20 



MAMMALIA. 



live on the ground or on trees ; the majoritj^ are herbivorous or 

 frugivorous ; some feed on insects. They contain four genera : 

 the Kangaroos, the Phalangers, the Tarsipedes, and the Bandacoots. 

 KaiKjaroos. — The most prominent characteristic of the Kan- 

 garoos is the relative disproportion of their anterior and posterior 

 members. Whilst the former are short and weak, the latter are 

 singularly long, thick, and strong. Thence the name of Macro- 

 podes (large feet) which certain authors give to the Kangaroos. 



Fig. -1. — Giant Kangaroo {Macrvpus majur). 



The tail is long and powerful, and constitutes a sort of fifth 

 member, destined to facilitate in the Kangaroos that mode of 

 progression which is peculiar to them. 



Fig. 5 very clearly exhibits the structure of the organic 

 framework of an ordinary Kangaroo ; the disproportion which 

 exists between its anterior and posterior members. It shows also 

 the two bones called marsupial. Very curiouslj'-, however, in one 

 of the arboreal Kangaroos {Dcndrolagus ursinus) of New Guinea, 

 the anterior limbs are even larger than the posterior ; and in 



