STORY OF THE KANGAROO. 
In the summer of the year 1770, when Captain Cook was refitting his 
vessel at the mouth of the Endeavour River in New South Wales, a party of 
his crew who had landed to procure food brought back reports of a strange 
animal of large size, which sat upright on its hind-limbs and tail, and pro¬ 
gressed by a series of enormous leaps. Excitement among those on board 
was naturally raised to the highest pitch by this account—especially as a 
naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks, was a member of the expedition—and soon after 
a specimen of the animal in question was killed. This creature was the one 
we know by the name of the great gray kangaroo and was the first member 
- of the family which came fully under European notice. 
The name kangaroo is said to> be of Australian origin, although it ap*- 
pears to ; be now unknown to the natives. The kangaroos are characterized by 
the great length and powerful development of the hind-limbs as compared 
with the front pair; and the enormous size of the tail, which is regularly 
tapering, and evenly covered with fur from end to> end. 
All the members of the kangaroo^ family are purely vegetable feeders, and 
are mainly confined to Australia and Tasmania. 
From the general form and structure of the kangaroo, there can be little 
doubt that its chief progressive motion must be by leaps; in these exertions it 
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