THE KANGUROO. 157 
appendages, and to some of the islands which form the 
great chain of connexion between that insular continent 
and South-eastern Asia. The former is, however, their 
head quarters, and the species which are found beyond 
its limits are few in number compared with those which 
people its territory, and, what is more remarkable, people 
it to the exclusion of nearly all the other Mammalia; 
the dog alone, the universal concomitant of man, and 
one or two species of rats, disputing with them their 
title to its exclusive possession; for those paradoxical 
creatures, the Ornithorhynchus and Kchidna, if really 
mammiferous, approximate closely in structure to the 
Marsupial tribe. 
The largest of these animals are the Kanguroos, whose 
generic characters we shall now proceed to describe. 
Their teeth are only of two kinds, the canines being 
altogether wanting. The incisors are six in the upper 
jaw, and two only in the lower; the former short, and 
arranged in a curved line, and the latter long, pointed, 
closely applied to each other, and directed forwards. 
The molars are separated from the incisors by a consi- 
derable vacant space, and are five in number on each 
side of each jaw. The most remarkable peculiarity in 
the external form of these animals consists in the extreme 
disproportion of their limbs, the anterior legs being short 
and weak, while the posterior are extremely long and 
muscular. The tail too is excessively thick at its base, 
of considerable length, and gradually tapering ; and this 
singular conformation enables it to act in some measure 
as a supplemental leg, when the animal assumes an 
erect or nearly erect posture, in which position he is 
supported as it were on a tripod by the joint action of 
