To The Drawing Nothing
Can Be Objected But The Position Of The Claws Of The Hinder Leg, Which Are
Mixed Together Like Those Of A Dog, Whereas No Such Indistinctness
Is To Be Found In The Animal I Am Describing.
It was the Chevalier De Perrouse
who pointed out this to me, while we were comparing a kangaroo with the plate,
which, as he justly observed, is correct enough to give the world in general a
good idea of the animal, but not sufficiently accurate for the man of science.
Of the natural history of the kangaroo we are still very ignorant. We may,
however, venture to pronounce this animal, a new species of opossum,
the female being furnished with a bag, in which the young is contained;
and in which the teats are found. These last are only two in number,
a strong presumptive proof, had we no other evidence, that the kangaroo brings
forth rarely more than one at a birth. But this is settled beyond a doubt,
from more than a dozen females having been killed, which had invariably
but one formed in the pouch. Notwithstanding this, the animal may be looked on
as prolific, from the early age it begins to breed at, kangaroos with young
having been taken of not more than thirty pounds weight; and there is room
to believe that when at their utmost growth, they weigh not less than
one hundred and fifty pounds. A male of one hundred and thirty pounds weight
has been killed, whose dimensions were as follows:
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