THE KANGAROOS. 191 



ORDER MARSUPIALIA, MARSUPIAL OR POUCHED ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER I. 

 SUB-OEDER MARSUPIATA. THE KANGAROO AND WOMBAT FAMILIES. 



THE GREAT KANGAROO Captain Cook and the Great Kangaroo Habitat Appearance of the Animal Marsupials separated 

 from the other Mammalian Orders, and why (Footnote) Gestation and Birth of Young (Footnote) Mode of Running 

 The Short Fore Limbs The Marsupium, or Pouch Head Dentition Peculiarities in the Teeth Hind Extremi- 

 ties Foot Great Claw How the Erect Position is maintained Whence their Jumping Power is derived Other 

 Skeletal Peculiarities Kangaroo Hunts Becoming Rarer Mode of Attack and Defence Hands Bones of the 

 Fore Limbs Skull Stomach Circulation of Blood Peculiarity in Young Nervous System not fully developed 

 Brain The Baby Kangaroo in the Pouch THE HARE KANGAROO THE GREAT ROCK KANGAROO THE RED 

 KANGAROO THE BRUSH KANGAROO THE BRUSH-TAILED ROCK KANGAROO THE COMMON TREE KANGAROO THE 

 KANGAROO-RATS- -Characteristics THE RA:-TAILED HYPSIPRYMNUS Description THE WOMBAT FAMILY THE 

 WOMBAT Peculiarities Description Habits Teeth Skeleton. 



I. THE KANGAROO FAMILY.* THE GREAT KANGAROO.f 



IN the year A.D. 1770, the great circumnavigator, Captain Cook, was on the coast of New South Wales 

 repairing his ship, and a party of sailors were sent on land, to procure food for the sick. They saw an 

 animal whose description tempted Cook himself, and also Mr. Banks (afterwards Sir Joseph Banks), 

 to land and go in pursuit of it the next day. The animal was seen in company with others of its 

 kind, and its short front limbs, great hind legs, and huge tail, and the tremendous hops it made in its 

 very fleet course, quite bore out the statements of the astonished crew. They had seen, for the first 

 time, the Great Kangaroo in its wild condition and on its own ground. Soon afterwards a specimen 

 was shot, and notes were made about the creature, and some skins were brought over to Europe. 



The animal has now become familiar to the civilised world. It is, however, gradually receding 

 before the Australian colonist and squatter ; but formerly it roamed all over the plains of New South 

 Wales, Southern and Western Australia, Queensland, and Van Diemen's Land, with only the abori- 

 gines for its enemies. It is called Bundaary and Bullucur by the natives of the Liverpool range and 

 Murray, and the name Kangaroo is a mistaken native one. 



On looking at one of the Great Kangaroos in some menagerie or zoological garden, the first 

 peculiarities that strike the eye are its small fore limbs, its very large and long hind ones, 

 and the great and thick tail. The smallness of the head, which has rather long ears, and a long 

 dusky brown muzzle, the length of the body, and the comfortable grey-brown, thick, shortish fur, are 

 then noticed. But the principal fact which impresses all these things upon the visitor, is that the 

 female may have a little Kangaroo with its head poked out of a kind of pouch in the under part of 

 the body. Sometimes the little one jumps out and gets in again if it is frightened, and the old one 

 moves, hops, and jumps about, with its portable nursery, with the greatest ease. J 



Sometimes the Kangai-oos may be seen feeding, and then the awkwardness of their gait becomes 



* The Macropodidce. t Macropus giganteus (Shaw). 



I The presence of the pouch, or marsupium, containing the teats, involves many structural and physiological pecu- 

 liarities which separate the Marsupialia, in a classificatory sense, from the rest of the Mammalia. The Great Kangaroo, 

 which may be considered a fair example of the Marsupials, has in the female a set of skin muscles, around the pouch, beneath 

 the skin, which close it. The milk, or mammary gland, has four long, slender teats in the pouch, and beneath the skin 

 of it is a muscle called the cremaster, which is largely developed. It spreads over the surface of the gland, and its action is 

 to squeeze it and to force out the milk through the teat. There is thus protection for the young, and milk is given forth, 

 without the effort of the young in sucking. The reason for this is obvious. The Great Kangaroo, which is often as tall as a 

 man, is pregnant for about thirty-nine days only, and then a little one, not bigger than a thumb, is born ; it is not completely 

 formed, and is blind and cannot move itself. The mother places it in her pouch, and it fixes on to a teat, where it hangs for 

 about eight months, and then it begins to look out of the pouch. The duration of the life of the young in the womb is thus 

 very small, and it has no placenta there, which in the other and non-marsupial Mammalia forms the life-union between the 

 mother and the offspring before its birth. Thus, the Marsupials form one great group of Mammalia which are "implacen- 

 talia," without placentas or " after-births," and all the other Mammalia are "placentalia," and have this link between 

 mother and young. In all the Mammalia hitherto described the young come into the world by a single passage. In those 

 now under consideration (the Marsupialia) there is a double passage, and the womb is separated into two portions, being 

 double ; so they are termed Didelphia. The marsupium has two remarkable bones more or less in relation to it, and all animals 

 thus furnished are termed Marsupialia, and they form two sections or sub-orders (1) The Marsupiata proper, with marsupial 

 bones, mostly with pouches, and with inflected lower jaws. (2) The Monotremata, which have marsupial bones, depressions 

 in the skin, when suckling, like ill-developed pouches, and beak -like jaws in front, which are not inflected. 



