MACROPUS, the kanguroo, in natural history, a genus of mammalia of the order Perx. Generic character : six front teeth in the upper jaw, emarginated ; two in the lower, and very long, sharp, large, and pointing forwards; five grinders on each side of the upper and under jaw, distant from the other teeth ; fore legs very short ; hind ones very long ; the fe male with an abdominal pouch. This is one of the most curious of all the animals discovered on the continent of New South Wales, where it was observed by some of the sailors of Captain Cook in the year 1770. When bill grown, it weighs about 150 pounds. Its head somewhat resembles that of it deer, but is destitute of horns ; its countenance is gentle and complacent ; its colour is of a pale brown ; its length from the nose to the tail is between four and five feet, and the length of the tail is about three feet. Its general position, when resting, is that of standing on its hind feet, on their whole extent to the knees, and its fore feet are frequently employed, like those of the squirrel, as hands. They are often, however, laid on the ground, and the kanguroo is often seen in this posture, feeding. Vegetables, and particularly grass, constitute its only nourishment. In its rapid motions, however, the fore feet are wholly useless, and it proceeds by leaping on its hind feet, which it will do to the distance of fourteen or sixteen feet, and with bounds so rapid in succes sion, that it exceeds in swiftness a com mon dog. Kanguroos possess the faculty
of separating at pleasure the two front teeth of their lower jaw; and the female is furnished with a pouch in the abdo men, of extraordinary depth, in which are placed two teats. But one young one is produced at a time, which, when first observed in the pouch, after its birth, is scarcely more than an inch in length, but grows to a considerable size in this na tural receptacle before it quits it, and frequently recurs to it for warmth and security after its first dislodgment from it. This animal is in this striking cir cumstance allied to the opossum genus, under which Gmelin ranks it, but it dif fers from the opossum materially in re spect to the structure of the teeth. In its general appearance it strongly resembles the jerboa. It was the only quadruped which Australasia supplied to the English colonists for food. It has been not only imported into England, but has repeated ly bred in that country, and may be con sidered as now naturalized ; and though not apparently convertible to any impor tant service, exhibits a very interesting variety to the observer of nature. Many of these animals are kept in the royal premises at Kew, where those unacquaint ed with their form and habits may be ea sily gratified by a sight of them in various stages of growth, and bounding before him with a vivacity and elasticity highly entertaining. See Mammalia, Plate IX. fig. 3.