CHAPTER I.

SUB-ORDER MARSUPIATA.--THE KANGAROO AND WOMBAT FAMILIES.

THE GREAT KANGAROO--Captain Cook and the Great Kangaroo--Habitat--Appearance of the Animal--Marsupials separated from the other Mammalian Orders, and why (Footnote)--Gestation and Birth of Young (Footnote)--Mode of Running--The Short Fore Limbs--The _Marsupium_, or Pouch--Head--Dentition--Peculiarities in the Teeth--Hind Extremities--Foot--Great Claw--How the Erect Position is maintained--Whence their Jumping Power is derived--Other Skeletal Peculiarities--Kangaroo Hunts--Becoming Rarer--Mode of Attack and Defence--Hands--Bones of the Fore Limbs--Skull--Stomach--Circulation of Blood--Peculiarity in Young--Nervous System not fully developed--Brain--The Baby Kangaroo in the Pouch--THE HARE KANGAROO--THE GREAT ROCK KANGAROO--THE RED KANGAROO--THE BRUSH KANGAROO--THE BRUSH-TAILED ROCK KANGAROO--THE COMMON TREE KANGAROO--THE KANGAROO-RATS--Characteristics--THE RAT-TAILED HYPSIPRYMNUS--Description--THE WOMBAT FAMILY--THE WOMBAT--Peculiarities--Description--Habits--Teeth--Skeleton.

I. THE KANGAROO FAMILY.[81]--THE GREAT KANGAROO.[82]

In the year A.D. 1770, the great circumnavigator, Captain Cook, was on the coast of New South Wales repairing his ship, and a party of sailors were sent on land, to procure food for the sick. They saw an animal whose description tempted Cook himself, and also Mr. Banks (afterwards Sir Joseph Banks), to land and go in pursuit of it the next day. The animal was seen in company with others of its kind, and its short front limbs, great hind legs, and huge tail, and the tremendous hops it made in its very fleet course, quite bore out the statements of the astonished crew. They had seen, for the first time, the Great Kangaroo in its wild condition and on its own ground. Soon afterwards a specimen was shot, and notes were made about the creature, and some skins were brought over to Europe.

The animal has now become familiar to the civilised world. It is, however, gradually receding before the Australian colonist and squatter; but formerly it roamed all over the plains of New South Wales, Southern and Western Australia, Queensland, and Van Diemen’s Land, with only the aborigines for its enemies. It is called Bundaary and Bullucur by the natives of the Liverpool range and Murray, and the name Kangaroo is a mistaken native one.

On looking at one of the Great Kangaroos in some menagerie or zoological garden, the first peculiarities that strike the eye are its small fore limbs, its very large and long hind ones, and the great and thick tail. The smallness of the head, which has rather long ears, and a long dusky brown muzzle, the length of the body, and the comfortable grey-brown, thick, shortish fur, are then noticed. But the principal fact which impresses all these things upon the visitor, is that the female may have a little Kangaroo with its head poked out of a kind of pouch in the under part of the body. Sometimes the little one jumps out and gets in again if it is frightened, and the old one moves, hops, and jumps about, with its portable nursery, with the greatest ease.[83]

Sometimes the Kangaroos may be seen feeding, and then the awkwardness of their gait becomes evident; for the small fore legs and curious paws are on or very close to the ground, whilst the back part of the body is raised up by the long hind legs, and, as it were, balanced by the great tail. These hind legs seem to do nearly all the running, or rather jumping, both being used together; and the tail is of use in supporting the long body when the animal suddenly raises itself up straight, and squats on its hind quarters. The small front legs then appear quite stunted, and the ears stick up, and the small head is held straight. But in slow walking, the fore feet are placed on the ground, and the animal rests on them whilst it brings the long hind quarters forward and outside them. Evidently the senses of hearing and sight are very acute; but they are used to warn the animal of danger, rather than to urge it to attack, for it is a feeder on herbs, leaves, and grass, and often may be seen reclining and moving its jaws, as if it were chewing the cud after a fashion.

When moving with great velocity, the Kangaroo depends upon the hind limbs alone, bounding along with great ease, over ten, fifteen, or more feet at a jump. Its body is then carried almost horizontally, and the tail is stuck out as if to balance it.

