3^ 0^^^ \ ^ w^y ^^ ^y x^py vl '^. 15 ni.i. PL I Aao'-tl'.ir^/.Jc/ / /7ic C/r:/7i>'j„„-r/n//, t >//,;■ /:/'//,' /i'r,/ ir,>//' .1 77,r 7u-,/7„ YoLL Pl.U. L.aunIUrd..d^ /. J 6 77ie H ','////;// VoU. pi.m. /- ^ifn//nrd . i/^2 . I A.<:i.qlf )f///i 1/ tvrat/ii/.' ■J. '/'Ac (riYa/ f/arp/J . . .'' / III J.riii./hm,/ /"hL/y/i '^ T/,.- rmht/iJrt/a. jr /...: i.'.xsUJ. //onm-BuzzMr/ . 6 Oanyn-ru^. /. VoLl. ri.ii: J^OMrttlifiJ .del . I . I'od.ijyii^ . . '2. Epuniir/iiis iiuii/iii,/ii:us J . P/iiIi-i/fin nioiuij^hus . I../ /ifir .//ii/'f/ts J. I'hf/Anieruiai Os/rir/i . S. p ©AIRD. ANIMAL KINGDOM ARRANGED TN CONFORMITY WITH ITS ORGANIZATION, BY THE BARON CUVIEH, PERPETUAL SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ETC, ETC. ETC. THE CRUSTACEA, ARACHNIDES AND INSECTA, BY P. A. LATREILLE, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ETC. ETC ETC, TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, BY H. M'MURTRIE^ M.D. &c. &c. ( C FfcB .14 183 2 IN POUR VOlI^TVt-E,'*,'- WiTTf PLATK« VOLUME I. NEW YORK : G. & C. & H. CARVILL. MDCCCXXXI. Entered according- to the act of congre??, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, by G. & C. & H. Carvill, in the clerk's office of the southern distiict of New York, Philadelphia : Printed by James Kay, Jun. & Co. Piinters to the American Philosophical Society, No. 4, Minor Street. "-a /.I REMARKS. In presenting to the Zoologist this production of the Aris- totle of the nineteenth century, the oracle of his science, it is far from my intention to occupy his time by attempting to show that it is not only the best source of knowledge to which he can refer, that of Nature herself alone excepted, but that it is the only one from which he can be certain of obtaining it unmingled with the grossest error — for this is universally admitted. Divesting himself of the prejudices arising from a blind re- verence for authority and a habit of imitation, our author has brought all the free energies of his powerful and penetrating mind to the investigation of his subject. Perceiving at once the importance of the difference between the constant and mutable characters of animals, aware of the harmony subsist- ing between one constant character and another, and unap- palled by the prospect of the almost endless labour that awaited him, he resolved to expose them with the knife; ex- pecting by the aid of comparative anatomy to arrive at facts which would enable him to arrange the whole animal king- dom, from Man to the last of the Infusoria, in its natural order. How well he has succeeded, the precision with which he has characterized insulated and mutilated fragments of fossil bones of extinct species, and the reconstruction of the whole of their gigantic frames from a part, this book, and the common consent of the learned of all countries, amply testify. He has accomplished the boast of Horace, he has erected the altars of the science in the temple of Truth, and placed its IV REMARKS. everlasting foundations on the unchangeable organization of that economy it was his business to study: his monument is imjierhhsihle—'^'^ Bcgalique situ pyramidum altius.^^ When the extent and nature of this work are taken into consideration, it will be readily surmised that my task has been far from an easy one ; and a glance at the original is sufficient to convince the scientific critic that such is not only the case, but that the difficulties I have had to encounter were of no ordinary cast. The graceful flexibility of the French lan- guage is such as to yield to a combination of words and forms of expression that almost bid defiance to any thing like sy- nonymes in our more stubborn English. If this be true in relation to the language of conversation or that of books on or- dinary subjects, how greatly must the difficulty be increased when we find them abounding in a work like this ! Such has been my trouble and perplexity on this account, that I may be excused for observing, that although the necessity for making- new words cannot be denied, we should never forget that there are but two sources from which they can be legitimately drawn — the Latin or Greek. A word thus formed, being universally understood, may be removed unaltered from one language to another(l). Previously to commencing the execution of this version, it became indispensably requisite to fix upon some general plan of proceeding. The absurdity of translating into English the technical portion, or the nomenclature, was too apparent to demand a moment's consideration — the genius of our language forbids it. To have left these terms in French would have been inexpedient for self-evident reasons ; and the idea of giving a class in Latin, an order in French, &c., presented too revolting a medley. By giving them all in Latin, the common language of science, these objections vanished, al- though it entailed difficulties of a different character. I have ventured to encounter them ; and while strictly adhering to (1) For some remarks on tliis' subject, see Count Dejean's preface to liis Spe- cies, Sic, I, p. S. K EM ARKS. tlie spirit;, and;, as far as practicable, to tlie very letter of my author, have endeavoured to give to the whole work that classical '^form and pressure" which facilitates its study and tends to fix its great and leading points more firmly in the memory. How far I have succeeded others must determine. I have not forgotten that although this work is more parti- cularly intended to be studied by the naturalist, it will proba- bly be 7-ead by every one who has the slightest desire to ac- quire some knowledge of the numerous and interesting groups of animals by which Man is surrounded^ and with which he is so indissolubly connected. The general reader will lose nothing by the concise and simple style I have endeavoured to adopt; and although the meanings of the names affixed to the various divisions are not placed in glaring characters at their head, he will always find it in the text. Whenever an animal is mentioned that is generally known by one and the same English, or vulgar name, I have always given it ; but of the many thousands here treated of, very few are thus circumstanced, and I cannot but think that it would be advantageous to the science if vulgar names were totally excluded from its nomenclature. The evidence of this is to be found in the fact, that, with comparatively few exceptions, these names vary, not only in dilFerent countries, but in dif- ferent parts of the same country. Thus the Rockjish of Phila- delphia is a Striped-Bass at Boston ; the Sheephead of Pitts- burg (a Corvina) is a totally different fish from the one so called in our city (a Sargiis), and even belongs to a different family; the T7'out we receive from Long Branch might with equal propriety be denominated a Shark or a Sturgeon. Different names are sometimes attached to the same animal, and the same name to different animals. Vulgar names are a fruitful source of error ; and therefore I have employed them as spa- ringly and as cautiously as possible. An immaculate book is perhaps rather to be wished for than expected, and that errors should have crept into the R^gnc Animal is not at all surprizing. These I have endeavoured to correct, not by erasure or altering the text (those cases al- VI KEMAKKS. ways excepted where the mistake was evidently and purely typographical), but by a note, either on the page itself, or in the appendix. Thus, whatever has been added, nothing has been taken away, and the text of my author remains as I found it. It was originally my intention to have made considerable additions of American species to the Entomology, but to such an extent has the formation of new genera and the division of old ones lately been carried, that it would have required more time to do this correctly than to translate the whole book, and consequently I was compelled to abandon it. Of the Fishes of this country nothing can be said, until we are in possession of the expected work of M. Lesueur. The period in which America was compelled to look to Europe for a knowledge of her own productions has termi- nated; and our Wilson, Say, Ord, Le Conte, Harlan, Hentz, Audubon, &c. &c. arc repaying the debt with usury. Nor is this spirit of observation abating. The increasing number of institutions exclusively devoted to the natural sciences, in almost every section of our extensive country, shows the re- verse to be the fact, and authorizes us to expect the most splendid results from their united efforts. I cannot conclude without acknowledging my obligations to Major Le Conte for his valuable communications on various portions of the Regne Animal. The results of his critical and laborious investigations are chiefly to be found in the notes on American birds, and the Catalogue which closes this volume, and I have only to regret that the unfinished state of the w^ork on the Lepidoptera of North America, which is now being published at Paris by him and M. Boisduval, prevented me from employing it. H. M'MURTRIE. Philadelphia J June 1831. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Having devoted myself from my earliest youth to the stu- dy of comparative anatomy, that is to the laws of the or- ganization of animals and of the modifications this organiza- tion undergoes in the various species, and havings for nearly thirty years since, consecrated to that science every moment of which my duties allowed me to dispose, the constant aim of my labours has been to reduce it to general rules, and to pro- positions which may contain their most simple expression. My first essays soon made me perceive, that I could only attain this in proportion as the animals, whose structure I should have to elucidate, were arranged in conformity with that structure, so that in one single name of class, order, genus, &c. might be embraced all those species which, in their ex- ternal as well as internal conformation, have affinities either more general or particular. Now this is what the greater number of naturalists of that epoch had never attempted, and what but few of them could have effected, had they even been willing to try, since a similar arrangement presupposes an extensive knowledge of the structures, of which it is partly the representation. It is true, that Daubenton and Camper had given facts, that Pallas had indicated views : but the ideas of these learned men had not yet exercised upon their contemporaries the in- fluence they merited. The only general catalogue of animals then in existence, and the only one we possess even now, the system of LinnsBus, had just been disfigured by an unfortunate editor, who did not even take the pains to examine the prin- viil PKEFACli TO THE FIRST EDITION. eiples ol that ingenious mcthodist, and whoj wherever he Ibuud any disorder, seems to have tried to render it more in- extricable. It is also trucj that there were very extensive works upon particular classes, which had made known a great number of new species ; but their authors merely considered the exter- nal relations of those species, and no one had employed him- self in arranging the classes and orders from the ensemble of the structure ; the characters of several classes remained false or incomplete even in justly celebrated works of anatomy; some of the orders were arbitrary, and in scarcely any of these divisions were the genera placed conformably to nature. I was compelled then, and the task occupied a considerable period of time, I was compelled to make anatomy and zoology, dissection and classification, the pioneers of my steps ; to search for better principles of distribution in my first remarks on or- ganization — to employ them in order to arrive at new ones, and to render the distribution perfect — in fine, from this mu- tual reaction of the two sciences, to elicit a system of zoology that might serve as an introduction and a guide in anatomical investigations, and as a body of anatomical doctrine fitted to develope and explain the zoological system. The first results of this double labour appeared in 1795 in a special memoir upon a new division of the white blooded animals. A sketch of their application to genera and to their division in subgenera was the object of my elementary " Ta- bleau Elementaire des Animaux," printed in 1798, which, in conjunction with M. Dumeril, I improved, in the tables an- nexed to the first volumes of my ^^ Legons d' Anatomic Com- paree" in 1800. I should, perhaps, have contented myself with perfecting these tables, and proceeded immediately to the publication of my great work on anatomy, if, in the course of my researches, I had not been frequently struck with another defect of the greater number of the general or partial systems of zoology; I mean the confusion in which the want of critical acumen has left a great number of species, and even several genera. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. IX The classes and orders were not only not sufficiently con- formed to the intimate nature of animals to serve conve- niently as a basis to a treatise on comparative anatomy, but the genera themselves, although mostly better constituted, presented but inadequate resources, on account of the species not having been arranged under each of them, in conformity with these characters. Thus in placing the Sea-cow (Mana- tus, Cuv.) in the genus Morse (Trichechus, Lin.), the Siren in that of the Eels, Gmelin had rendered any general propo- sition relative to the organization of these two genera imposs- ible, just as by approximating to the same class the same order, and placing side by side the Sepia and the fresh- water Polypus, he had made it impossible to say any thing in general on the class and order which embraced such different beings. The examples above cited are selected from the most strik- ing of these errors ; but there existed an infinitude of them, less sensible at the first glance, which presented difficulties not less real. It was not enough then to have imagined a new arrange- ment of classes and orders, and to have properly placed the genera there j it was also necessary to examine all the species in order to be assured, whether they really belonged to the genera in which they had been placed. Having come to this, I found species not only grouped or dispersed, against all semblance of reason, but I remarked that several had not been positively determined; neither by the characters assigned to them, nor by their figures and de- scriptions. Here, one of them, by means of synonymes, represents seve- ral in one single name, and often so different from each other that they should not be placed in the same genus ; there, a single one is doubled, trebled, and successively reappears in several subgenera, genera, and sometimes in different orders. What shall we say, for instance, of the Trichechus mana- tus of Gmelin, which in one single specific name comprises three species and two genera ; two genera, differing in almost Vol. L— (2) X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, every thing? By what name shall we speak of the Velella, which figures there twice among the Medusfc and once among the Holothurise ? How are we to hring together the Biphorfe ; some of which are called there Dagysse, the greater number Salpae, and several placed among the Holotluiria?. In order, therefore, completely to attain the object, it was not sufficient to review the species — it was necessary to re- view their synonymes, or in other words to remodel the sys- tem of animals. Such an enterprise, from the prodigious development of the science in late years, could not have been executed com- pletely by any one individual, even supposing him to have no other employment and to live the longest possible term of years ; had I been constrained to depend upon myself alone, I should not have been able to prepare even the simple sketch I now give ; but the resources of my position seemed to me to supply what I wanted both of time and talent. Living in the midst of so many able naturalists — drawing from their works as fast as they appeared — enjoying the use of their collec- tions as freely as themselves — and having formed a very con- siderable one myself especially appropriated to my object; a great portion of my labour consisted merely in the employ- ment of so many rich materials. It was not possible, for in- stance, that much remained for me to do on shells studied by M. de Lamarck, or on quadrupeds described by M. GeoITroy. The numerous and new affinities observed by M. de Lace- pede were so many traits for my system of fishes. Among so many beautiful birds, collected from all parts of the world, M. Le Vaillant perceived details of organization, which I im- mediately adapted to my plan. My own researches, employed and multiplied by other naturalists, yielded those fruits to me, which, in my hands alone, they would not, all, have produced. Thus, by examining, in the cabinet I have formed, the ana- tomical preparations on which I designed to found my division of reptiles, M. de Blainville and M. Oppel anticipated (and perhaps better than I could have done) results of which as yet I had but a glimpse, &c., &c. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XI Encouraged by these reflections, I determined to precede my treatise on comparative anatomy by a kind of abridged system of animals, in which I would present their divisions and subdivisions of all degrees, established in a parallel man- ner upon their structure, external and internal ; where I would give the indication of well ascertained species, which certainly belong to each of the subdivisions, and where, to create more interest, I would enter into some details upon such of those species, which from their abounding in our country, the uses to which we put them, the evils they cause us, the singularity of their habits and economy, their extraordinary forms, their beauty or their size, become the most remarkable. In so doing, I hoped to prove useful to young naturalists, who, for the most part, have but little idea of the confusion and errors of criticism in which the most accredited works abound, and who, in foreign countries particularly, do not sufficiently attend to the study of the true relations of the con- formation of beings ; I considered myself as rendering a more direct service to those anatomists, v/ho require to know be- forehand to what orders they should direct their researches, when they wish to solve any problem of human anatomy or physiology by comparative anatomy, but whose ordinary oc- cupations do not sufficiently prepare them for fulfilling this condition which is essential to their success. I had no intention, liowever, of extending this two-fold view to all the classes of the animal kingdom, and the Vertebrated animals, as in every sense the most interesting, naturally claimed a preference. Among the Invertebrata, I had to study more particularly the naked Mollusca and the great Zoophytes ; but the innumerable variations of the external forms of shells and corals, the microscopic animals, and the other families whose part, on the great theatre of nature, is not very apparent, or whose organization affords but little room for the use of the scalpel, did not require a similar mi- nuteness of detail. Independently of this, so far as the shells and corals were concerned, I could depend on the work of XU PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. M. de Lamarck, in which will be found all that the most ar- dent thirst for knowledge can desire. As regards Insects, which, by their external form, organi- zation, habits, and influence on all animated nature, are so highly interesting, I have been fortunate enough to find assis- tance, which, in rendering my work infinitely more perfect than it could have possibly been had it emanated from my pen alone, has at the same time considerably accelerated its publica- tion. My friend and colleague M. Latreille, who has studied these animals more profoundly than any other man in Europe, has kindly consented to give, in a single volume, and nearly in the order adopted for the other parts, a summary of his immense researches, and an abridged description of those in- numerable genera entomologists are continually establishing. As for the rest, if in some places I have given less extent to the exposition of subgenera and species, all that relates to the superior divisions and the indicia of relations, I have founded on bases equally solid, by assiduous and universal re- searches. I have examined, one by one, all the species of which I could procure specimens ; I have approximated those which merely differed from each other in size, colour, or in the number of some parts of little importance, and have formed them into what I denominate subgenera. Every time it was possible, I dissected one species at least of each subgenus, and if those be excepted to which the scalpel cannot be applied, but very few groups of this degree can be found in my work, of which I cannot produce some considerable portion of the organs. Having determined the names of the species I observed, which had been previously either well described or well figured, I placed in the same subgenera those I had not seen, but whose exact figures, or descriptions, sufiiciently precise to leave no doubt remaining as to their natural rela- tions, I found in authors; but I have passed over in silence that great number of vague indications, on which, in my opi- nion, naturalists have been too eager to establish species, PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Xlll whose adoption is what has mainly contributed to introduce in tlie catalogue of beings, that confusion which deprives it of so great a portion of its utility. I could, every where, have added great numbers of new species, but as I could not refer to figures it would in that case have been necessary to extend their descriptions beyond the bounds of my limits ; I have preferred therefore depriv- ing my work of that ornament, and have indicated those only whose singular formation gives origin to new subgenera. My subgenera once established on undoubted relations, and composed of well ascertained species, nothing remained but to construct this great scaffolding of genera, tribes, families, orders, classes and divisions which constitute the ensemble of the animal kingdom. Here I have proceeded, partly by ascending from the in- ferior to the superior divisions, by means of approximation and comparison, and partly by descending from the superior to the inferior divisions, on the principle of the subordination of characters; carefully comparing the results of the two methods, verifying one by the other, and always sedulously establishing the correspondence of forms, external and inter- nal, both of which constitute integral parts of the essence of each animal. Such has been my mode of proceeding whenever it was ne- cessary and possible to form new arrangements ; but I need not observe, that in many places, the results to which it would have conducted me, had been already so satisfactorily obtained, that no other trouble was left to me than that of following the track of my predecessors. Even in these cases, however, by new observations I have confirmed and verified what was previously acknowledged, and what I did not adopt until it was subjected to a rigorous scrutiny. An idea of this mode of examination may be obtained from the Memoirs on the ana- tomy of the Mollusca which have appeared in the " Annales du Museum," and of which I am now preparing a separate and augmented collection. I venture to assure the reader, that the labour I have bestowed upon the Vertebrated animals, xiv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. the Annulata, the Radiata, and many of the Insects and Crus- tacea, is equally extensive. I have not deemed it necess- ary to publish it with the same detail ; but all my prepara- tions are exposed in the Cabinet of Comparative Anatomy in the Jardin du Roi, and will serve hereafter for my Treatise on Anatomy. Another work of considerable labour, but whose proofs cannot be made so authentic, is the critical examination of species. I examined and verified all the figures adduced by authors, and as often as possible referred each to its true spe- cies, before making a choice of those I have pointed out ; it is from this verification alone, and never from the classification of preceding methodists, that I have referred to my sub- genera the species that belong to them. Such is the