358 



The Living Animals of the World 



the admiration of its own image in the glass had some share in compassing its untimely end. 

 Possibly, however, it hailed in the reflection the welcome advent of a companion to share its 

 lone banishment from the land of the gum-tree, and in its efforts to greet it thus came 

 to grief. 



Tlie female koala produces but one euli at a time. At an early period after its birth 

 this is transferred to its mother's back, and is tlius transported until its dimensions are 

 about one-half of those of its parent. The ])air as show-n in the illustration on page 355 

 ])resents, under these conditions, an essentially grotescpie aspect. 



It is a noteworthy circumstance that, compared with the male, the female koala is but 

 rarely to be observed wandering abroad during broad daylight. As witli the typical phalangers, 

 food is consumed chiefly at niglit or during the brief Australian twilight liours. While the 

 male at certain periods, more es[)ecially the months of JMarch and A]iril, is much in evidence 

 in daytime to both the senses of sight and hearing, as attested to on a previous page, the 

 female spends the wdrole or greater portion of the day clinging as an inert sleeping mass to a 

 convenient branch. " Bear "-shooting in Australia, as might be antici[iated from the description 

 here given of the animal's habits and temperament, affords but sorry sport. It may further 

 be remarked that those who liave shot at and only disabled one of these inoffensive little 

 creatures are scarcely likely to repeat the experiment. The cry of a wounded koala has been 

 aptly compared to that of a distressed child, but still more p)atlietic. When fatally shot, it 

 also more frequently than otherwise clings tenaciously liack-downwards, like the South American 

 sloths, to the supporting trec-liranch, and is thus frequently irreco\'erable. "With the non- 

 sentimental Australian furrier the koala's pelt of soft, crisp, asliy-grey fur is unfortunately in 

 considerable demand, being made up mostly, with the quaint round head and tufted ears 

 intact, into, it must be confessed, singularly attractive and warm rugs. 



The correspondence of the koala in form and habits to the sloths among the higher 

 mammalia has been previously mentioned. The parrallelism might be pursued in yet another 

 direction. In earlier times the small tree-inhabiting South American sloths were supplemented 



by ground-frequenting species, such as the 



Megatherium, which were of comparatively titanic 

 proportions. Tlie epoch of the accredited exist- 

 ence of tliese huge ground-sloths was so com- 

 paratively recent — the later tertiaries— that it is 

 e\'en yet not regarded as altogether improbable 

 that some existing representatixe of the race 

 may yet be discovered in the fastnesses of the 

 South American forests, and thus claim a niche 

 in the ])ages of a subsequent edition of 

 "LiviNo Animals." In a like manner the little 

 sloth-like tree-frequenting "Australian Bear" 

 had his primeval ground-dwelling colossi, and 

 there is yet a lurking liope among enthusiastic 

 zoologists that some surviving scion of the little 

 l<oala's doughty foreliears may yet turn up in 

 the practically unexplored Central Australian 

 wildernesses. Some such anticipations, as a 

 matter of fact, stimulated the hopes and aspira- 

 tions of the ]iartici})ators in one of the latest 

 of these exploring expeditions, which, while not 

 siiccesshil in this instance in obtaining so great 

 Fh„i„i.„]v.Karii!.'-K.,:i,F.z.n.] [M:i/orJ-o„...s,„. H prizc, sccurcd for science that most interesting 



SQDiKKKL-LiKE FLVuNG-pirALANGKR OF vicToiuA. Mid previously uukuowu marsupial mammal the 



This animal lias soft giey fuv like that of the chinchilla. I OUched Mole. 