If the short fore limbs are examined, they will be noticed to be able to do a great deal in the way of holding, clasping, and turning things about, and they are used in patting the little ones, and in embracing and cleaning them. The five digits, or fingers, have a very free movement, and the fore arm can twist and turn like that of the higher animals; that is to say, it is capable of pronation and supination. The first digit, or thumb, has two joints (phalanges), and the other four have three; and the five curved claws (the third and fourth being large) are useful weapons of offence. But they and the fingers are often used for very different purposes, and they have, in the female, to open the curious pouch for the young ones, and to place them there. There is an evident relation between the arrangement of the bones of the wrist and this necessary office or function. The _marsupium_, or pouch, is a kind of inbending of the skin of the lower part of the belly, and is moist and naked inside. In it, in the females, are the nipples of the mammary glands, and to these the very young Kangaroos[84] hang on for a long time, before they see the outer world. They are put in there by the mother, when they are just born, and when very small and not perfectly formed. They grow there, and after a while, leave the nipple when they think fit. As this pouch, with its contents, would drag upon the mother, it is kept from doing so, more or less, by two bones which are found amongst the muscles of the lower part of the body, and which are attached to the front or pubic bones of the pelvis. They are called marsupial bones. They exist also in the males, but they have no open pouch, for it is, as it were, turned outwards, and contains part of the reproductive organs.

The head is long, and is remarkable for the long nose, and large full eyes, with eyelashes, for the Kangaroo is not nocturnal in its habits, like most of the Marsupials. The upper lip is split, the end of the nose or muffle is naked or hairy according to the kind, and the brain-case is small. The nostrils are at the side of the end of the muzzle, and are slit-like and oblique, and there are bristly “smellers” to the fleshy lips and chin. A slender tongue is sometimes seen for an instant whilst the Kangaroo is feeding, and if the bones of the jaws be examined, the angle, or lower part of the back of the lower jaw, will be found to be turned inwards.

The long jaws have not very many teeth, and there are two large lower front ones, or lower incisors, which project in a line with the lower jaw; they are horizontal and more or less pointed, but have an outer and inner cutting edge. The upper incisors, six in number, or three on each side of the middle line, are placed on the pre-maxillary bone, and they work up and down. They are broad and have the cutting edge below, and the outer one, on each side, is broad, grooved, and complicated by one or two folds of its enamel, which are continued from the outer side of the tooth obliquely forward and inward. There is a space or diastema behind the incisors. There are four premolars, one on each side of both jaws, and then follow four molar teeth above and below and on both sides of the mouth. The dental formula is thus--Incisors, (3-3)/(1-1); premolars, (1-1)/(1-1); molars, (4-4)/(4-4) = 28. There are no canine teeth in the adults, but their germs may be found in the very young Kangaroos. As the Kangaroo is a vegetable feeder, and delights in grass, leaves, and herbs, its teeth are eminently of a non-carnivorous kind. It may be remarked that when the mouth is closed, the cutting edges of the upper incisors come against the outer cutting edge of the long front teeth of the lower jaw. The true molars increase in size from front backwards; and the crown of each molar is squarish, but is longer than broad, and it has two principal cross ridges, which, when not worn, are tall, and have sharp edges. Besides these, there are two other transverse ridges which are smaller and not so tall. One of these is on the front part of the tooth, and the other on the hinder (in the upper molars only). Then there is a long ridge which connects the cross ones. They are all covered with enamel. When the tooth is worn, we find it presenting, according to Mr. Waterhouse,[85] two powerful loops or folds. On comparing these teeth with those of the herbivorous mammalia already noticed, a remarkable difference will be seen.

