Besides the emu, many birds of prodigious size have been seen, which promise to increase the number of those described by naturalists, whenever we shall be fortunate enough to obtain them; but among these the bat of the Endeavour River is not to be found.  In the woods are various little songsters, whose notes are equally sweet and plaintive.

Of quadrupeds, except the kangaroo, I have little to say.  The few met with are almost invariably of the opossum tribe, but even these do not abound.  To beasts of prey we are utter strangers, nor have we yet any cause to believe that they exist in the country.  And happy it is for us that they do not, as their presence would deprive us of the only fresh meals the settlement affords, the flesh of the kangaroo.  This singular animal is already known in Europe by the drawing and description of Mr. Cook.  To the drawing nothing can be objected but the position of the claws of the hinder leg, which are mixed together like those of a dog, whereas no such indistinctness is to be found in the animal I am describing.  It was the Chevalier De Perrouse who pointed out this to me, while we were comparing a kangaroo with the plate, which, as he justly observed, is correct enough to give the world in general a good idea of the animal, but not sufficiently accurate for the man of science.

Of the natural history of the kangaroo we are still very ignorant.  We may, however, venture to pronounce this animal, a new species of opossum, the female being furnished with a bag, in which the young is contained; and in which the teats are found.  These last are only two in number, a strong presumptive proof, had we no other evidence, that the kangaroo brings forth rarely more than one at a birth.  But this is settled beyond a doubt, from more than a dozen females having been killed, which had invariably but one formed in the pouch.  Notwithstanding this, the animal may be looked on as prolific, from the early age it begins to breed at, kangaroos with young having been taken of not more than thirty pounds weight; and there is room to believe that when at their utmost growth, they weigh not less than one hundred and fifty pounds.  A male of one hundred and thirty pounds weight has been killed, whose dimensions were as follows: 

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Feet.              Inches. 
Extreme length                            7                  3
Ditt of the tail                          3                  4 1/2
Ditto of the hinder legs                  3                  2
Ditto of the fore paws                    1                  7 1/2
Circumference of the tail of the root     1                  5
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After this perhaps I shall hardly be credited, when I affirm that the kangaroo on being brought forth is not larger than an English mouse.  It is, however, in my power to speak positively on this head, as I have seen more than one instance of it.