VI. Kangaroo and 'Possum, too
If you like to be surprised, ail of a sudden, just stand by the kangaroo pen in a park zoo awhile. In fact, if you are lucky, you will be surprised twice.
You are sure to wonder, at first, why there is such a very high, strong fence of iron posts and netting around these queer-looking animals. No taller than kindergarten children, they sit upright as neatly as if on three-legged stools, You might say they are three-legged stools, for kangaroos rest on two hind legs and a long fat tail. From these broad bases their bodies taper up in the oddest way, to narrow, sloping shoulders and small, deer-like heads. Their full bright eyes glance about, their rabbit-like ears stand erect, listening. In front of the breast the short fore-paws are drooped, as if they are there less for use than for ornament.
Sometimes the kangaroo drops on all fours and eats like a rabbit, hopping about on his hind legs like a robin. But it seems to be easy for him to pick up a carrot, hold it between his paws and eat like a squirrel. The keeper knows what he is about when he scatters the food, putting some choice bits in the farthest corners of the pen. He does that so you can see the animals—jump!
There! You nearly jumped out of your skin, didn't you? That's surprise number one. When a kangaroo wants to go across his pen he doesn't waste time in hopping. He just stretches up on his hind legs and leaps. If a frog was as big he might jump farther than a kangaroo, but he couldn't jump as high. It really must have been the kangaroo, and not the cow, that jumped over the moon and made the little dog laugh.
No wonder the kangaroo can jump so far and so high. He has the biggest and strongest hind legs, for his size, of any animal in the world. His hind feet are so long it looks as if he were sitting on his hind elbows At the end of the foot is the biggest big toe! It is in the middle of the foot, and has on it a long, sharp, wicked-looking, dagger-like claw. On one side of this big toe is a small one. On the other side a pair of helpless little twin toes dangle from the leg. The kangaroo's hind leg, foot and big toe are as wonderful, in their way, as the elephant's trunk.
A long, long time ago, when there were big, fur-covered elephants on the earth, there were also kangaroos as big as hippopotamuses,
