A Rank Flavour Forms The Principal Objection To It.
The Tail Is Accounted The Most Delicious Part, When Stewed.
Hitherto I have spoken only of the large, or grey kangaroo, to which
the natives give the name of 'patagaran'.* But there are
(besides the kangaroo-rat) two other sorts.
One of them we called
the red kangaroo, from the colour of its fur, which is like that of a hare,
and sometimes is mingled with a large portion of black: the natives
call it 'bagaray'. It rarely attains to more than forty pounds weight.
The third sort is very rare, and in the formation of its head resembles
the opossum. The kangaroo-rat is a small animal, never reaching,
at its utmost growth, more than fourteen or fifteen pounds,
and its usual size is not above seven or eight pounds. It joins to the head
and bristles of a rat the leading distinctions of a kangaroo, by running
when pursued on its hind legs only, and the female having a pouch.
Unlike the kangaroo, who appears to have no fixed place of residence,
this little animal constructs for itself a nest of grass, on the ground,
of a circular figure, about ten inches in diameter, with a hole on one side
for the creature to enter at; the inside being lined with a finer sort
of grass, very soft and downy. But its manner of carrying the materials
with which it builds the nest is the greatest curiosity: by entwining
its tail (which, like that of all the kangaroo tribe, is long, flexible
and muscular) around whatever it wants to remove, and thus dragging along
the load behind it. This animal is good to eat; but whether it be
more prolific at a birth than the kangaroo, I know not.
[*kangaroo was a name unknown to them for any animal, until we introduced it.
When I showed Colbee the cows brought out in the Gorgon, he asked me
if they were kangaroos.]
The Indians sometimes kill the kangaroo; but their greatest destroyer
is the wild dog,* who feeds on them. Immediately on hearing or seeing
this formidable enemy, the kangaroo flies to the thickest cover, in which,
if he can involve himself, he generally escapes. In running to the cover,
they always, if possible, keep in paths of their own forming, to avoid
the high grass and stumps of trees which might be sticking up among it
to wound them and impede their course.
[*I once found in the woods the greatest part of a kangaroo
just killed by the dogs, which afforded to three of us a most welcome repast.
Marks of its turns and struggles on the ground were very visible.
This happened in the evening, and the dogs probably had seen us approach
and had run away. At daylight next morning they saluted us
with most dreadful howling for the loss of their prey.]
Our methods of killing them were but two; either we shot them, or hunted them
with greyhounds.
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