it Kanguru. It lurks among the grass; feeds on
vegetables; drinks by lapping; goes chiefly on its
hind legs, making use of the fore-feet only for
digging, or bringing its food to its mouth. The
dung is like that of a deer. It is very timid.
At the sight of men flies from them by amazing
leaps, springing over banks seven or eight feet
high, and going progressively from rock to rock.
It carries its tail quite at right angles with its
body when it is in motion; and when it alights
often looks back; it is much too swift for greyhounds; is very good eating, according to our
first navigators; but the old ones, according to
the report of more recent voyagers, were lean,
coarse, and tough. The weapon of defence was its tail, with which it would beat away the strongest dog.
"In the spring of the present year [1793] I had an opportunity of observing the manners of one brought into the capital alive. It was in full health, very active, and very mild and good-natured: on first coming out of its place of confinement, it for a little time went on all-fours, but soon assumed an upright attitude. It would sport with its keeper in a very singular manner; it first placed its tail in a perpendicular manner, erected its body on it as a prop, and then raising its whole body, darted its hind-legs on the breast of the man, It was capable of striking with great force, if provoked; and it could scratch violently with its fore-claws."
The Great Kangaroo does not make use of its tail in leaping, but in walking, and still more in standing: the male, when excited, will sometimes stand on tip-toe and on his tail, and is then
