90 
MACKOPODIDiE. 
Tlic only two perfect specimens of this fine animal at pre¬ 
sent in Europe are those wliicli form the subject of one of 
the plates in Mr, Gould's Monograph. They now grace the 
collection of the British Museum, and their discovery is due 
to Mr. Gould’s zealous assistant, Mr. Gilbert, who procured 
them, together with many other novelties, at Port Essington. 
Captain Chambers, who placed several imperfect skins of 
the Ospliranter or Antilopine Kangaroo in Mr. Gould’s hands 
to assist 1dm in his study of the group, informed him that he 
had seen individuals -which were one hundred and seventy 
pounds in weight, indicating that the present species attains a 
size nearly one-third larger than the male specimen in the 
British Museum, that having weighed about one hundred and 
twenty pounds. 
The same gentleman informs Mr. Gould that when hardly 
pressed in the chase, the Ospliranter becomes exceedingly 
fierce and bold, and, wldle among the rocks, is a most 
dangerous animal to encounter, one of his finest dogs being 
tumbled over a precipice and killed by an old male. 
Unlike most Kangaroos, where the fur is long, and the 
under fur, being abundant, is loosely applied to the body, the 
Antilopine Kangaroo is clothed with short stiff hairs, and 
these lie close to the skin, as in many of the Antelope tribe; 
a peculiarity which suggested the specific name. The pre¬ 
sent species is remarkable, moreover, for the great expanse 
of the nasal cavity of the skull; a character which induced 
Mr. Gould to regard it as the type of a new genus or sub¬ 
genus, for which he proposed the name Ospliranter. The 
character in question, however, I can but regard as n specific 
peculiarity. The muffle is very broad; the fore legs large 
and powerful, and the fore feet are furnished with very strong 
claws; the hind legs and feet are comparatively rather shorter 
than in the Macropus yiyanteus; the central toe is very 
large, whilst the two united toes, as well as the outer toe, are 
