WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
are made, soon become acquainted with the appearance 
of, and with many particulars connected with, new or 
little-known animals that are from time to time brought 
to this country. It is not so, however, with the vast 
multitude of people who live away from cities and towns, 
who have consequently not the opportunity of their more 
fortunate brethren to increase their knowledge of Natural 
History. Again, in the teaching of the elders of the 
present generation in their infancy or childhood, their 
fathers and grandfathers — or rather it would be better to 
say their mothers and grandmothers — had not seen or 
heard enough of the recently-discovered animals of New 
South Wales to be able to impart any information re- 
specting them to their children. It is the early teaching 
in the nursery that prepares the mind for the things that 
we see in after life, and which teaching prevents the 
sudden expression of the emotion of alarm, of fear, of 
joy, etc. 
After all, the teaching by the eye is beyond all doubt 
necessary, for however much we learn by books or words, 
it is unequal to that which we witness as a means to 
acquire knowledge. 
The habits and manners of the animal which forms the 
subject of our paper differ so vastly from those of other 
quadrupeds as to make it appear not to belong to the 
same world. Had we not already recognized America as 
the new world, Australia would have well deserved the 
appellation, on account of the almost entire newness of all 
the life-forms, not only in animals but in plants. Thus 
may be accounted for in some measure the innumerable 
instances of persons who on the first occasion of seeing, 
at the Zoological Society’s Gardens, a living kangaroo, 
express and display far greater amazement than at the 
first sight of much larger animals, such as the elephant, 
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