reason, why no astonishment should be experienced on finding that such or such a genus of Gmelin is now divided and distributed even in different classes and divisions; that numerous nominal species are reduced to a single one, and that vulgar names are very differently applied. There is not a single one of these changes that I am not prepared to justify, or of which the reader himself may not obtain the proof by recurring to the sources I have indicated. In order to diminish his trouble, I have been careful to se- lect for each class a principal author, generally the richest in good original figures, and I quote secondary works only in those cases in which the former are silent, or where it was useful to establish some comparison, foi; the sake of confirm- ing synonymes. My subject could have been made to fill many volumes, but I considered it my duty to condense it, by imagining abridged means of publication. I have obtained these by gra- duated generalities ; by never repeating for a species what could be said of a whole subgenus, nor for a genus what might be applied to an entire order, and so on, we arrive at the greatest possible economy of words. To this my endeavours have been, above all, particularly directed, inasmuch as this was the principal end of my work. It may be observed, PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XV however, that I have not employed many technical terms, and that I have endeavoured to communicate my ideas with- out that barbarous apparatus of factitious words, which, in the works of so many modern naturalists, prove so very re- pulsive. I cannot perceive, however, that I have thereby lost any thing in precision or clearness. I have been compelled, unfortunately, to introduce many new names, although I endeavoured as far as possible to pre- serve those of my predecessors ; but the numerous subgenera I have established required these denominations ; for in things so various the memory is not satisfied witli numerical indica- tions. I have selected them, so as either to convey some character, or among the common names which I have latinized, or finally after the example of Linnseus, from those of mytho- logy, which are generally agreeable to the ear, and which we are far from having exhausted. In naming species, however, I would recommend employ- ing the substantive of the genus, and the trivial name only. The names of the subgenera are designed as a mere relief to the memory, when we wish to indicate these subdivisions in particular. Otherwise, as the subgenera, already very nu- merous, will in the end become greatly multiplied, in con- sequence of having substantives continually to retain, we shall be in danger of losing the advantages of that binary nomen- clature so happily imagined by Linnseus. It is the better to preserve it that I have dismembered, as little as possible, the genera of that illustrious reformer of science. Whenever the subgenera in which I divide them were not to be translated to different fiimilies, I have left them together under their former generic appellation. This was not only due to the memory of Linnseus, but it was ne- cessary in order to preserve the mutual intelligence of the naturalists of different countries. The habit, naturally acquired in the study of natural his- tory, of the mental classification of a great number of ideas, is one of the advantages of that science that is seldom observed, and which, when it shall have been generally introduced into XVI PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. the system of common education, will become, perhaps, the principal one. By it, the student is exercised in that part of logic which is termed method, just as he is by geometry in that of syllogism, because natural history is the science which requires the most precise methods, as geometry is that which demands the most rigorous reasoning. Now this art of me- thod, once well acquired, may be applied with Infinite advan- tage to studies the most foreign to natural history. Every dis- cussion which supposes a classification of facts, every research which demands a distribution of matters, is performed accord- ing to the same laws; and he who had cultivated this science merely for amusement, is surprised at the facilities it affords him in disentangling and arranging all kinds of affairs. It is not less useful in solitude. Sufliciently extensive to satisfy the most powerful mind, sufliciently various and inte- resting to calm the most agitated soul, it sheds consolation in the bosom of the unhappy, and stills the angry waves of envy and hatred. Once elevated to the contemplation of that har- mony of nature irresistibly regulated by Providence, how weak and trivial appear those causes which it has been pleased to leave dependent on the will of man ! How astonishing to be- hold so many fine minds, consuming themselves so uselessly for their own happiness or that of others, in the pursuit of vain combinations, whose very traces a few years suflice to sweep away. I avow it — these ideas have always been present to my mind, the companions of my labours ; and if I have endeavoured by every means in my power to advance this peaceful study, it is because, in my opinion, it is more capable than any other of supplying that want of occupation, which has so largely con- tributed to the troubles of our age — but I must return to ray subject. There yet remains the task of accounting for the principal changes I have effected in the latest received methods, and to acknowledge the amount of my obligations to those natu- ralists, whose works have furnished or suggested a part of them. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XVII To anticipate a remark which will naturally present itself to many, I must observe that I have neither desired nor pre- tended to class animals so as to form one single line, or so as to mark their relative superiority. I even consider every at- tempt of this kind impracticable. Thus, I do not mean that the Mammalia or Birds which come last, are the most imper- fect of their class ; still less do I believe that the last of the Mammalia are more perfect than the first of the Birds, the last of the Mollusca more so than the first of the Annulata or of the Radiata, even restraining the meaning of this vague word iHrfect to that of most completely organized. I re- gard my divisions and subdivisions as the merely graduated expression of the resemblance of the beings which enter into each of them, and although in some we observe a sort of de- gradation or passage from one species to the other, which can- not be denied, this disposition is far from being general. The pretended chain of beings, as applied to the whole creation, is but an erroneous application of those partial observations, which are only true when confined to the limits within which they were made — it has, in my opinion, proved, more detri- mental to the progress of natural history in modern times, than it is easy to imagine. It is in conformity with these views that I have established my four general divisions, which have already been made known in a separate Memoir. I still think it expresses the real relations of animals more exactly than the old arrange- ment of Vertebrata and Invertebrate, for the simple reason, that the former animals have a much greater resemblance to each other than to the latter, and that it was necessary to mark this difference in the extent of their relations. M. Virey, in an article of the " Nouveau Dictionnaire d'His- toire Naturelle," had already discovered a part of the basis of this division, and principally that which reposes on the ner- vous system. The particular approximation of oviparous Vertebrata, in- ter se, originated from the curious observations of M. GeolF- roy on the composition of bony heads ; and from those I have Vol. I.— (3) XVIU PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. added to thein, relative to the rest of the skeleton and to the muscles. In the Mammalia I have brought back the Solipedes to the Pachydermata, and have divided the latter into families on a new plan ; the Ruminantia I have placed after the Quadra- pedsj and the Sea-cow near the Cetacea. The arrangement of the Carnaria I have somewhat altered — the Ouistites have been wholly separated from the Monkeys, and a sort of pa- rallelism between the pouched animals and other digitated Mammalia indicated ; the whole from my own anatomical re- searches. All that I have given on the Quadrumana and the Bats is based on the recent and profound labours of my friend M. GeofTroy de Saint-Hilaire. The researches of my bro- ther, M. Frederick Cuvier, on the teeth of the Carnaria and the Rodentia, have proved highly useful to me in forming the subgenera of these two orders. Notwithstanding the genera of the late M. Illiger are but the results of these same studies, and those of some foreign naturalists, I have adopted his names whenever my subgenera could be placed in his genera. I have also adopted M. de Lacepede's excellent divisions of this description, but the characters of all the degrees and all the indications of species have been taken from nature, either in the cabinet of anatomy, or the galleries of the Museum. The same plan was pursued with respect to the Birds. I have examined with the greatest care and attention more than four thousand individuals in the Museum ; I arranged them agreeably to my views in the public gallery more than five years ago, and all that is said of this class has been drawn from that source. Thus, any resemblance which my subdivisions may bear to some recent descriptions is on my side purely accidental(l). (1) This observation not having been sufficiently understood abroad, I am com- pelled to repeat it here, and openly to declare a fact witnessed by thousands in Pai'is — it is this, that all the birds in the public gallery of the Museum were named and arranged according to my system in 1811. Even such of my subdivisions as I had not yet named were marked by particular signs. This is my date. In- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XIX Naturalists, I hope, will approve of the numerous subgenera I have deemed it necessary to establish among the Birds of Prey, Passerinse, and Shore-Birds; they appear to me to have completely elucidated genera hitherto involved in much con- fusion. I have also marked, as exactly as I could, the corres- pondence of these subdivisions with the genera of MM. de La- cepede, Meyer, Wolf, Temminck, Savigny, and have refer- red to each of them all the species of which I could obtain a very positive knowledge. This laborious work will prove of value to those who may hereafter attempt a true history of Birds. The splendid works on Ornithology published within a few years, and those chiefly of M. Le.Vaillant, which arfe filled with so many interesting observations, together with M. Vieillot's, have been of much assistance to me in designating with precision the species they represent. The general division of this class remains as I published it in 1798 in my '^^ Tableau Eleraentaire(l)." The general division of Reptiles, by my friend M. Brong- niart, I have thought proper to preserve, but I have prose- cuted very extensive and laborious anatomical investigations to obtain my ulterior subdivisions. M. Oppel, as I have al- ready stated, has partly taken advantage of these preparatory labours, and whenever my genera finally agreed with his, I have noticed the fact. The work of Daudin, indifferent as it is, has been useful to me for indications of details, but the par- ticular divisions I have made in the genera Monitor and Gecko, are the product of my own observations on a great number of Reptiles recently brought to the Museum by Messrs Peron and Geoffrey. My labours with regard to the Fishes will probably be found to exceed those I have bestowed on the other vertebrated dependently of this, my first volume was printed in the beginning' of 1816. Four volumes are not printed as quickly as a pamphlet of a few pages. I say no more. (Note to Ed. 1829.) (1)1 only mention this, because an amiable naturalist, M. Vieillot, in a recent work has attributed to himself the union of the Picx with the Passercs. I had published it in 1798, with my other arrangements, so as to render theiii public in the Museum since 1811 and 1812. XX PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. animals. Since the publication of the celebrated work of M. de Lacepede, the ^accession to our Museum of a great number of fishes, has enabled me to add several subdivisions to those of that learned naturalist, to form different combinations of several species, and to multiply anatomical observations. I have also had better means of verifying the species of Commerson and of some other travellers, and on this point I owe much to a re- view of the drawings of Commei'son and of the dried fishes he brought with him, by M. Dumeril, which have been but very lately recovered : resources to which I added those pre- sented to me in tlie fishes brought by Peron from the Indian Ocean and Archipelago; those which I collected in the Medi- terranean, and the collections made on the coast of Coroman- del by the late M. Sonnerat, at the Isle of France by M. Ma- thieu, in the Nile and Red Sea by M. GeolFroy, &c. I was thus enabled to verify most of the species of Bloch, Russel, and others, and to have prepared the skeletons and viscera of nearly all the subgenera, so that this portion of the work will, I presume, present to icthyologists much that is new. As to my division of this class, I confess its inconvenience, but I still think it more natural than any preceding one. When I first published it, I gave it, quantum valeat, and if any one discovers a better principle of division, and as conformable to the organization, I shall hasten to adopt it. It is well known that all the works, on the general division of the Invertebrated animals, are mere modifications of what I proposed in 1795 in the first of my memoirs ; and the time and care I have devoted to the anatomy of the Mollusca in ge- neral, and principally to the naked Mollusca, are equally so. The determining of this class, as well as of its divisions and subdivisions, rests on my observations ; the magnificent work of M. PoU had alone anticipated me by descriptions and anatomical researches, useful to me it is true, but confined to bivalves and multivalves only. I have verified all the facts furnished to me by that able anatomist, and I have, I think, more justly marked the functions of some organs. I have also endeavoured to determine the animals to which the principal PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXI forms of shells belong, and to arrange the latter from that con- sideration ; but as to the ulterior divisions of those shells whose animals resemble each other, I have examined them only so far as to enable me to describe those admitted by Messrs de Lamarck and de Montfort; even the small number of genera or subgenera which are properly mine, are derived from observa- tions on the animals. In citing examples I have confined my- self to a certain number of the species of Martini, Chemnitz, Lister, and that only (the volume of M. de Lamarck, which is to contain these matters, not being published), because I was compelled to fix the attention of the reader on specific objects. In the selection and determining of these species however I lay no claim to the same critical accuracy I have employed for the Vertebrated animals and the naked Mol- lusca. The excellent observations of Messrs Savigny, Lesueur, and Desmarest on the compound Ascidia, approximate the latter family of the Mollusca to certain orders of Zoophytes — a curious relation, and an additional proof of the impractica- bility of arranging animals on one single line. The Annulata (the establishing of which order, although not the name, belongs de facto to me) have I think been ex- tricated from the confusion in whicli they had hitherto been involved among the Mollusca, the Testacea, and the Zoophy- tes, and placed in their natural order — even their genera have been elucidated only by my observations on them, published in the ' ^ Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles," and elsewhere. I can say nothing relative to the three classes contained in the third volume. M. Latreille, who, with the exception of some anatomical details, founded on my own observations and those of M. Randohr, added to his text, is its sole author, will spare me that trouble. As to the Zoophytes, which terminate the animal kingdom, I have availed myself, for the Echinodermata, of the late work of M. de Lamarck, and for the Intestinal Worms, of that of M. Rudolphi, entitled Entozoa; but I have anatomized all the genera, ^ome of which have been determined by me only. XXll PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Besides this, there is an excellent work of M. Tiedemann on the anatomy of the Echinodermata that received the prize of the Institute some years ago, that will shortly appear — it will leave nothing unsaid with respect to these curious animals. The Corals and the Infusoria, allowing no field for anatomical investigations, have been briefly disposed of. The new work of M. de Lamarck will supply my deficiencies(l). With respect to authors, I can only mention, here, those who have furnished me with general views, or who were the origin of such in my own mind(2). There are many others to whom I am indebted for particular facts, whose names I have carefully quoted wherever I have made use of them. They will be found on every page of my book. Should I have omitted to do justice to any, it must be attributed to in- voluntary forgetfulness — no property, in my eyes, is more sacred than the conceptions of the mind, and the custom, too common among naturalists, of making plagiarisms by a change of names, has always appeared to me a crime. The publication of my Comparative Anatomy will now occupy me every moment ; the materials are ready, great quantities of preparations and drawings are finished and ar- ranged ; and I shall be careful in dividing the work into parts, each of which will form a whole, so that should my physical powers prove insufficient for the completion of the totality of my plan, what I shall have produced will still form entire suites, and the materials I have collected be ready for the hand of him who may undertake the continuation of my la- bours. Jardin du Boi, 1816. (1) I have this moment received, VHisioire des Polypiers corcdli genes Jlexihles of M. Lamouroux, which furnishes an excellent supplement to M. Lamarck. (2) M. de Blainville has recently published general zoological tables, which I regret came too late for me to profit by; having appeared when my book was nearly printed. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The preceding preface exhibits a faithful account of the state in which I found the history of animals at the time the first edition of this work was published. During the twelve years that have since elapsed, this science has made immense progress. The labours of numerous, courageous, and learned travellers, who have explored every region of the globe, the rich collections formed and rendered public by various go- vernments, the profound and splendid works where new species are described and figured, and whose authors have been determined to detect their mutual relations and to con- sider them in every light(l)j have all been instrumental in producing this result. I have endeavoured to avail myself of these discoveries, as far as my plan permitted, by first studying the innumerable specimens received at the Cabinet du Roi, and comparing them with those which served as the basis of my first edition, in order to deduce thence new approximations or new subdi- visions, and then by searching in all the books I could pro- cure for the genera or subgenera established by naturalists, and the description of species by which they have supported these different combinations. The study of synonymes has become much easier now than it was at the period of my first edition. Both French and (1) See my Discourse before the Institute on the "Progres de I'Histoire Natu- relle depuis la paix maritime," published in the third jolume of my " Eloges." XXIV PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. foreign naturalists seem to have felt the necessity of establish- ing divisions in those immense genera, in which such incon- gruous species were formerly heaped together ; their groups are now precise and well defined, their descriptions sufficiently detailed, their figures scrupulously exact even to the most minute characters, and very frequently of the greatest beauty. Scarcely any difficulty remains therefore in determining the identity of their species, and nothing hinders them from com- ing to an understanding with respect to the nomenclature. This, unfortunately, has been almost neglected ; the names of the same genera, the same species, are multiplied as often as they are spoken of ; and should this discord continue, the same chaos will be produced that previously existed, though arising from a different cause. I have used every effort to compare and approximate these redundancies, and forgetting even my own little interest of author, have often given names which seem to have been form- ed expressly to avoid being compelled to avow the borrowing of my divisions. But in order thoroughly to execute this un- dertaking, this pinax of the animal kingdom, which becomes daily more and more necessary, to examine its proofs, and to fix on the definite nomenclature that would be adopted, by basing it on sufficient figures and descriptions, requires more space than I can dispose of, and a time imperiously claimed by other works. It is in the " History of Fishes," which, assisted by M. Valenciennes, I have commenced publishing, that I intend to give an idea of what I think might be effected with respect to all parts of the science. This is a mere abridgement, a simple sketch — fortunate will I be if I succeed in rendering it correct in all its parts. Various descriptions of a similar kind have been published on some of the classes, and I have carefully studied them all, in order to perfect my own. The ^' Mammalogie'' of M. Desma- rest, that of M. Lesson, the "Traite sur les Dents des Qua- drupedes" of M. Frederick Cuvier, the English translation of my first edition by Mr Griffith enriched by numerous additions chiefly by Hamilton Smith, the new edition of the '^ Ma- PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XXV nuel d'Ornithomalogie" of M. Temminck, the '^Ornithological Fragments" of M. Wagler, the '^Description of Reptiles" by the late Merrem, and the dissertation on the same subject by M. Fitzinger, were principally useful to me for the Vertebrated animals. The ^"^Histoire des Animaux sans Vertebres" of M. de Lamarck, and the ^' Malacologie" of M. de Blainville, were also of great use to me for the Mollusca. To these I have added the new views and facts contained in the numerous and learned writings of Messrs Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, father and son, Savigny, Temminck^ Lichtcnotoln, Kvihl, Wilson, HorS- field, Vigors, Swainson, Gray, Ord, Say, Harlan, Charles Bo- naparte, Laraouroux, Mitchell, Lesueur, and many other able and studious men, whose names will be carefully mentioned, wherever I speak of the subjects they have described. The fine collection of engravings which have appeared within the last twelve years, have allowed me to indicate a greater number of species, nor have I failed to make ample use of the opportunity. I must particularly acknowledge what I owe on this score, to the ^^Histoire des Mammiferes" of MM. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Frederick Cuvier, the " Planches Coloriees" of Messrs Temminck and Laugier, the '^ Galerie des Oiseaux" of M. Vieillot, the new edition of the " Oiseaux d'Al- leraagne" of M. Nauman, the Birds of the United States of Messrs Wilson, Ord, and Charles Bonaparte(l), the great works of M. Spix and of the prince Maximilian de Wied on the animals of Brazil, and to those of M. Ferussac on the Mol- lusca. The plates and zoological descriptions of the travels of Messrs Freycinet and Duperrey, given in the first by Messrs Quoy and Gaymard, and in the second by Messrs Lesson and Garnot, present, also, many new objects. The same should be said of the animals of Java, by M. Horsfield. Though on a smaller scale, new figures of rare species are to be found in the " Memoires du Museum," in the '^ Annales des Sciences Natu- relles," in the different dictionaries of the natural sciences, in (1) The work of M. Audubon tipo:i the Birds of North America, which sur- passes all others in magnificence, was unknown to me till after the whole of that part which treats of birds was printed. Vol. I.