The hinder extremities consist of a nearly straight, long, cylindrical bone, the femur, which has a hemispherical joint head, and a large trochanter, which reaches above the joint; of two leg bones--the tibia, which is prismatic above and cylindrical below, but with only a slight inner ankle projection, and the fibula, which is distinct but thinned and concave in its lower half, where it is close and attached to the other bone, and forms the outer ankle projection. To these are added the bones of the ankle-joint and the clawed toes. The Kangaroo being a great jumper, and having a great tendon, the analogue of the tendo achillis of man, has a powerful projecting process of the hinder ankle bone for its attachment. But the great length of the foot is produced by the size of the fourth and fifth or two outer toes, and especially of the fourth, which often reaches a foot in length, including the metatarsal bone behind, and the pointed claw in front. The great claw looks like a long hoof, is three-sided and sharp-pointed like a bayonet, and with it the animal stabs and rips open the body of its opponent.[86] The outer claw is very small, and there is no great toe (or first), but the second and third are long and slender, and are united in a common skin, so as to look like a single toe with a double nail, the hair coming to the roots of it. The long narrow foot is nearly as long as the leg bones, and is admirably adapted for jumping forwards, as well as sideways, and for supporting, when the legs are widely separated, the weight of the erect body. The body in that position has the leg bones straight, the thigh bones oblique, and the pelvis and spine erect, the great tail being a prop behind. Owen remarks that in man it is the massive and expanded muscles of the back of the pelvis and upper part of the thigh, or the gluteal muscles,[87] which are the chief structures in maintaining the erect posture. But in the Kangaroo, the narrow bones of the haunch could not afford attachment to great gluteal muscles; so a muscle which is but slightly formed in man, and is called the little psoas, is greatly developed in the Kangaroo, and has evidently the power of maintaining the erect posture, although it is situate within the body and in front of the spine. The great jumping power is due to the leverage of the ankle and long toes, and the muscles which supply the tendon already mentioned, and others which have the same office. These are of great strength and size, and there are some accessory muscles to the thigh and leg. The long spine of the back has powerful processes, and the jar of the great jumps is received by two vertebræ which, anchylosed or united together, form the sacrum. The tail is made up of many vertebræ, and covered with muscles. The great blood-vessels running underneath it have many chevron, or V-shaped, bones, to protect them from pressure. The marsupial bones, one on each side, are long, and broad below; they are movable on the pubis, and afford attachment to muscular fibres, act as a pulley for others, and strengthen the walls of the abdomen. Formed within muscles and tendons, they are rather bony growths than parts of the true skeleton, and hence they may be absent in some of the order, although they are always present in the Kangaroos.

Although well provided with strong limbs and muscles, and acute senses, the Kangaroos living the life of the deer and cattle of other regions than Australia, are subject to the attacks of beasts of prey and hunters. In Australia the great Carnivora do not exist, but there is a native dog, the Dingo, aborigines, and trained dogs and colonists, who enjoy a Kangaroo hunt. The native dogs stalk and run them down, the natives spear them after sometimes forming a great circle and closing in and yelling and shouting. But the rifle and trained hounds have dislodged many more than the natives, and the animals are becoming scarcer near the settlements than in former years. Dogs which run by sight afford many an exciting hunt, and the Kangaroo starts off, bounding at a great rate, and clearing all sorts of impediments with ease. It is hard riding to keep up with the chase, and especially in hot weather, when the Kangaroo often escapes, thanks to its greater powers of endurance. Sometimes the Kangaroo will stand at bay, and will rip up a solitary Dog with its claws, or will kill with a single blow of the leg and tail. Three or more Dogs are usually laid on, one more fleet than the others, to “pull” the Kangaroo, while the others rush in and kill it. Mr. Gould[88] says that it sometimes adopts a singular mode of defending itself, by clasping its short, powerful fore limbs round its antagonist, leaping away with it to the nearest water hole, and then keeping it beneath the water until drowned.

Mr. R. Foulerton, who has paid some attention to the habits of the Marsupials, writes that the Great Kangaroo, although its numbers have been greatly diminished in some pastoral districts, still is numerous enough to render some runs almost worthless for pastoral purposes. They may be seen there in thousands, eating off all the best grass, and in the bad seasons reducing the cattle to starving point. They have few enemies but man, as even the native Dog will never attack them, unless they are very young. An “old man” Kangaroo is a formidable opponent; he will severely wound and even kill a man, unless approached cautiously. Their mode of attack is to “hug” him bear fashion, and then rip him with the hind foot. When pursued, they generally take to the water, and there stand at bay, and the luckless man or dog who gets within their grasp is forced under the water, and held there until drowned. The middle-aged Kangaroos, or Flyers, easily outstrip the hunting Dogs at the start, but they are gradually gained upon. When caught, the Kangaroo fights to the last.

The diminutive fore limbs are separated by narrow shoulders, and although the upper arm is short and well furnished with muscles, the fore arm is long, slender, but very movable. The hand is short and broad, and there are four curved, sharp claws, the first one, or thumb, being the smallest, and the third and fourth the largest. The hair covers over the fingers to the claws, which can separate widely, grasp and hold, and be bent on the palm. The movements of the wrists and fore arms are considerable, and a large and long upward-turning muscle is in the space between the ulna and radius (the bones of the arm). Moreover, the ulna joints with a cavity in the cuneiform bone of the wrist; and the first row of wrist bones has three in it, and the second has four. The first phalanges, or those of the thumb, are not placed as a thumb in relation to the wrist bones, and it is the outer fingers that grasp with their claws. As the Kangaroo has to lift up its arm, there is a collar-bone, and the arm bone (humerus) is perforated on the inner side of the end above the elbow; and the olecranon is long.

