Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/764

 KANGAROO KANKAKEE and paler below, toes and end of tail black. It prefers low grassy hills and plains and open districts, where it browses upon the herbage and low bushes, retiring from. the heat of mid- day under the shelter of the ferns and tall grasses. At the least alarm it raises itself on the hind legs and tail, its height enabling it to command a very extensive view ; exceed- ingly timid, with acute senses of smell and sight, it is difficult to approach, but occasional- ly falls a victim to the spears and traps of the natives who hunt it for food; the English colo- nists pursue it so successfully with hound and gun that it is now rarely seen except in the in- terior. The kangaroo sometimes turns upon his canine enemies, and will either rip them open with the sharp hind feet, or clasping one in his fore paws leap to some water hole and drown it; the unwary human hunter may meet a similar fate. One of the principal uses of the peculiar Australian weapon, the boome- Great Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus). rang, which may be made to fall in advance of or behind the thrower, is to destroy the timid and wary kangaroo. Though nearly as awk- ward as a bat when browsing, it is a most fleet and graceful animal when making its enormous bounds, sometimes clearing a rod at a leap. The fore feet are prehensile, and are used in the various offices connected with the care of the young. Kangaroos are not generally gre- garious. The skin is valuable for leather, which is esteemed for shoes and gloves ; the flesh is also considered a delicacy. Prof. Owen has ascertained that the gestation in the M. gi- ganteus is 29 days ; the young when first born resemble, according to observations made at the London zoological gardens by him, earth worms in color and semi-transparency, the body being bent upon itself, the short tail tucked in between the hind legs, and these last one third shorter than the fore legs ; the whole length, when stretched out, was 1-J in. As soon as born, the young are placed in the mother's pouch, which is held open by her fore paws while they are taken up by her mouth. There is no vascular connection be- tween the young kangaroo and the nipple; when separated by force the milky secretion is seen oozing out ; the young seem unable to re- gain the nipple, which is sometimes replaced in the mouth by the mother ; the teat has a circular enlargement at the tip, which makes it easy to be retained. Though the young can firmly grasp the nipple by the lips, it cannot draw the milk without the aid of the mother, which by the action of a muscle in the mam- mary gland can inject this fluid into the mouth of the suckling ; lest the act of injection, when not coinciding with that of suction, should en- danger the life of the fostus from suffocation, the cartilages of the larynx are so arranged that the opening of the glottis is placed at the top of a cone which projects, as in whales, into the posterior nostrils, so that the stream of milk passes on each side into the gullet without the possibility of entering the wind- pipe. The subgenus lagorchestes (Gould) in- cludes a few small kangaroos with the muffle clothed with velvet-like hairs ; halmaturus (F. Guv.) comprises those in which the muffle is naked in front ; heteropus (Jourdan) contains the rock kangaroos, with compact body, hind feet comparatively short and rough beneath, hairy tail, and naked muffle. In the tree kan- garoos (dendrolayus, Muller) the fore legs are almost as long and strong as the hind legs, with pointed claws, and the tail is long, bushy, and cylindrical ; they ascend trees with facility. The rat kangaroos constitute the genus hypsi- prymnus (Illiger), called also potoroos; they are about the size of a rabbit, with upper ca- nines, compact body less elongated anteriorly, and with the toes of the fore feet unevenly de- veloped, the three central ones the longest, with solid nails compressed and broadest above ; they feed on roots which they dig up with their fore paws. Fossil kangaroos have been found in the limestone caverns and allu- vial deposits of Australia, of which the M. At- las, Titan, and OoliaJi (all of Owen) were at least one third larger than any living species. The fossil genera diprotodon and nototherium of Owen, the former superior and the latter equal to the rhinoceros in bulk, found in the alluvial deposits of the Australian Condamine river, are considered to have been marsupials coming near the kangaroos and the wombats. k.WKAKKE. a N. E. county of Illinois, bound- ed E. by Indiana, and drained by Kankakee and Iroquois rivers; area, about 590 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 24,352. It has a level sur- face, and consists chiefly of prairie with some swamps. Coal and limestone are found. The Chicago branch of the Illinois Central, the Chicago, Danville, and Vincennes, the Cincin- nati, La Fayette, and Chicago, and the Chicago and Alton railroads pass through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 103,946 bushels of wheat, 637,399 of Indian corn, 772,408 of oats,