kangaroo-rat
1. A small Australian marsupial, belonging to one or other of several genera, esp. Potorous and Bettongia; a rat-kangaroo, potoroo, or bettong.
| 1788 Phillip in Hist. Rec. N.S. Wales I. ii. 135 (Morris) Either the squirrel, kangaroo rat, or opossum. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) I. 289 The kangaroo rat, or more properly rabbit, is about the size of the smallest of the latter kind of animal. 1856 Knight Cycl. Nat. Hist. III. 710 The manners of the Kangaroo-Rat are mild and timid. |
2. An American pouched rodent, Dipodomys, common in the south-western States and in Mexico.
| 1891 Flower & Lydekker Mammals 479 D[ipodomys] phillipsi, the Kangaroo-Rat of the desert regions east of the Rocky Mountains. |