The bladebone has a curved ridge, and the muscles of the upper part are less than those which are attached to the part below it. There are thirteen pairs of ribs to the chest.

The skull is long and comparatively smooth, and even the ridges for the temporal muscles are only slightly raised; and in old Kangaroos the bones do not unite or anchylose as they do in the other Mammalia hitherto noticed. The teeth are not used as weapons of offence, but simply to graze with, and the lower jaw is not quite solid at the chin, but only so below, so that the lower incisors can be slightly separated. The ear-bone is remarkable for being separated into three parts, namely, the temporal or squamous, the petrosal, and the tympanic; and this is rather a reptilian character. Moreover, the air-chambers of the side of the under part of the skull are in the form of rounded prominences, or “bullæ.” They are situated in the lower part of the ear-bone, called squamosal. The zygoma, or process between the cheek (malar) bone and the ear, is hollow, complete, and arched, its front part being, moreover, extended downwards in a projection which reaches below the grinding teeth, and resembles that of the Sloths somewhat. The lower jaw has its back part, or angle, bent inwards (or inflected) strongly, and this is, except in one set, a characteristic of the Marsupiata.

The Kangaroo, being a vegetable feeder, has a stomach suited for the diet, which also permits of a certain amount of regurgitation of food up again into the mouth, when a kind of chewing of the cud occasionally is indulged in. The stomach is large and long, resembling the colon or large intestine of the highest Mammalia in its general shape. It measured, in one instance, according to Owen, no less than three feet six inches, the measurement following its bends or curvatures. It consists of a left, middle, and right or pyloric division. The left ends in two round sacs, and these are really continuations of the stomach separated to a certain extent by a peculiar arrangement of the three bands of muscular fibres which pass separately along the organ. Numerous clusters of secreting glands are found in the mucous membrane of the stomach in its middle part, and they disappear near the pylorus where the tissues are thick and corrugated. The animal has a small intestine, a cæcum, and a large gut, but this last is not much larger than the first part of the stomach. The organs of the circulation of the blood resemble those of the other Mammalia, but there is a distinction which relates to the short period during which the young Kangaroo is a portion of the maternal being. So soon is it born, and so soon therefore must it breathe, that before the heart has grown much, it has the blood from the lungs and the rest of the body running through it. The young Kangaroo breathes when its heart is not fully developed, yet it has the perfect double circulation set up. The auricles of the heart communicate as in other Mammals until birth, but the duration of this communication is very short in the Marsupial, and its traces so evident in the other Mammals are wanting in it. The arteries of the body are simpler than in those Mammals which have a more complicated intestinal arrangement, and Owen, in his great work on the Marsupials, has pointed out that the hind limbs and tail are supplied with arterial blood by vessels which have an arrangement not without its similarity to that of birds. Leading a very simple life, and one of great sameness, moving in a manner which does not require much complexity of muscular action, the nervous system of the Kangaroo could not be expected to be highly organised or fully developed. The brain is small for the body of the animal. It is simple in form, and does not cover the cerebellum, which is visible behind, and has a little lobe on each side. The surface of the brain proper has a few convolutions on it, and more perhaps than the Rodent Mammalia have. The commissures of the brain, which relate to the complexity of the method of life, are unequally developed. The central one, or the corpus callosum, is small, and the front one is very large. Finally, the part of the brain which refers to the sense of smell is large, but hidden by the brain proper, and its nerves supply a large surface in the nose, at its upper part at the base of its skull.

The young Kangaroo, when very small, and almost transparent, comes down from the womb into a canal, and gets into the uro-genital sac, as it is termed. Thence it is taken by the mother, and put into the marsupium, or pouch, where it fixes on to a nipple, and holds on. As the little one is ever “at the breast,” it might have any quantity of milk go the wrong way, but this is provided for by the upper part of the organ of voice (the larynx) being prolonged at the back of the nose, above the level of the long nipple. Breathing goes on through the nose, and swallowing safely through the gullet.

THE HARE KANGAROO.[89]--THE TURATT.