— (4) XXvi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. the Zoological Illustrations of M. Swainson, and in the Zoolo- gical Journal published by able naturalists in London. The Journals of the Lyceum of New York, and of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, are not less precious; but in proportion as the taste for natural history becomes extended, and the more numerous the countries in which it is cultivated, the number of its acquisitions increase in geometrical pro- gression, and it becomes more and more difficult to collect all the writings of naturalists, and to complete the table of their results ; I rely therefore on the indulgence of those whose ob- servations may have escaped me, or whose works I may not have sufficiently studied. My celebrated friend and colleague M. Latreille, as in the first edition, having consented to take upon himself the im- portant and difficult subject of the Crustacea, Arachnides and Insects, will himself point out the path he has pursued ; so that on these points I need say nothing more here. Jar din du Boi, October 1828. SYSTEMATIC INDEX. INTRODUCTION 1 Of natural history 1 Of living beings and or- ganization in general 7 Division of organized be- ings into animals and vegetables 1 1 Of the forms peculiar to the organic elements of the animal body, and of the principal com- binations of its chemi- cal elements 13 Of the forces which act in the animal body 16 Summary idea of the func- tions and organs of the bodies of animals, and of their various degrees of complication 19 Of the intellectual func- tions of animals 25 Of method as applied to the animal kingdom 29 Distribution of the ani- mal kingdom into four great divisions 30 OF THE VERTEBRATA IN GENERAL 33 Subdivision of the Verte- brata into four classes 36 MAMMALIA 38 Orders of the Mammalia 42 BIMANA 44 Man 44 Peculiar conforma- tion of Man 45 Physical and moral development of Man 48 Varieties of the hu- man species 52 QUADRUMANA 55 Simla 56 Simia proper 57 Pithecus 57 Hilobates 59 Cercopithecus 60 Semnopithecus 62 Macacus 63 Inuus 64 Cynocephalus 64 MandriUs 66 Monkeys of America 66 Sapajous 66 Mycetes 66 Ateles 67 Lagothrix 68 Sajous 69 Saimiri 69 Sakis 70 Callithrix 70 Nocthora 71 Ouistitis 71 Midas 72 Lemur 72 Lemur proper 73 Indris 73 Loris 73 Galago 74 Tarsius 74 CARNARIA 75 CHEIROPTERA 76 Vespertilio 76 Pteropus 77 Cephalotes 78 Vespertilio proper 78 Molossus 79 Dinops 79 Nyctinomus 79 Noctilio 80 Phyllostoma 80 Megaderma 81 Rhinolophus 81 Nycteris 82 Rhinopoma 82 XXVIU SYSTEMATIC INDEX. Taphozous 82 Mormoops 83 Vespertllio 83 Plecotus 84 Nycticeus 84 Galeopithecus 84 INSECTIVORA 85 Erinaceus 85 Centenes 86 Cladobates 87 Sorex 87 Mygale 88 Chrysochloris 89 Talpa 90 Condylura 91 Scalops 91 CARNIVORA 92 PlajiTighada 93 Ursus 93 Procyon 95 Ailurus 96 Ictides 96 Nasua 97 Meles 97 Gulo 98 RateUis 99 DiGITIGKADA 99 Mustela 99 Putorius 99 Mustela proper 100 Mephitis 102 Lutra 103 Can is 104 Canls proper 105 Foxes 107 Megalotis 108 Viverra 108 Viverra proper 109 Genetta 109 Paradoxurus 110 Mangusta 111 Ryzxna 111 Crossarchus 112 Proteles 112 Hyaena 112 Felis 113 AMPHIBIA 117 Phoca 118 Phoca proper 118 Stenorhynchus 119 Pelagus 120 Stemmatopus 120 Macrorhinus 120 Otaries 120 Trichechus 121 MARSUPIALIA 122 Didelphis 124 Didelphis proper 125 Chironectes 126 Dasyurus 127 Thylacinus 126 Phascogale 126 Dasyurus proper 127 Perameles 127 Phalangista 128 Phalaiigista proper 128 Petaurus 130 Hypsiprymnus 131 Macropus 131 Koala 133 Phascolomys 133 RODENTIA 134 Sciurus 136 Sciurus proper 136 Pteromys 137 Cheiromys 138 Mus 138 Arctomys 139 Spermophilus 139 Myoxus 140 Echimys 141 Hydromys 142 Capromys 142 Mus proper 142 Gerbillus 144 Meriones 145 Cricetus 135 Arvicola 146 Fiber 146 Arvicola 146 Georychus 147 Otomys 148 • Dipus 148 Helamys 149 Spalax 150 Bathyergus 150 Geomys 151 Diplostoma 151 Castor 151 Myopotamus 153 Hystrix 153 Hystrix proper 153 Atherurus 154 Eretison 154 Synetheres 154 Lepus 154 Lepus proper 155 Lagomys 156 Hydrochserus 157 Cavia 157 Kerodon 157 Chloi-omys 158 Coelogenys 158 EDENTATA 159 Tabdigrada 159 Bradypus 160 SYSTEMATIC INDEX. XXIX Adieus 160 Delphinus 206 Bradypus 161 Delphinus proper 206 Megatherium 162 Phocjena 207 Megalonyx 162 Delphinapte- Edentata Ordinaiiia 162 rus 209 Dasypus 162 Hyperoodon 209 Cachicamus 163 Monodon 210 A para 163 Physeter 211 Encoubertus 163 Physeter 212 Cabassous 164 Balsena 212 Priodon Clamyphorus 164 164 Balaenoptera 214 Orycteropus 165 Oviparous Vertebrata 215 Myrmecophaga Manis MONOTREMATA 165 AVES 217 166 167 ACCIPITRES 225 Echidna Ornithorhynchus PACHYDERMATA 168 168 169 DIURN^ Vultur Vultur proper Cathartes 225 226 226 227 PROBOSCIDIANA 170 Percnopterus 228 Elephas 171 Gypaetos 229 Mastodon 172 Falco 229 PACHYDERMATA GRDl [- Nobiles 230 NARIA 173 Falco proper 230 Hippopotamus 173 Hierofalco 219 Sus 174 Ignohiles 233 Sus proper Phacochserus Digotyles Anoplotherium 174 175 175 176 Aquila 233 Aquila proper 233 Halistus 235 Pandion 236 Circaetus 236 Rhinoceros 177 Harpyia 237 Hyrax 178 Morphnus 238 Palaeotherium 178 Cymindis 239 Lophiodon 179 Astur 239 Tapir SOLIPEDES 179 180 Astur proper Nisus Milvus 239 240 241 Equus RUMINANTIA 180 182 Milvus proper Pernis 241 242 Without Horns. Buteo 242 Camelus 184 Circus 243 Camelus proper 184 Serpentarius 244 Auchenia 185 NOCTURN-E 245 Moschus 185 Strix 245 With Horns. Otus 246 Cervus 187 Ulula Strix 247 247 Camelopardalis 190 Syrnium 247 Antilope 191 Bubo 248 Capra 198 Noctua 248 Ovis 199 Scops 250 Bos 200 PASSERINE 251 CETACEA 202 DENTIROSTRES 252 HERBIVORA 203 Lanius 252 Manatus 203 Lanius proper 252 Halicore 204 Vanga Ocypterus 255 255 Stellerus 204 Barita 256 ORDINARIA 204 Chalybseus 256 XXX SYSTEMATIC INDEX. Psaris 256 Graucalus 257 Bethylus 257 Falcunculus 257 Pardalotus 258 Muscicapa 258 Tyrannus " 258 Muscipeta 259 Platyrhynchus 259 Muscicapa 260 Gymnocephalus 261 Chephalopterus 262 Ampelis 262 Ampelis 262 Tersina 263 Ceblepyris 263 Bombycilla 263 Procnias 264 Procnias pro- per 264 Casmarhyn- chus 264 Gymnoderus 264 Edolius 265 Phibalura 265 Tanagra 265 Bulfinch Tanag-ers 266 Grossbeak Tanagers 266 Tanagra proper 266 Oriole Tanagers 266 Cardinal Tanagers 266 Ramphoceline Taim- gers 267 Tardus 267 Turdus proper 267 Grives 268 Lamprotornis 270 Turdoides 270 Grallines 270 Criniger 270 Myothera 270 Orthonyx 272 Cinclus 272 Philedon 273 Eulabes 274 Gracula 274 Manorhioa 276 Pyrrhocorax 276 Oriolus 276 Gymnops 277 Maenura 277 Motacilla 278 Saxicola 278 Sylvia 279 Curruca 279 Accentor 282 Regulus 283 Troglodytes 284 Motacilla 284 Motacilla pro- per 284 284 285 286 286 286 286 286 286 287 Budytes Anthus Pjpra Rupicola Calyptomcnes Pipra proper Eurylaimus FISSIROSTRES Hirundo Cypselus 287 Hirundo proper 288 Caprimulgus 289 Podargus 291 CONIROSTRES 291 Alauda 291 Parus 292 Parus proper 292 Bearded Titmouse 294 Remiz 294 Emberiza 294 Fringilla 296 Ploceus 296 Pyrgita 298 Fringilla 298 Carduelis 299 Linaria 299 Vidua 301 Coccothraustes 301 Pitylus "-'^'^ Pyrrhula Loxia Corythus 303 Colius 303 Buphaga 30^4 Cassicus 304 Cassicus proper 304 Icterus 305 Xanthornus 305 Oxyrhynchus 306 Dacnis 306 Sturnus 306 Corvus 307 Corvus proper 307 Pica 308 Garrulus 309 Caryocatactes 309 Temia 310 Glaucopis 310 Coracias 310 Coracias proper 310 Colaris 311 Paradissea 311 TENUIROSTRES 313 Sitta 313 Xenops 314 Anabates 314 Synallaxis 314 Certhia 314 Certhia proper 314 i02 302 302 SYSTEMATIC INDEX. XXXI Dendrocolaptes Tichodroma Nectarinia Dicseum Melithreptus Cinnyris Arachnothera Trochilus Trochilus proper Orthorhynchus Upupa Fregilus Upupa proper Promerops Epimachus SYNDACTYLY Merops Prionites Alcedo Ceyx Todus Buceros SCANSORI^ Galbula Galbula proper Jacamevops Picus Picoides Yunx Cuculus Cuculus proper Couas Centropu8 Courols Indicator Barbacous Malcoha Scythrops Bucco Barbicans Bucco proper Tamatia Trogon Crotophaga Ramphastos 337 llamphastos proper 338 Pteroglossus ''"« Psittacus Ara Comurus Cockatoos Psittacus proper Loris Psittaculus j*i Paroquets a trompe 342 Pezoporus '^^'^ Corythaix Musophaga 315 315 316 316 317 317 318 318 319 319 320 320 321 321 322 323 324 324 325 325 326 327 327 327 328 328 330 331 331 332 333 333 3o3 334 334 334 334 335 335 335 336 336 337 337 31 3: 338 339 339 340 340 341 341 342 342 343 343 343 344 345 345 346 347 347 347 348 349 349 .350 350 GALLINACE.E Alector Alector proper Ourax Penelope Ortalida Opisthocomus Pavo Lophophorus Meleagris Numida Phasianus Callus Phasianus proper 351 Houppiferes 352 Tragopan 352 Cryptonyx 352 Tetrao 353 Tetrao proper 353 Lagopus 355 Ganga 355 Perdix 356 Francolinus 356 Perdix proper 356 Coturnix 357 Tridactylus 358 Turnix 358 Syrrhaptes 358 Tinamus 359 Columba 359 Columbi-gallines 360 Columba proper 360 Vinago 362 GRALLATORI^ 363 BREVIPENNES 363 Struthio 364 Casuarius 365 PRESSmOSTRES 366 Otis 367 Charadrius 368 CEdicnemus 368 Charadrius proper 368 Vanellus 369 Squatarola 370 Vanellus proper 370 Haematopus 371 Cursorius 371 Cariama 372 CULTIROSTRES 372 Grus 373 Psophia 373 Grus proper 374 Eurypyga 375 Cancroma 375 Ardea Ardea proper Crab eaters Onores 376 376 376 377 XXXll SYSTEMATIC INDEX. Egrets 2,77 Bitterns 377 Night Herons 378 Ciconia 378 Myctcria 379 Scopus 380 Hians 380 Dromas 380 Tantalus 381 Platalea 381 LONGIUOSTRES 382 Scolopax 383 Ibis 383 Numenius 384 Scolopax proper 385 Rhynchsa 386 Limosa 387 Calidris 387 Arenaria 388 Pelidna 388 Cocorli 389 Falcinellus 389 Machetes 389 Eurinorhynchus 390 Phalaropus 390 Strepsilas 391 Totanus 391 Lobipes 393 Himantopus 393 Recurvirostra 394 MACRODACTYLI 394 Jacana 395 Palamedea 396 Chauna 396 Megapodius 397 Rallus 398 Fulica 399 Gallinula 399 Porphyrio 399 Fulica proper 399 Chionis 400 Glareola 400 PhcEtiicopterus 401 lLMIPEDES 402 BRACHYPTERiE 402 Colymbus 403 Podiceps Heliornis Mergus Uria Cephas Alca Fratercula Alca proper Aptenodytes 403 404 404 405 405 406 406 406 407 Aptenodytes proper 407 Catarrhactes 407 Spheniscus 408 LONGIPENNES 408 Procellaria 408 Proccllaria proper 409 Puffinus 410 rialodroma 410 Pachyptila 410 Diomedea 41 1 Larus 411 Goelands 412 Mauves 412 Stercorarlus 413 Sterna 413 Noddies 415 Rynchops 415 T0T1PALMAT^> 415 Pelecanus 416 Pelecanus proper 416 Phalacrocorax 416 Tachypetes 417 Sula 417 Plotus 418 Phaeton 418 LAMELLIROSTRES 419 Anas 419 Cygnus 419 Anser 421 Anser proper 421 Bernacles 421 Cereopsis 421 Anas proper 422 Oidemia 423 Clangula 423 Somateria 424 Rynchaspis 426 Tadorna 426 Mergus 428 INTRODUCTION. As correct ideas respecting natural history are not very generally formed, it appears necessary to begin by defining its peculiar object, and establishing rigorous limits between it and neighbouring sciences. In our language and in most others, the word nature is variously employed. At one time it is used to express the qualities a being derives from birth, in opposition to those it may owe to art ; at another, the entire mass of beings which compose the universe ; and at a third, the laws which govern those beings. It is in this latter sense particularly that we usually personify nature, and, through respect, use its name for that of its Creator. Physics, or Natural Philosophy, treats of the nature of these three relations, and is either general or particular. General physics examines abstractedly each of the properties of those movable and extended beings we call bodies. That branch of them styled Dynamics, considers bodies in mass ; and pro- ceeding from a very small number of experiments, determines mathematically the laws of equilibrium, and those of motion and of its communication. Its different divisions are termed Statics, Hydrostatics, Hydrodynamics, Mechanics, &c. &c., according to the nature of the particular bodies whose motions it examines. Optics considers the particular motions of light, whose phenomena, which hitherto nothing but experiment has been able to determine, are becoming more numerous. Chemistry, another branch of general physics, exposes the laws by which the elementary molecules of bodies act on each Vol. I.^A 2 INTRODUCTION. other; the combinations or separations which result from the general tendency of these molecules to re-unite; and the modifications which the various circumstances capable of se- parating or approximating them produce on that tendency. It is purely a science of experiment, and is irreducible to calcu- lation. The theory of heat and that of electricity belong either to dynamics or chemistry, according to the point of view in which they are considered. The ruling method in all the branches of general physics consists in isolating bodies, reducing them to their greatest simplicity, in bringing each of their properties separately into action, cither by reflection or experiment, and by observing or calculating the results; and finally, in generalising and con- necting the laws of these properties, so as to form codes, and, if it were possible, to refer them to one single principle into w hich they might all he resolved. Tlie object of Farticidar Physics, or of Natural History — for the terms are synonymous — is the special application of the laws recognised by the various branches of general phy- sics to the numerous and varied beings which exist in nature, in order to explain the phenomena which each of them pre- sents. Within this extensive range, astronomy also would be in- cluded ; but that science, sufiiciently elucidated by mechanics, and completely subjected to its laws, employs methods, differ- ing too widely from those required by natural history, to per- mit it to be cultivated by the students of the latter. Natural history, then, is confined to objects which do not allow of exact calculation, nor of precise measurement in all their parts. Meteorology also is substracted from it and united to general physics ; so that, properly speaking, it considers only inanimate bodies called minerals, and the different kinds of living beings, in all of which we may observe the effects, more or less various, of the laws of motion and chemical attraction, and of all the other causes analysed by general physics. Natural history, in strictness, should employ similar methods with the general sciences ; and it does so, in fact, whenever the - ne» INTRODUCTION. objects it examines are sufficiently simple to allow it. This, however, is but very rarely the case. An essential difference between the general sciences and natural history is, that in the former, phenomena are examin- ed, whose conditions are all regulated by the examiner, in order, by their analysis, to arrive at general laws ; whereas in the latter, they take place under circumstances beyond the control of him who studies them for the purpose of discover- ing amid the complication, the effects of known general laws. He is not, like the experimenter, allowed to subtract them suc- cessively from each condition, and to reduce the problem to its elements — he is compelled to take it in its entireness, with all its conditions at once, and can perform the analysis only in thought. Suppose, for example, we attempt to insulate the numerous phenomena which compose the life of any of the higher orders of animals ; a single one being suppressed, every vestige of life is annihilated. Dynamics have thus nearly become a science of pure calcu- ^ . lation ; chemistry is still a science of pure experiment ; and natural history, in a great number of its branches, will long remain one of pure observation. ^.^ These three terms sufficiently designate the methods em- ployed in the three branches of the natural sciences ; but in establishing between them very different degrees of certitude, they indicate, at the same time, the point to which they should incessantly tend, in order to attain nearer and nearer to per- fection. Calculation, if we may so express it, thus commands nature, and determines her phenomena more exactly than observation can make them known; experiment compels her to unveil; while observation pries into her secrets when refractory, and endeavours to surprise her. There is, however, a principle peculiar to natural history, which it uses with advantage on many occasions ; it is that of the conditions of existeiice, commonly styled final causes. As nothing can exist without the re-union of those conditions which render its existence possible, the component parts of each being must be so arranged as to render possible the whole 4 INTRODUCTION. being, not only with regard to itself but to its surrounding relations. The analysis of these conditions frequently con- ducts us to general laws, as certain as those that are derived from calculation or experiment. It is only when all the laws of general physics and those which result from the conditions of existence are exhausted, that we are reduced to the simple laws of observation. The most effectual method of obtaining these, is that of comparison. This consists in successively observing the same bodies in the different positions in which nature places them, or in a mutual comparison of different bodies; until we have ascertained invariable relations between their structures and the phenomena they exhibit. These various bodies are kinds of experiments ready prepared by nature, who adds to or de- ducts from each of them different parts, just as we might wish to do in our laboratories ; showing us, herself, at the same time their various results. In this way we finally succeed in establishing certain laws by which these relations are governed, and which are em- ployed like those that are determined by the general sciences. The incorporation of these laws of observation with the general laws, either directly or by the principle of the con- ditions of existence, would complete the system of the natural sciences, in rendering sensible in all its parts the mutual in- fluence of every being. To this end, should those who culti- vate these sciences direct all their efforts. All researches of this nature, however, pre-suppose means of distinguishing clearly^ and causing others to distinguish, the bodies they are occupied with ; otherwise we should be con- tinually confounding them. Natural history then should be based on what is called a system of nature; or a great cata- logue in which all created beings have suitable names, may be recognised by distinctive characters, and be arranged in divi- sions and subdivisions, themselves named and characterised, in which they may be found. In order that each being may be recognised in this catalogue, it must be accompanied by its character: habits or properties INTRODUCTION, 5 which are hut momentary cannot, tlien, furnish characters — they must be drawn from the conformation. There is scarcely a single being which has a simple charac- ter, or can be recognised by one single feature of its conforma- tion ; a union of several of these traits are almost always re- quired to distinguish one being from those that surround it, who also have some but not all of them, or who have them combined with others of which the first is destitute. Ti\e more numerous the beings to be distinguished, the greater should be the number of traits ; so that to distinguish an indi- vidual being from all others, a complete description of it should enter into its character. It is to avoid this inconvenience, that divisions and subdi- visions have been invented. A certain number only of neigh- bouring beings are compared with each other, and their cha- racters need only to express their differences, which, by the supposition itself, are the least part of their conformation. Such a re-union is termed a genus. The same inconvenience would be experienced in distin- guishing genera from each other, were it not for the repetition of the operation in uniting the adjoining genera, so as to form an order, the orders to form a clasSf &c. Intermediate sub- divisions may also be established. This scaiFolding of divisions, the superior of which contain the inferior, is called a method. It is in some respects a sort of dictionary, in which we proceed from the properties of things to arrive at their names; being the reverse of the common ones, in which we proceed from the name to arrive at the property. When the method is good, it does more than teach us names. If the subdivisions have not been established arbitrarily, but are based on the true fundamental relations, on the essential resemblances of beings, the method is the surest means of re- ducing the properties of beings to general rules, of expressing them in the fewest words, and of stamping them on the me- mory. To render it such, we employ an assiduous comparison of beings, directed by the principle of the subordination of cha- 6 INTRODUCTION. meters^ wliich is itself derived from that of the conditions of existence. The parts of a being possessing a mutual adapta- tion, some traits of character exclude others, while on the contrary, there are others that require them. When, there- fore, we perceive such or such traits in a being, we can calcu- late before hand those that co- exist in it, or those that are incompatible with them. The parts, the properties, or the traits of conformation, which have the greatest number of these relations ofincompatibility or of co-existence with others, or, in other words, that exercise tlie most marked influence upon the whole of the being, are called the important charac- ters^ dominating characte?'s ; the others are the subordinate characters, all varying in degree. This influence of characters is sometimes determined ration- ally, by the consideration of the nature of the organ. When this is impracticable, we have recourse to simple observation 5 and a sure mark by which we may recognise the important characters, and one which is drawn from their own nature, is their superior constancy, and that in a long series of different beings, approximated according to their degrees of similitude, these characters are the last to vary. That they should be preferred for distinguishing the great divisions, and that in proportion as we descend to the inferior subdivisions, we can also descend to subordinate and vai'iable characters, is a rule resulting equally from their influence and constancy. There can be but one perfect method, which is the natural method. We thus name an arrangement in which beings of the same genus are placed nearer to each other than to those of the other genera; the genera of the same order nearer than those of the other orders, &c. &c. This method is the ideal to which natural history should tend ; for it is evident that if we can reach it, we shall have the exact and complete expression of all nature. In fact, each being is determined by its resem- blance to others, and difference from them ; and all these rela- tions would be fully given by the arrangement in question. In a word, the natural method would be the whole science, and every step towards it tends to advance the science to per- fection. INTRODUCTION. 