File:A hand-book to the marsupialia and monotremata (1896) (14591878259).jpg

Identifier: handbooktomarsup00lydekk (find matches)
Title: A hand-book to the marsupialia and monotremata
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915
Subjects: Marsupials Monotremes
Publisher: London : E. Lloyd
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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sistance is afforded by the powerfultail, of which the regular blows on the ground may be heard aconsiderable time before the animal itself comes into sightwhen it is running in thick covert. In disposition Kangaroosare extremely timid and wary \ their senses of smell andhearing being very highly developed. The different mobs are said to keep entirely separate ; and after the breeding-season the old males frequently separate from the rest of theherd to dwell apart. Their favourite haunts are open risinggrounds, more or less covered with timber; and they feedboth at early morning and in the evening, as well as probablyin the night. Tender shoots of shrubs and herbage appear toform their food nearly or quite as much as the various grasses,and in cultivated districts they do much harm to growing crops.During the daytime in winter these animals love to lie on drysandy rises, basking in the sun, where they may be seen by the!observer who approaches them with due caution stretched out .! JA
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oo % H< KANGAROOS AND WALLABIES. 17 in all conceivable postures, at times lazily scratching them-selves with one paw. The fierce heats of summer compelthem, however, to seek protection from the suns rays in thecool and thickly-wooded gullies, from which they only ventureforth with the falling shades of evening. The pairing-season generally takes place about January orFebruary, and the young are born soon after. Although thepouch of an old doe usually shows three teats which have beensuckled, only a single offspring is generally produced at a birth,and there is but one birth in a year. The young helplessKangaroo is believed to remain attached to the teat in thepouch for about sixty days, not relinquishing its hold till fullydeveloped. For some time after its removal from the teat, how-ever, it spends the greater part of its existence in the pouch,not leaving it for long till able to run by the side of the dam.Even then, however, the Running Joey, as the young is thencalled by the co

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