460 Mr. MonGcaw's Description of the Anatomy 
circumstances was necessary to the existence of this animal. 
'The result of such experiments has proved to me, that in this 
advanced state it is decidedly a voluntary agent, and must be 
considered as having outlived any intermediate state of exist- 
ence between foetal and perfect life ; for in all my experiments 
I found that the young one, at the age I have mentioned, was 
respiring, and capable of applying its mouth to the teat of the 
mother. At what earlier period the same artificial separation 
may be effected without destruction of its life, I must leave as a 
question for others to decide. In the beginning of February 
the young one was completely covered with hair; and at this 
time the red secretion from the interior of the pouch, which had 
for many weeks been gradually diminishing, was no longer per- 
ceptible. In the following June it left the pouch for the first 
time, and being somewhat awkward in finding its way back 
again, an assistance was afforded by the mother in the following 
way. 'The parent bent down until her belly nearly touched the 
ground ; she then introduced her fore paws into the opening of 
the pouch, and thus pulling the aperture wide open at the same 
time that it was lowered nearly to a level with the ground, a 
very easy access was afforded for its tenant. This was fre- 
quently repeated for the first month after the young had left 
the bag. | 
Having dissected a suckling kangaroo in which two elon- 
gated and perfect marsupial teats were apparently found to 
have conveyed nourishment to a single young one, I was sur- 
prised to find that, in the animal to which I am now referring, 
only one and the same teat was affording a supply of milk 
throughout the whole period of suckling, this being the one to 
which the foetus was adherent when first received into the 
pouch. 
The 