7 Life being the most important of all the properties of be- ings, and the highest of all characters, it is not surprising that it has in all ages been made the most general principle of dis- tinction ; and that natural beings have always been separated into two immense divisions, the living and the inanimate. Of Living Beings, and Organization in general. If, in order to obtain a correct idea of the essence of life, we consider it in those beings in which its effects are the most simple, we quickly perceive that it consists in the faculty pos- sessed by certain corporeal combinations, of continuing for a time and under a determinate form, by constantly attracting into their composition a part of surrounding substances, and rendering to the elements, portions of their own. Life then is a vortex, more or less rapid, more or less com- plicated, the direction of which is invariable, and which always carries along molecules of similar kinds, but into which indi- vidual molecules are continually entering, and from which they are continually departing ; so that the form of a living body is more essential to it than its matter. As long as this motion subsists, the body in which it takes place is living — it lives. When it finally ceases, it dies. After death, the elements which compose it, abandoned to the ordinary chemical affinities, soon separate, from which, more or less quickly, results the dissolution of the once living body. It was then by the vital motion that its dissolution was arrest- ed, and its elements were held in a temporary union. All living bodies die after a certain period, whose extreme limit is fixed for each species, and death appears to be a ne- cessary consequence of life, which, by its own action, insensi- bly alters the structure of the body, so as to render its conti- nuance impossible. In fact, the living body undergoes gradual, but continual changes, during the whole term of its existence. At first, it increases in dimensions, according to proportions, and within limits, fixed for each species and for each one of its parts j it then augments in density in the most of its parts : — it is this / 8 INTRODUCTION. second kind of change that appears to be the cause of natural death. If we examine the various living bodies more closely, we find they possess a common structure, which a little reflection soon causes us to perceive is essential to a vortex such as the vital motion. Solids, it is plaii^ are necessary to these bodies, for the maintenance of their forms; and fluids for tlie conservation of motion in them. Their tissue, accordingly, is composed of network and plates, or of fibres and solid laminse, witliin whose interstices are contained the fluids ; it is in these fluids that the motion is most continued and extended. Foreign sub- stances penetrate the body and unite with them ; they nourish the solids by the interposition of their molecules, and also de- tach from tbem those that are superfluous. It is in a liquid or gaseous form that the matters to be exhaled. traverse the pores of the living body ; but in return, it is the solids which contain the fluids, and by their contraction communicate to them part of their motion. This mutual action of the fluids and solids, this transition of molecules, required considerable aflinity in their chemical composition ; and such is the fact-^the solids of organized bo- dies being mostly composed of elements easily convertible into fluids or gases. The motion of the fluids needing also a constantly repeated action on the part of the solids, and communicating one to them, required in the latter both flexibility and dilatability; and accordingly we find this character nearly general in all organized solids. This structure, common to all living bodies; this areolar tis- sue, whose more or less flexible fibres or laminse intercept fluids more or less abundant; constitutes what is called the organi- zatioji. As a consequence of what we have said, it follows, that life can be enjoyed by organized bodies only. Organization, then, results from a great variety of arrange- ments, which are all conditions of life ; and it is easy to con- ceive, that if its effect be to alter either of these conditions, so INTRODUCTION. 9 as to arrest even one of the partial motions of which it is com- posed, the general movement of life must cease. Every organized body, independently of the qualities com- mon to its tissue, has a form peculiar to itself, not merely ge- neral and external, but extending to the detail of the structure of each of its parts ; and it is upon this form, which determines the particular direction of each of the partial movements that take place in it, that depends the complication of the general movement of its life — it constitutes its species and renders it what it is. Each part co-operates in this general movement by a peculiar action, and experiences from it particular effects, so that in every being life is a whole, resulting from the mu- tual action and re-action of all its parts. Life, then, in general, pre-supposes organization in gene- ral, and the life proper to each individual being pre-supposes an organization peculiar to that being, just as the movement of a clock pre-supposes the clock ; and accordingly we behold life only in beings that are organized and formed to enjoy it, and all the efforts of philosophy have never been able to dis- cover matter in the act of organization, neither per se, nor by any external cause. In fact, life exercising upon the elements which at every moment form part of the living body, and upon those which it attracts to it, an action contrary to that which, without it, would be produced by the usual chemical affinities, it seems impossible that it can be produced by these affinities, and yet we know of no other power in nature capa- ble of re-uniting previously separated molecules. The birth of organized beings is, therefore, the greatest mystery of the organic economy and of all nature : we see them developed, but never being formed ; nay more, all those whose origin we can trace, have at first been attached to a body similar in form to their own, but which was developed before them— in a word, to z.pcLrent, So long as the offspring has no independent existence, but .participates in that of its parent, it is called a germ. . ' The place to. which the germ is attached, and the cause which detaches it and gives it an independent life, vary ; but . Vol. I.-^B 10 I^TTRODUCTION. this primitive adhesion to a similar being, is a rule without exception. The separation of the germ is called generation. Every organized being re-produces others that are similar to itself, otherwise, death being a necessary consequence of life, the species would become extinct. Organized beings have even the faculty of reproducing, in degrees varying with the species, particular parts of which they may have been deprived — this is called \\\q power of re- production. The development of organized beings is more or less rapid, and more or less extended, as circumstances are more or less favourable. Heat, the abundance and species of nutriment, with other causes, exercise great influence, and this influence may extend to the whole body in general, or to certain organs in particular : thence arises the impossibility of a perfect similitude between the offspring and parent. Difierences of this kind, between organized beings, form what are termed varieties. There is no proof, that all the differences which now dis- tinguish organized beings, are such as may have been pro- duced by circumstances. All that has been advanced upon this subject is hypothetical. Experience, on the contrary, ap- pears to prove, that, in the actual state of the globe, varieties are confined within rather narrow limits, and go back as far as we may, we still find those limits the same. We are thus compelled to admit of certain forms, which, from the origin of things, have perpetuated themselves with- out exceeding these limits, and every being appertaining to one or other of these forms, constitutes what is termed a spe- cies. Varieties are accidental subdivisions of species. Generation being the only means of ascertaining the limits to which varieties may extend, species should be defined, the re-union of individuals descended 07ie from the other ^ or from common parents, or from such as resemble them, as strongly as they resemble each other. But although this definition is strict, it will be seen that its application to particular indivi- duals may be very difiicult, where the necessary experiments have not been made. INTRODUCTION. 11 Thus then it stands — absorption, assimilation, exhalation, development and generation are functions common to all liv- ing bodies; birth and death the universal limits of their exist- ence ; an areolar, contractile tissue, containing within its laminae fluids or gases in motion, the general essence of its struc- ture ; substances almost all susceptible of conversion into fluids or gases, and combinations capable of an easy and mutual transformation, the basis of their chemical composition. Fixed forms that are perpetuated by generation distinguish their species, determine the complication of the secondary functions proper to each of them, and assign to them the parts they are to play on the great stage of the universe. These forms are neither produced nor changed by their own agency — life sup- poses their existence, its flame can only be kindled in an organization already prepared, and the most profound medita- tion and lynx-eyed and delicate observation can penetrate no farther than the mystery of the pre-existence of germs. Division of Organized Beings into Animals and Vegetables. Living or organized beings have always been subdivided into animate beings, that is, such as are possessed of sense and motion, and into inanitnate beings, which are deprived of both these faculties, and are reduced to the simple faculty of vegetating. Although the leaves of several plants shrink from the touch, and the roots are steadily directed towards moisture, the leaves to light and air, and though parts of vegetables appear to oscillate without any apparent external cause, still these various motions have too little similarity to those of animals, to enable us to find in them any proofs of perception or will. The spontaneity in the motions of animals required essen- tial modifications even in their purely vegetative organs. Their roots not penetrating the earth, it was necessary they should be able to place within themselves a supply of aliment, and to carry its reservoir along with them. Hence is derived the first character of animals, or their alimentary canal, from 12 INTRODUCTION. which their nutritive fluid penetrates all other parts through pores or vessels, which are a kind of internal roots. The organization of this cavity and its appurtenances re- quired varying, according to the nature of the aliment, and the operation it had to undergo, before it could furnish juices^ fit for absorption; whilst the air and earth present to ve- getables nought but elaborated juices ready for absorption. The animal, whose functions are more numerous and varied than those of the plant, consequently necessitated an organiza- tion much more complete ; besides this, its parts not being capable of preserving one fixed relative position, there were no means by which external causes could produce the motion of their fluids, which required an exemption from atmospheric influence ; from this originates the second character of animals, their circulating system, one less essential than that of diges- tion, since in the more simple animals it is unnecessary. The animal functions required organic systems, not needed by ve- getables — that of the muscles for voluntary motion, and nerves for sensibility ; and these two systems, like the rest, acting only through the motions and transformations of the fluids, it was necessary that these should be most numerous in animals, and that the chemical composition of the animal body be more com- plex than that of the plant; and so it is, for one substance more (azote) enters into it as an essential element, whilst in plants it is a mere accidental junction with the three other general elements of organization, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. This then is the third character of animals. From the sun and atmosphere, vegetables receive for their nutrition water, which is composed of oxygen and hydrogen ; air, which contains oxygen and azote ; and carbonic acidj, which is a combination of oxygen and carbon. To extract their own composition from these aliments, it was necessary they should retain the hydrogen and carbon, exhale the super- fluous oxygen and absorb little or no azote. Such, in fact, is vegetable life, whose essential function is the exhalation of oxygen, which is eff'ected through the agency of light. Animals also derive nourishment, directly or indirectly, from the vegetable itself, in which hydrogen and carbon form INTRODU^CTION. 13 the principal parts. To assimilate them to their own compo- sition, they must get rid of the superabundant hydrogen and carbon in particular^, and accumulate more azote, which is performed through the medium of respiration, by which the oxygen of the atmosphere combines with the hydrogen and carbon of their blood, and is exhaled with them in the form of water and carbonic acid. The azote, whatever part of the body it may penetrate, seems always to remain there. The relations of vegetables and animals to the surrounding atmosphere are therefore in an inverse ratio — the former re- ject water and carbonic acid, while the latter produce them. The essential function of the animal body is respiration, it is that which in a manner animalizes it, and we shall see that the animal functions are the more completely exercised, in proportion to the greatness of the powers of respiration pos- sessed by the animal. This difference of relations constitutes the fourth character of animals. Of the forms peculiar to the Organic Elements of the Ani- mal Body, and of the principal combinations of its Che- mical Elements. An areolar tissue and three chemical elements are essential to every living body ; there is a fourth element peculiarly re- quisite to that of an animal ; but this tissue is composed of variously formed meshes, and these elements are variously combined. There are three kinds of organic materials or forms of tex- ture, the cellular membrane, the muscular fibre, and the me- dullary matter, and to each form belongs a peculiar combina- tion of chemical elements, as well as a particular function. The cellular substance is composed of an infinity of small fibres and laminae, fortuitously disposed, so as form little cells that communicate with each other. It is a kind of sponge, which has the same form as the body, all other parts of which traverse or fill it, and contracting indefinitely, on the removal of the causes of its tension. It is this power that retains the body in a given form and within certain liipits. 14 INTRODUCTION. When condensed, this substance forms those laminae called membranes ; the membranes, rolled into cylinders, form those more or less ramified tubes named vessels; the filaments called Jibres are resolved into it, and bones are nothing but the same thing indurated by the accumulation of earthy particles. The cellular substance consists of a combination well known as gelatine^ characterised by its solubility in boiling water, and forming, when cold, a trembling jelly. We have not yet been able to reduce the medullary matter to its organic molecules; to the naked eye, it appears like a sort of soft bouillie, consisting of excessively small globules; it is not susceptible of any apparent motion, but in it resides the admirable power of transmitting to the me the impressions of the external senses, and conveying to the muscles the orders of the will. It constitutes the greater portion of the brain and the spinal marrow, and the nerves which are distributed to all the sentient organs are, essentially, mere fasciculi of its rami- fications. The fleshy or muscular fibre is a peculiar sort of filament, whose distinctive property, during life, is that of contracting when touched or struck, or when it experiences the action of the will through the medium of the nerve. The muscles, direct organs of voluntary motion, are mere bundles of fleshy fibres. All vessels and membranes which have any kind of compression to execute are armed with these fibres.. They are always intimately connected with nervous threads, but those which belong to the purely vegetative func- tions contract, without the knowledge of the me, so that, al- though the will is truly a means of causing the fibres to act, it is neither general nor unique. The fleshy fibre has for its base a particular substance called fibrine, which is insoluble in boiling water, and which seems naturally to assume this filamentous disposition. The nutritive fluid or the blood, such as we find it in the vessels of the circulation, is not only mostly resolvable into the general elements of the animal body, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and azote, but it also contains fibrine and gelatine, almost prepared to contract and to assume the forms of membranes INTRODUCTION. 15 or filaments peculiar to them, all that is ever wanted for their manifestation being a little repose. The blood also con- tains another combination, which is found in many animal fluids and solids, called albumen, whose characteristic property is that of coagulating in boiling water. Besides these, the blood contains almost every element which may enter into the com- position of the body of each animal, such as the lime and phosphorus which harden the bones of vertebrated animals, the iron from which it and various other parts receive their colour, ihtfat or animal oil which is deposited in the cellular substance to supple it, &c. All the fluids and solids of the animal body are composed of chemical elements found in the blood, and it is only by possessing a few elements more or less, that each of them is distinguished; whence it is plain, that their formation entirely depends on the subtraction of the whole or part of one or more elements of the blood, and in some few cases, on the addition of some element from else- where. These operations, by which the blood nourishes the fluid or solid matter of all parts of the body, may assume the general name of secretions. This name, however, is often appropriated exclusively to the production of liquids ; while that of nutri- tion is more especially applied to the formation and deposition of the matter necessary to the growth and conservation of the solids. The composition of every solid organ, of every fluid is pre- cisely such as fits it for the part it is to play, and it preserves it as long as healtli remains, because the blood renews it as fast as it becomes changed. The blood itself by this continued contribution is changed every moment, but is restored by di- gestion, which renews its matter by respiration, which delivers it from superfluous carbon and hydrogen, by perspiration and various other excretions, that relieve it from other superabun- dant principles. These perpetual changes of chemical composition form a part of the vital vortex, not less essential than the visible movements and those of translation. The object of the latter is, in fact, but to produce the former. 16 INTRODUCTION. Of the forces which act in the Animal Body. The muscular fibre is not only the organ of voluntary rao- tion, for we have just seen that it is also the most powerful of the agents employed by nature to produce those transmutations so necessary to vegetative life. Thus the fibres of the intes- tines produce the peristaltic motion, which causes the alimen- tary matter therein contained to pass through them ; the fibres of the heart and arteries are the agents of the circulation and through it of all the secretions, &c. Volition contracts the fibre through the medium of the nerve ; and the involuntary fibres, such as those we have men- tioned, being also animated by them, it is probable that these nerves are the cause of their contraction. All contraction, and generally speaking, every change of dimension in nature, is produced by a change of chemical composition, though it consist merely in the flowing or ebbing of an imponderable fluid, such as caloric ; thus also are pro- duced the most violent movements known upon earth, explo- sions, &c. There is, consequently, good reason to suppose that the nerve acts upon the fibre through the medium of an impon- derable fluid, and the more so, as it is proved that this action is not mechanical. The medullary matter of the whole nervous system is ho- mogeneous, and must be able to exercise its peculiar func- tions wherever it is found; all its ramifications are abundantly supplied with blood vessels. All the animal fluids being drawn from the blood by secre- tion, we can have no doubt that such is the case with the ner- vous fluid, and that the medullary matter secretes it. On the other hand, it is certain that the medullary matter is the sole conductor of the nervous fluid ; all the other or- ganic elements restrain and arrest it, as glass arrests electri- city. The external causes which are capable of producing sensa- tions or causing contractions of the fibre are all chemical INTRODUCTION. 17 agents, capable of effecting decompositions, such as light, caloric, the salts, odorous vapours, percussion, compression, ttc. (fee. It would appear then that these causes act on the nervous fluid chemically, and by changing its composition ; this ap- pears the more likely, as their action becomes weakened by continuance, as if the nervous fluid needed the resumption of its primitive composition, to fit it for a fresh alteration. The external organs of the senses may be compared to sieves, which allow nothing to pass through to the nerve, ex- cept that species of agent which should affect it in that par- ticular place, but which often accumulates it so as to increase its effect. The tongue has its spongy papillae which imbibe saline solutions ; the ear, a gelatinous pulp which is violently agitated by sonorous vibrations ; the eye, transparent lenses which concentrate the rays of light, &c. &c. It is probable, that what are styled irritants, or the agents which occasion the contractions of the fibre, exert this ac- tion by producing on the fibre, by the nerve, a similar effect to that produced on it by the will ; that is, by altering the ner- vous fluid, in the way that is requisite to change the dimen- sions of the fibre which it influences : but with this process the will has nothing to do, and very often the me is entirely ignorant of it. The muscles separated from the body pre- serve their susceptibility of irritation, as long as the portion of the nerve that remains with them preserves the power of acting on them — with this phenomenon the will has evidently no connexion. The nervous fluid is altered by muscular irritation, as well as by sensibility and voluntary motion, and the same necessity exists for the re-establishment of its primitive composition. The transmutations necessary to vegetable life are occasioned by irritants ; the aliment irritates the* intestine, the blood irri- tates the heart, &c. These movements are all independent of the will, and generally (while in health) take place without the know ledge of the me ; in several parts, the nerves that produce them are. even differently arranged from those that are appropriated to sensation or dependent on the will, and Vol. I.—C 18 INTRODUCTION. the very object of this difference appears to be the securing of this independence. The nervous functions^ that is, sensibility and muscular ir- ritability, are so much the stronger at every point, in pro- portion as their exciting cause is abundant; and as this cause or the nervous fluid is produced by secretion, its abundance must be in proportion to the quantity of medullary or secre- tory matter, and the amount of blood received by the latter. In animals that have a circulating system, the blood is pro- pelled through the arteries which convey it to its destined parts, by means of their irritability and that of the heart. If these arteries be irritated, they act more strongly, and pro- pel a greater quantity of blood ; the nervous fluid becomes more abundant and augments the local sensibility ; this, in its turn, augments the irritability of the arteries, so that this mu- tual action may sometimes be carried to a great extent. It is called oi'gasm, and when it becomes painful and permanent, inflammation. The irritation may also originate in the nerve when exposed to the influence of acute sensations. This mutual influence of the nerves and fibres, either in- testinal or arterial, is the real spring of vegetative life in ani- mals. As each external sense is permeable only by such or such sensible substances, so each internal organ may be accessible only to this or that agent of irritation. Thus, mercury irri- tates the salivary glands, cantharides irritate the bladder, &c. These agents are called specifics. The nervous system being homogeneous and continuous, local sensations and irritation debilitate the whole, and each function, by excessive action, may weaken the others. Ex- cess of aliment weakens the power of thought, while long con- tinued meditation impairs that of digestion, &c. Excessive local irritation will enfeeble the whole body, as if all the powers of life were concentrated in one single point. A second irritation pi;oduced at another part may diminish, or divert, as it is termed, the first : such is the effect of blis- ters, purgatives, &c. Brief as our sketch has been, it is suflicient to establish the INTRODUCTION. 