HALMATURUS MANICATUS, Gowda.
Black-gloved Wallaby.

 

Heap, Neck, anp ForrARM OF BOTH SEXES, OF THE SIZE OF LIFE.

 

Every naturalist who has diligently worked out a monograph of any group of animals
must have observed that while some conspicuous feature, either of colouring or marking,
pervades all the species, it is much more strongly developed in some of them than in
others; in one, perhaps, it is only faintly indicated, while im another it is bold and
decided. Now, there is a tendency in all the Wallabys to a blackish brown or black

colouring on the hands or the tips of the ears: m some this colouring occurs on both;

 

*n others it is confined to the hands alone. The present animal, which is a native of

Western Australia, may be cited as the species in which this character is carried to its

 

maximum; for if its fore feet and the tips of its ears had been carefully dipped in ink,
they could not be of a blacker hue, nor could this colourmg terminate more abruptly.
That there is no special end or purpose for the fantastic markings of the Kangaroos and
many other animals, beyond mere ornament, I think there cannot be a doubt. Nature
revels in variety, as may be seen in the stripings of the various species of Zebra, the
fantastic markings of the Antelopes, the banding of the Perameles, and a thousand other

creatures. I make no apology for giving full-sized heads of this very pretty species, the

 

peculiarity of whose markings is not so apparent in the reduced figures.

 

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