s 
of the Mammary Organs of the Kangaroo. 457 
Since I became possessed of this animal it has been my en- 
deavour to overcome by domestication its natural timidity and 
shyness, with a view of being thus enabled to ascertain, by a 
very frequent examination of the interior of the pouch, some 
additional facts relative to the changes which are known to take 
place in the economy of its contents during different periods of 
gestation ; since we can expect by such a mode of investigation 
alone to obtain any satisfactory information respecting the 
obscure process of parturition in marsupial animals. My at- 
tempts to domesticate the kangaroo have been completely 
successful, the principal obstacle with which I had to contend 
being the extreme timidity of the animal. I found, however, 
after it had been in my possession a few weeks, perfectly ex- 
cluded from any object of alarm, and accustomed to feed 
from my own hand, that I was permitted, without any effort on 
the part of the animal to prevent me, to introduce my hand into 
the pouch, and to make, for as long a period as I could wish, 
and as frequently as I thought proper, the most complete 
examination of the young one wiihiu, and of the teat to which 
it was adherent. 
After about six weeks the inliirel beans dapt: fami- 
liarised, and would follow either myself or my servant about 
the lower part of my house like a dog. 
As the young one had been already delivered into the pouch, 
my observations were of course confined to the condition of the 
` pouch and teats during its growth: these may perhaps appear 
of a nature too trivial for the subject of a communication to 
the Society ; yet, as we are at present so completely in the dark 
respecting the ultimate object of our researches, —namely a 
knowledge of the mode in which the foetus is passed from the 
uterus to the teat,—and as it is therefore impossible to deter- 
mine how far a few insulated facts my assist in bringing our 
3N 2 inquiries 
