MACROPUS FULIGINOSUS.

Sooty Kangaroo.

Kangurus fuliginosus, Desm. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xvil. p. 35. pl. E. 22 CK. géant).—Ib. Ency. Méth.
Mamm., part i. p. 263.

Kangurou géant, F. Cuv. et Geoff. Hist. Nat. des Mamm., fasc. 2.—F. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat., tom. xxiv. p. 347.

Macropus fuliginosus, Less. Man. de Mamm., p. 225.—Gould, Mon. of Macrop., pl. .—Waterh. in Jard. Nat.
Lib. Marsupialia, p. 200.—Gray, List of Mamm. in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 88.—Waterh. Nat. Hist. of
Mamm.,vol. 1. p. 73.

 

Auruoucu I have mentioned, in my account of Macropus major, the probability that the animal to which the
name of J. fuliginosus has been assigned is merely a variety of that species, I have thought it advisable to
give reduced figures from the original specimens in the Paris and Leyden Museums, because these specimens
differ considerably in the colouring of their fur from the ordinary examples of JZ. major, and because I
believe the animal is no longer to be found on Kangaroo Island, where, according to Desmarest, the speci-
mens above referred to were procured. The peculiar dull red colouring they exhibit may or may not be
due to some unusual mode of preparing the skin before mounting ; but one thing is certain: whatever may

have been the original colouring of their fur, the term fudigznosus is now by no means descriptive of it; in all

 

probability the change is due to the long exposure to light and dust to which they have been subjected,—an
agency which has not only had a deleterious effect upon the specimens in question, but upon all those I
brought from Australia. To become acquainted with the natural colouring of the various species of
Kangaroo, it is positively necessary to observe them in their native country, where the newly-killed animals
present colours which no art on the part of the Taxidermist or care on the part of Museum curators has the
power of preserving, and to give a faithful portraiture of which, coloured drawings should then and there be
made. I see the necessity of this more and more, whenever I look at specimens in our museums, from all
of which the colours have more or less faded, until a general sameness of tint pervades the whole.

Fur of the body rather long and inclining tu a woolly texture; general colour rusty yellowish brown,
darker and inclining to sooty on the shoulders and centre of the back; hairs of the throat, back and
abdomen grisly ; sides of the face and muzzle uniform, and of the same colour as the body ; inner surface
of the ear furnished with long white hairs ; external surface blackish brown; toes and apical half of the
tail blackish brown.

Male. Female.
feet. inches. feet. inches.
Length from the nose to the extremity of the tail 7 BF 4 93
5) Ob the tail’ 0. ee 6 1 9
5 ,, tarsus and toes, without the nail 0 gt
‘ pc ale 44 3+
a Peeled gs 7

The Plate represents both sexes, necessarily greatly reduced.