There are many kinds of Kangaroos, and one of them, which is solitary and nocturnal in its habits, is called the Hare Kangaroo, of which Mr. Gould writes:--“The name of Hare Kangaroo has been given to this species as much from its similarity of form and size to the common Hare as from its similarity of habits. I usually found it solitary, and sitting alone on a well-formed seat under the stalk of a tuft of grass on the open plains. For a short distance, its fleetness is beyond that of all others of its group that I have had an opportunity of coursing. Its powers of leaping are also equally extraordinary. While out on the plains in South Australia, I started a Hare Kangaroo before two fleet Dogs. After running to the distance of a quarter of a mile, it suddenly doubled and came back to me, the Dogs following close to its heels. I stood perfectly still, and the animal had arrived within twenty feet before it observed me, when, to my astonishment, instead of branching off to the right or to the left, it bounded clear over my head, and, on descending to the ground, I was able to make a successful shot, by which it was procured. It has the end of the nose covered with a fine set of hairs. The fur is long and soft and very hare-like, and it has small limbs and sharply-pointed nails.”

THE GREAT ROCK KANGAROO.

This is very different from its timid congener just described. It inhabits the sterile and rocky mountains in the south-eastern part of Australia. It scampers about the rocks, and readily escapes Dogs, and it is a dangerous and formidable animal to approach, for it will, if closely pressed, turn on its enemy, and force him over the rocks. It bites, and uses its strong fore-arms very efficiently. It is called _Macropus robustus_, and is often found in companies of four or six; and it has more powerful fore-limbs than the Great Kangaroo, which is even sometimes the smaller of the two. It has the part of the nose called the muffle without hair.

THE RED KANGAROO[90] is so called from the red tint of the male, which is sometimes marked under the neck and elsewhere. It was found in the plains near the Darling and Murrumbidgee rivers, and is celebrated for its great fleetness; and the female is often called the “Flying Doe.” It is as fast as the Agile Kangaroo,[91] which is long-haired, and is found in Northern and Eastern Australia.

Van Diemen’s Land has a Kangaroo with a long, deep-grey fur, with red on the back of the ears, neck, and shoulders; and it is called the Brush Kangaroo by the settlers. It is eaten and highly esteemed, and its skin is exported for leather. Liking the dense and damp forests of the island, it finds a safe retreat therein, and probably this is what keeps them from extinction, for they have been killed by the thousand, in order to supply contracts for boot-leather. The young of this Kangaroo, which is also called after Bennett the naturalist (_Macropus Bennetti_), does not leave the pouch of its mother permanently, until it is as large as a Rabbit.

In the north of Australia, in the region of King George’s Sound, there is a small Kangaroo which is not larger than a common Rabbit, and it is a very interesting example of how species may differ from the type of a genus. It has a slender and rather short tail, which is rather scaly, and has but a few hairs on it, but it is not very short. The ears are short and round, and the hind feet are short. The departure from the configuration of the Great and Brush Kangaroo shape is therefore great. It is called the Short-tailed Kangaroo. The last four kinds mentioned are grouped together with others under a sub-genus, _Halmaturus_ (ἅλμα, a leap, and οὐρά, a tail).

THE BRUSH-TAILED ROCK KANGAROO.

Almost as strange as the slender-tailed Kangaroo are those which are called the “brush-tailed,” and which inhabit rocky situations (_Macropus penicillatus_). Mr. Waterhouse thus notices them:--

“Whilst the Kangaroos of the plain have the fore part of the body slender and light, great strength in the hinder parts, combined with a long leg and foot, adapting them to fleetness, the tail powerful, and assisting in the support of the long body, we perceive certain modifications in the form and structure of these parts in the Rock Kangaroos which adapt them to their particular habitats. The body, more compact in form, requires but little assistance from the tail for its support, the leverage being less; and the feet are, though powerful, comparatively short, and remarkably rough beneath, being thickly covered over this part with hard tubercles, which no doubt prevent the foot from slipping. The nails of the two larger toes are shorter than usual, and, indeed, in some of the species, scarcely project beyond the fleshy pads with which the toes are terminated, and on the upper surface of which the nails are placed. A long and slender foot, with long nails, as in the typical Kangaroos, it is obvious, would be ill-adapted to an animal which has to leap to and balance itself upon the small ledges of the rocks. The tail is large, but not thickened at the root, as in the plain Kangaroos; and, unlike the tail in those animals, it is clothed with long hairs, which, gradually increasing in length from the base of the tail, become very long and bushy at the opposite extremity. It serves to steady the animal in its leaps, and to balance the body when perched in situations which require it, but is of little assistance in supporting the weight of the trunk. Its muffle, that is to say, the end of the nose, is naked, as in the scrub-inhabiting Kangaroos just noticed, and it forms the type of the sub-genus _Heteropus_” (ἕτερος, altered, πούς, foot).

