Photo by York & Son] [Notting Hill.
GAIMARD'S RAT-KANGAROO.
A species named after the French naturalist, Gaimard.
The most abnormal group of the Kangaroo Family is undoubtedly that of the Tree-kangaroos, formerly supposed to have been limited in its distribution to the island of New Guinea, but which has within recent years been found to be represented by one or more species in Northern Queensland. At the Melbourne Zoo they have been found, except in the coldest weather, to thrive well in the open—a moderate-sized tree, with a small fenced-in enclosure around it, being admirably suited to their requirements, at the same time providing a most instructive exhibition of their peculiar forms and idiosyncrasies. Seen at its best, however, the tree-kangaroo, or "boongarry," as it is known amongst the Queensland natives, is a most clumsy, melancholy-looking beast, which has apparently found itself "up a tree," not as the outcome of its personal predilections, but owing to the force majeure of untoward pressure in the form either of relentlessly persecuting enemies or the failure of its normal terrestrial commissariat. Compared with the graceful and superlatively agile tree-frequenting phalangers, between whom and the ordinary kangaroos it has been sometimes, but erroneously, regarded as representing a connecting-link, the boongarry presents a most ungainly contrast. Its climbing powers are of the slowest and most awkward description, the whole of its energies being concentrated on its endeavour to preserve its balance and to retain a tight hold upon the branches of the trees it frequents, and to which it clings with such tenacity with its long sharp claws that it can with difficulty be detached. In its wild state, moreover, these claws can be very effectively used as weapons of defence; and hence the natives, with whom the animal is highly esteemed as an article of food, are careful to give it its quietus with their clubs or waddies before venturing to handle it. The tree-kangaroos inhabit the densest parts of the forests or "scrubs" of New Guinea and tropical Queensland, and appear to confine their movements chiefly to the trees of moderate size, or the lower branches only of the taller ones.
The species which constitutes the most natural known connecting-link between the typical Kangaroos and the family of the Phalangers, next described, is the Five-toed Rat-kangaroo, or Potoroo. As its name implies, it is a small creature of rat-like aspect and dimensions, and possesses, like a rat, a long, cylindrical, naked, scaly tail. It is the structure of the feet, however, that constitutes the important distinction. In place of the four toes only to the hind limbs it possesses the full complement of five, and the first toe, moreover, is set farther back, and is opposable for grasping purposes. This animal is from Queensland.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S., Milford-on-Sea.
RAT-KANGAROO FROM NEW SOUTH WALES.
One of the small jerboa-like species.