19 possibility of accounting for all the phenomena of physical life, from the properties it presents, by the simple admission of a fluid such as we have defined. Summary idea of the Functions and Organs of the Bodies of Animals, and of their various degrees of Complication. After what we have stated respecting the organic elements of the body, its chemical principles and acting powers, no- thing remains but to give a summary idea of the functions of which life is composed, and of their appropriate organs. The functions of the animal body are divided into two classes : The animal functions, or those proper to animals, that is to say, sensibility and voluntary motion. The vital, vegetative functions, or those common to animals and vegetables, i. e., nutrition and generation. Sensibility resides in the nervous system. The most general external sense is that of touch ; it is seated in the skin, a membrane that envelopes the whole body, which is traversed in every direction by nerves whose extreme fila- ments expand on the surface into papillae, and are protected by the epidermis and other insensible teguments, such as hairs, scales, &c. &c. Taste and smell are merely delicate states of the sense of touch, for which the skin of the mouth and nos- trils is particularly organized: the first, by means of papillse more convex and spongy ; the second, by its extreme delicacy and the multiplication of its ever humid surface. We have already spoken of the ear and the eye. The organ of gene- ration is endowed with a sixth sense, seated in its internal skin ; that of the stomach and intestines declares the state of those viscera by peculiar sensations. In fine, sensations more or less painful may originate in every part of the body through accident or disease. Many animals have neither ears nor nostrils, several are without eyes, and some are reduced to the single sense of touch, which is never absent. 20 INTRODUCTION. The action received by the external organs is continued by the nerves to the central masses of the nervous system, whichj, in the liigher animals, consists of the brain and spinal mar- row. The more elevated the nature of the animal, the more voluminous is the brain and the more is the sensitive power concentrated there ; the lower the animal, the more the me- dullary masses are dispersed, and in the most imperfect genera, the entire nervous substance seems to melt into the general matter of the body. That p,art of the body which contains the brain and princi- pal organs of sense, is called the head. When the animal has received a sensation, and this has oc- casioned volition ; it is by the nerves, also, that this volition is transmitted to the muscles. The muscles are bundles of fleshy fibres whose contractions produce all the movements of the animal body. The exten- sion of the limbs and every elongation, as well as every flexion and abbreviation of parts, are the effects of muscular contrac- tion. The muscles of every animal are arranged, both as re- spects number and direction, according to the movements it has to make; and when these motions require force, the muscles are inserted into hard parts, articulated one over an- other, and may be considered as so many levers. These parts are called bones in the vertebrated animals, where they are in- ternal, and are formed of a gelatinous mass, penetrated by par- ticles of phosphate of lime. In the Mollusca, the Crustacea, and Insects, where they are external, and composed of a cal- careous or horny substance that exudes between the skin and epidermis, they are called shells, crusts and scales. The fleshy fibres are attached to the hard parts by means of other fibres of a gelatinous nature, which seem to be a con- tinuation of the former, constituting what are called tendons. The configuration of the articulating surfaces of the hard parts limits their motion, which are also restrained by cords or envelopes, attached to the sides of the articulations, called ligaments. • It is from the various arrangements of this bony and mus- cular apparatus, and the form and proportion of the members INTRODUCTION. 21 therefrom resulting, that animals are capable of executing the innumerable movements that enter into walking and leaping, flight and natation. The muscular fibres, appropriated to digestion and the cir- culation, are independent of the will ; they receive nerves, however, but the chief of them are subdivided and arranged in a manner which seems to have for its object their indepen- dence of the ME. It is only in paroxysms of the passions and other powerful affections of the soul, which break down these barriers, that the empire of the me is perceptible, and even then it is almost always to disorder these vegetative functions. It is, also, in a state of sickness only that these functions are accompanied with sensations : digestion is usually performed unconsciously. The aliment divided by the jaws and teeth, or sucked up when liquids constitute the food, is swallowed by the muscu- lar movements of the hinder parts of the mouth and throat, and deposited in the first portions of the alimentary canal that is usually expanded into one or more stomachs; there it is penetrated with juices fitted to dissolve it. Passing thence through the rest of the canal, it receives other juices destined to complete its preparation. The parietes of the canal are pierced with pores which extract from this alimentary mass its nutritious portion; the useless residuum is rejected as ex- crement. The canal in which this first act of nutrition is performed, is a continuation of the skin, and is composed of similar lay- ers ; even the fibres that encircle it are analogous to those which adhere to the internal surface of the skin, called the fleshy pannicle. Throughout the whole interior of this canal there is a transudation which has some connexion with the cu- taneous perspiration, and which becomes more abundant when the latter is suppressed ; the absorption of. the skin is even very analogous to that of the intestines. It is in the lowest order of animals that the excrements are rejected by the mouth, their intestines resembling a sac, with but the one opening. Even among those where the intestinal canal has two ori- 22 INTRODUCTIOX. fices, there are many in which the nutritive juices being ab- sorbed by tlie parietes of the intestine, are immediately dif- fused throughout the whole spongy substance of the body : such, it would appear, is the case with all Insects. But from the Arachnoides and Worms upwards, the nutritive fluid circu- lates in a system of closed vessels, whose ultimate ramifications alone dispense its molecules to the parts that are nourished by it: the vessels that convey it are called arteries^ those that bring it back to the centre of the circulation, veins. The circulating vortex is here simple, and there double and even triple (including that of the vena portse); the rapidity of its motion is often assisted by the contractions of a certain fleshy apparatus called a heart, which is placed at one or the other centres of circulation, and sometimes at both of them. In the red-blooded vertebrated animals, the nutritive fluid exudes from the intestines, white or transparent, and is then termed chyle; it is poured into the veins where it mingles with the blood, by two peculiar vessels called lacteals. Ves- sels similar to these lacteals, and forming with them an arrange- ment called the lymphatic system, also convey to the venous blood the residue of the nutrition of the parts and the pro- ducts of cutaneous absorption. Before the blood is fit to nourish the parts, it must expe- rience from the circumambient element the modification of which we have previously spoken. In animals possessing a circulating system, one portion of the vessels is destined to carry the blood into organs in which they spread it over a great surface to obtain an increase of this elemental influence. When that element is air, the surface is hollow, and is called lungs: when it is w^ater, it is salient, and is termed branchise. There is always an arrangement of the organs of motion for the purpose of propelling the element into, or upon, the organ of respiration. In animals destitute of a circulating system, air is diff'used through every part of the body by elastic vessels called tra- chese; or water acts upon them, either by penetrating through vessels, or by simply bathing the surface of the skin. The respired, or purified blood is properly qualified for restoring INTRODUCTION. 23 the composition of all the parts, and to effect what is properly called nutrition. This facility, which the blood possesses, of decomposing itself at every point, so as to leave there the precise kind of molecule necessary, is indeed wonderful ; but it is this wonder which constitutes the whole vegetative life. For the nourishment of the solids we see no other arrangement than a great subdivision of the extreme arterial ramifications, but for the production of fluids the apparatus is more complex and various. Sometimes the extremities of the vessels simply spread themselves over large surfaces, whence the produced fluid exhales ; at others it oozes from the bottom of little cavi- ties. Before these arterial extremities change into veins, they most commonly give rise to particular vessels that convey this fluid, which appears to proceed from the exact point of union between the two kinds of vessels ; in this case the blood ves- sels and these latter form, by interlacing, particular bodies call- ed conglomerate or secretory glands. In animals that have no circulation, in Insects particularly, the parts are all bathed in the nutritive fluid : each of these parts draws from it what it requires, and if the production of a liquid be necessary, proper vessels floating in the fluid take up by their pores the constituent elements of that liquid. It is thus that the blood incessantly supports the composi- tion of all the parts, and repairs the injuries arising from those changes which are the continual and necessary consequences of their functions. The general ideas we form with respect to this process are tolerably clear, although we have no dis- tinct or detailed notion of what passes at each point, and for want of knowing the chemical composition of each part with sufficient precision, we cannot render an exact account of the transmutations necessary to effect it. Besides the glands which separate from the blood those fluids that are destined for the internal economy, there are some which detach others from it that^are to be totally eject- ed, either as superfluous — the urine, for instance, which is produced by the kidneys ; or for some use to the animal, as the ink of the cuttle-fish, and the purple matter of various mol- lusca, &c. 24 INTRODUCTION. With respect to generation, there is a process or phenome- non, infinitely more difiicult to comprehend than that of the secretions — the production of the germ. We have even seen that it is to be considered as ahnost incomprehensible ; but the existence of the germ being admitted, generation presents no particular difficulties. As long as it adheres to the parent, it is nourislied as if it were one of its organs, and when it de- taches itself, it possesses its own life, which is essentially simi- lar to that of the adult. The germ, the embryo, the foetus, and the new-born ani- mal have never, however, exactly the same form as the adult, and the difference is sometimes so great, that their assimilation has been termed a metamorphosis. Thus, no one not previ- ously aware of the fact would suppose that the caterpillar is to become a butterfly. Every living being is more or less metamorphosed in the course of its growth ; that is, it loses certain parts, and deve- lopes others. The antennae, wings, and all the parts of the butterfly were enclosed beneath the skin of the caterpillar ; this skin vanishes along with the jaws, feet, and other organs, that do not remain with the butterfly. The feet of the frog are enclosed by the skin of the tadpole ; and the tadpole, to become a frog, parts with its tail, mouth, and branchiae. The child, at birth, loses its placenta and membranes ; at a certain period its thymus gland nearly disappears, and it gradually acquires hair, teeth, and beard; the relative size of its organs is altered, and its body augments in a greater ratio than its head, the head more than the internal ear, &c. The place where these germs are found, and their germs themselves are collectively styled the ovary; the canal through which, when detached, they are carried into the uterus, the oviduct; the cavity in which, in many species, they are com- pelled to remain for a longer or shorter period previous to birth, the uterus; and the external orifice through which they pass into the world, the vulva. Where there are sexes, the male impregnates^ the germs appearing in the female. The fecundating liquor is called semen; the glands that separate INTRODUCTION. 25 it from the blood, testes; and when it is requisite it should be carried into the body of the female, the introductory organ is named a penis. Of the Intellectual Functions of Animals. The impression of external objects upon the me, the produc- tion of a sensation or of an image, is a mystery into which the human understanding cannot penetrate ; and materialism an hypothesis, so much the more conjectual, as philosophy can furnish no direct proof of the actual existence of matter. The naturalist, however, should examine what appear to be the material conditions of sensation, trace the ulterior operations of the mind, ascertain to what point they reach in each being, and assure himself whether they are not subject to conditions of perfection, dependent on the organization of each species, or on the momentary state of each individual body. To enable the me to perceive, there must be an uninter- rupted communication between the external sense and the central masses of the medullary system. It is then the modi- fication only experienced by these masses that the me per- ceives : there may also be real sensations, without the exter- nal organ being affected, and which originate either in the nervous chain of communication, or in the central mass itself; such are dreams and visions, or certain accidental sensations. By central masses, we mean a part of the nervous system, that is so much the more circumscribed, as the animal is more perfect. In man, it consists exclusively of a limited portion of the brain; but in reptiles, it includes the brain and the whole of the medulla, and of each of their parts taken sepa- rately, so that the absence of the entire brain does not pre- vent sensation. In tht: inferior classes this extension is still greater. The perception acquired by the me, produces the image of the sensation experienced. We trace to without the cause of that sensation, and thus acquire the idea of the object that has produced it. By a necessary law of our intelligence, all ideas of material objects are in time and space. Vol. I.— D 26 INTRODUCTION. The modifications experienced by the medullary masses leave impressions there which are reproduced, and thus re- cal to the mind images and ideas: this is memory^ a corporeal faculty that varies greatly, according to the age and health of the animal. Similar ideas, or such as have been acquired at the same time, recal each other ; this is the association of ideas. The order, extent and quickness of this association constitute the perfection of memory. Every object presents itself to the memory with all its quali- ties or with all its accessary ideas. Intelligence has the power of separating these accessary ideas of objects, and of combining those that are alike in several different objects under a general idea; the object of which no w here really exists, nor presents itself per se — this is abstraction. Every sensation being more or less agreeable or disagree- able, experience and repeated essays soon show what move- ments are required to procure the one and avoid the other; and with respect to this, the intelligence abstracts itself from the general rules to direct the will. An agreeable sensation being liable to consequences that are not so, and vice versa, the subsequent sensations become asso- ciated with the idea of the primitive one, and modify the general rules framed by intelligence — this is prudence. From the application of these rules to general ideas, result certain formulae, which are afterwards easily adapted to par- ticular cases — this is called reasoning. A lively remembrance of primitive and associated sensations, and of the impressions of pleasure or pain that belong to them, constitutes imagination. One privileged being, man, has the faculty of associating his general ideas with particular images more or less arbitrary, easily impressed upon the memory, and which serve to recal the general ideas they represent. These associated images are styled signs; their assemblage is a language. When the language is composed of images that relate to the sense of hearing or of sounds, it is termed speech, and when relative INTRODUCTION. 27 to that of sight, hieroglyphics. Writirig is a suite of images that relates to the sense of sight, by which we represent the elementary sounds; and by combining them, all the images relative to the sense of hearing of which speech is composed ; it is therefore only a mediate representation of ideas. This faculty of representing general ideas by particular signs or images associated with them, enables us to retain dis- tinctly, and to remember without embarrassment, an im- mense number; and furnishes to the reasoning faculty and the imagination innumerable materials, and to individuals means of communication, which cause the whole species to participate in the experience of each individual, so that no bounds seem to be placed to the acquisition of knowledge ; it is the distinguishing character of human intelligence. Although, with respect to the intellectual faculties, the most perfect an.imals are infinitely beneath man; it is certain that their intelligence performs operations of the same kind. They move in consequence of sensations received, are susceptible of durable affections, and acquire by experience a certain know- ledge of things, by which they are governed independently of actual pain or pleasure, and by the simple foresight of conse- quences. When domesticated, they feel their subordination, know that the being who punishes tliem may refrain from so doing if he will, and when sensible of having done wrong, or behold him angry, they assume a suppliant and deprecating air. In the society of man they become either corrupted or improved, and are susceptible of emulation and jealousy : they have among themselves a natural language, which, it is true, is merely the expression of their momentary sensations, but man teaches them to understand another, much more compli- cated, by which he makes known to them his will, and causes them to execute it. To sum up all, we perceive in the higher animals a certain degree of reason, with all its consequences, good and bad, and which appears to be about the same as that of children ere they have learned to speak. The lower we descend from man the weaker these faculties become, and at the bottom of the scale we find them reduced to signs (at times equivocal) of sensibi- 28 INTRODUCTION. lity, that is, to some few slight movements to escape from pain. Between these two extremes, the degrees are infinite. Ill a great number of animals, however, there exists another kind of intelligence, called instinct. This induces them to certain actions necessary to the preservation of the species, hut very often altogether foreign to the apparent wants of the individual; often also very complicated, and which, if attri- buted to intelligence, would suppose a foresight and know- ledge in the species that perform them infinitely superior to what can possibly be granted. These actions, the result of instinct, are not the effect of imitation, for very frequently the individuals who execute them have never seen them perform- ed by others : they are not proportioned to ordinary intelli- gence, but become more singular, more wise, more disinterest- ed, in proportion as the animals belong to less elevated classes, and in all the rest of their actions are more dull and stupid. They are so entirely the property of the species, that all its individuals perform them in the same way without ever im- proving them a particle. The working bees, for instance, have always constructed very ingenious edifices, agreeably to the rules of the highest geometry, and destined to lodge and nourish a posterity not even their own. The solitary bee, and the wasp also, form highly complicated nests, in which to deposit their eggs. From this egg comes a worm, which has never seen its parent, which is ignorant of the structure of the prison in which it is confined, but which, once metamorphosed, constructs another precisely similar. The only method of obtaining a clear idea of instinct, is by admitting the existence of innate and perpetual images or sensations in the sensorium which cause the animal to act in the same way as ordinary or accidental sensations usually do. It is a kind of perpetual vision or dream that always pursues it, and it may be considered, in all that has relation to its in- stinct, as a kind of somnambulism. Instinct has been granted to animals as a supplement to in- telligence, to concur with it, and with strength and fecundity, in the preservation, to a proper degree, of each species. INTRODUCTION. 29 There is no visible mark of instinct in the conformation of the animal, but, as well as it can be ascertained, the intelligence is always in proportion to the relative size of the brain, and particularly of its hemispheres. Of Method, as applied to the Animal Kingdom. From what has been stated with respect to methods in ge- neral, we have now to ascertain what are the essential charac- ters in animals, on which their primary divisions are to be founded. It is evident they should be those which are drawn from the animal functions, that is from the sensations, and mo- tions; for both these not only make the being an animal, but in a manner establish its degree of animality. Observation confirms this position by showing that their degrees of development and complication accord with those of the organs of the vegetative functions , The heart and the organs of the circulation form a kind of centre for the vegetative functions, as the brain and the trunk of the nervous system do for the animal ones. Now we see these two systems become imperfect and disappear together. In the lowest class of animals, where the nerves cease to be visible, the fibres are no longer distinct, and the organs of digestion are simple excavations in the honogeneous mass of the body. In insects the vascular system even disappears before the nervous one ; but, in general, the dispersion of the medullary masses accompanies that of the muscular agents: a spinal marrow, on which the knots or ganglions represent so many brains, corresponds to a body divided into numerous rings, supported by pairs of limbs longitudinally distributed, &c. This correspondence of general forms, which results from the arrangement of the organs of motion, the distribution of the nervous masses, and the energy of the circulating system, should then be the basis of the primary divisions of the animal kingdom. We will afterwards ascertaiii, in each of these divisions, what characters should succeed immediately to those, and form the basis of the primary subdivisions. 