One of these was hunted and shot amongst the woods of Liverpool plains, New South Wales, by Sir Edward Parry, who wrote that they appear to be gregarious, and seem to prefer the neighbourhood of rocky ground, in which they had holes, and to which, when hunted, they retreated. They swarm along in groups one after the other, and jump from side to side, alighting on ledges so slightly prominent that their resting thereon appears to be an impossibility. They go into caves and holes in the rocks during the day, and they enjoy the night, and gambol and feed by moonlight.

A Rock Kangaroo, with white and black bands on it, inhabits Western Australia, and a short-eared kind enjoys the hot sands and high rocks of Hanover Bay. There is a Kangaroo in the island of New Guinea (_Macropus Brunii_), and it was the first seen by Europeans.

THE COMMON TREE KANGAROO.[92]

This is an inhabitant of New Guinea, and instead of frequenting the brush and scrub, which are not physical features found in the island, or the rocks, it lives in the forests, and is no mean but rather a good climber of trees. There is a Kangaroo look about the animal, even when it is seated on a thick branch, but the fur is very different to that of its fellows of Australia. The fur looks coarse and harsh, and is not very unlike that of a Bear. There is no soft under fur, but all the hairs are long and resemble the long ones of the Kangaroos, and the ears are quite clothed with it. Then, as the animal glides down the stem of a tree, the shortness of the hind legs becomes apparent; moreover, the claws on the foot do not resemble those of the Kangaroo. The feet are stout but rather short, and the toes are more equal in size than in the other Kangaroos. The claw of the outer toe is often on a line with the middle of the longest one (the fourth), whilst the nails of the double inner toe extend slightly beyond its base. The nail of this large fourth toe is about an inch in length. Then the fore limbs are nearly as large as the hind ones, and are very strongly made, and so are the hands, the claw of the middle finger being three-quarters of an inch in length. It has a clumsy-looking head, with a high muzzle and small lower jaw. The upper lip is straight. It has a large face and small ears, and the colour of the fur is brown-black and yellow-brown. The tail is very long, tapers slightly, and is considerably of use in steadying the climber, and it is carried very much after the fashion of the other Kangaroos when the animal has come down from its tree and hops off to its retreat. A specimen in the Zoological Gardens of London had grizzled-grey fur, whiter underneath the jaws and on the neck and limbs, and the ears were wide apart, and the powerful fore limbs ended in five claws. The tail tapered but very little. This was probably a second species called the Brown Tree Kangaroo (_Dendrolagus inustus_).

These Tree Kangaroos have a small superior canine tooth on each side, and the hinder incisor is not grooved. Hence they form a sub-genus, which is called _Dendrolagus_ (δένδρον, a tree, λαγός, a hare), Tree Hare.

THE KANGAROO-RATS.[93]

These are also called Potoroos, and are of small size, being about that of a Hare or Rabbit. They have a compact body, the neck being short, and the ears are rather rounded, so that their shape is unlike that of the Great Kangaroo, but it resembles that of the smaller kinds somewhat. They have a rat-like shape, both hind feet like the Kangaroos, a long tail, and peculiar teeth. The head is very like that of a Rodent, and the incisor teeth in the upper jaw have the front ones the longest. The canine teeth exist in the upper jaw, and the premolar is large, and has numerous distinct vertical grooves on the outer and inner sides; and the front molars are the largest, the smallest being in the rear. The toes of the fore foot are unevenly developed; the three central ones are large, and those at the side are small. The nails are solid, broadest above, and much compressed. The foot is long, and the fourth toe and nail are greatly developed. The fifth toe is next in size, and the small second and third are coupled together by skin, and form a projection, with two small nails, which are useful in combing and scratching the fur. The first toe is absent. The Rufous Kangaroo-Rat inhabits New South Wales, and is very common.[94] Its nest is made up of grasses, and is frequently placed under the shelter of a fallen tree, or at the foot of some low shrub. During the day the little animal lies curled up in its nest, but it occasionally reposes in a “seat” like the Hare Kangaroo; but it never sits in the open plains. On being pursued it jumps like a Jerboa, with great swiftness for a short distance, and seeks shelter in hollow logs and holes. Its food consists of roots and grasses. Another is a native of Van Diemen’s Land, and keeps to the open, sandy, or stony forest land, rather than to the thick and humid bushes. It is called _Hypsiprymnus cuniculus_.

