The Beegle

Cruising along the Isthmus of Australia enabled us to study several new species that have sprung up there*--notably, the buckaroo. As our waggish first mate put it, "Wallaby damned! This here's buckaroo country!"

The buckaroo mating ceremony is frightening to behold. Two stags, competing for a piece of whitetail, lower their antlers, hop toward each other and crash in mid-air. The stag with the milder concussion is the winner. The mating act itself is a risky, dangerous affair, and oral-genital acts are often fatal.

We found one young buckaroo that had punctured a hole in his mother's pouch and fallen out. We named him Bamboo and nursed him back to health on a diet of beegle honey and Mexican jumping beans.

*Including the octopussy, the buffaloon and the kittyhawk.