|90ptitar 3ictianarg at SIniraatefc jlature. 357 



right in the manner of a squirrel ; and it 

 burrows in the ground, like the smaller kind 

 of Jerboas, with great ease and expedition ; 

 having five very strong and long claws on 

 each of its fore feet : those on its hind feet 

 are short, and four in number. [See HE- 



LAMYS.l 



JERFALCON. [See FALCON.] 



JOHN CROW VULTURE. The local 

 name in Jamaica for the Turkey Buzzard. 

 [See TURKEY BUZZARD.] 



JOHN DORY. [See DORY.] 



JUMNOS. A singular genus of Coleoptera 

 belonging to the family Cetoniadcc, one spe- 

 cies of which, described by Mr. W. W. 

 Saunders, is still very rare in collections ; 

 this is the J.Ruckeri; it is of a brilliant 

 green with large yellow marks on the elytra, 

 and the male has long fore legs. It is a 

 native of Northern India. 



JUMPING HARE. [See HELAMYS.] 



JUNGLE-FOWL. (Megapodius tumulus.-, 

 rk on the " Birds of 



gives an interesting account of 



this bird, which in size is about that of a com- 

 mon Fowl, and must not be confounded with 

 the Jungle Cock of India, a very different 

 bird. Its mode of constructing its mound- like 

 nest, and its manner of depositing the eggs, 

 &c., very much resemble those described 

 under TALEGALLA [which see]. " The 

 Jungle-fowl," we learn, "is almost exclu- 

 clusively confined to the dense thickets im- 

 mediately adjacent to the sea-beach : it ap- 

 pears never to go far inland, except along 

 the banks of creeks. It is always met with 

 in pairs or quite solitary, and feeds on the 

 ground, its food consisting of roots which its 

 powerful claws enable it to scratch up with 

 the utmost facility, and also of seeds, berries, 

 and insects, particularly the larger species 

 of Coleoptera. It is at all times a very dif- 

 ficult bird to procure ; for although the 

 rustling noise produced by its stiff pinions 

 when flying away be frequently heard, the 

 bird itself is seldom to be seen. Its flight is 

 heavy and unsustained in the extreme ; when 

 first disturbed it invariably flies to a tree, 

 and on alighting stretches out its head and 

 neck in a straight line with its body, re- 

 maining in this position as stationary and 

 motionless as the branch upon which it 

 is perched : if, however, it becomes fairly 

 alarmed, it takes a horizontal but laborious 

 flight for about a hundred yards, with its 

 legs hanging down as if broken. I did not 

 myself detect any note or cry, but from the 

 natives' description and imitation of it, it 

 much resembles the clucking of the domestic 

 fowl, ending with a scream like that of the 

 peacock." The head and crest of this bird 

 is of a very deep cinnamon brown ; back of 

 the neck and all the under surface very dark 

 gray ; back and wings cinnamon brown ; 

 upper and under tail coverts dark chestnut 

 brown ; tail blackish brown ; bill reddish 

 brown, with yellow edpes ; tarsi and feet 

 bright orange. It appears that on Mr. Gil- 

 bert's arrival at Port Essington his attention 

 was attracted to numerous great mounds of | the neck tliin and finely proportioned ; the 



earth which were pointed out to him by 

 some of the residents as being the tumuli of 

 the aborigines. The natives, on the other 

 hand, assured him that they were formed 

 by the Jungle-fowl for the purpose of hatch- 

 ing its eggs : and so it afterwards proved. 

 One of these mounds is described as 'fifteen 

 feet high, and sixty in circumference at the 

 base, and so enveloped in thickly foliaged 

 trees as to preclude the possibility of the 

 sun's rays reaching any part of it. 



KAIIAU. The Proboscis Monkey. [See 

 MONKEYS.] 



KAKAPO. A New Zealand parrot. [See 

 SiRiaors.] 



KALONG. The name given to several 

 species of Fox-bats (.Pteropidce), [See 

 PTEROPCS.] 



KANGAROO. (J/ocropt.) This extra- 

 ordinary animal is peculiar to Australasia, 

 and belongs to the marsupial order of quad- 

 rupeds ; but it receives its scientific name 

 from the enormous length of the hind feet, 

 which is the distinguishing characteristic in 

 all the animals included in the family Ma- 

 cropopidce, or Kangaroo tribe. But before 

 we proceed to describe the form and habits 

 of this singular quadruped, we shall mention 

 the circumstances (as detailed by Dr. Shaw) 

 attending its first discovery. This was in 

 1770, when the celebrated navigator Captain 

 Cook was stationed for a short time on that 

 part of the coast of New Holland which is 

 now called New South Wales. On Friday, 

 June 22, says Captain Cook, a party who 

 were engaged in shooting pigeons for the 

 use <- 1 the sick of the ship, saw an animal 

 which they described to be as large as a 

 greyhound, of a slender make, and ex- 

 tremely swift. The following day the same 

 kind of animal was again seen by a great 

 many other people. On the 24th it was 

 seen by Captain Cook himself, who, walking 

 at a little distance from the shore, observed 

 a quadruped, which he thought bore some 

 resemblance to a greyhound, and was of a 

 light mouse-colour, with a long tail, and 

 which he should have taken for a kind of 

 wild dog, had not its extraordinary manner 

 of leaping, instead of running, convinced 

 him of the contrary. Mr. Banks also ob- 

 tained a view of it, and immediately con- 

 cluded it to be an animal perfectly new and 

 undescribed. Some time after, this gentle- 

 man, accompanied by a small party, had an 

 opportunity of chasing two with his grey- 

 hound, which the Kangaroo, by its bound- 

 ing leaps over the high grass, soon out- 

 stripped. It was not long, however, before 

 one was shot ; and the scientific associates 

 in this expedition of discovery were then 

 fully gratified. 



The u 



upper 

 hile 



parts of the Kangaroo are 

 small, while the lower are remarkably large 

 in proportion ; yet its general appearance 

 is decidedly picturesque. The head bears 

 some resemblance to that of a deer, and the 

 visage is mild and placid : the ears are mo- 

 derately large, rather pointed, and upright ; 

 the eyes large, and the mouth rather small ; 