None of the animals hitherto described as Kangaroos have any prehensile power in the tail; but in one group of the Kangaroo-Rats, the tip of the tail has a brush of long hairs above, and is clothed beneath with short hairs, which are closely applied to the skin. This structure, and the motion of the muscles beneath, give the Tufted-tailed Kangaroo-Rat[95] of New South Wales a power of encircling and holding objects, especially for seizing grasses with which to make its nest. This is placed in a hollow in the ground, excavated for its reception, and its opening being on a level with the surrounding herbage, the practised eye of the native is required to discern it. After the little things creep in, they drag some grass after them, and close up the place. In the evening, they sally forth and scratch and dig up roots with their strong fore-claws.

THE RAT-TAILED HYPSIPRYMNUS.[96]

The Rat-tailed Kangaroo-Rat is about fifteen inches and a half long, and the tail measures, in addition, more than nine inches. It has a long head and rather short hind feet, and the rat-like tail has short stiff hairs on it which do not quite hide the scaly skin beneath. The body fur is long and loose, and dusky brown, more or less tinted with black and pale yellowish-brown. The end of the nose or muzzle is spotted, and the ears are short and rounded. This little animal lives in New South Wales, and was that which was first described by Hunter under the name of Potoroo, or Poto Roo, being the “Bettong” of the natives of New South Wales. The stomach of the Kangaroo-Rats is less sacculated than that of the Kangaroos, but its left-hand portion is enormously developed in proportion to the rest, and may be compared with that of the Ruminantia in point of relative size. It may be noticed that the lower jaws of the Potoroos, which are largely inflected at the angle, articulate with the skull rather differently to those of the Kangaroos. In these last, the cavity at the base of the zygomatic process which receives the lower jaw is broad and slightly convex, permitting considerable side-to-side movement which is useful in the occasional “cud chewing.” But in the others the cavity barely deserves the name, it being a nearly flat surface, and, therefore, not much motion, except that of an up-and-down kind, is possible to the jaw. The organ of hearing has been slightly noticed in the Great Kangaroo in a former page, and it is necessary to observe that the tympanic bone does not form a perfect tube in the Potoroos as in the Kangaroos, and that the surface of the auditory cavity is also increased by a “bulla,” or bony cavity, bulging out at the under part of the skull. Corresponding “bullæ” were noticed in the Rodentia, but in their case the swelling is in the temporal bone, whilst in the Marsupials, with the exception of the Wombat, they are formed out of the sphenoid bone (the great ala). Moreover, the Potoroos, like the Kangaroos, and some of the other Marsupials (the Phalangers and Koalas), have the ear chamber prolonged, by a number of cells, into the zygomatic process of the temporal bone. The Kangaroo-Rats are numerous, and there are many species. They are distributed in New South Wales, Western Australia, Van Diemen’s Land, and South Australia, and to the north-east.

Sir R. Owen investigated the anatomy of a small Kangaroo-Rat which had been described by Mr. Ramsay in Australia, and which was remarkable for its musky smell. It is a long and slender-bodied little animal, measuring about one foot three inches and a half from the snout to the end of the tail, which is five inches and nine lines in the female, and rather less in the male. Its hinder legs are shorter, and the head is more slender and pointed than in the Kangaroo-Rats just described. The fur is of moderate length, pretty closely applied, and has numerous rather long hairs scattered here and there, the visible portions being black or blackish, or pointed. These are relieved by the dark and light-barred colour of the visible part of the shorter hairs, all the hairs being of a leaden-greyish tint at the skin. The upper surface of the body has a close and stiff fur of rich golden colour, mixed with black; the head, face, and lower parts of the legs are dark brownish-grey; and there are a few patches of white along the centre of the throat and chest. The fur covers the tail for half an inch or more, and then the rest is naked, and covered with a network of scales about three to a line in length. The scales are black above, and a few minute and very short hairs project from the interstices of the scales. The animal has a naked muffle and rounded ears. The hind foot is remarkable, for whilst the skull and dentition of the creature would associate it more with the Kangaroo-Rats, the position of the first toe (wanting in the Kangaroo-Rats) resembles somewhat that of the Phalangista group, or the Phalangers, which will be noticed further on. The sole of the foot is long, and there is a nailless projecting first toe, like a thumb; next come the second and third toes--small, united by skin, and leaving the two combing-nails visible; and then the largest, or fourth toe, is followed by a smaller fifth. Sir R. Owen judged that this animal was an occasional climber of trees, but that its usual locality was on the ground. Mr. Ramsay states that it lives in the Rockingham Bay district, and that it frequents the dense and damp positions of the scrubs which fringe the rivers and clothe the sides of the coast range. Its habits are diurnal, and its movements are graceful. It procures its food by turning over the rubbish in search of insects, worms, and tuberous roots, frequently eating the palm-berries, which it holds with its fore paws, after the manner of the Phalangers, sitting up on its haunches, or sometimes digging. They have a pouch, and two young ones have been found in it. Considering the importance of the great toe to the animal, and its linking together the climbing and jumping Marsupials, Sir R. Owen acknowledged the necessity of recognising Mr. Ramsay’s name of _Hypsiprymnodon moschatus_, and of thus bringing in a new genus into a new family in the Kangaroo series with two large front teeth in the lower jaw.[97]

