VERTEBRATA. MAMMALIA. 



into the stomach; furnishing, as Professor Owen 

 justly observes, " a most irrefragable evidence of 

 creative foresight." 



The Kangaroos are all natives of New Holland 

 and Van Dieman's Land, where they inhabit the 

 plains covered with long grass and bushes. They 

 are not strictly gregarious, though many are often 

 collected at one spot. The flesh is excellent and 

 much prized ; and therefore they are the objects of 

 eager pursuit. " When hunted they will bound 

 over gullies and down declivities the distance of 

 thirty yards, and fly right over the tops of low 

 brushwood; in such places dogs stand very little 

 chance with them, but in a clear open country they 

 soon tire them out. When a dog gets close to a 

 large Kangaroo it will often sit on its tail and 

 haunches and fight the dog, turning adroitly round 

 and round, so as always to face him, and pushing 

 him off with the fore paws ; or it will seize and hug 

 him like a bear, ripping him up with the long sharp 

 claw of its powerful hind leg. They constantly cut 

 and often kill dogs with this terrible weapon, which 

 will tear out the bowels at a single kick." About 

 forty species are already known, a few of which, 

 possessing canine teeth, have been separated by the 

 name of Hypsiprymnus,* the Kangaroo Rat or Po- 

 toroo. New species, however, are every year being 

 added to our knowledge, as the interior of that vast 

 continent becomes explored. They breed freely in 

 confinement. 



s, height, and <rgquv0V) prymnos, behind. 



