HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 405 



tremely (hort, and are moftly ufed in digging or bringing 

 its food to its mouth ; it moves altogether on its hind 

 legs, making fucceffive bounds of ten or twelve feet, 

 with fuch rapidity, as to outftrip the fleeteft Greyhound ; 

 it fprings from rock to rock, and leaps over bullies feven 

 or eight feet high, with great eafe it has five toes on 

 its fore feet, — three on the hind, the middle one very 

 long ; the inner claw is divided down the middle into 

 two parts. 



The Kanguroo refts on its hind legs, which are hard, 

 black, and naked on the under fide. Its fur is fhort and 

 foft, of a reddifh afh colour, lighter on the lower parts. 



It is the only quadruped our colonifts have yet met 

 with in New South- Wales that fupplies them with ani- 

 mal food. There are two kinds. The largeft that 



had been fhot weighed about 1401b.; and meafured, 

 from the point of the nofe to the end of the tail, fix feet 

 one inch; the tail, two feet one inch; head, eight inch- 

 es ; fore legs, one foot ; hind legs, two feet eight inches ; 

 circumference of the fore part of the body, near the legs, 

 one foot one inch; and of the hind part, three feet. 

 The fmaller kind feldom exceed 60 lb. 



This animal is furnifhed with a pouch, fimilar to that 

 of the Opoflum, in which its young are nurfed and ftijel- 

 <tered. 



