GREAT KANGUROO. 511 



one young at a birth ; and so exceedingly dimi- 

 nutive is the young, when first found in the 

 pouch, as scarce to exceed an inch in length. 

 The young continues in the pouch till it is grown 

 to a large size, and takes occasional refuge in it 

 long after it has been accustomed to come abroad. 

 The Kanguroo feeds entirely on vegetable sub- 

 stances, and chiefly on grass. In their native 

 state these animals are said to feed in herds of 

 thirty or forty together; and one is generally ob- 

 served to be stationed, as if apparently on the 

 watch, at a distance from the rest. 



The flesh of the Kanguroo is said to be rather 

 coarse, and such as to be eaten rather in defect 

 of other food than as an article of luxury. 



I know not how it happens that Dr. Gmelin, 

 in his observation on the Kanguroo (Didelphis 

 gigantea. Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmd. p. 109.)., af- 

 firms, that the teeth are those of a Didelphis; 

 since they differ most widely from those of that 

 genus, as will readily appear on collating the ge- 

 neric characters. It is, however, true that some 

 of the Australasian Opossums have a greater af- 

 finity to the Kanguroo in the disposition of their 

 teeth than to the animals of the Linnaean genus 

 Didelphis, with which, for convenience, we have 

 associated them. How Linnaeus would have dis- 

 posed of these anomalous species may, perhaps, 

 be doubted; but the inquiry seems of no great 

 importance, since they possess characters which 

 will always sufficiently distinguish them without a 

 particular examination of their teeth. 



