512 GREAT KANGUROO. 



One of the most remarkable particularities of 

 the Kanguroo is the extraordinary faculty which 

 it possesses of separating at pleasure, to a con- 

 siderable distance, the two Ions: fore teeth in the 



* o 



lower jaw. This faculty, however, is not abso- 

 lutely peculiar to the Kanguroo, but takes place 

 in an animal of a very different and distant ge- 

 nus, viz. the Mus maritimus. (Lin. Syst. Nat. 

 Gmel.) 



It should seem that there are in reality either 

 different species, or at least permanent varieties of 

 the Kanguroo, which are hitherto not sufficiently 

 known to be exactly described. Some of these 

 appear to be of a darker colour than the common 

 Kanguroo, and to have a coarser fur. 



The Kanguroo may now be considered as in a 

 great degree naturalized in England ; several hav- 

 ing been kept for some years in the royal domains 

 at Richmond, which have, during their residence 

 there, produced young, and seem to promise to 

 render this most elegant animal a permanent ac- 

 quisition to our country; though it must, no 

 doubt, lose, by a degree of confinement and al- 

 teration of food, a part of its natural habits, and 

 exhibit somewhat less of that bounding vivacity 

 which so much distinguishes it in its native wilds 

 of Australasia. 



