Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/430

414 males, on soft ground, are easily taken. Many of these fine kangaroo-dogs are kept at the stock-stations of the interior, for the sole purpose of running the kangaroo and the emu, the latter being killed solely for the supply of oil which it yields, and the former for mere sport or for food for the dogs. Although I have killed the largest males with a single dog, it is not generally advisable to attempt this, as they possess great power, and frequently rip up the dogs, and sometimes even cut



them to the heart with a single stroke of the hind-leg. Three or four dogs are more generally laid on; one of superior fleetness to "pull" the kangaroo, while the others rush in upon it and kill it. It sometimes adopts a singular mode of defending itself, by clasping its short, powerful fore-limbs around its antagonist, then hopping away with it to the nearest water-hole, and there keeping it beneath the water until drowned.