Zoological Society. 67 



In the stomach were found two hair-balls of an oval shape, not 

 rounded as they generally are in the Ruminants, which are most 

 obnoxious to these formations. One of them was 3, and the 

 other 2 inches in the long diameter. They were entirely com- 

 posed of the hairs of the animal, matted together and agglutinated 

 by the mucus of the stomach. Mr. Owen remarks on the interest 

 which attaches to this resemblance to the Ruminating tribes, to 

 which the Kangaroos make so near an approach in the complexity 

 and magnitude of the stomach, and the simplicity of the cacum and 

 colon. He states that he has " more than once observed the act of 

 rumination in the Kangaroos preserved in the Vivarium of the So- 

 ciety. It does not take place while they are recumbent, but when 

 they are erect upon the tripod of the hinder legs and tail. The ab- 

 dominal muscles are in violent action for a few minutes ; the head is 

 a little depressed ; and then the cud is chewed by a quick rotatory 

 motion of the jaws. This act was more commonly noticed after 

 physic had been given to the animals, which we may suppose to have 

 interrupted the healthy digestive processes : it by no means takes 

 place with the same frequency and regularity as in the true Rumi- 

 nants." 



January 13, 1835. — A specimen was exhibited of the brush-tailed 

 Kangaroo, Macropus penicillatus, Gray, which had recently been pre- 

 sented to the Society by Captain Sir W. Edward Parry. Mr. Bennett 

 called the attention of the Meeting to its peculiarities, and remarked 

 on the great hairiness of the tail, and especially on its want of robust- 

 ness at the base, as indicating probably the type of a new genus, to 

 be removed from among the Macropi on account of the diminished 

 power of an organ which is so exceedingly strong among the typical 

 Kangaroos as to execute, during the act of slow progression and while 

 resting, the office of a third leg. In connexion with this peculiarity 

 of tail, Mr. Bennett pointed out also a difference in the form of the 

 third, or extreme lateral, incisor, as compared with the corresponding 

 tooth in Macr. major, Shaw ; crania of the two animals being exhi- 

 bited for that purpose. The third incisor in Macr. penicillatus is 

 bilobed, and approaches somewhat to the character of the corre- 

 sponding tooth in Macr. Parry i, Benn. 



A note by Sir W. Edward Parry, which accompanied the specimen, 

 was read. The animal appears to be procurable with difficulty, as 

 this individual was " the only one of the kind ever seen by Sir E. 

 Parry. It was shot among rocks near Liverpool Plains, New South 

 Wales. As several of the same kind were seen together on more 

 than one occasion, they appear to be gregarious. They seemed to 

 prefer the neighbourhood of rocky ground, in which they had holes, 

 to which, when hunted, they retreated. The first intimation re- 

 ceived of these animals by Mr. Hall was, that monkeys were to be 

 seen in a particular situation : and the manner in which they jumped 

 about, when he first approached a number of them, left the same im- 

 pression on his mind. They were so wild that he found it impossi- 

 ble, on his first attempt, to obtain a specimen ; and one which he 

 had wounded escaped into its hole. Some months afterwards, how- 



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