The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-31

Il
roo. The forest kangaroo is of a gray
color, has long fur and inhabits the forest.
The walaroo is black, with shaggy fur. and
lives in the hills. The red kangaroo has
smooth, short, close fur of a reddish color,
| looks very much like sea otter and lives
| IN the forests. Each of these varieties,
when full-grown, weighs 200 pounds or
more. The wallabee, another variety,
| weighs about sixty pounds and inhabits
the bushes and the broken billy country.
| The rock kangaroo lives in the rockiest
| portions of the mountains, and the kanga-
roo rat Is no larger than a small rabbit and
lives IN the hollows of trees. 1t hops over
the ground very swiftly and furnishes good
| sport in the chase.
LOTS OF SPORT.
| There is the Tasmanian devil kangaroo,
which Is sometimes seen in the menager-
les. 1t does not take kindly to captivity.
but simply gets in the corner of a cage and
stays there. There is breed called the
zebra wolf. which has dozen or more
stripes on its back. This kind makes ter
rible ravages on sheepfolds and poultry
yards. 1t lives in the most out of the way
| places, and you rarely find it in captivity.
When chased the kangaroos hop on their
hind legs, rushing onward at an amazing
rate, wagging their tails as they leap,
which, by the way, serve them as sort of
over. They jump over bitches and down
gullies hundred feet deep. They fly over
the brushwood and clear everything but
wire fence, which brings them up with
round turn" Sometimes they are cap
tured by being driven into V-shaped pad
dock, or section of enclosed land. They
are very much given to snorting, holding
IN their breath for some time and then
blowing it out, making great noise.
At certain seasons of the year they are
very numerous near the water. They
come up TO the shore in perfect shoals and
get stranded in the shallow streams, where
they really tumble over each other" and
are very easy game to capture. Some hum
tiers train their dogs to go in and fetch
them out. These are the smaller kind of
kangaroos and weigh only from eight to
twelve pounds; they are very delicate eat
ing, particularly the roe, which is quite
large and which, speaking from the culin-
airy point of view, would make a good
''side partner" Tor the shad roe found in
your New York markets.
POWERFUL KIcKERs.
In hunting the kangaroo in the field the
dogs seize them generally by the hip and
throw them over; then they fasten upon
their Threats and quickly finish them.
Few dogs care to attack a large kangaroo
singly; some of the two hundred weight
variety will often go hopping away with
three or four dogs hanging upon him, and
there have been cases where they have car
RED man considerable distance.
When dog gets very close TO
large kangaroo the animal will sit on its
launches and fight the dog and exhibit
great deal of what followers of the manly
art call science" As the animal fights
the dog 1t will keep turning round and
round SO as always to face him, and keep
pushing him off with his forepaws. Some
times it will seize him quickly and hug
him to death like bear, or rip him open
hind leg. Large kangaroos frequently cut
and Kill dogs with this terrible weapon,
which viii tear out the bowels at single
kick.
The large kangaroo is dangerous ami
mai even for man to approach when at
bay. Old kangaroo hunters Immediately
hamstrlng them when thrown to prevent
injury to themselves or the dogs. The
native Australian hunters give them a
heavy blow over the loins, which paralyzes
their hind legs. They are very keen
scented, and can tell the presence of hui
| man being at distance of four miles.
AUSTRALIAN BEARS.
But there is plenty of other game besides
kangaroos in Australia Bear hunting is
enjoyed by some, though they are very
small fellows, and comparatively harm
less. They climb trees sixty or seventy
feet high with the agility of monkey.
Hunters often kill them with club. They
have thick hides and bushy fur, and their
skins are considered valuable, though thew
are very difficult to remove. Opossums
are plentiful in the bush region; they
come out from the hollows of the trees on
moonlight nights, when you hunt them
with keen-scented terrier You have to
moon them," as the bushmen call it.
which means that you mustn't fire at
them until they are on line with the
moon, as otherwise you might miss your
aim. The skins are very valuable.
One OF the great drawbacks to hunting
life are the flies. You have to wear veil
or you Will be eaten UP with the nasty in
sects. They are like the ordinary house
fly, though there is one poisonous variety
which raises bad swelling The ants,
which are quite as numerous, are Just as
bad; when they find no one to sting thew
indulge in regular ''set-tos" among them
selves, fighting with great desperation,
like game cocks. In the wild regions vo,,
can find the laughing iackal a clumsy.
noisy creature, but a great enemy TO the
snake, and as there are as many snakes in
Australia as they tell US there used TO be
IN Ireland, the Jackal Is bound to be really
useful and is protected by the government.
The animal jumps about a snake until il
can get clinch on its neck, when the rem
tile is quickly dispatched.
PESTS AND GAME
Snakes are very plentiful in the wood
land; they hide in the piles of wood. and
though they attack men at certain seasons
of the year, the woodmen become as used
to them as we do to mosquitoes and Kill
them on sight with Ratchet
Every one knows that Australia Suffers
from the rabbit pest-hares We call them
over there. What your Artemus Ward
would call their 'numerousness" NAV he
accounted for from the fact that the breed
ing by one rabbit during the year will re-
suit in $500 of the species.
The soldier birds are curious animals
who seem TO have got that name because
they act as sentinels, and by their cries
warn other birds of the approach of the
sportsman.
In the interior, along the rivers. wild
duck and blue crane can be found The
wild turkeys shot on the plains weigh from
twelve to twenty-five pounds. They are
found on the sheep grazing lands and
cattle farms. They are very shy, and the
hunter generally approaches them on
horseback or In buggy, of which they do
not seem to be afraid, because they are so
much among the cattle.
Turkey hunting is very good sport and
only an Australian knows what iuicy
meal the bird Will make. Up in the mining
districts there is considerable cock-hrht-
ing, though II IS against the law but a
great deal of money changes hands when
such events occur. In the large cities
there are no faro banks, but there is a
great deal of gambling with dice the