MACRO POD ID.K. 
53 
which is interrupted in parts, merely serving to connect each 
pair of transverso cusps. All these ridges are covered 
externally with enamel, and when the molar is considerably 
worn we find it presenting two principal loops, or folds, of 
enamel, entering from opposite sides of the tooth, and meeting 
in the mesial line; two much narrower folds enter into the 
body of the tooth, in the same way, in the fore part of the 
tooth, but at the back of the tooth there is but one distinct 
narrow fold, and that enters from the outer side, and exists 
only in the upper molars. 
The Kangaroos are vegetable*feeding animals, browsing 
upon herbage, like the Ruminants, and it appears that in 
some cases they chew the cud, like those animals 1 . Some 
are of great size, being nearly as tall as a man when in their 
common erect position; others are as small as the common 
hare, and indeed greatly resemble that animal in general 
appearance. They are remarkable, generally, for the small 
size of the anterior extremities, and for the slender propor¬ 
tions of the fore parts of the body, which are very flexible, 
and, on the other hand, for the great hulk of the hinder 
part of the body, and the large size of the hind legs and tail. 
W hen browsing they apply the fore feet to the ground, hut 
usually they rest entirely on the hind feet and tail, and have 
the fore part of the body elevated, and inclining slightly for¬ 
wards. The great and powerful tail serves as an extra limb, 
and is capable for a moment of supporting the whole weight 
of the body. In some of the smaller species of the present 
family the disproportion in size of tho fore and hind legs is 
much less striking, and the tail is less powerful than in die 
large species of true Macropus, as now restricted; and in die 
1 '* I have more than once observed the act of rumination in the Kangaroos 
kq»t in the Vivarium of the Zoological Society.'*— Owen, article Manupialia, 
in Todd’s* Cyclopfedia of Anatomy and Physiology. 
