THE TRUE KANGAROOS AND WALLABIES 



1411 



THE TRUE KANGAROOS AND WALLABIES 

 Genus Macropus 



In the summer of the year 1770, when Captain Cook was refitting his vessel at 

 the mouth of the Endeavor river in New South Wales, a party of his crew who 

 had landed to procure food brought back reports of a strange animal of large size, 

 which sat upright on its hind-limbs and tail, and progressed by a series of enormous 

 leaps. Excitement among those on board was naturally raised to the highest pitch 

 by this account especially as a naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks, was a member of the 

 expedition; and 

 soon after a speci- 

 men of the animal in 

 question was killed. 

 This creature was the 

 one we now know 

 by the name of the 

 great gray kanga- 

 roo (Macropus gigan- 

 teus}; and was the 

 first member of the 

 family which came 

 fully under Euro- 

 pean notice, although 

 one of the smaller 

 forms from the Aru 

 islands had been par- 

 tially* made known 

 as early as the year 

 1711. The name 

 kangaroo, it may be 

 observed, is said to 



be of Australian origin, although it appears to be now unknown to the natives. 

 The kangaroos and wallabies, which include the largest tftembers of the family, are 

 characterized by the great length and powerful development of the hind-limbs as 

 compared with the front pair; and the enormous size of the tail, which is regularly 

 tapering, and evenly covered with fur from end to end. In the hind-foot the claw 

 of the fourth toe is enormously developed, and the first toe is wanting. The head 

 is small, with an elongated and usually completely-naked muzzle, and large up- 

 right ears. The females have four teats. The skull is characterized by its smooth 

 and rounded contours, and the absence of any inflation in the bulla of the internal 

 ear. The tusk in the upper jaw is minute, and shed at an early period, and the 

 upper incisor teeth are of nearly equal length, and form a regular open curve. The 

 lower incisor teeth have sharp inner edges capable of cutting against one another in 

 a scissor-like manner, and the crowns of the molar teeth carry a pair of transverse 



THE GREAT GRAY KANGAROO, WITH YOUNG IN POUCH. 



