" The brush kangaroo is easily killed
by the dogs; a grip in the throat or loins usually suffices. The
boomer is a more awkward customer, and, if he can take to the water,
he shows fight, and availing himself of his superior height, he
endeavors to drown the dogs as they approach him. The kangaroo is a
graceful animal, but appears to most advantage when only the upper
part of his body is seen. His head is small and deer-shaped, his eyes
soft and lustrous, but his tapering superior extremities rise almost
pyramidally from a heavy and disproportioned base of hind legs and
tail.
The kangaroo dog never mangles his prey although fond of the blood,
with a portion of which he is always rewarded.
Jerry now threw himself on the ground beside the game, and, drawing
his _couteau de chasse_, commenced the operation of disemboweling.
After ripping up the belly, he thrust in his arm, and drawing out the
liver and a handful of coagulated blood, he invited the dogs to
partake of it. The carcass being gutted, some dry fern is thrust in,
the tail is drawn through the fore legs, and secured with a bit of
whipcord, and then the game is suspended over the shoulder--no
insignificant weight either. If the kangaroo be very heavy, the hind
quarters only are carried, but the skin being of some value, it is not
needlessly destroyed.
There is a peculiarity in the stomach of the kangaroo, which I have
not seen noticed in descriptions of that animal, but of which I have
assured myself by frequent personal observation.
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