30 INTRODUCTION. General distribution of the Animal Kingdom into Four Great Divisions. If, divesting ourselves of the prejudices founded on the divisions formerly admitted, we consider only the organization and nature of animals, without regard to their size, utility, the greater or less knowledge we have of them, and other ac- cessary circumstances, we shall find there are four principal forms, four general plans, if it may be so expressed, on which all animals seem to have been modelled, and whose ulterior divisions, whatever be the titles with which naturalists have decorated them, are merely slight modifications, founded on the development or addition of certain parts, which produce no essential change in the plan itself. In the first of these forms, w hich is that of man, and of the animals most nearly resembling him, the brain and principal trunk of the nervous system are enclosed in a bony envelope, formed by the cranium and vertebrae; to the sides of this in- termedial column are attached the ribs, and bones of the limbs, which form the frame work of the body; the muscles generally cover the bones, whose motions they occasion, while the viscera are contained within the head and trunk. Ani- mals of this form we shall denominate Animalia Vertebrata. They have, all, red blood, a muscular heart, a mouth fur- nished with two jaws situated either above or before each other, distinct organs of sight, hearing, smell and taste placed in the cavities of the face, never more than four limbs, the sexes always separated, and a very similar distribution of the medullary masses and the principal branches of the nervous system. By a closer examination of each of the parts of this great series of animals, we always discover some analogy, even in species the most remote from each other; and may trace the gradations of one same plan from man to the last of the fishes. In the second form there is no skeleton; the muscles are INTRODUCTION. 31 merely attached to the skin, which constitutes a soft contrac- tile envelope, in which, in many species, are formed stony plates, called shells, whose position and production are ana- logous to those of the mucous body. The nervous system is contained within this general envelope along with the viscera, and is composed of several scattered masses connected by ner- vous filaments; the chief of these masses is placed on the oesophagus, and is called the brain. Of the four senses, the organs of two only are observable, those of taste and sight, the latter of which are even frequently wanting. One single family alone presents organs of hearing. There is always, however, a complete system of circulation, and particular or- gans for respiration. Those of digestion and secretion are nearly as complex as in the vertebrata. We will distinguish the animals of this second form by the appellation of Anwialia Mollusca. Although, as respects the external configuration of the parts, the general plan of their organization is not as uniform as that of the vertebrata ; there is always an equal degree of resemblance between them in the structure and the functions. The third form is that remarked in worms, insects, &c. Their nervous system consists of two long cords, running lon- gitudinally through the abdomen, dilated at intervals into knots or ganglions. The first of these knots, placed over the ccsophagus, and called brain, is scarcely any larger than those that are along the abdomen, with which they communicate by filaments that encircle the cesophagus like a necklace. The covering or envelope of the body is divided by transverse folds into a certain number of rings, whose teguments are sometimes soft, and sometimes hard ; the muscles, however, being always situated internally. Articulated limbs are fre- quently attached to the trunk ; but very often there are none. * We will call these animals Aniinalia Articulata, Or articulated animals, in which is observed the transition 32 INTRODUCTION. from the circulation in closed vessels to nutrition by imbibi- tion, and the corresponding one of respiration in circumscribed organs, to that effected by tracheae or air-vessels distributed thi-oughout the body. In them, the organs of taste and sight are the most distinct; one single family alone presenting that of hearing. Their jaws, when they have any, are always lateral. The fourth form, which embraces all those animals known by the name of zoophytes, may also properly be denominated Animalia Radiatap Or radiated animals. We have seen that the organs of sense and motion in all the preceding ones are symmetrically arranged on the two sides of an axis. There is a posterior and anterior dissimilar face. In this last division, they are disposed like rays round a centre ; and this is the case even when they consist of but two series, for then the two faces are similar. They approximate to the homogeneity of plants, having no very distinct nervous system or particular organs of sense ; in some of them, it is even difficult to discover a ves- tige of circulation ; their respiratory organs are almost univer- sally seated on the surface of the body, the intestine in the greater number is a mere sac without issue, and the lowest of the series are nothing but a sort of homogeneous pulp, endow- ed with motion and sensibility.(l ) (1) Before my time, modem naturalists divided all invei-tebrated animals into two classes. Insects and Worms, J Was the first who attacked this method ; and in a memoir read before the Society of Natural History of Paris on the 10th of May 1795, and printed in the Decade Philosophique, I presented a new division, in which I marked the characters and hmits of the Mollusca, Crustacea, Insects and Worms, Echinodermata and Zoophytes. In a memoir read before the Insti- tute on the 31st of December 1801, 1 ascertained the red-blooded worms or Anne- lides. And finally, in a memoir read before the Institute in July 1812, and printed m the Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, tome xix, I distributed these various classes in three divisions, each of which is analogous to a bi-anch of the vertebrata. -^m FIRST GREAT DIVISION OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. ANIMALIA VERTEBRATA. The bodies and limbs of vertebrated animals being sup- ported by a frame-work or skeleton composed of connected pieces that are movable upon each other, their motions are certain and vigorous. The solidity of this support enables them to attain considerable size, and it is among them that the largest animals are found. The great concentration of the nervous system, and the volume of its central portions, give energy and stability to their sentiments, whence result superior intelligence and per- fectibility. Their body always consists of a head, trunk and members. The head is formed by the cranium which contains the brain, and by the face which is composed of two jaws and of the receptacles of the senses. The trunk is supported by the spine and the ribs. The spine is formed of vertebrsE, the first of which sup- ports the head, that move upon each other, and are perforated by an annular opening, forming together a canal, in which is lodged that medullary production from which arise the nerves, called the spinal marrow. The spine, most commonly, is continued into a tail, extend- ing beyond the posterior members. The ribs are a kind of semicircular hoops which protect Vol. I— E 34 ANIMALIA VERTEBRATA. the sides of the cavity of the trunk, they are articulated at one extremity with the vertebrae, and most generally at the other with the sternum; sometimes, however, they do not encircle the trunk, and there are genera in which they are hardly visible. There are never more than two pairs of members, but some- times one or the other is wanting, or even both. Their forms vary according to the movements they have to execute. The superior members are converted into hands^ feet, wings or fins, and the inferior into feet or fins. The blood is always red, and appears to be so composed as to sustain a peculiar energy of sentiment and muscular strength, but in various degrees, corresponding to their quality of re- spiration : from which originates the subdivision of the verte- brata into four classes. The external senses are always five in number, and reside in two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the teguments of the tongue, and those of the body, generally. In some species, however, the eyes are obliterated. The nerves reach the medulla through the foramina of the vertebrae or those of the cranium ; tlicy all seem to unite with this medulla, which, after crossing its filaments, spreads out to form the various lobes of which the brain is composed, and terminates in the two medullary arches called hemispheres, whose volume is in proportion to the extent of the intelligence. There are always two jaws, the greatest motion is in the lower one, which rises and falls; the upper jaw is sometimes immovable. Both of these are almost always armed with teeth, excrescences of a peculiar nature, which in their chemi- cal composition are very similar to that of bone, but which grow by layers and transudation ; one whole class, however, that of birds, has the jaws invested with horn, and the genus Testudo, in the class of reptiles, is in the same case. The intestinal canal traverses the body from the mouth to the anus, experiencing various enlargements and contractions, having appendages and receiving solvent fluids, one of which, the saliva, is discharged into the mouth. The others, which are poured into the intestine only, have various names : the ANIMALIA VERTEBRATA. 35 two principal ones are the juices of the gland called the pan- creas, and bile, a product of another very large gland named the liver. While the digested aliment is traversing its canal, that por- tion of it which is fitted for nutrition, called the chyle, is ab- sorbed by particular vessels styled lacteals, and carried into the veins ; the residue of the nourishment of the parts is also carried into the veins by vessels analogous to these lacteals, and forming with them one same system called the lymphatic system. The blood which has served to nourish the parts, and which has just been renewed by the chyle and lymph, is returned to the heart by the veins — but this blood is obliged, either wholly or in part, to pass into the organ of respiration, in or- der to regain its arterial nature, previous to being again sent through the system by the arteries. In the three first classes this respiratory organ consists of lungs, that is, a collection of cells into which air penetrates. In fish only, and in some reptiles, while young, it consists of branchisB or a series of laminse, between which water passes. In all the vertebrata, the blood which furnishes the liver with the materials of the bile is venous blood, which has cir- culated partly in the parietes of the intestines, and partly in a peculiar body called the spleen, and which, after being united in a trunk called the vena porta, is again subdivided at the liver. All these animals have a particular secretion ; the urine, which is produced in two large glands, attached to the sides of the spine of the back, called kidneys — the liquid they secrete is most commonly poured into a reservoir, named bladder. The sexes are separate, and the female has always one or two ovaries, from which the eggs are detached at the instant of conception. The male fecundifies them with the seminal fluid, but the mode varies greatly. In most of the genera of the three first classes, it requires an intromission of the fluid ; in some reptiles, and in most of the fishes, it takes place after the exit of the egg. 36 ANIMALIA VERTEBRATA. Subdivision of the Vertebrata into Four Classes. We have just seen how far vertebrated animals resemble each other; they present, however, four great subdivisions or classes, characterised by the kind or power of their motions, which depend themselves on the quantity of their respiration, inasmuch as it is from this respiration that the muscular fibres derive the strength of their irritability. The quantity of respiration depends upon two agents : the first is the relative amount of blood which is poured into the respiratory organ in a given instant of time ; the second is the relative amount of oxygen which enters into the composition of the surrounding fluid. The quantity of the former de- pends upon the disposition of the organs of circulation and respiration. The organs of the circulation may be double, so that all the blood which is brought back from the various parts of the body by the veins, is forced to circulate through the respi- ratory organ, previous to resuming its former course through the arteries; or they may be simple, so that a part only of the blood is obliged to pass through that organ, the remainder returning directly to the body. The latter is the case with reptiles. The quantity of their respiration, and all their qualities which depend on it, vary with the amount of blood thrown into the lungs at each pul- sation. Fishes have a double circulation, but their organ of respi- ration is formed to execute its function through the medium of water ; and their blood is only acted on by the portion of oxygen it contains, so that the quantity of their respiration is perhaps less than that of reptiles. In the mammalia the circulation is double, and the aerial respiration simple, that is, it is performed in the lungs only ; their quantity of respiration is, consequently, superior to that of reptiles, on account of the form of their respiratory organ, and to that of fishes from the nature of their surrounding ele- ment. ANIMALIA VERTEBRATA. 37 The quantity of respiration in birds is even superior to that of quadrupeds, not only because they have a double circula- tion and an aerial respiration, but also because they respire by many other cavities besides the lungs, the air penetrating throughout their bodies, and bathing the branches of the aorta, as well as those of the pulmonary artery. Hence result the four different kinds of motion for which the four classes of vertebrated animals are more particularly designed: quadrupeds, in which the quantity of respiration is moderate, are generally formed to walk and run, both motions being characterized by precision and vigour; birds, which have more of it, possess the muscular strength and lightness requisite for flight ; reptiles, where it is diminished, are con- demned to creep, and many of them pass a portion of their lives in a kind of torpor ; fishes, in fine, to execute their mo- tions, require to be supported in a fluid whose specific gravity is nearly as great as their own. All the circumstances of organization peculiar to each of these four classes, and those especially which regard motion and the external sensations, have a necessary relation with these essential characters. The mammalia, however, have particular characters in their viviparous mode of generation, in the manner by which the fcetus is nourished in the uterus through the medium of the placenta, and in the mammsB by which they suckle their young. The other classes, on the contrary, are oviparous, and if we compare them to the first, we shall find such numerous points of resemblance as announce a peculiar system of organization in the great general plan of the vertebrata. 36 ANIMALIA VERTEBRATA. CLASS I. MAMMALIA. The mammalia are placed at the head of the animal kingdom^ not only because it is the class to which man himself belongs, but also because it is that which enjoys the most numerous faculties, the most delicate sensations, the most varied powers of motion, and in which all the different qualities seem com- bined in order to produce a more perfect degree of intelli- gence, the one most fertile in resources, most susceptible of perfection, and least the slave of instinct. As their quantity of respiration is moderate, they are de- signed in general for walking on the earth, but with vigorous and continued steps. The forms of the articulations of their skeleton, are, consequently, strictly defined, which deter- mines all their motions with the most rigorous precision. Some of them, however, by means of limbs considerably elongated, and extended membranes, raise themselves in the air ; others have them so shortened, that they can move with facility in water only, though this does not deprive them of the general characters of the class. The upper jaw, in all of these animals, is fixed to the cra- nium ; the lower is formed of two pieces only, articulated by a projecting condyle to a fixed temporal bone; the neck con- sists of seven vertebrse, one single species excepted which has nine ; the anterior ribs are attached before, by cartilage, to a sternum consisting of several vertical pieces; their anterior extremity commences in a shoulder-blade, that is not articu- lated, but simply suspended in the flesh, often resting on the sternum by means of an intermediate bone, called a clavicle. MAMMALIA. 39 This extremity is continued by an arm, a fore-arm, and a hand, the latter being composed of two ranges of small bones called the carpus, of another range called the metacarpus, and of the fingers, each of which consists of two or three bones, termed phalanges. With the exception of the cetacea, the first part of the pos- terior extremity, in all animals of this class, is fixed to the spine, forming a girdle or pelvis, which, in youth, consists of three pairs of bones, the ilium which is attached to the spine, the pubis which forms the anterior part of the girdle, and the ischium, the posterior. At the point of union of these three bones is situated the cavity with which the thigh is articulated, to which, in its turn, is attached the leg, formed of two bones, the tibia and fibula; this extremity is terminated by parts similar to those of the hand, i. e. by a tarsus, metatarsus and toes. The head of the mammalia is always articulated by two con- dyles, with the atlas, the first vertebra of the neck. The brain is always composed of two hemispheres, united by a medullary layer, called the corpus callosum, containing the ventricles, and enveloping four pairs of tubercles, named the corpora striata, or striated bodies, the thalami nervorum op- ticorum, or beds of the optic nerves, and the nates and testes. Between the optic beds is a third ventricle, which communi- cates with a fourth under the cerebellum, the crura of which always form a transverse prominence under the medulla ob- longata, called the ^ons Varolii, or bridge ofVarolius. The eye, invariably lodged in its orbit, is protected . by two lids and a vestige of a third, and has its crystalline fixed by the ciliary processes — its sclerotic is simply cellular. The ear always contains a cavity called the tympanum, or drum, which communicates with the mouth by the Eustachian tube; the cavity itself is closed externally by a membrane call- ed the mcmbrana tympani, and contains a chain of four little bones, named the incus or anvil, malleus or hammer, the os orbiculare or circular bone, and the stapes or stirrup j a ves- tibule, on the entrance of which rests the stapes, and which communicates with three semicircular canals ; and, finally, a 40 MAMMALIA. cochlea, which terminates by one canal in the vestibule, and by the other in the tympanum. Their cranium is subdivided into three portions ; the ante- rior is formed by the two frontal and ethmoidal boneS;, the middle by the two ossa parietalia and the os ethmoides, and the posterior by the os occipitis. Between the ossa parietalia, the sphenoidalis and the os occipitis, are interposed the two temporal bones, part of which belong properly to the face. In the fcetus, the occipital bone is divided into four parts : the sphenoidal into two halves, which are again subdivided into three pairs of lateral wings ; the temporal into three, one of which serves to complete the cranium, the second to close the labyrinth of the ear, the third to form the parietes of the tympanum, &c. These bony portions, still more numerous in the earliest period of the fcctal existence, are united more or less promptly, according to the species, and the bones them- selves finally become consolidated in the adult. Their face consists of the two maxillary bones, between which pass the nostrils ; the two intermaxillaries are situated before, and the two ossa palati behind them ; between these descends the vomer, a bony process of the os ethmoides ; at the entrance of the nasal canal are placed the ossa nasi ; to its external parietes adhere the inferior turbinated bones, the superior ones which occupy its upper and posterior portion belonging to the os ethmoides. The jugal or cheek bone unites the maxillary to the temporal bone on each side, and frequently to the os frontis j finally, the os unguis, and pars plana of the ethmoid bone occupy the internal angle of the orbit, and sometimes a part of the cheek. In the embryo state these bones also are much more subdivided. Their tongue is always fleshy, connected with a bone called the hyoides, which is composed of several pieces, and sus- pended from the cranium by ligaments. Their lungs, two in number, divided into lobes, and com- posed of an infinitude of cells, are always enclosed, without any adhesion, in a cavity formed by the ribs and diaphragm and lined by the pleura ; the organ of voice is always at the MAMMALIA. 41 upper extremity of the trachea ; a fleshy curtain, called the velum palati, establishes a direct communication between their larynx and nasal canal. Their residence on the surface of the earth rendering them less' exposed to the alternations of cold and heat, their tegu- ment, the hair, is but moderately thick, and in such as inhabit warm climates, even that is rare. The Cetacea, which live exclusively in water, are the only ones that are altogether deprived of it. The abdominal cavity is lined with a membrane called the peritoneum, and the intestinal canal is suspended to a fold ol" it called the mesentery, which contains numerous conglobate glands in which the lacteals ramify: another production of the peritoneum, styled the epiploon, hangs in front of and un- der the intestines. The urine which is retained for a time in the bladder finds an exit in both sexes, with very few exceptions, by orifices in the organs of generation. In all the Mammalia, generation is essentially viviparous; that is, the foetus, directly after conception, descends into the uterus enveloped in its membranes, the exterior of which is called chorion and the interior amnios; it fixes itself to the parietes of this cavity by one plexus, or more of vessels called the placenta, which establishes a communication between it and the mother, by which it receives its nourishment, and most probably its oxygenation, notwithstanding which, the foetus of the Mammalia, at an early period, has a vesicle analogous to that which contains the yolk in the Ovipara, receiving in like manner vessels from the mesentery. It has also another external bladder named the allantoicl, which commimicates with the urinary one by a canal called the urachus. Conception always requires an effectual coitus, in which the semen masculinum is thrown into the uterus of the female. The young are nourished for some time after birth by a fluid (milk) peculiar to animals of this class, which is pro- duced by the mammae at the time of parturition, and continues to be so as long as is necessary. It is from the mmnmx that Vol. I.— F 42 MAMMALIA. this class derives its name, and being a character peculiar to it, they distinguish it better than any other that is external. (1 ) Division of the Mammalia into Orders. The variable characters which form essential differences among the Mammalia are taken from the organs of touch, on which depends their degree of ability or address, and from the organs of manducation, which determine the nature of their aliment, and are all closely connected, not only with every thing relative to the function of digestion, but also with a multitude of other differences relating even to their intelli- gence. The degree of perfection of the organs of touch is esti- mated by the number and the pliability of the lingers, and from the greater or less extent to which their extremities are enveloped by the nail or the hoof. A hoof which completely envelopes the end of the toe, blunts its sensibility, and renders the foot incapable of seizing. The opposite extreme is when a nail, formed of one single lamina, covers only one of the faces of the extremity of the finger, leaving the other possessed of all its delicacy. The nature of the food is known by the grinders, to the form of which the articulation of the jaws universally corres- ponds. To cut flesh, grinders are required as trenchant as a saw, and jaws fitted like scissars, having no other motion than a verti- cal one. For bruising roots or grains, flat-crowned grinders are ne- cessary, and jaws that have a lateral motion ; in order that inequalities may always exist on the crown of these teeth, it is also requisite that their substance be composed of parts of unequal hardness, so that some may wear away faster than others. Hoofed animals are all necessarily herbivorous, and have (1) We shall find, however, in the sequel some doubts on this subject, arising from certain points in the family of the Momtranata. MAMMALIA. 