the blow seemed to hurt her. But there is a vast difference between the fore leg of a kangaroo full grown and that of a stripling like Jacky, who could only command a comfortable view of our dinner-table by raising himself on his hind legs and tail. At full growth the fore paws of a kangaroo are quite as large as those of a mastiff, though of another shape, and a tall old Booma, as the natives call the male kangaroo, can bring his head on a level with the face of a man on horseback, so as to use his "hands" with effect.
Jacky's hind feet were much like those of a deer, only that the hoof was far more pointed, and young as he was, one could imagine that they had the power to inflict terrible blows. A kangaroo's feet are, in fact, his weapons of defence with which, when he is brought to bay, he tears his antagonists the dogs most dreadfully, and instances are not wanting of even men having been killed by a large old male. No doubt this peculiar method of disposing of his enemies has earned for him the name of Booma, which in the native language signifies to strike.
Jacky was of a very sociable turn, and fond of following us from room to room, in doing which his hind feet sounded on the boarded floors as if somebody in thick boots was hopping about on one leg. In the garden he would lie well stretched out, looking the oddest compound of a long-legged bird joined on to something that was neither sheep nor deer and yet resembled both; if he sat up and looked about him his attitude was suggestive of a tripod, for in taking a range of the horizon he rested upon his tail as on a third leg. At meal-times he was a particularly dangerous guest, as he had a way of laying his nose upon the edge of the table and then turning his head from side to