II.--THE WOMBAT FAMILY.--THE PHASCOLOMYIDÆ.

THE WOMBAT.[98]

On looking at a picture of a Wombat, the outside distinctions between it and all the Kangaroo family may be seen at a glance, and an examination of its anatomy affords still greater evidence of differences which, to a certain extent, relate to the fact that the animal now under consideration is a burrower and gnawer. About two to three feet in length, the Wombat has only a small stump of a tail, a low body, small feet, and strong limbs, ending in broad extremities, well provided with claws. It has moderately long and coarse fur of a grey-brown colour, and there is some white about the short ears, and the feet are black. It is usually a plump animal, with a bare black muzzle, and feet naked beneath, and covered with little tubercles of flesh. The claws are large, and those of the fore feet (five in number) are solid and but little curved, whilst the four on the hind feet are curved and concave beneath. It has long moustache hairs, and plenty of them. Sir Everard Home had one, and he found that its principal desire was to get into the ground, and to do this it worked with great skill and rapidity, covering itself with earth with surprising quickness. It was very quiet during the day, but was in constant motion during the night; was very sensible of cold; ate all vegetables, and was particularly fond of new hay, which it ate stalk by stalk, taking it into its mouth like a Bear, in small bits at a time. It was not wanting in intelligence, and appeared attached to those to whom it was accustomed, and who were kind to it. When it saw them, it would put up its fore-paws on their knees, and when taken up would sleep on the lap. It allowed children to pull and carry it about, and when it bit them it did not appear to do so in anger or with violence. When wild, the Wombat hides up during the day, and quits its retreat at night, to dig and get grass and roots. It is by no means an active animal, and shuffles along like a Bear. The Wombat has a slit-like, imperfect marsupium, and the special peculiarities of its order, such as marsupial bones, the inflected lower jaw, and double uterus. On the hind foot the innermost or first toe is very small, nailless, and placed at right angles to the foot, and the second, third, and fourth toes are joined by skin, and have larger claws than the small fifth toe. The stomach is simple, and has a peculiar glandular apparatus, and the cæcum is short, and has an appendage as in man and some monkeys. The teeth are remarkable for their number in relation to those of the Kangaroos, and for having no rootlets. The incisor teeth greatly resemble those of a Rodent, like the Rat. They are two in number in each jaw, and are widely separated from the other teeth. The molars are long, curved, and, like the incisors, have no true fangs, but persistent pulps. They are divided into two nearly equal parts by a fold of the enamel entering deeply into the body of the tooth on one side, and a slight indentation on the opposite side.

The number of the persistent teeth is as follows:--Incisors, 2/2; true molars, (4-4)/(4-4). It is the only Marsupial which has an equal number of incisors in both jaws. There are no canines. As the Wombat uses much force in gnawing, the muscles of the jaws and their bony attachments are large; consequently the temporal ridges are strongly marked. There is a deep and strong zygomatic arch, and in the lower jaw the turned-in angle is of great size. The chin is also large, and the joint of the jaw also. The sutures of the bones of the skull are scarcely ever obliterated, and the auditory “bullæ” are formed in the temporal bone. With regard to the marsupial bones, they are long, flat, curved, and, moreover, less expanded near their attachment to the pubis. The ribs are fifteen in number on each side, and the collar-bones are large and stout. There is a curious power of movement of the ankle, so that the foot can imitate the turning movements of the wrist and fore-arm of man. This pronation and supination is because the small bone of the leg, the fibula, is free and not attached to the other bone (tibia), and because there is a muscle whose action is to move the fibula after the fashion of the corresponding muscle in the fore limb. The stomach is smaller than in the Kangaroos, and has a large gland.

The Wombat has been found in South Australia, Van Diemen’s Land, Bass Strait, and in New South Wales.