43 flat- crowned grinders, inasmuch as their feet preclude the possibility of their seizing a living prey. Animals with unguiculated fingers were susceptible of more variety ; their food is of all kinds, and independently of the form of their grinders, they differ greatly from each other in the pliability and delicacy of their fingers. There is one character with respect to this, which has immense influence on their dexterity and greatly multiplies its powers; it is the faculty of opposing the thumb to the finger for the purpose of seizing minute objects, constituting what is properly called a hand; a faculty which is carried to its highest perfection in man, in whom the whole anterior extremity is free and capable of prehension. These various combinations which strictly determine the nature of the different Mammalia, have given rise to the fol- .lowing orders : Among the unguiculated animals, the first is Mariy who, in addition to privileges of other descriptions, possesses hands at the anterior extremities only, the posterior being designed to support him in an erect position. In the order next to man, that of the quadrumana, we find hands at the four extremities. In another order, that of the carnaria, the thumb is not free, and cannot be opposed to the anterior extremities. Each of these orders has the three sorts of teeth, grinders, canini, and incisors or cutting teeth. In a fourth order, that of the rodentia, the toes differ but little from those of the Carnaria, but there are no canine teeth, and the incisors are placed in front of the mouth, and adapted to a very peculiar sort of manducation. Then come those animals whose toes are much cramped, and deeply sunk in large nails, which are generally curved; they have no incisors, and in some the canines disappear, while others have none of any description. We comprise them all under the title of the edentata. This distribution of the unguiculated animals would be per- fect, and form a very regular series, were it not that New Holland has lately furnished us with a little collateral one, 44 MAMMALIA. consisting of animals with pouches, the diiferent genera of which are connected by a general similarity of organization; some of them, however, in the teeth and nature of their diet corresponding to the Carnaria, others to the Rodentia, and a third to the Edentata. The hoofed animals are less numerous, and have likewise fewer irregularities. The RUMiNANTiA, by their cloven foot, the absence of true incisors in their upper jaw, and their four stomachs, form an order that is very distinct. The remaining lioofed animals may all be united in a single order, which I shall call pachydermata or jumenta, i\\ft Ele- phant excepted, which might constitute a separate one, and which is remotely connected with that of the Rodentia. In the last place, we find those of the Mammalia which have no posterior extremities, whose piscatory form and aqua- tic mode of life would induce us to form them into a particu- lar class, were it not that in every thing else their economy is similar to that in which we leave them. These are the hot- blooded fishes of the ancients, or the cetacea, which, uniting to the vigour of the other mammalia the advantage of being sustained by the watery element, present to our wondering sight the most gigantic of animals. ORDER I. BIMANA. Man forms but one genus, and that genus the only one of its order. As his history is the more directly interesting to our- selves, and forms the point of comparison to which we refer that of other animals, we will speak of it more in detail. We will rapidly sketch every thing that is peculiar in each of his organic systems, amidst all that he shares in common with other mammalia; we will examine the advantages he BliMiANA. 45 derives from these peculiarities over other species ; we will describe the principal varieties of his race and their distin- guishing characters, and finally point out the natural order in which his individual and social faculties are developed. Peculiar Conformation of Man. The foot of Man is very different from that of the Monkey; it is large; the leg bears vertically upon it; the heel is expanded beneath; the toes are short, and but slightly flexible; the great toe, longer and larger than the rest, is placed on the same line with, and can- not be opposed to them. This foot, then, is peculiarly well adapted to support the body; but cannot be used for seizing or climbing, and as the hands are not calculated for walking, Man is the only true bimanous and biped animal. The whole body of Man is arranged Avith a view to a vertical po- sition. His feet, as just mentioned, furnish him with a base more extensive than that of any other of the Mammalia. The muscles which extend the foot and thigh are more vigorous, whence pro- ceeds the projection of the calf and buttock; the flexors of the leg are inserted higher up, which allows full extension of the knee, and renders the calf more apparent. The pelvis is wider, hence a greater separation of the thighs and feet, and that pyramidal form of the body so favourable to equilibrium. The necks of the thigh bones form an angle with the body of the bone, which increases, still more, the separation of the feet, and augments the basis of the body. Finally, the head in this vertical position is in equilibrium on the body, because its articulation is exactly under the middle of its mass. Were he to desire it, Man could not, with convenience, walk on all fours; his short and nearly inflexible foot, and his long thigh, would bring the knee to the ground; his widely separated shoulders and his arms, too far extended from the median line, would ill sup- port the upper portion of his body. The great indented muscle, which, in quadrupeds, suspends, as in a girth, the body between the scapulae, is smaller in Man than in any one among them. The head is also heavier, both from the magnitude of the brain and the small- ness of the sinuses or cavities of the bones; and yet the means of supporting it are weaker, for he has neither cervical ligament, nor are his vertebrae so arranged as to prevent their flexure forwards; the result of this would be, that he could only keep his head in the same line with the spine, and then his eyes and mouth being directed towards the earth, he could not see before him; — in the erect posi- 46 MAMMALIA. tion, on the contrary, the arrangement of these organs is everyway perfect. The arteries which are sent to his brain, not being subdivided as in many quadrupeds, and the blood requisite for so voluminous an organ being carried into it with too much violence, frequent apo- plexies would be the consequence of a horizontal position. Man, then, is formed for an erect position only. He thus pre- serves the entire use of his hands for the arts, while his organs of sense are most favourably situated for observation. These hands, which derive such advantages from their liberty, re- ceive as many more from their structure. The thumb, longer in proportion than that of the Monkey, increases its facility of seizing small objects. All the fingers, the annularis excepted, have sepa- rate movements, a faculty possessed by no other animal, not even by the Monkey. The nail, covering one side only of the extremity of the finger, acts as a support to the touch, without depriving it of an atom of its delicacy. The arms to which these hands are attached, are strongly and firmly connected by the large scapula, the strong clavicle, &c. Man, so highly favoured as to dexterity, is not at all so with respect to force. His swiftness in running is greatly inferior to that of other animals of his size. Having neither projecting jaws, nor salient canine teeth, nor claws, he is destitute of offensive weaponsj and the sides and upper parts of his body being naked, unprovided even with hair, he is absolutely without defensive ones. Of all ani- mals, he is also the longest in attaining the power necessary to provide for himself. This very weakness, however, is but one advantage more — it com- pels him to have recourse to that intelligence within, for which he is so eminently conspicuous. No quadruped approaches him in the magnitude and convolutions of the hemispheres of the brain, that is, in the part of this organ which is the principal instrument of the intellectual operations. The posterior portion of the same organ extends backwards, so as to form a second covering to the cerebellum; the very form of his cra- nium announces this magnitude of the brain, while the smallness of his face shows how slightly that portion of the nervous system which influences the external senses predominates in him. These external sensations, moderate as they all are in Man, are nevertheless extremely delicate and well balanced. His two eyes are directed forwards; he does not see on two sides at once, like many quadrupeds, which produces more unity in the result of his sight, and concentrates his attention more closely on sensations of this kind. The ball and iris of his eye vary but little; BIMANA. 47 this restrains the activity of his sight to a limited distance, and a determined degree of light. His external ear, possessing but little mobility or extent, does not increase the intensity of sounds, and yet, of all animals, he best distinguishes the various degrees of in- tonation. His nostrils, more complicated than those of the Monkey, are less so than those of all other genera; and yet he appears to be the only animal whose sense of smell is sufficiently delicate to be affected by unpleasant odours. Delicacy of smell must have some influence on that of taste, and independently of this Man must have some advantage in this respect over other animals, those, at least, whose tongues are covered with scales. Lastly, the nicety of his tact results, both from the delicacy of his teguments, and the ab- sence of all insensible parts, as well as from the form of his hand, which is better adapted than that of any other animal for suiting itself to every little superficial inequality. Man is pre-eminently distinguished in the organ of his voice; of all the Mammalia, he alone possesses the faculty of articulating sounds, its probable causes being the form of his mouth and the great mobility of his lips. From this results his most invaluable mode of communication, for of all the signs which can be conveniently employed for the transmission of ideas, variations of sound are those which can be perceived at the greatest distance, and are the most extensive in their sphere of operation. The whole of his structure, even to the heart and great vessels, appears to have been framed with a view to a vertical position. The heart is placed obliquely on the diaphragm, and its point inclines to the left, thereby occasioning a distribution of the aorta, differing from that of most quadrupeds. The natural food of man, judging from his structure, appears to consist of the fruits, roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables: his hands offer him every facility forgathering them; his short, and but moderately strong jaws on the one hand, and his canini being equal in length to the remaining teeth, and his tubercular molares on the other, would allow him neither to feed on grass nor to devour flesh, were these aliments not previously prepared by cooking. Once, however, possessed of fire, and those arts by which he is aided in seizing animals or killing them at a distance, every living being was rendered subservient to his nourishment, thereby giving him the means of an infinite multiplication of his species. His organs of digestion are in conformity with those of manduca- tion; his stomach is simple, his intestinal canal of moderate length, the great intestines well marked, his caecum short and thick and augmented by a small appendage, and his liver divided only into two 48 MAMMALIA. large lobes and one small one; his epiploon hangs in front of the intestines, and extends into the pelvis. To complete the hasty sketch of the anatomical structure of Man requisite for this introduction, we will add, that he has thirty-two vertebrae, of which seven belong to the neck, twelve to the back, five to the loins, five to the sacrum, and three to the coccyx. Seven pairs of his ribs are united with the sternum by elongated cartilages, and are called true ribs : the five following pairs are denominated false ones. His adult cranium is formed of eight bones; an occipi- talis, two ossa temporis, two parietalia, and the frontal, ethmoidal and sphenoidal bones. The bones of his face are fourteen in number, two maxillaries, two ossa malse, each of which joins the temporal to the maxillary bone of its own side by a kind of handle called the zygomatic arch; two nasal bones, two ossa palati behind the palate, a vomer between the nostrils, two turbinated bones of the nose in the nostrils, two lachrymals (unguis) in the internal angles of the orbits and the single bone of the lower jaw. Each jaw has sixteen teeth; four cutting incisors in the middle, two pointed canines at the corners, and ten tuberculated molares, five on each side. At the extremity of the spine of his scapula, is a tuberosity called the acromion, to which the clavicle is attached, and over its articulation is a point called the coracoid process with which certain muscles are connected. The radius revolves upon the ulna, owing to the mode of its articulation with the humerus. The carpus has eight bones, four in each range; the tarsus has seven; those of the remain- ing parts of the hand and foot may be easily counted by the number of fingers and toes. Enjoying uniform and regular supplies of nourishment, the fruit of his industry, Man is at all times inclined to the " plaisirs d'amour," without ever experiencing that irresistible and violent impetus which marks the passion in quadrupeds. His organ of generation is not upheld by a bony axis; the prepuce does not tie it down to the abdomen, and it hangs loosely in front of the pubis. Numerous and large veins which effect a rapid transfer of the blood of his testes to the general circulation, appear to contribute to the moderation of his desires. The uterus of woman is a simple oval cavity; her mammae, only two in number, are placed upon her breast, and correspond with the facility she possesses of supporting her child upon her arm. Physical and Moral Development of Man. The term of gestation in the human species is nine months, and but one child is usually produced at a birth, as in five hundred BIMANA. 49 cases of parturition there is but one of twins; more than the latter is extremely rare. The foetus, a month old, is generally about one inch in height; when two months, it is two inches and a half; when three, five inches; in the fifth month, it is six or seven inches; in the seventh, it is eleven inches; in the eighth, fourteen, and in the ninth, eighteen inches. Those which are born prior to the seventh month usually die. The first or milk teeth begin to appear in a few months, commencing with the incisors. The number increases in two years to twenty, which, about the seventh year, are successively shed to make room for others. Of the twelve posterior molares which are permanent, there are four which make their appearance at four years and a half, and four at nine; the last four are frequently not cut until the twentieth year. The growth of the fcEtus is propor- tionably increased as it approaches the time of birth — that of the child, on the contrary, is always less and less. It has more than the fourth of its height when born; it attains the half of it at two years and a half, and the three-fourths at nine or ten years; its grov/th is completed about the eighteenth year. Man rarely ex- ceeds the height of six feet, and as rarely remains under five. Woman is usually some inches shorter. Puberty is announced by external symptoms, from the tenth to the twelfth year in girls, and from the twelfth to the sixteenth in boys; it arrives sooner in warm climates, and neither sex, (very rarely at least,) is productive before or after that manifestation. Scarcely has the body gained the full period of its growth in height, before it begins to increase in bulk; fat accumulates in the cellular tissue, the different vessels become gradually obstructed, the solids become rigid, and, after a life more or less long, more or less agitated, more or less painful, old age arrives with decrepitude, de- cay, and death. Man rarely lives beyond a hundred years, and most of the species, either from disease, accident, or old age, perish long before that term. The child needs the assistance of its mother much longer than her milk, from this it obtains an education both moral and physical, and a mutual attachment is created that is fervent and durable. The nearly equal number of the two sexes, the difficulty of supporting more than one Avife, when wealth does not supply the want of power, all go to prove that monogamy is the mode of union most natu- ral to our species, and, as wherever this kind of tie exists, the father participates in the education of his offspring, the length of time re- quired for that education allows the birth of others — hence the na- tural permanence of the conjugal state. From the long period of infantile weakness springs domestic subordination, and the order of socjety in general, as the young people vhich con^ose the ne,w Vot,. I.-s-G 50 MAMMALIA. families continue to preserve with their parents those tender rela- tions to which they have so long been accustomed. This disposi- tion to mutual assistance multiplies to an almost unlimited extent those advantages previously derived by insulated man from his in- telligence; it has assisted him to tame or repulse other animals, to defend himself from the effects of climate, and thus enabled him to cover the earth with his species. In other respects, man appears to possess nothing resembling in- stinct, no regular habit of industry produced by innate ideas; his knowledge is the result of his sensations and of his observation, or of those of his predecessors. Transmitted by speech, increased by meditation, and applied to his necessities and his enjoyments, they have originated all the arts of life. Language and letters, by pre- serving acquired knowledge, are a source of indefinite perfection to his species. It is thus he has acquired ideas, and made all nature contribute to his wants. There are very different degrees of development, however, in man. The first hordes, compelled to live by fishing and hunting, or on wild fruits, and being obliged to devote all their time to search for the means of subsistence, and not being able to multiply greatly, because that would have destroyed the game, advanced but slowly. Their arts were limited to the construction of huts and canoes, to covering themselves with skins and the fabrication of arrows and nets. They observed such stars only as directed them in their jour- neys, and some few natural objects whose properties were of use to them. They domesticated the Dog, simply because he had a natu- ral inclination for their own kind of life. When they had succeeded in taming the herbivorous animals, they found in the possession of numerous flocks a never failing source of subsistence, and also some leisure, which they employed in extending the sphere of their ac- quirements. Some industry was then employed in the construction of dwellings and the making of clothes: the idea of property was admitted, and consequently that of barter, as well as wealth and difference of conditions, those fruitful sources of the noblest emula- tion and the vilest passions: but the necessity of searching for fresh pastures, and of obeying the changes of the seasons, still doomed them to a wandering life, and limited their improvement to a very narrow sphere. The multiplication of the human species, and its improvement in the arts and sciences, have only been carried to a high degree since the invention of agriculture and the division of the soil into heredi- tary possessions. By means of agriculture, the manual labour of a portion of society is adequate to the maintenance of the whole, and allows the remainder time for less necessary occupations, at the same BIMANA. 51 time that the hope of acquiring, by industry, a comfortable exist- ence for self and posterity, has given a new spring to emulation. The discovery of a representative of property or a circulating me- dium, by facilitating exchanges and rendering fortunes more inde- pendent and susceptible of being increased, has carried this emula- tion to its highest degree, but by a necessary consequence it has also equally increased the vices of effeminacy and the furies of ambi- tion. The natural propensity to reduce every thing to general principles, and to search for the causes of every phenomenon, has produced re- flecting men, in every stage of society, who have added new ideas to those already obtained, nearly all of whom, while knowledge was confined to the few, endeavoured to convert their intellectual supe- riority into the means of domination, by exaggerating their own merit, and disguising the poverty of their knowledge by the propa- gation of superstitious ideas. An evil still more irremediable, is the abuse of physical power : now that man only can injure man, he is continually seeking to do so, and is the only animal upon earth that is for ever at war with his own species. Savages fight for a forest, and herdsmen for a pasture, and as often as they can, break in upon the cultivators of the earth to rob them of the fruits of their long and painful labours. Even civilized nations, far from being contented with their blessings, pour out each other's blood for the prerogatives of pride, or the monopoly of trade. Hence, the necessity for governments to direct the national Avars, and to repress or reduce to regular forms the quarrels of individuals. The social condition of man has been restrained, or advanced by circumstances more or less favourable. The glacial climates of the north of both continents, and the im- penetrable forests of America are still inhabited by the savage hun- ter or fisherman. The immense sandy and salt plains of central Asia and Africa are covered with a pastoral people, and innumerable herds. These half civilized hordes assemble at the call of every enthusiastic chief, and rush like a torrent on the cultivated coun- tries that surround them, in which they establish themselves, but to be weakened by luxury, and in their turn to become the prey of others. This is the true cause of that despotism which has always crushed and destroyed the industry of Persia, India, and China. Mild climates, soils naturally irrigated and rich in vegetables, are the cradles of agriculture and civilization, and when so situated as to be sheltered from the iucursions of barbarians, every species of talent is excitedj such were (the first in Europe) Italy and Greece, and such is, at present, nearly all that happy portion of the earth. 52 MAMMALIA. There are, however, certain intrinsic causes which seem to arrest the progress of particular races, although situated amidst the most favourable circumstances. Varieties of the Human Species. Although the promiscuous intercourse of the human species, which produces individuals capable of propagation, would seem to demonstrate its unity, certain hereditary peculiarities of conforma- tion are observed which constitute what are termed races. Three of them in particular appear very distinct — the Caucasian or white, the Mongolian or yellow, and the Ethiopian or negro. The Caucasian, to which we belong, is distinguished by the beauty of the oval formed by his head, varying in complexion and the colour of the hair. To this variety, the most highly civilized nations, and those which have generally held all others in subjection, are in- debted for their origin. The Mongolian is known by his high cheek bones, flat visage^ narrow and oblique eyes, straight black hair, scanty beard and olive complexion. Great empires have been established by this race in China and Japan, and their conquests been extended to this side of the Great Desert. In civilization, however, it has always remained stationary. The Negro race is confined to the south of mount Atlas; it is marked by a black complexion, crisped or Avoolly hair, compressed cranium, and a flat nose. The projection of the lower parts of the face, and the thick lips, evidently approximate it to the monkey tribe: the hordes of which it consists have always remained in the most complete state of utter barbarism. The race from which we are descended has been called Caucasian, because tradition and the filiation of nations seem to refer its origin to that group of mountains situated between the Caspian and Black seas, Avhence, as from a centre, it has been extended like the radii of a circle. Various nations in the vicinity of Caucasus, the Georgians and Circassians, are still considered the handsomest on earth. The principal ramifications of this race may be distinguished by the ana- logies of language. The Armenian or Syrian branch, stretching to the south, produced the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the hitherto untameable Arabs, who, after Mahomet, were near becoming mas- ters of the world ; the Phenicians, Jews and Abyssinians, which were Arabian colonies ; and most probably the Egyptians. It is from this branch, always inclined to mysticism, that have sprung the most widely extended forms of relisrion — the arts and literature BIMANA. 