WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
the mother allowing her first young one, or any other, to 
continue to suck after she has again become a mother, 
and even the first young, after she has herself brought 
forth a young one, still continues to suck her mother, so 
that the first mother has at the same time her two off- 
springs suckling, although one is itself a parent, suckling 
her own young one. 
This degraded mammal (for so its organization leads us 
to regard it) would doubtless prove one that might be 
turned to great advantage as an article of food, the flesh 
being excellent eating, but there are difficulties in keeping 
them ; one which presents itself is to prevent them from 
wandering over the country. Our usual fences or hedges, 
that are quite sufficient for cattle and sheep, are perfectly 
useless for large kangaroos, which, at a jump or bound, 
would clear anything lower than six feet without the 
slightest trouble ; once on the hop, seven or eight miles 
would be a mere scamper for one of these long-legged 
fellows, and it would be almost as difficult to catch and 
keep as birds that fly. 
The power of leaping fences renders these animals most 
troublesome in the country they inhabit, because, if it 
suits them to visit your cultivated fields, you have no 
means of preventing their depredations. Many of the 
smaller species are now the great pest of the farmers in 
New South Wales, as the cultivation of the various kinds 
of crops prove tempting to these animals. Some of the 
species have multiplied to such an extent that the-energies 
of the inhabitants are greatly tried in endeavouring to 
keep them down. 
It becomes, however, doubtful whether they will, with 
the advancement of civilization, be able to resist the 
slaughter that is carried on against them. The larger 
species are already much on the decline, owing to the 
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