GREAT HOCK KANGAROO. 
105 
Maoquarrio. This specimen is in bud condition, and Mr. 
Gould informs us, that tlio defective parts of its fur have been 
made up by finely-cut sheep’s wool; whence has arisen, he 
supposes, the specific name la/tiger , most commonly used for 
the animal This name, however, is not altogether inappli¬ 
cable to the species, for its natural fur is of a somewhat woolly 
nature; or it might, perhaps, be more justly compared to a 
coarse kind of cotton, and the softness of texture arises from 
un almost total ubsence of die longer and coarser hairs, which 
in most Kangaroos hide the soft and dense under fur—a 
character which at once catches the eve, and assists in dis- 
tinguisliing it from its congeners. M. Desinarust’s specific 
name of rufm, however, lias the priority of diat of laniger 
(Gaimard), and hence should be used in preference. Mr. Gould 
procured two of his specimens in Soudi Australia, and the 
others on the plains bordering the Niunoi. “ From the works 
of Oxley and Sturt," Mr. Gould remarks, “ we find that diis 
species frequents die banks of die Murrumbidgee and Darling; 
wo may consequendy infer diat it is very generally dispersed 
over the great basin of the interior of Australia, and it cer¬ 
tainly is over the eastern pordons of diat continent. * ♦ * 
The female is particularly attractive, from her graceful, 
slender, and elegant form, and from the snowy wliiteness of 
her legs, and of the under part of die body, contrasted with the 
blue-grey tint of her sides and back. The male, especially 
when adult, has the red and white more blended into each 
odier, the blue-grey, which distinguishes the female, being 
rarely, if ever, perceptible ; lienee has arisen die names of red 
buck and blue doe for the two sexes repectively: die female 
is also called the flying doe, from her extreme fleetness, for 
which her whole structure is so admirably adapted, that I 
have little hesitation in saying, that, under favourable cir¬ 
cumstances, she would outstrip the fastest dogs : occasionally, 
however, both sexes are successfully chased, eidier from the 
clmse being over soft muddy soil, or, in the case of the female. 
