is undoubtedly that 

 of the Tree-kangaroos, formerly sup- 

 posed to have been limited in its 

 distribution to the island of New 

 Guinea, but wdrich has within recent 

 years been found to lie represented 

 by one or more species in JN'orthern 

 (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 re- 

 cjuirements, at the same time providing 

 a most instructive exhiliition of their 

 peculiar forms and idiosyncrasies. Seen at its best, however, tlie 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," n(jt as the outcome of its personal predilections, 

 but owing to the force majeure of untoward }iressure in the form either of relentlessly 

 persecuting enemies or the failure of its normal terrestrial commissariat. Comiiared with the 

 graceful and superlatively agile tree-frequenting plialangers, between whom and the ordinary 

 kangaroos it has been sometimes, but erroneouslv, regarded as representing a connecting-link, 

 the boongarry presents a most ungainly contrast. Its climbing powers are of tlie slow'est and 

 most awkward descrijition, the whole of its energies being concentrated on its endeavour to 



preserve its Ijalance and to retain a tight hold upon the 

 branches of tlie trees it frequents, and to which it clings 

 with sucli tenacity with its long sharpj claw^s that it can 

 with difficulty be detached. In its wild state, moreover, 

 these claws can be \-ery e£fecti\'ely 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 liandle it. The tree-kangaroos inhabit the 

 densest parts of the forests or "scrubs" of New Guinea 

 and tropical Queensland, and appear to confine their move- 

 ments 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 

 ■fiit-Krnt, /■■.x.,-i.,ji,i/,n;i-„„-s,„. hind limbs it possesses the full complement of five, and 



EAT-KANGAnoo FEo.M NKw sdUTu WALES. tlie first toc, moreover, is set farther back, and is opposable 

 One of the small jerboa-iiiiobpecics. loi' graspiug jjurjioses. This animal is from Queensland. 



