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Show 132 MAMMALIA. gentle herbivorous animals, their grinders presenting mere transverse ridges. They have five teeth in all, the front. ones being more or less trenchant and falling out with age; so that m old Kanguroos we frequently find but three. Their stom.ach consists of two long sacs that are inflated at several places hke a colon. The crecum also is large and has inflations. The radius allows a complete rota-tion of the fore-arm. In these two genera the penis is not bifurcated, but the female or-gans of generation are similar to those of other Marsupialia. M. major, Shaw; Didelphis gigantea, Gm.; Schreb. CLIII. (The Gigantic Kanguroo.) Sometimes six feet in height. It is the largest of the New Holland animals ; was discovered by Cook in 1779, and is now bred in Europe. Its flesh is said to resemble venison. The young ones, which at birth are only an inch long, remain in the maternal pouch even when they are old enough to graze, which they effect by stretching out their necks from their domicile, while the mother herself is feeding. These animals live in troops, conducted by the old males. They make enormous leaps. It appears that we have hitherto con· founded under this name several species of New Holland and its neighbouring countries, whose fur, more or less grey, only varies by a trifling difference of shade.( 1) There is another species much more anciently known : M. Brunii; Did. Brunii, Gm.; Schreb. CLIII.; calledPelandor Jlroe by the Malays of Amboyna. (The Kanguroo of Aroe.) ·Larger than a Hare; brown above, fawn coloured beneath. Found in the islands near Banda, and in those of Solor. Eu· ropean naturalists had not paid sufficient attention to the de· scriptions of the above species given by Valentine and Le Bruyn. M. elegans; Halma. elegans, Per. Voy. t. xxvii. (The Ele· gant Kanguroo.) Size of a large Hare; transversely striped with brown on a greyish-white ground. Found at the island of StPeter. The fifth subdivision has two long incisors in the lower jaw (1) M. Geoff. distinguishes the Kanguroo enfume, in which the grey is deeper; the Kanguroo a moustacltu, which has some white on the front of the upper lip ; the Kanguroo a cou roux, a. little less than the others, with some red on the nape of the neck. Messrs Lesson and Gar not also describe a. brown Kanguroo which they call Oualabate, Voy. de Freycin. pl. ix. We shall also probably be obliged to make new species of the Kanguroo roux-cannelle, ( K. laniger, Quoy and Gaym.) Voy. de · Freycin. pl. ix; a.nd of the Kanguroo cendre-bleuatre ,· but a.ll these Quadrupeds re· quire to be examined at various ages, and we must ascertain the influence of age and sex upon their colours, previous to a. final establishment of the species. MARSUPIALIA. 133 but no camm; in the upper, two long incisors in front a few small ones on the' sides, and two small canines. It c~mprehends but one genus. KoALA, Cuv.-LIPURus, Gold.-PHASCOLARCTos, Blain. The Koalre have a short, stout body; short legs, and no tail. The toes of th.eir fore feet, five in number, when about to seize any object, separate mto two groups; the thumb and index on one side, and the remaining three on the other. The thumb is wanting on the hind foot; the two first toes of which are united like those of the Phalangers and the Kanguroos. One species only is known : K. cinerea; Lipurus cinereus, Gold.; Schreb. CLV, A, a. (The Koala.) Ash coloured ; passes one part of its life in trees and the other in burrows it excavates at their foot. The m~ther carries her young one for a long time on her back. Finally, our sixth division of the Marsupialia, or the PHASCOLOMYs, Geoff.(l) Consists of animals which are true Rodentia in the teeth and intestin. es, their ~nly rela~ion to the Carnaria consisting in the articulation of the1r lower Jaw; and in a rigorously exact system, it would be necessary to class them with the Rodentia. We should even ha;e placed them there, had we not been led to them by a regular unmterrupted series from the Opossums to the Phalangers, from the latter to the Kanguroos, and from the Kanguroos to the Phascolomys; and finally, were it not that the organs of generation are every way exactly similar to those of the Marsupialia. They are sluggish animals, with large, flat heads, and bodies that lo~k as if they had been crushed. They are without a tail ; have five nails on each of the fore feet, and four, with a small tubercle in P_I ac~ of a thumb, on each of the hind ones, all very long and fit ' for d~ggmg. Their gait is excessively slow. They have two long inCisors in each jaw, almost similar to those of the Rodentia· and each of their grinders has two transverse ridges. ' They feed on grass; their stomach is pyriform, and their crecum short an• d W·l d e, f urm· s h ed h·k e that of Man, and of the Ourang-Ou-tang, Wlth a vermiform appendage. The penis is bifurcated, like that of the Opossums. One species only is known, the ~has. ursinus; Didelphis ursina, Shaw; Peron. Voy. pl. x.xxviii, (1 he Wombat.) Size of a Badger; fur abundant, of a more (1) Pltascolornys, a pouched rat, from cpa.<Tx.l'.tll\OV and,uv,. |