Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/237

Rh The stone seems to afford a better hold for their rough-soled feet than the soil, and they always, when running, keep to the rock, turning and twisting themselves with cat-like cleverness, and running up or down apparently perpendicular cliffs with the same ease as on the level. They will squeeze through nearly any opening, are extremely shy, and I never in my wide wanderings met an animal that puts a man's shooting more to the test. Just at sunset they come out and, perched on the rocks a short time before commencing to feed, they seem to enjoy the cool evening air and the gorgeous tropical sunset. The least noise will then disturb them, even in places where the crack of a gun has never been heard, and, like flitting shadows, their light forms will noiselessly vanish among the broken boulders. Occasionally they will go down to water to drink, but they do not seem to require it as often as many other Macropodidæ. They breed all the year round. Only one young is born at a time, and the mother abandons it immediately when in danger.

This handsome "Rock Wallaby" was met with in the same localities as the P. concinna, but seems to prefer country with larger features. It has a far wider range, and is found on nearly every large broken hill or mountain. In the torn and rugged sandstone ranges around the mouth of the Victoria river, and in the large central table-land in Arnhem Land, great numbers were observed.

Its mode of life and habits are very much the same as those of P. concinna, but, being a heavier animal, it is less graceful, and is without the marvellous agility and swiftness of that animal.

This pretty Wallaby, the tail of which at its extreme point is furnished with a very peculiar horny spike or nail, was only observed in one locality in Arnhem Land.

Around Fountain Head and the Glencoe cattle depôt the country assumes a certain desert-like character; crippled scrub is scattered over vast flats, where innumerable ant-hills tower like churches with domes and minarets, brick-red and baked in the parching sun. In these barren surroundings the little Wallaby