THE BRUSH-TAILED BETTONG, 
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their heads, which are peculiarly short, thick, and round, and 
very unlike the long deer-like head of the larger kangaroos. 
The Brush-tailed Bettong is about as large as a hare, and its 
tail is not quite a foot in length, though it appears longer in 
consequence of a brush-like tuft of long hair which decorates the 
end. It is a pretty creature, elegant in shape, extremely active, 
and the white pencillings on the brown back, the grey-white 
belly, and the jetty tuft on the tail are in beautiful contrast to 
each other. 
The home of this animal is a kind of compromise between a 
burrow and a house, being partly sunk below the surface of the 
ground and partly built above it. The localities wherein the 
Bettong is found are large grassy hills whereon there is hardly 
any cover, and where the presence of a nest large enough to 
contain the animal, and yet small enough to escape observation, 
appears to be almost impossible. The Bettong, however, sets 
about its task by examining the ground until it finds a mode- 
rately deep depression, if possible near a high tuft of grass. 
Using this depression as the foundation of the nest, it builds 
a roof over it with leaves, grass, and similar materials, not high 
enough to overtop the neighbouring herbage, and being very 
similar to it in external appearance. Grass of a suitable length 
cannot always be obtained close to the nest, and the Bettong 
is therefore obliged to convey it from a distance. This task it 
performs in a manner so curious, that were it not related by so 
accurate and trustworthy an observer as Mr. Gould, it could 
hardly be credited. After the animal has procured a moderately 
large bunch of grass, it rolls its tail round it so as to form it into 
a sheaf, and then jumps away to its nest, carrying the bunch of 
grass in its tail. In Mr. Gould’s work on the Macropidae of 
Australia, there is an illustration which represents the Bettong 
leaping over the ground with its grass sheaf behind it. After 
the nest has been completed, the mother Bettong is always care- 
ful to close the entrance whenever she leaves her home, pulling 
I a loose tuft of grass over the aperture. 
To an ordinary European eye, the homes of the Bettong are 
quite undistinguishable from the surrounding grass. The natives, 
