298 
MR.  E.  T.  BENNETT'S  ACCOUNT  OF  MACROPUS  PARRYI. 
swiftness  ;  and  it  was  curious  to  see  it  bounding  up  a  hill  and  over  the  garden  fence, 
until  it  had  placed  itself  under  the  protection  of  the  dogs  belonging  to  the  house,  espe- 
cially of  two  of  the  Newfoundland  breed,  to  which  it  was  attached,  and  which  never 
failed  to  afford  it  their  assistance  by  sallying  forth  in  pursuit  of  its  adversaries." 
Captain  Parry  further  observes,  that,  "  like  all  other  Kangaroos,  this  animal,  when  in 
active  motion,  never  touches  the  ground  with  its  tail,  merely  using  it  to  form  a  tripod 
w^hen  standing  erect.  It  seems  to  inhabit  no  part  of  the  colony  in  the  latitude  of  Sidney." 
On  his  return  to  England  Sir  Edward  Parry  brought  the  animal  with  him  ;  but  soon 
after  his  landing  it  met  with  an  accident  by  which  its  leg  was  broken,  and  which  it 
survived  for  only  a  short  time.  Its  body  w^as  presented  to  the  Society  while  yet  recent; 
and  the  following  account  of  the  particulars  observed  in  its  dissection  is  by  my  friend 
Mr.  Owen. 
"  Having  examined,  at  the  request  of  my  friend  Mr.  Bennett,  the  principal  viscera  of 
this  new  species  of  Macropus,  I  find  that  they  present  with  few  variations  the  same 
characters  which  belong  to  the  anatomy  of  the  greater  Kangaroo,  and  which  have  been 
for  the  most  part  described  and  figured  in  the  works  of  Home  and  Cuvier. 
"The  large  sacculated  stomach  occupied  the  epigastric,  left  hypochondriac,  and  left 
lumbar  regions  ;  from  this  it  passsed  obliquely  upwards  and  across  the  abdomen,  and 
then  turned,  as  in  the  greater  Kangaroo^,  to  terminate  in  the  duodenum.  The  cardiac 
end  was  produced  into  two  small  sacculi,  which  were  not  so  much  separated  from  each 
other  as  in  Macr.  major,  but  were  folded  back  upon  the  stomach.  The  cardiac  extre- 
mity was  situated  sternad  of  the  oesophagus,  w^hich  was  about  3  inches  long  after  passing 
the  diaphragm.  The  interior  of  the  stomach  presented  the  same  disposition  of  cuticle, 
and  series  of  glandular  patches,  and  the  pylorus  was  surrounded  by  the  same  thickened 
zone  of  glands,  as  in  Macr.  major.  The  sacculi  were  puckered  up  by  two  longitudinal 
bands  extending  from  the  oesophagus  along  either  side  of  the  smaller  curvature,  while 
in  Macr.  major  a  third  longitudinal  band  extends  along  the  line  from  which  the  great 
epiploon  is  continued  to  the  spleen  and  transverse  colon. 
"  There  were  two  hair-balls  in  the  stomach,  of  an  oval  shape,  not  rounded  as  they 
generally  are  in  the  Ruminants,  which  are  most  obnoxious  to  these  formations.  One  of 
these  hair-balls  measured  3  inches  in  the  long  diameter ;  the  other,  2  inches.  They 
were  entirely  composed  of  the  hairs  of  the  animal,  matted  together  and  agglutinated 
by  the  mucus  of  the  stomach.  This  occurrence  of  an  inconvenience  which  is  the  oc- 
casional result  of  a  necessary  complication  of  the  principal  digestive  organ,  is  interesting 
on  account  of  the  near  approach  to  the  Ruminating  tribe  which  the  Kangaroos  make 
in  the  complexity  of  the  stomach,  and  which  is  united  with  a  corresponding  simplicity 
of  the  coBcum  and  colon. 
"  I  have  more  than  once  observed  the  act  of  rumination  in  the  Kangaroos  preserved 
in  the  Vivarium  of  the  Society.  It  does  not  take  place  while  they  are  recumbent,  but 
'  Proceedings  of  the  Committee  of  Science,  Zool.  Soc,  Part  I,,  p.  161. 
