418 PEOFESSOE OWEN ON MACEOPUS. 



1853, p. 349) in Prof. Flower's ' Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia,' 

 12mo, 1870, p. 209. 



For the purpose of palseontological comparison, however, there is the same need of 

 illustrations of the osteology of existing species of Macropodidae as led to my submitting 

 to the Zoological Society those of the Phascolomyidse, which they have done me the 

 honour to publish in the eighth volume of their useful and valuable ' Transactions.' 



To illustrate the characters of the bones in the larger Kangaroos, I have selected 

 those of a species of which I am not aware of any figures having been previously given, 

 viz. of the great Eufous Wallaroo (Macropus rufus, Desm. \ M. laniger, Gaimard - and 

 Gould, subsequently referred by the latter eminent explorer of the natural history of 

 Australia to his subgenus Osphranter^). 



^ 2. The Skull. 



I may premise that the skull in Kangaroos (Macropodidae, Ow. *) is characterized by 

 the great length of the diastema, or toothless tract, between the molars and incisors in 

 both jaws. A minute rudiment of a canine, or a minute depression where such 

 rudiments may have been lodged, is present in some small kinds of Kangaroo, but is 

 inconstant in them. 



The skull (Plate LXXIV.) is long, through the extension of the facial or maxillary 

 part in front of the orbits (fig. 1, o) ; and these cavities, interposed between the facial 

 and cerebral part, are large ; they widely communicate, as in the rest of the order, with 

 the temporal fossse (ib. t). 



The paroccipital (ib. figs. 1 & 4, 4) and masseteric (ib. 21, i) processes are produced 

 downwards — the former to an extreme degree, to which Phascolarctos, perhaps, affords 

 the nearest approach in the marsupial order. 



A sagittal crest may be indicated in old males of some of the larger Kangaroos, but 

 is never elevated. The zygomatic arch is deep, with the malar (26) element, suspended 

 between the maxillary (21) and squamosal (27) piers. The malar contributes a small 

 but definite share (ib. fig. 3, 26x) to the outer part of the joint for the mandible, the 

 entire articular surface (27 x) being subquadi'ate, feebly convex transversely, partially 



' ' Mammalogie,' Supplement, p. 541 (1822). 



• Bulletin des Sciences par la Societe Philomatique (1823), p. 138. 

 ' ' Mammals of Australia,' fol. part v. 



* Not the Macropidse of J. E. Gray, nor the Macropodidae of Waterhouse. The former term, like the Didel- 

 phidse of De Blainville, is equivalent to the ordinal term " Marsupialia," see ' Catalogue of the Bones of Mam- 

 malia in the collection of the British Museum,' 8vo, 1862, pp. 119-140. The latter term includes the Potoroos 

 (Hypsiprj-mnidae) with the Kangaroos. The species, however, which have the dental formula i. j^^, c. j,-^, 

 p. tl, m. ^, manifest, in the series of extinct with recent forms, so many generic modifications, that a name 

 for the canineless family of Poephaga is requisite. 



