GREAT KANGUROO. 
511 
one young at a birth ; and so exceedingly dimi- 
nutive is the young, when first found in the 
pouch, as scarce to exceed an inch in length. 
The young continues in the pouch till it is grown 
to a large size, and takes occasional refuge in it 
long after it has been accustomed to come abroad. 
The Kanguroo feeds entirely on vegetable sub- 
stances, and chiefly on grass. In their native 
state these animals are said to feed in herds of 
thirty or forty together; and one is generally ob- 
served to be stationed, as if apparently on the 
watch, at a distance from the rest. 
The flesh of the Kanguroo is said to be rather 
coarse, and such as to be eaten rather in defect 
of other food than as an article of luxury. 
I know not how it happens that Dr. Gmelin, 
in his observation on the Kanguroo (Didelphis 
gigantea. Lin. Syst. Nat, Gmel. p. 109-)^ af- 
firms, that the teeth are those of a Didelphis ; 
since they differ most widely from those of that 
genus, as will readily appear on collating the ge- 
neric characters. It is, however, true that some 
of the Australasian Opossums have a greater af- 
finity to the Kanguroo in the disposition of their 
teeth than to the animals of the Linna^an genus 
Didelphis, with which, for convenience, we have 
associated them. How Linn^us would have dis- 
posed of these anomalous species may, perhaps, 
be doubted; but the inquiry seems of no great 
importance, since they possess characters which 
will always sufficiently distinguish them without a 
particular examination of their teeth. 
