254 MARSUPIALIA. 



hair is grown, its testicles are in the scrotum. The penis is formed on 

 the verge of the anus, and is itself external at this age 1 . 



The Potoroo [Macropus minor, Shaw; Hypsiprymnus murinus, 111.] . 



This animal might be called ' kangaroo minus:' the head is flat 

 sideways, but not so much so as in the true Scalpris-dentata : the ears 

 •are neither long nor short, but much as a mouse's in proportion to the 

 size of the animal. The fore-legs are short in comparison with the 

 hind : there are four toes on the fore-foot ; the two middle ones are 

 long and nearly of equal length, with long narrow nails slightly bent : 

 the two side toes are short, nearly of equal size, but the outer one is 

 rather the longest. From the nails on the two middle toes one would 

 suppose that they burrowed. The hind-legs are long, and they are able 

 to stand on either the whole foot or on the toes only : on the hind-leg 

 there are three toes ; the middle one is large, and the two side ones are 

 short 2 . The tail is long. The hair on the body is rather thin : it is of 

 two kinds, the fur and the long hair, which latter becomes exterior 

 from its length. The fur is the finest and is serpentine. The long 

 hair is stronger, and is also serpentine for more than two-thirds of its 

 length, near to the skin, and the extremity terminates in a pretty 

 strong pointed end, like the quill of the hedgehog. It is of a brownish 

 grey, something like the hair of the brown and grey rabbit, with a tinge 

 of a greenish yellow. The female has a pouch on the lower part of the 

 belly, which opens forwards and passes back to the pubis, where it 

 terminates : on the abdominal surface of this pouch are four nipples, or 

 two pairs ; each pair being very near to one another. 



Of the Tongue. — The tongue is not thick, as in the Scalpris-dentata. 

 The velum palatum molle is broad, and terminates in a thin edge. The 

 epiglottis is complete. 



Of the Stomach. — The oesophagus is continued a little way within the 

 abdomen, before it dilates into the stomach. The stomach is of a very 

 singular shape 3 . The duodenum takes the usual sweep, from the right 

 to the left, and is attached through its whole length ; it is also exposed 

 through its whole length, and commences jejunum. This gut is strung 



1 [The male organs of the kangaroo are shown in Hunt. Preps. Nos. 2474, 2482, 

 the female organs in Nos. 2739, 2740 : the peculiarities of the mammary foetus in 

 Nos. 3768 — 3776. The preparations described in the Editor's memoirs on the 

 generation of the kangaroo, are Nos. 2740 a — c, 3460 c — f, 3765 A.] 



- [The inner toe consists of the homologues of the second and third toes enclosed 

 in a common sheath of integument as far as the claws.] 



3 [See the description of the stomach of the potoroo (Hypsiprymnus) in my 

 article Marsupialia, Cyclopaedia of Anatomy, vol. ih. p. 301.] 



