132 MAMMALIA. 



gentle herbivorous animals, their grinders presenting mere trans- 

 verse ridges. They have five teeth in all, the front ones being more 

 or less trenchant, and falling out with age ; so that in old Kanguroos 

 we frequently find but three. Their stomach consists of two long 

 sacs that are inflated at several places like a colon. The caecum 

 also is large and has inflations. The radius allows a complete rota- 

 tion of the fore-arm. 



In these two genera the penis is not bifurcated, but the female or- 

 gans of generation are similar to those of other Marsupialia. 



M. major, Shaw| Didelphis gigantea, Gm.j Schreb. CLIII. 

 (The Gigantic Kanguroo.) Sometimes six feet in height. It 

 is the largest of the New Holland animals ; was discovered by 

 Cook in 1779, and is now bred in Europe. Its flesh is said, to 

 resemble venison. The young ones, which at birth are only an 

 inch long, remain in the maternal pouch even when they are old 

 enough to graze, which they effect by stretching out their necks 

 from their domicile, while the mother herself is feeding. These 

 animals live in troops, conducted by the old males. They 

 make enormous leaps. It appears that we have hitherto con- 

 founded under this name several species of New Holland and 

 its neighbouring countries, whose fur, more or less grey, only 

 varies by a trifling difference of shade. (l) There is another 

 species much more anciently known : 



M. Brunii; Did. JBnmii, Gm.; Schreb. CLIII. | called Pelandor 

 Jiroe by the Malays of Amboyna. (The Kanguroo of Aroe.) 

 Larger than a Harej brown above, fawn coloured beneath. 

 Found in the islands near Banda, and in those of Solor. Eu- 

 ropean naturalists had not paid sufficient attention to the de- 

 scriptions of the above species given by Valentine and Le Bruyn. 

 M. elegans; Halma. elegans, Per. Voy. t. xxvii. (The Ele- 

 gant Kanguroo.) Size of a large Hare; transversely striped 

 with brown on a greyish-white ground. Found at the island of 

 St Peter. 



The fifth subdivision has two long incisors in the lower jaw 



(1) M. Geoff*, distinguishes the Kanguroo enfume, in which the grey is deeper; 

 the Kanguroo a moustaches, which has some white on the front of the upper lip ; the 

 Kanguroo a cou roux, a little less than the others, with some red on the nape of the 

 neck. Messrs Lesson and Garnotalso describe a brown Kanguroo which they call 

 Oualubate, Voy. de Freycin. pi. ix. We shall also probably be obliged to make 

 new species of the Kanguroo roux-cannclk; [K. luniger, Quoy and Gaym.) Voy. de 

 Freycin. pi. ix ; and of the Kanguroo ccndrd-hleuutrc; but all these Quadrupeds re- 

 quire to be examined at various ages, and we must ascertain the influence of age 

 and sex upon their colours, previous to a final cstablislnncnt of the species. 



