210 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



was sometimes found sleeping in a tussock of coarse spear-grass. 

 When disturbed it would utter a quickly repeated guttural u-u-u, 

 and flee with great swiftness. When the animal is running it 

 carries the tail, like other Macropodidce, curved down backward 

 and upward, but in a stronger and more pronounced degree, 

 so as to nearly form a semicircle. The head and fore part of 

 the body is at the same time carried lower, and more stooping 

 than customary with wallabies or kangaroos. 



In the vicinity of Roebuck Bay it was frequently found on the 

 edges of the large open coast plains, chiefly choosing the dense 

 Melaleuca thickets for resting. Towards sundown the pretty 

 animals might be observed on the open patches amongst the 

 thickets cropping the green grass of the rainy season. In the 

 dry time of the year Melaleuca leaves and grass-roots undoubtedly 

 form a greater part of their diet. 



As a rule the Onychogale is very shy, and in none of the 

 above mentioned localities did it occur in great numbers, more 

 than one or two seldom being seen in a day's march. 



Bettongia lesueurii. " Jalva." 



In the sandy country surrounding Roebuck Bay, Western 

 Australia, the ground was nearly everywhere and in all directions 

 excavated by the burrows of this little Macropod, which by the 

 aborigines of the place is called "Jalva," and by the few 

 Europeans generally termed "Kangaroo-rat." The animals 

 avoid the open plains, but all the scrubs, and especially the 

 slopes of the gently rising and falling sandhills, are inhabited by 

 countless numbers. Several animals, in fact a whole colony, dig 

 their burrows quite close together, and all the different channels 

 communicate with each other, so that each animal does not have 

 a separate dwelling. The burrows have not, like those of the 

 fox or the badger, the opening constantly turned down the slope 

 of the hill, but run in all directions. The animals do not 

 seem to find it more difficult to throw the debris up than down 

 the decline of the hill. Digging for their food, which chiefly con- 

 sists of a small ground-nut called by the natives "nalgoa," they 

 pursue the same course as mentioned in their burrowing, never 

 paying any regard to whether they are digging up or down 

 hill. Not only do the individuals in a colony inhabit the com- 



