AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY -- III.

BY CHARLES H. EDEN.


A FULL-GROWN "paddy melon," a small and beautiful species of kangaroo,
bearing the same resemblance to the "boomer" that a Cingalese mouse-deer
does to an elk, was once given to me as a pet, and we became great friends.
Whenever I went into the room and opened my shirt or coat, the little
fellow would bound in and coil himself snugly away for hours, if permitted;
thus showing, I think that he still retained a recollection of the snug
abode of his childhood. Like most pets, he came to an untimely end -- in
fact, met with the fate that ultimately befalls all the members of his
tribe who are domesticated and allowed to run about the bush huts in
Australia. The fireplaces are large recesses in the wall, and on the same
level as the floor. Wood only is burnt, and large heaps of glowing ashes
accumulate, for the fire never really goes out, by night or day. As long
as it is blazing, the pet kangaroo will keep his distance, but when it has
sunk down to living coals, his foolish curiosity is sure to impel him,
sooner or later, to jump right into the thick of it; and then -- and here
his want of brains is painfully shown -- instead of jumping out again at
once, he commences fighting and spurring the burning embers with his hind
feet, and, as a natural sequence, is either found half roasted, or so
injured that his death is inevitable

The uses to which the settler puts this animal are many. He has to take
the place of the stag when any hunting is going on (as the dingo has to act
for the fox); and most remarkably good sport an "old man" or "boomer" -- as