brought
home. Until such an account shall appear, probably the following desultory
observation may prove acceptable.

The genus in which the kangaroo is to be classed I leave to better
naturalists than myself to determine. How it copulates, those who pretend
to have seen disagree in their accounts: nor do we know how long the period
of gestation lasts. Prolific it cannot be termed, bringing forth only one
at a birth, which the dam carries in her pouch wherever she goes until the
young one be enabled to provide for itself; and even then, in the moment
of alarm, she will stop to receive and protect it. We have killed
she-kangaroos whose pouches contained young ones completely covered with
fur and of more than fifteen pounds weight, which had ceased to suck and
afterwards were reared by us. In what space of time it reaches such a
growth as to be abandoned entirely by the mother, we are ignorant. It is
born blind, totally bald, the orifice of the ear closed and only just the
centre of the mouth open, but a black score, denoting what is hereafter to
form the dimension of the mouth, is marked very distinctly on each side
of the opening. At its birth, the kangaroo (notwithstanding it weighs when
full grown 200 pounds) is not so large as a half-grown mouse. I brought
some with me to England even less, which I took from the pouches of the old
ones. This phenomenon is so striking and so contrary to the general laws of
nature, that an opinion has been started that the animal is brought forth
not by the pudenda, but descends from the belly into the pouch by one of
the teats, which are there deposited. On this difficulty as I can throw
no light, I shall hazard no conjecture. It may, however, be necessary
to observe that the teats are several inches long and capable of great
dilatation. And here I beg leave to correct an error which crept into my
former publication wherein I asserted that, "the teats of the kangaroo
never exceed two in number." They sometimes, though rarely, amount to four.
There is great reason to believe that they are slow of growth and live many
years. This animal has a clavicle, or collar-bone, similar to that of the
human body. The general colour of the kangaroo is very like that of the
ass, but varieties exist. Its shape and figure are well known by the
plates which have been given of it. The elegance of the ear is particularly
deserving of admiration. This far exceeds the ear of the hare in quickness
of sense a