MARSUriALIA. 115 



M. major, Shaw; Didelphis gigantea, Gm. ; Schreb. CLIII. 

 (The Greater 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 ve- 

 nison. The young ones, which at birth are only an inch long, pass 

 into the maternal pouch, even when they are ohl enough to graze, 

 wliich they effect by stretching out their necks from their pouch, 

 while tlie mother herself is feeding. These animals live in troops, 

 conducted by the old males. They make enormous leaps. It ap- 

 pears that we have hitherto confounded, 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.* 

 There is another species much more anciently known : — 



M. Brunii; Did. Brunii, Gm.; Schreb. CLIII. ; called Pe/aw- 

 dor Aroe, or the Aroe Rabbit, by the Malays of Amboyna. (The 

 Kanguroo of Aroe). Larger than a hare ; brown above, fa^\ii-co- 

 loured beneath. Found in the islands near Banda, and in those of 

 Solor. European naturalists had not paid sufficient attention to the 

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



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

 Kanguroo). Size of a large hare ; transversely striped with brown 

 on a greyish-white ground. Foimd at the island of St. Peter («). 



The fifth subdivision has two long incisors, without canines, in the 

 lower jaw ; in the upper, two long incisors in the middle, a few small ones 

 on the sides, and two small canines. It comprehends but one genus. 



* 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 Kan- 

 guroo a cou roux, a little less than the others, with some red on the nape of the neck. 

 Messrs. Lesson and Garnot also describe a brown kanguroo, which they call Ouala- 

 bate, Voy. de Freychi. pi. ix. We shall also probably be obliged to make new spe- 

 cies of the Kanguroo roux-cannelle, (K. laniger, Quoy and Gaym.) Voy. de Freycin. 

 pi. ix., and of the Kanguroo cendre-bleuafre ; but all these quadrupeds require to be 

 examined at various ages ; and we must ascertain the influence of age and sex upon 

 their colours, previous to a final establishment of the species. 



^' (rt) This kanguroo is stiled by the traveller mentioned in the text (Peron), 

 Itlaropus Fasciatus, the Fasicated Kanguroo. He gives a most interesting accoimt 

 of the intelligence and affections of the females, as displayed towards the offspring, 

 which in early life occupy so peculiar a position externally, to the body of the mother. 

 The young of the opossumus have to undergo a similar process with that of the kan- 

 guroos, and are received, at an early period of gestation, into the external pouch. 

 The time at which the transfer takes place to the pouch is not yet ascertained; but 

 the naturalists, who have carefully examined this subject, have found, that, when the 

 young is seen first attached to the nipple, there is no face, and the nipple seems only 

 to adhere to a round hole in the muzzle of the imperfect offspring. After this, the 

 lips and jaws grow upon tlie nipple ; until at length, about half an inch of it remains 

 in the young creature's mouth. A keeper of a kaiigui'oo in France, in the employ- 

 ment of an ex- French princess, made notes of the gestation of a kanguroo, from 

 which it appeared that the period had continued from the 6th of May to the Cth of 

 October; and the young kanguroo did not finally quit the pouch till the following 

 .January. Several kan^uroos have thrived and bred readily in the Zoological Gar- 

 dens, where they are fed on grain, various common vegetables, and hay. — Eng. Ed. 

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