THE RED KANGAROO[90] is so called from the red tint of the male, which is sometimes marked under the neck and elsewhere. It was found in the plains near the Darling and Murrumbidgee rivers, and is celebrated for its great fleetness; and the female is often called the “Flying Doe.” It is as fast as the Agile Kangaroo,[91] which is long-haired, and is found in Northern and Eastern Australia. Van Diemen’s Land has a Kangaroo with a long, deep-grey fur, with red on the back of the ears, neck, and shoulders; and it is called the Brush Kangaroo by the settlers. It is eaten and highly esteemed, and its skin is exported for leather. Liking the dense and damp forests of the island, it finds a safe retreat therein, and probably this is what keeps them from extinction, for they have been killed by the thousand, in order to supply contracts for boot-leather. The young of this Kangaroo, which is also called after Bennett the naturalist (_Macropus Bennetti_), does not leave the pouch of its mother permanently, until it is as large as a Rabbit. In the north of Australia, in the region of King George’s Sound, there is a small Kangaroo which is not larger than a common Rabbit, and it is a very interesting example of how species may differ from the type of a genus. It has a slender and rather short tail, which is rather scaly, and has but a few hairs on it, but it is not very short. The ears are short and round, and the hind feet are short. The departure from the configuration of the Great and Brush Kangaroo shape is therefore great. It is called the Short-tailed Kangaroo. The last four kinds mentioned are grouped together with others under a sub-genus, _Halmaturus_ (ἅλμα, a leap, and οὐρά, a tail). THE BRUSH-TAILED ROCK KANGAROO. [Illustration: BRUSH-TAILED ROCK KANGAROO.] Almost as strange as the slender-tailed Kangaroo are those which are called the “brush-tailed,” and which inhabit rocky situations (_Macropus penicillatus_). Mr. Waterhouse thus notices them:--