158 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
these three powerful organs. By means of this combi- 
nation they will, when flying from danger, take a suc- 
cession of leaps of from twenty to thirty feet in length 
and six or eight in height; but even in their more quiet 
and gradual mode of progression they also make use of 
their tail in conjunction with their four extremities. The 
fore feet are furnished with five toes, each terminating in 
a moderately strong and arcuated claw. The hinder 
extremities, on the contrary, have only four toes, the two 
interior of which are united together so as to form the 
appearance of a single one furnished with two short and 
feeble claws; the third is long, of great strength, and 
terminated by a large and powerful claw having the 
form of a lengthened hoof; and the fourth, the most 
external of the series, is similar in character to the third, 
but of much smaller dimensions. The head and anterior 
part are small and delicate, and appear quite dispro- 
portioned to the robust posterior half of the body; and 
this disproportion is equally striking, whether the animal 
assumes an erect position or crouches forwards upon all 
fours. In either case the whole extent of the soles of 
the posterior feet, which are of great length, is applied 
to the surface of the ground. Although differing from 
all the Rodent animals in the number of the cutting 
teeth of the upper jaw, the Kanguroo has the deep 
fissure in the upper lip, with which nearly all that order 
are furnished, and of which the hare offers a familiar 
and proverbial instance. 
These singular animals were among the first fruits 
which accrued to natural history from the discovery of 
New South Wales, a country which has since proved so 
fertile in new and remarkable forms both of the animal 
