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THE KANGAROO.


_To the Editor of the Scientific American:_

In page 69 of your issue of 3d of February, 1883, I notice among the
"Challenger Notes" of Professor Mosely the statement that "Among
stockmen, and even some well educated people in Australia, there is a
conviction that the young kangaroo grows out as a sort of bud on the
teat of the mother within the pouch." Some eighteen months ago I
noticed a paragraph wherein some learned professor was reported to
have set at rest the contested point as to whether the kangaroo come
into being in the same manner as the calves of the cow and other
mammals, or whether the young grows, as alleged, upon the teat of its
dam within the pouch. The learned professor in question asserted that
it did not so grow upon the teat; but, with all due respect to the
professor's claim to credibility on other matters, I must in this
instance take the liberty of stating that he is in error. The young
kangaroo actually oozes out, if I may use such an expression, from the
teat. Strange as the statement may seem, it is a fact that the first
indication of life on the part of the kangaroo offspring is a very
slight eruption, in size not larger than an ordinary pin head. This
growth gradually resolves itself into the form of the marsupial, and
is not detached until close upon the expiring of of the fourth month.
It is carried by the mother during that period, and thenceforth exists