If the short fore limbs are examined, they will be noticed to be able to do a great deal in the way of holding, clasping, and turning things about, and they are used in patting the little ones, and in embracing and cleaning them. The five digits, or fingers, have a very free movement, and the fore arm can twist and turn like that of the higher animals; that is to say, it is capable of pronation and supination. The first digit, or thumb, has two joints (phalanges), and the other four have three; and the five curved claws (the third and fourth being large) are useful weapons of offence. But they and the fingers are often used for very different purposes, and they have, in the female, to open the curious pouch for the young ones, and to place them there. There is an evident relation between the arrangement of the bones of the wrist and this necessary office or function. The _marsupium_, or pouch, is a kind of inbending of the skin of the lower part of the belly, and is moist and naked inside. In it, in the females, are the nipples of the mammary glands, and to these the very young Kangaroos[84] hang on for a long time, before they see the outer world. They are put in there by the mother, when they are just born, and when very small and not perfectly formed. They grow there, and after a while, leave the nipple when they think fit. As this pouch, with its contents, would drag upon the mother, it is kept from doing so, more or less, by two bones which are found amongst the muscles of the lower part of the body, and which are attached to the front or pubic bones of the pelvis. They are called marsupial bones. They exist also in the males, but they have no open pouch, for it is, as it were, turned outwards, and contains part of the reproductive organs. The head is long, and is remarkable for the long nose, and large full eyes, with eyelashes, for the Kangaroo is not nocturnal in its habits, like most of the Marsupials. The upper lip is split, the end of the nose or muffle is naked or hairy according to the kind, and the brain-case is small. The nostrils are at the side of the end of the muzzle, and are slit-like and oblique, and there are bristly “smellers” to the fleshy lips and chin. A slender tongue is sometimes seen for an instant whilst the Kangaroo is feeding, and if the bones of the jaws be examined, the angle, or lower part of the back of the lower jaw, will be found to be turned inwards.