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. 135 (Morris). Either the squirrel, kangaroo rat, or opossum.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), I. 289–90. 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.
