42 AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY, 
Great Rep Kancaroo —Macropus rufus. 
Introduction.—The red kangaroo is not only the most beautiful 
member of the family to which it belongs, but it may also be re- 
garded as the finest of the indigenous mammals of Australia yet dis- 
covered ; its large size, great elegance of form, rich and conspicuous 
colouring, all tending to warrant such an opinion. In 1853 a 
splendid male lived in the gardens of the Zoological Society in 
Reyent’s Park, London. It formed an attraction to visitors, who 
took an interest in the singular mammals of Australia. Prior to the 
arrival of Mr. Gould’s specimens in England, a single skin, and that 
in the most imperfect condition, was all that had ever reached 
Europe. This specimen is the original of the figure and description 
in the zoology of the ‘* Voyage del’ Uranie.” The specific term 
Macropus laniger had been applied to it, which seemed to Mr. 
Gould so unsuitable to his own specimens that he questioned their 
identity with the one referred to. He, therefore, visited the 
Museuin at Paris and examined the original, when he found to his 
surprise that the deficiencies of natural hair, on many parts of the 
skin, had been replaced by finely-cut sheep’s wool, whereby the 
appellation ‘* woolly kangaroo ” was rendered more correct than he 
supposed. The sides and upper surface of the body of those he took 
to Kurope are the only parts of the animal that have any tendency 
to the woolly character, and the hair on these parts entirely wants 
that crispness mentioned by Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard. The 
reeset in the museum of the Jardin des Plantes was presented to 
the officers of the French expedition by Fraser, the botanist, during 
their stay at Sydney, and was said to have been from Port 
Macquarie—in all probability it should have been the Macquarie 
River, since it is an animal found remote from the coast. In the 
structure of its hinder feet, the greater length of its arms, the com- 
parative nakedness of its muzzle, and in the much smaller size of 
the female compared with the females of the true Macropi, and in 
the difference in the colouring of the sexes, it is most intimately 
allied to the great rock walleroos, to which Mr. Gould gave the 
generic name Osphranter. Hence, he associated it with the members 
of that genus, and called it Osphranter rufus, which latter or 
specific name has the priority over that of Janiger assigned to it by 
M. Gaimard, but Aether of these names is generally followed. 
Description.—The length of the head and body is about 65 
inches, of the tail about 42 inches. The general colour of the male 
is sandy red slightly tinged with orange, especially on the 
flanks and rump. The neck, back and shoulders are washed with 
ashy grey ; the same tint, but somewhat paler, is also observable on 
the outer side of the thigh. ‘The head isa deep ashy grey, tinged 
in parts with sandy red ; the sides of the muzzle, as far as the angle 
of the mouth and the chin, ure pure white. ‘Che throat, chest and all 
the under surface are tawny white, tinged with grey. The arms 
and legs are tawny white ; the hands and toes are blackish brown ; 
the tail is tawny white, tinged with grey. The male, especially, 
