A Kangaroo Hunt 



globe, and all systems of hunting which 

 are employed elsewhere have had to be 

 modified to meet some of the strange in- 

 stincts and habits of this most original of 

 beasts. 



To begin with, the kangaroo is a mar- 

 supial, or pouch-bearer, the females of the 

 species being provided with a peculiar 

 furry sack under the belly, in which they 

 dispose their young in case of sudden attack 

 or need of hasty flight. But as nearly all 

 the other native animals of Australia are 

 also marsupial, even down to the modest 

 little field-mouse, the naturalists have been 

 sorely puzzled to place each specimen in 

 its own proper niche ; and it would be a 

 brave man of science who would to-day 

 assert positively that some specious stranger 

 had not been allowed to slip unawares into 

 the family group, and some true, though 

 distant, relative had not been unduly ex- 

 cluded therefrom. However, the natural- 

 ists have agreed that there are about thirty 

 distinct varieties of the kangaroo proper, 

 ranging in size from the giant red kanga- 

 roo of Queensland, which averages eight 

 feet in height, down to the funny little 

 kangaroo rat of Victoria, which averages 

 little more than eight inches. But leaving 

 to one side the Queensland monster and 



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