Jtine 17, 1875] 



NA TURE 



129 



led men's minds astray from the path where only they 

 could find the truth they were earnestly seeking. 



Those who desire to believe nonsense at all hazards 

 and in the face of the clearest possible proofs, and indeed 

 hke it rather the better because it is so, can of course 

 continue in their fool's paradise. Who can doubt that 

 they see the paragon of animals in the author of the pas- 

 sage we have been criticising, and that he sits at the 

 centre — the "focal point" is the choice expression, we be- 

 lieve — of a select circle of admiring " pectoral sucklers " 

 the very " hub of the universe," as our American friends 

 might say ? The Report of the last Local Examination 

 Syndicate of one of our Universities speaks of Zoology as 

 follows :— " The general character of the work in this sub- 

 ject is, perhaps, even worse than it was last year. In 

 many cases the teaching appears to have been faulty or 

 defective ; there was a general ignorance of the principles 

 of zoological classification ; and a great number of candi- 

 dates sent up answers so full of confusion and error as to 

 lead to the opinion that they had only prepared for the 

 examination by a hurried attempt to learn portions of a 

 text-book by rote." Who can wonder at this prevalent 

 " ignorance of the principles of classification " when a 

 zoologist in a position to give instruction to youth and 

 encourage their devotion to the study of nature utters 

 absurdities such as we have just been noticing ? We 

 fear that he is not alone in his mischievous folly, 



LECTURES AT THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS* 



VII. 



yiine 10. — Pro/. Mivart on Kangaroos. 



AFTER pointing out the external and osteological 

 characters of the Kangaroo, the lecturer pro- 

 ceeded to consider the question, What is a Kangaroo ? 

 what its place in the scale of animated beings ; as 

 also its relations to space and time ? At birth the 

 Kangaroo is strangely different from what it ulti- 

 mately becomes. It is customary to speak of the 

 human infant as exceptionally helpless at birth and 

 after it, but it is at once capable of vigorous suck- 

 ing, and very early learns to seek the nipple. The 

 great Kangaroo, standing some six feet high, is at birth 

 scarcely more than an inch long. Born in such a feeble 

 and imperfect condition, the young Kangaroo is not able 

 to suck of its own accord. The mother places it on one 

 of the nipples and squeezes its own milk-gland by means 

 of a muscle which covers it, in such a way that the fluid 

 enters the mouth of the young one. In most animals, 

 man included, the air-passage opens into the floor of the 

 mouth behind the tongue, and in /ro?ii of the opening of 

 the gullet. Each particle of food as it goes towards the 

 gullet passes over the entrance to the windpipe, but is 

 prevented from falling in by the action of the epiglottis, 

 which stands up in front of the opening and closes over 

 it when food is passing. But in the young Kangaroo, the 

 milk being introduced, not by any voluntary act of the 

 recipient, but by the action of the mother, it is evident 

 that some special mechanism is necessary to prevent 

 choking. This is found in the elongation of the upper 

 part of the windpipe, which projects up into the nasal 

 passage, and is embraced by the soft palate in such a 

 manner that the food passes on each side of it, whilst the 

 air does not enter the mouth at all. 



The Kangaroo browses on the herbage and bushes of 

 more or less open country ; and, when feeding, commonly 

 applies its front limbs to the ground. It readily, how- 

 ever, raises itself on its hind limbs and strong tail, as on 

 a tripod, when any sound, sight, or smell alarms its 

 natural timidity. Mr. Gould tells us that the natives 

 sometimes hunt them by forming a great circle around 

 them, gradually converging upon them and so frightening 



* Continued from p. 114. 



them by cries that they become an easy prey to their 

 clubs. The Kangaroo is said to be able to clear even 

 more than fifteen feet at one bound. It breeds freely in 

 the Society's Gardens, many being reared to maturity. 

 They have been also more or less acclimatised in the 

 grounds of Glastonbury Abbey, in the parks of Lord Hill 

 and the Duke of Marlborough, and elsewhere. 



It is just upon one hundred and five years since the 

 Kangaroo was first distinctly seen by Englishmen. At the 

 recommendation and request of the Royal Society, Capt. 

 (then Lieutenant) Cook set sail in 1768, in the ship 

 Endeavour, on a voyage of exploration, and for the 

 observation of the Transit of Venus of the year 1769. In 

 the spring of the following year the ship steered from 

 New Zealand to the eastern coast of New Holland, visit- 

 ing, among other places. Botany Bay. Afterwards, when 

 detained in Endeavour River, an animal as large as a 

 greyhound, of a slender make, a mouse colour, and 

 extremely swift, was seen more than once. On July 14, 

 " Mr. Gore, who went out with his gun, had the good 

 fortune to kill one of these animals," adding, "This 

 animal is called by the natives Kangaroo." Kangaroos, 

 however, had been seen by earlier travellers, and these 

 may even be the animals referred to by Dampier when 

 he tells us that on the 12th of August, 1699, "two or 

 three of my seamen saw creatures not unlike wolves, but 

 so lean that they looked like mere skeletons." 



The whole animal population of the globe is termed 

 the Animal Kingdom, in contrast with the world of 

 plants, or Vegetable Kingdom. The highest sub-kingdom 

 of this is that of the Vertebrata, of which the Mammalia 

 form the highest class, to which class the Kangaroos 

 belong. Of these animals there are many species 

 arranged in some four genera ; the true Kangaroos 

 forming a genus, Macroptis, which is very nearly allied to 

 three others, namely, Dorcopsis, with a very large first 

 grinding tooth ; ' Dendrola^iis (Tree Kangaroo), which 

 frequents the branches of trees, and has the fore limbs 

 but little shorter than the hind ; and Hypsiprymnus (Rat 

 Kangaroo), which has the first upper grinder compressed 

 and vertically grooved. The species all inhabit Australia 

 and the adjacent islands. They all agree in having the 

 second and third toes slender and united in a commoa 

 fold of skin ; the hind limbs longer than the fore limbs ; 

 no inner metatarsal bone ; all the fore toes provided with 

 claws ; and six upper together with two lower incisors. 

 These five characters coexist in no other animal. 



The family Macropodida; is one of six which, together 

 with it,make up the larger Kangaroo Order,the exTCt rela- 

 tions of which necessitate a cursory view of the others 

 being taken. The Bandicoot plainly differs from the 

 Kangaroo in external appearance, but resembles it in 

 having the hind limbs longer than the fore, and also in 

 the structure of the hind feet, which are similarly modi- 

 fied, but to a less degree, a rudimentary inner toe being 

 present. It is an example of the family Peramelidic, 

 one member of which, Cha'ropus, is very exceptional, in 

 that the hind toes, except the fourth, are exceedingly 

 reduced and functionless, at the same time that its 

 anterior digits are only two in number. The Pha- 

 langer is a type of the Phalangistidi?>, arboreal, noc- 

 turnal animals, in which the limbs are of nearly equal 

 length, with the second and third hind toes united, and a 

 large opposable thumb. Some have prehensile tails, 

 others expansions of the skin in the flanks to act as a 

 parachute in leaping. The Koala {P/iascolarctus) and 

 Tarsipes are aberrant members ; the former without a 

 tail, the latter with minute and few teeth. The genus 

 Citsais is found in New Guinea and Timor. The Wom- 

 bat {Phascolomys) forms a distinct family. It is a 

 burrowing, nocturnal animal, the size of a badger, with a 

 rudimentary tail, as well as peculiar feet and rodent-like 

 teeth. 



The Dasyuridc-e, or family of the native cat, wolf, and 



