, from the severity
of his wounds: few of these animals have ever effected their
escape, after being seized by the dog, for they have generally
caught them by the throat, and there held them until they were
assisted, although many of them have very near lost their lives
in the struggle.

Some of the male kangaroos are of a very large size; I have
seen some, that when sitting on their haunches, were five feet
eight inches high, such an animal is too strong for a single dog,
and although he might be much wounded, would, without the dog had
assistance at hand, certainly kill him. We know that the native
dogs of this country hunt and kill the kangaroo; they may be more
fierce, but they do not appear to be so strong as our large
greyhound; there was one not long ago seen in pursuit of a
kangaroo, by a person who was employed in shooting, who mistaking
the two animals as they passed him to be of the kind he was
looking for, he fired at the hindmost and brought him down, but
when he came up it proved to be a native dog.

Of those dogs we have had many which were taken when young,
but never could cure them of their natural ferocity; although
well fed, they would at all times, but particularly in the dark,
fly at young pigs, chickens, or any small animal which they might
be able to conquer, and immediately kill, and generally eat them.
I had one which was a little puppy when caught, but,
notwithstanding I took much pains to correct and cure it of its
savageness, I found it took every opportunity, which it met with,
to snap off the head of a fowl, or worry a pig, and would do it
in defiance of correction. They are a very good natured animal
when domesticated, but I believe it to be impossible to cure that
savageness, which all I have seen seem to possess.

The opossum is also very numerous here, but it is not exactly
like the American opossum; it partakes a good deal of the
kangaroo in the strength of its tail and make of its fore-legs,
which are very short in proportion to the hind ones; like that
animal, it has the pouch, or false belly, for the safety of its
young in time of danger, and its colour is nearly the same, but
the fur is thicker and finer. There are several other animals of
a smaller size, down as low as the field-rat, which in some part
or other partakes of the kangaroo and opossum: we have caught
many rats with this pouch for carrying their young when pursued,
and the legs, claws, and tail of this rat are ex