ORKAT KANGAROO. 
07 
movement is repeated so long as the animal continues to 
graze; but when it wishes to reach a distant spot, the fore 
legs ore removed from the ground, and it attains its end by a 
succession of hounds, and with an ease which ntonco removes 
the impression of awkwardness. When in an open country, 
living from its enemies, the Grout Kangaroo is said to make 
leaps to the distance of fifteen feet and more: its body out¬ 
stretched nearly horizontally, and the great tail in tho some 
direction, the latter is not then applied to tho ground, but 
serves as a balance, and to steady tho course. “ The prehen¬ 
sile faculty and unguiculato structure of the anterior extre¬ 
mities (as Professor Owen observes), appear to lmvo been 
indispensable to animals requiring to perform various mani¬ 
pulations in relation to the economy of the marsupial pouch; 
and when such an animal is destined, like the Ruminant, to 
range the wilderness in quest of pasturage, the requisite 
powers of the anterior members are retained, and secured to 
it by an enormous development of the hinder extremities, to 
which the function of locomotion is almost restricted." 
Without large canine teeth or horns, as weapons of defence, 
the Kangaroo, as is seen from the foregoing pages, is yet by 
no means to he attacked with impunity; its powerful hind legs, 
furnished with strong pointed nails, are formidable weapons, 
and the tail is so muscular, that it is capable of sustaining the 
whole weight of the body during the moment that they are 
used in striking. The foro claws are strong, and likewise 
used ns weapons of defence. 
In various accounts of the habits of the Kangaroo, the 
animal is said to bo gregarious, living in flocks, which are 
generally headed by an old male; but Mr. Gunn, a good 
observer, who has published some interesting notes on the 
habits of various species of marsupial animals 1 , attributes 
1 See Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. i. p. 10-4. 
