CLASS I. MAMMALIA: OR ITER 13. MARSUPIALIA. 



073 



THE GIANT KANGAROO. 



agency of the hind-legs alone, and in these efforts the long, powerful tail is employed in main- 

 taining the equilibrium. 



The largest of the species is the Giant Kangaroo, M. major or M. giffanteus, first discovered 

 by Captain Cook in 1789, and known to the colonists under the name of Boomer. It is of the 

 size of a large sheep, and sometimes weighs one hundred and forty pounds. The period of g< - 

 tation is thirty-nine days; the young one, when born, is a little over an inch long, and looks like 

 a semi-transparent mouse. It is probably lifted by the mouth of the mother into the marsupium 

 and placed near the nipple, which it then instinctively seizes. It remains here till it is able to go 

 forth and feed upon grass; to this retreat it returns, and here it lives, till it is capable of taking 

 care of itself. The flesh of the kangaroo is excellent, and the animal is much hunted, alike by 

 the colonists and the natives; in some parts where they were once abundant, the larger sp. 

 are already becoming scarce. The skin is made into leather for shoes and gloves. This species 

 is found in Australia ; it has been repeatedly bred in England, 



The Sooty Kangaroo, M. fuliginoms : this is about the same size as the last species. 

 Mr. Waterhouse thinks it will prove to be a variety of the M. major. He says: "The name 

 Sooty Kangaroo is most ill-applied to the present animal, since its coloring is any thing but Booty, 

 being for the most part of a brownish-yellow, rather bright on the sides of the body, and some- 

 what suffused with dusky-brown on the middle of the back." 



Vol. L— 85 



