3 
in the open forest, and then it was really pretty to see the style in which a good Kangaroo would go away. 
I recollect one day in particular, when a very fine Boomer jumped up in the very middle of the hounds, in 
the ‘open’; he at first took a few high jumps with his head up, looking about him to see on which side 
the coast was clearest, and then, without a moment’s hesitation, he stooped forward and shot away from the 
hounds, apparently without an effort, and gave us the longest run I ever saw after a Kangaroo. He ran 
fourteen miles by the map from point to point, and if he had had fair play, I have very little doubt but that 
he would then have beat us ; but he had taken along a tongue of land which ran into the sea, so that, on 
being pressed, he was forced to try to swim across the arm of the sea, which, at the place where he took 
the water, cannot have been less than two miles broad ; in spite of a fresh breeze and a head sea against 
him, he got fully half-way over, but he could not make head against the waves any further, and was obliged 
to turn back, when, being quite exhausted, he was soon killed. 
“ The distance he ran, taking in the different bends in the line, cannot have been less than eighteen miles, 
and he certainly swam more than two. I can give no idea of the length of time it took him to run this 
distance, hut it took us something more than two hours ; and it was evident, from the way in which the 
hounds were running, that he was a long way before us ; and it was also plain that he was still fresh, as, 
quite at the end of the run, he went over the top of a very high hill, which a tired Kangaroo never will 
attempt to do, as dogs gain so much on them in going up-hill. His hind quarters weighed within a pound 
or two of seventy pounds, which is large for the Van Diemen’s Land Kangaroo, though I have seen larger. 
“We did not measure the length of the hop of this Kangaroo; but on another occasion, when the 
Boomer had taken along the beach, and left his prints in the sand, the length of each jump was found to 
be just fifteen feet, and as regular as if they had been stepped by a serjeant. When a Boomer is pressed, he 
is very apt to take to the water, and then it requires several good dogs to kill him ; for he stands waiting 
for them, and as soon as they swim up to the attack, he takes hold of them with his fore-feet, and holds them 
under water. The buck is altogether very bold, and will generally make a stout resistance ; for if he cannot 
get to the water, he will place his back against a tree, so that he cannot be attacked from behind, and then 
the best dog will find in him a formidable antagonist. 
“ The doe, on the contrary, is a very timid creature ; and I have even seen one die of fear. It was in a 
place where we wished to preserve them, and as soon as we found that we were running a doe, we stopped the 
hounds just at the moment they were running into her. She had not received the slightest injury, hut she 
lay down and died in about ten minutes. When a doe is beat she generally makes several sharp doubles, and 
then gets among the branches, or close to the trunk of a fallen tree, and remains so perfectly still, that she 
will allow you almost to ride over her without moving, and in this way she often escapes. A tolerably good 
Kangaroo will generally give a run of from six to ten miles ; but in general they do not run that distance in 
a straight line, but make one large ring back to the place where they were found, though the larger ones 
often go straight away.” 
An extraordinary difference is observable in the size of the sexes of this species, the female being not 
more than half the size of the male : she brings forth one young at a time, which, as soon as it is clothed 
with hair, assumes the colouring of the adult. 
A slight variation is found to exist in specimens from different localities, some being much darker than 
those represented in the Plate, and others of a foxy-red. Albinoes are occasionally, but very rarely, to be 
met with. As might reasonably be expected also, the fur is much thicker and more woolly in winter than 
in summer. 
All the fur on the upper surface uniform greyish-brown above, passing into grisly-grey on the arm and 
under surface ; a faint line of greyish-white above the upper lip and along the sides of the face ; hands, feet. 
Male. 
Female. 
feet. 
inches. 
feet. 
inches. 
Leng 
th from the nose to the extremity of the tail 
. 7 
10 . 
. . 5 
Hi 
?? 
of tail • 
. 3 
2 . 
. . 2 
4i 
„ tarsus and toes, including the nail 
. 1 
3 . 
. . 1 
1 
2 
„ arm and hand, including the nails 
. 1 
6 . 
lOi 
„ face from the tip of the nose to the base of the ear 
• 
9 . 
8 
„ ear 
5i . 
• • 
5 
Tlie accompanying Plates represent a head of the male animal of the natural size, and reduced figures of 
adult examples of both sexes. 
Since the publication of my Monograph of the Kangaroos, in which my account of this species first 
appeared, my friend Mr. G. R. Waterhouse has paid particular attention to the Marsupialia, and has 
recorded his opinion in the work above referred to, that the Kangaroos described by me as distinct, under 
the names of Macropus ocydromus and M. melanops, are merely local varieties of the present animal ; whether 
my own or Mr. Waterhouse’s view of the subject be the correct one, time and future research can alone 
determine ; in the meanwhile it will be as well to append my descriptions, and the information I have 
received in reference to the animals to which I have assigned the two names above mentioned. Mr. Water- 
house is also of opinion that the animals in the Paris Museum, described under the name of Kangurus 
and Macropus fuUginosus, will probably prove to be merely a variety of M. major, in which I believe he is 
