Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/240

212 admit of any new digging, and the unfortunate animals are compelled to seek a very unsafe shelter in the grass. Flushed from its place of hiding, and being a poor runner, the "Jalva" is easily overtaken by the native and his dogs, large numbers being often killed in a short time.

One young is born at a time, and the breeding goes on continuously all the year round.

The large black "Wallaroo" of South-eastern Australia was observed only in the sandstone ranges of the central table-land in Arnhem Land. In the wild and broken cliffs or precipices surrounding the large gullies where the South Alligator river flows, and a white man has seldom before wandered, a scanty tribe of the Robust Kangaroo was struggling for life against the steady onslaught of the aboriginal hunter of these lonely mountain valleys. Not long ago, my dark companions affirmed, the "Tjikurr" abounded; but constant hunting had reduced their number to a minimum. The frequent occurrence of old excrements and well-worn paths amongst the rocks amply corroborated the statements of the natives; only now and then a specimen could be seen, and a female with a young one in its pouch was all I obtained (June, 1895).

In the shade of some overhanging rock, in cracks and crevices, and even in the deep dark caves and caverns in the precipices of the table-land, honeycombed by the work of the ocean thousands of years ago, the "Tjikurr" was sleeping during the hot tropical day. The least noise would disturb it. Even the light patter of the naked feet of the aborigine would start the wary sleepers, and cause the black animals to flee with huge bounds through the broken rocky country. Their speed and agility is all the more surprising owing to the considerable size of the animals, and can only be compared to that of the little Petrogale concinna. They literally seem to fly through and over the most difficult obstacles. Without hesitation they would precipitate themselves down cliffs of considerable height, and with equally astonishing energy they would rapidly ascend apparently inaccessible mountain walls and heaps of boulders.