THE RICOCHET. 
It is a curious fact that no one word in the English 
language has hitherto been applied to the system of 
progressive motion adopted by that class of animal, 
of which the kangaroo is the best known representative. 
When we speak of the “ walk ” or the “ gallop ” of a 
horse we immediately associate with it the precise move¬ 
ment of the animal to which the word refers. The 
rapid motion of the wallaby, or the kangaroo, however, 
we have been accustomed to recognize only as a series 
or a succession of “bounds,” “hops,” “leaps,” “jumps,” 
or “skips; this is the Australian practice of describing 
the movement. As no one of the words quoted suggests 
of itself the idea of continuous progress, and it being 
desirable that this system of locomotion should have 
some definite name, the author has drawn upon the 
military vocabulary for one. The word “ricochet” has 
long been in use by artillerists as a name for the 
skipping or bounding action of a projectile over the 
surface of the land or the water, and there seems no 
good reason why it should not be equally applicable to 
the skipping or bounding action of the kangaroo. It is 
preferable to employ an already well-recognized word for 
a similar movement—although of an inanimate object— 
than either to construct a new one, or to continue to 
use the combination of words hitherto necessary for dis¬ 
tinguishing the motion. In this instance it would perhaps 
be advisable to Anglicize the word and give it the phonetic 
spelling of “ rikosha.” 
It is the most simple of all methods of quadrupedal 
progress, and may be diagrammatically represented as— 
o-m 
The action of the powerful tail of the kangaroo is 
not here recorded. It is, however, an important factor 
in its motion, it being brought in contact with the ground 
nearly simultaneously with the heel, and then effectively 
used to assist in the propulsion through the air. 
Series 62 illustrates one stride of the ricochet made 
by a large-sized animal; and series 63 the commence¬ 
ment of a stride from a progress on all the four feet; 
to which latter movement it may be convenient, if not 
strictly correct, to apply the term “walk.” 
205 
