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aflbciation with the Videlphides. In the mean time, if external form or ha- 

 bit alone were to be regarded, we might confider the Kanguroo as a gigantic 

 kind of Jerboa, fmce it has the fame length of hind-legs, the fame brevity 

 of fore-legs, and the fame fpringing motions and fhape : yet the teeth are 

 almoft as different from thofe of the Jerboa as from thofe of the Opojfum. In 

 fad:, we need not have the flightcft hefitation in forming for the Kanguroo 

 a diftind genus, with the charadlers above prefixed. 



The largeft animal then of the genus is that reprefented on the prefent 

 plate. Its fize, fhape, and fwiftnefs, concur in rendering it a trijly curious 

 and interefting quadruped. The fpecimens which have been commonly fent 

 over to Europe have been equal in fize to a fhecp ; but far larger are faid 

 to have been fecn in its native regions. The Kanguroo is faid rarely to 

 produce more than one young at a time. This, as in the OpolTom tribe, 

 is prefcrved a long time in the abdominal pouch before it acquires its fur 

 and receives as it were a fecond birth ; after which it takes refuo-e occafi- 

 onally in the fame receptacle, till it is fufficiently advanced to be able to pro- 

 vide for its own fafcty. The color of the Kanguroo is a beautiful palifh 

 afli-brown, lighter or whitiib on the abdomen and infide of the limbs. The 

 form of the feet is fingular ; the fore-feet being armed with five claws of 

 nearly equal fize, while the hind-feet are furnifhed with one extremely large 

 middle claw, two other fmaller, and two very fmall ones clofely united un- 

 der one common fkin. It is atfo a fingular circumftancc, that feveral other 

 Auftralian quadrupeds have the fame kind of double interior toe on the hind 

 feet. The whole afped of the foot of the Kanguroo bears fome difbnt re- 

 femblance to that of a bird. The Kanguroo feeds only on vegetables, and 

 is of a harmlefs nature, but is extremely wild and timid ; bounding forwards 

 with amazing celerity, by repeated fprings of a great many feet at a time, 

 fo as eafily to efcape purfuit. This is what may well be imagined, if we 

 confider the diflance to which even the common Jerboa is faid to fpring, 

 viz. ten, twenty, or thirty feet: it may furely then be granted, that an ani- 

 mal 