53 have sometimes flourished among its nations, but always enveloped in a strange disguise and figurative style. The Indian, German, and Pelasgic branch is much more extend- ed, and was much earlier divided: notwithstanding Avhich, the most numerous affinities may be observed between its four principal lan- guages — the Sanscrit, the present sacred language of the Hindoos, and the parent of the greater number of the dialects of Hindostanj the ancient language of the Pelasgi, common mother of the Greek, Latin, many tongues that are extinct, and of all those of the south of Europe^ the Gothic or Teutonic, from which are derived the lan- guages of the north and north-west of Europe, such as the German, Dutch, English, Danish, Swedish, and other dialects; and finally, the Sclavonian, from which spring those of the north-east, the Rus- sian, Polish, Bohemian, &c. It is by this great and venerable branch of the Caucasian stock, that philosophy, the arts, and the sciences have been carried to the greatest perfection, and remained in the keeping of the nations which compose it for more than three thousand years. It was preceded in Europe by the Celts, who came from the north, whose tribes, once very numerous, are now confined to its most eastern extremity, and by the Cantabrians, who passed from Africa into Spain, now confounded with the many nations whose posterity have intermingled in that peninsula. The ancient Persians originate from the same source as the In- dians, and their descendants to the present hour bear great marks of resemblance to the people of Europe. The predatory tribes of the Scythian and Tartar branch, extending at first to the north and north-east, always wandering over the im- mense plains of those countries, returned only to devastate the happier abodes of their more civilized brethren. The Scythians, who, at so remote a period, made irruptions into upper Asia; the Parthians, who there destroyed the Greek and Roman domination; the Turks, who there subverted that of the Arabs, and subjugated in Europe the unfortunate remnant of the Grecian people, all swarmed from this prolific branch. The Finlanders and Hungarians are tribes of the same division, which have strayed among the Sclavonic and Teutonic nations. Their original country, to the north and north- east of the Caspian sea still contains inhabitants who have the same origin, and speak similar languages, but mingled with other petty nations, variously descended, and of different languages. The Tar- tars remained unmixed longer than the others in the country in- cluded between the mouth of the Danube to beyond the Irtisch, from which they so long menaced Russia, and where they have finally been subjugated by her. The Mongoles, however, have 54 MAMMALIA. minp-led their blood with that of those they conquered, many traces of which may still be found among the inhabitants of lesser Tartary. It is to the east of this Tartar branch of the Caucasian race that the Mongolian race begins, whence it extends to the eastern ocean. Its branches, the Calmucs, See. still wandering shepherds, are con- stantly traversing the desert. Thrice did their ancestors under Attila, Genghis, and Tamerlane, spread far the terror of their name. The Chinese are the earliest and most civilized branch not only of this race, to which they belong, but of all the nations upon earth. A third branch, the Mantchures, recently conquered, and still govern China. The Japanese, Coreans, and nearly all the hordes which extend to the north-east of Siberia, subject to Russia, are also to be considered, in a great measure, as originating from this race; and such also is esteemed the fact, with regard to the original inha- bitants of various islands of that Archipelago. With the exception of a few Chinese literati, the different nations of the Mongoles are universally addicted to Buddism, or the religion of Fo. The origin of this great race appears to have been in the moun- tains of Atlai, but it is impossible to trace the filiation of its diffe- rent branches with the same certainty as we have done those of the Caucasian. The history of these wandering nations is as fugitive as their establishments, and that of the Chinese, confined exclusively to their own empire, gives us nothing satisfactory with respect to their neighbours. The affinities of their languages are also too little known to direct us in this labyrinth. The languages of the north of the Peninsula beyond the Ganges, as well as that of Thibet, are somewhat allied to the Chinese, at least in their monosyllabic structure, and the people who speak them have features somewhat resembling other Mongoles. The south of this Peninsula, however, is inhabited by Malays, whose forms approximate them much nearer to the Indians, whose race and language are extended over all the coasts of the islands of the Indian Archipelago. The innumerable little islands of the southern ocean are also peopled by a handsome race, nearly allied to the In- dians, whose language is very similar to the Malay; in the interior of the largest of these islands, particularly in the wilder portions of it, is another race of men with black complexions, crisped hair, and negro faces, called Alfourous. On the coast of New Guinea, and in the neighbouring islands, we find other negroes, nearly similar to those of the eastern coast of Africa, named Papuas;(l) to the latter, (1) With respect to the various nations of tlie Indian and Pacific oceans, see the dissertation of Messrs Lesson and Gam'ot in the Zoologie du Voyage de la BIMANA. 55 are generally referred the people of Van-Diemen's land, and those of New Holland to the Alfourous. These Malays, and these Papuas are not easily referable to either of the three great races of which we have been speaking, but can the former be clearly distinguished from their neighbours, the Cau- casian Hindoos and the Mongolian Chinese ? As for us, we confess we cannot discover any sufficient characteristics in them for that purpose. Are the Papuas Negroes, which may formerly have strayed into the Indian ocean ? We possess neither figures nor descriptions sufficiently precise to enable us to answer this question. The northern inhabitants of both continents, the Samoiiides, the Laplanders, and the Esquimaux spring, according to some, from the Mongolian race, while others assert that they are mere degenerate offsets from the Scythian and Tartar branch of the Caucasian stock. We have not yet been able to refer the Americans to any of the races of the eastern continent| still, they have no precise nor con- stant character which can entitle them to be considered as a par- ticular one. Their copper coloured complexion is not sufficient; their generally black hair and scanty beard would induce us to refer them to the Mongoles, if their defined features, projecting nose, large and open eye, did not oppose such a theory, and corres- pond with the features of the European. Their languages are as numberless as their tribes, and no demonstrative analogy has as yet been obtained, either with each other, or with those of the old world. (1) ORDER II. QIJADRUMANA. Independently of the anatomical details which distinguish it from man;, and which have been given, this family differs from our species in a very remarkable way. All the animals belonging to it have the toes of the hind feet free and oppo- Coquille, p. 1 — 113. For the languages of the Asiatics and their affinities, con- sult the Asia Polyglotta of M. Klaproth. (1) See the Voyage de M. de Humboldt, and the dissertations of Vater and Mitchlll. 56 MAMMALIA. sable to the others, and the toes are all as long and flexible as fingers. In consequence of this, the whole species climb trees with the greatest facility, while it is only with pain and difficulty they can stand and walk upright; their foot then resting on its outer edge only, and their narrow pelvis being un- favourable to an equilibrium. They all have intestines very similar to those of man ; the eyes directed forwards, the mam- nuc on the breast, the penis pendent. The brain has three lobes on each side, the posterior of which covers the cerebel- lum, and the temporal fossae are separated from the orbits by a bony partition. In every thing else, however, they gradu- ally lessen in resemblance to him, by assuming a muzzle more and more elongated, a tail and a gait more like that of quad- rupeds. Notwithstanding this, the freedom of their arms and the complication of their hands allow them all to perform many of the actions of man as well as to imitate his gestures. They have long been divided into two genera, the Monkeys and the Lemurs, which, by the multiplication of secondary forms, have now become two small families, between which we must place a third genus that of the Ouistitisy as it is not conveniently referable to the one or the other. SiMiA. Lin. The monkeys are all quadrumana, which have four straight incisors in each jaw, and flat nails on all the extremities; two characters which approximate them more nearly to man, than the subsequent genera; their molares have also blunt tubercles like ours, and their food consists chiefly of fruits. Their canine teeth, however, being longer than the rest, supply them with a weapon we do not possess, and which require a hollow in the opposite jaw, to receive them when the mouth is closed. They may be divided, from the number of their molar teeth, into two principal subgenera, which are again subdivided into nu- merous groups. (1) The (1) Buffon subdivided the monkeys into five tribes : the true monkeys without tails ; the baboons with short tails ; the guenons with long tails and callous biittocks ; the sapajous with long- prehensile tails and no callus ; the sagouins with long tails, not prehensile and without callus. Erxleben, adopting this division, translated these names by simia, papio, cercopithecus, cebus and callithrix. Thus it is, that the names ccbus and callithrix, by which the ancients designated ijjonkeys of Af- QUADRUMANA. 57 Monkeys, properly so called, Or those of the eastern continent, have the sariie number of grin- ders as Man, but otherwise differing from each other by characters, which have formed the grounds of the following subdivisions. The SiMiA, Erxl.— PiTHEcus, Geoffr. The Ourangs(l) are the only monkeys of the ancient continent which have no callus on the buttock; their hyoid bone, liver and caecum resemble those of Man. Their nose is not prominent, they have no cheek-pouches, nor a vestige of a tail. Some of them have arms long enough to reach the ground when standing— their legs, on the contrary, are very short. S. satyrus, L. j Audeb., pi. 2; Fr. Cuv. pi. 2. (The Ourang- Outang. )(2) Of all animals, this Ourang is considered as ap- proaching most nearly to Man in the form of his head, height of forehead, and volume of brain; but the exaggerated descrip- tions of some authors respecting this resemblance, are partly to be attributed to the fact of their being drawn from young in- dividuals only; and there is every reason to believe, that with, age, their muzzle becomes much more prominent. The body is covered with coarse red hair, the face bluish, and the hinder thumbs very short compared with the toes. His lips are sus- ceptible of a singular elongation, and possess great mobility. His history has been much disfigured by mingling it with that of the other great monkeys, that of the Chimpanse in particu- lar. After a strict and critical examination, I have ascertained rica and India, have been transferred to those of America. The genus Fapio, founded solely on the shortness of the tail, could not be retained, as it violated natural affinities, and all the others required subdividing-. It was also necessary to abolish the g-enus Ouistitis, which was comprised in that of the Sagouins, but which does not altogether correspond with the common characters of the other monkeys. (1) Orang is a Malay word signifying reasonable being, which' is applied to man, the ourang-outang, and the elephant. Ou/an^ means wild, or of the woods; hence, Wild Man of the Woods. (2) The only good figure of the Ourang-Outang\\& had for a longtime was that of Vosmaer, taken from a living specimen at the Hague. That of IJuffbn, Suppl. VIII, pi. 1, is every way erroneous; that of A]lamand(BufF. d'Holl. XV, pi. 11,) is somewhat better — it was copied in Schreber, pi. 2, U. That of Camper, copied ib., pi. 2, C, is tolerably exact, but is easily discovered to have been taken from the dead body. Bontius, Med. Ind. 84, gives a completely ideal one, although Linnxus took it for the type of his troglodyte (Amxn. A'c. VI, pi. 1, § 1). There are some good ones in Griffith, and in Krusenstern's Voyage, pi. 94 and 95, but all of them from yoong subjects. Vol. I.— H 58 MAMMALIA. that the Ourang-Outang inhabits the most eastern countries only, such as Malabar, Cochin China, and particularly the great island of Borneo, Avhence he has been occasionally brought to Europe by the way of Java. When young, and such as he ap- pears to us in his captivity, he is a mild and gentle animal, easily rendered tame and alTectionate, which is enabled by his conformation to imitate many of our actions, but whose intel- ligence does not appear to be as great as is reported, not much surpassing even that of the Dog. Camper discovered, and has well described two membranous sacs in this animal which com- municate with the glottis, that produce a hoarseness of his voice — he was mistaken, however, in imagining that the nails are always wanting on his hinder thumbs. There is a monkey in Borneo, hitherto known only by his skeleton, called the Fongo,{\) which so closely resembles the Ourang-Outang in the proportions of all his parts, and by the ar- rangement of the foramina, and sutures of the head, that, not- withstanding the great prominence of the muzzle, the small- ness of the cranium, and the height of the branches of the lower jaw, we are tempted to consider him an adult — if not of the species of the Ourang-Outang, at least of one very nearly allied to it. The length of the arms, that of the apophyses of the cervical vertebrae, and the tuberosity of his calcaneum, may enable him to assume the vertical position, and walk upon two feet. He is the largest monkey known, and in size is nearly equal to Man. Mr J. Harwood, in the Trans. Lin. Soc. XV, p. 471, de- scribes the feet of an ourang, fifteen English inches in length. This announces a very great stature in the animal to which they belonged, and would have led him to the belief that the Pongo is the adult Ourang-Outang, were it not that the skele- ton of the Pongo in the College of Surgeons, at London, has one lumbar vertebra more than those of the Ourangs. This, (1) Audeb. Singes, pi. anat. 2. This name of Pongo, a corruption of Boggo, which is given in Africa to the Chimpanse, or to the Mandrill, was applied by Buffon to a pretended large species of Ourang-Outang — the mere imaginary pro- duct of his combinations. Wurmb, a naturalist of Batavia, has transferred it to this animal, which he was the first to describe, and of which Buffon never had any idea. See Mem. of the Soc. ofJJatavia, vol. ii, p. 245. The thought, that it might be an adult Ourang, struck me on examining the head of an ordinary Ourang, whose muzzle projected much more than those of the very young speci- mens hitherto described. I described it in a memoir read before the Acad- des Sciences in 1818. Tllesius and lludolphi appear also to have had it. See the Mem. of the Acad, of Berlin, 1824, p. 131. QUADRUMANA. 59 however, is no objection — the same variation is frequently observed in the human subject. The arms of the remaining Ourangs reach only to the knee. They have no forehead, and the cranium retreats from the crest of the eye-brow. The name of Chimpanses might be exclusively applied to them. S. troglodytes, L. (The Chimpanse)(l) is covered with black or brown hair. Could any reliance be placed on the accounts of travellers, this animal must be equal or superior to man in stature, but no part of it hitherto seen in Europe indicates this extraordinary size. It inhabits Guinea and Congo, lives in troops, constructs huts of leaves and sticks, arms itself with clubs and stones, and thus repulses men and elephants; pur- sues and abducts, as is said, negro women, &C. Naturalists have generally confounded it with the Ourang-Outang. When domesticated he soon learns to walk, sit, and eat like a man. We now separate the Gibbons from the Ourangs. HiLOBATESj Illig. The Gibbons have the long arms of the true Ourangs, and the low forehead of the Chimpanse, along with the callous buttocks of the Guenons, differing however from the latter in having no tail or cheek-pouch. They all inhabit the most remote parts of India. S. lar. L.j Buff. XIV, 2; Onko, Fred. Cuv. pi. 5 and 6, (The Black Gibbon) is covered with coarse black hairs, and has a whitish circle round his face. H. agilis, Fred. Cuv. pi. 3 and 4 ; Petit Gibbon of Buffon, XIV, 3, (The Brown Gibbon) is brown — the circle round the face is of a pale red ; the lower part of the back is of the same colour. The young are of a uniform yellowish white — 'it is very agile, and lives in pairs — its Malay name, Wouwou, is taken from its cry. S. leucisca, Schreber, pi. 3, B, (The Cinereous Gibbon) is covered with a soft and ash-coloured wool. The visage is (1) This is the Quojas morou or the Satyr of Angola of Tulpius, who gives a bad figure of it, (Obs. Med., p. 271) and the Pygmy, much better represented by Tyson, (Anat. of aPygmy, pi. 1,) copied by Schreber, pi. 1, B. Scotin had given a tolerable drawing of it, copied Amxn. Acad. VI, pi. 1, fig. 3, and Schreber, 1, C. An individual that lived with Buffon, and which is still preserved in the Museum, is represented, though badly, in the Hist. Nat. XIV, 1, where he is called Jocko. The same specimen is much better in Lecat (Traite du Mouv. Muscl. pi. 1, fig. 1), under the name Qidmpese. Audebert gives the same, but from the stuffed speci- men only — he calls it Pongo. 60 MAMMALIA. black — lives among the reeds, and climbs to the tops of the highest branches of the bamboos, where it balances itself by its long arms. We might separate from the other Gibbons the Siammig. S. syndactlla, Raff., Fred. Cuv., pi. 2, (The Siamang) has the second and third toes of the hind foot united by a narrow mem- brane, the whole length of the first phalanx. It is black — the chin and eyebrows red — lives in numerous troops, which are led by courageous and vigilant chiefs, which, at sunrise and sunset, make the forest ring with the most frightful cries. Their larynx has a membranous sac connected with it. All the ensuing monkeys of the eastern continent have the liver divided into several lobes; the ccecum thick, short, and without any appendage; the hyoid bone has the form of a shield. Cercopithecus, Erxl., partim. The long-tailed monkeys(l) have a moderately prominent muz- zle (of 60°) ; cheek-pouches; tail; callosities on the buttocks ; the last of the inferior molares with four tubercles like the rest. Nu- merous species, of every variety of size and colour, abound iu Africa, live in troops, and do much damage to the gardens and fields under cultivation. They are easily tamed. Shnia rubra, Gm.; Buff. XIV, 30 ; Fred. Cuv. 24. (The Patras.) Red fawn colour above, whitish below; a black band over the eyes, sometimes surmounted with white — from Sene- gal. Simla aethiops, L.; Buff. XIV, 32 ; Fred. Cuv. 24. (The Collared Mangabey.) A chocolate brown above; below and the nape of the neck, whitish j on the head a cap or coif of a lively red; eye-lids white. Buffon says it is from Madagascar, and Hasselquist from Senegal; and in fact Sonnerat declares, there are no monkeys in Madagascar. Simla fuliginosa, Geoff.; Buff, XIV, 32; Fred. Cuv. 25. (The Mangabey.) A chocolate brown, uniform above, fawn- coloured below; eye-lids white. Buffon says it is from Mada- gascar, and he believes it to be a variety of the preceding. Simla sabaea, Lin.; Buff. XIV, 37; Fred. Cuv. 19. (The Green Monkey.)(2) It is greenish above, whitish beneath; face (1) Cercopithecus, i. e. tailed monkey, a name used by the Greeks. (2) Callithrix, Pliny, 1. 8, c. 54, is the name of an Ethiopian Monkey, furriished with a beard and a tufted tail, probably the Ouanderou. Buffon arbitrarily applied it to this species. QUADRUMANA. 61 black ; the tufts on the cheeks yellowish ; tip of the tail yellow. From Senegal. Simia faunus^ Gm.; Malbrouc^ Buff. XIV, 29; Siraia cy- nosuros, Scopol. ; Schr. pi. 14, Cj Fred. Cuv. pi. 22, var. of the callithrix; Audeb. 4th fam. 2d sect. pi. 5.(1) Greenish above ; limbs ash-coloured ; face flesh-coloured ; no yellow on the tail ; one black, and one white band over the eye-brows ; scro- tum of a beautiful ultramarine. Simia erythropy ga, Fred. Cuv. pi. 21, (The Vervet) differs from the Malbrouc in the scrotum, which is surrounded with white hairs, the anus with red ones ; and from the Grivet, {S. grisea) Fred. Cuv. 21, by a green scrotum, encircled with fawn-coloured hairs. Sii7iia melarhina, Fred. Cuv. pi. 18.; Buff. XIV, pi. 10. (The Talapoin.) Greenish above ; tufts of the cheek yellowish ; a black nose, in the middle of a flesh-coloured face. Sim. mona and S. monacha, Schreb.; Buff. XIV, 36; Fred. Cuv. 13. (The Mona.) Body brown, limbs black, the breast, insides of the arms, and circumference of the head whitish ; black band across the forehead ; a white spot at each side of the root of the tail. Sim. diana, Lin.; Exquima, Marcgr. ;(2) Audeb. 4th fam. sec. 2, pi. 6, and Buff. Supp. VII, 20. (The Roloway.) Blackish, speckled with white above, beneath white ; crupper of a pur- plish red ; face black, surrounded with white ; a little white beard on the chin. Sim. cephiis, Lin.; Buff. XIV, 34; Fred. Cuv. 17. (The Moustache.) Ashy-brown; a yellow tuft before each ear; a clear blue band, resembling a reversed chevron, on the upper lip. S. petaurista, Gm.; Audeb. 4th fam. sec. 2, pi. 13; Fred. Cuv. pi. 16. (The Vaulting Monkey.) Olive-brown above, grey below; visage blue; nose white ; a white tuft before each ear ; a black moustache. ^S". nictitans, Gm. ; Audeb. ib. XIV; Fred. Cuv. 13. (The White-nosed Monkey.) Black or brown, speckled with white ; white nose ; face black ; circumference of the lips and the eyes reddish. These last five species, all small, beautifully variegated in (1) The Cercop. barbatus of Clusius, which Linn, cites as an example of his faunus, is rather an Ouanderou than a Malbrouc. (2) The figure annexed to the description of the Exquima in Marcgrave is that of an Ouarine, and that of the Exquima is joined to the description of the Ouarine or Guariba. Tliis transposition has produced many errors in synonymes. 62 MAMMALIA. colour, and of a mild and gentle disposition, are very common in Guinea.(l) Semnopithecus, Fred. Cuv. Differs from the Long-tailed Monkeys, by having an additional small tubercle on the last of the inferior molares. They inhabit eastern countries, and their long limbs and very long tail give them a very peculiar appearance. Their muzzle projects very little more than that of the Gibbons, and like them, they have callosities on the buttocks. They appear, likewise, to have no cheek-pouches ; their larnyx is furnished with a sac. The one longest known is the Sim. nemaeus, L.; Buff. XIV, 41 j Fred. Cuv. pi. 12. Re- markable for its lively and varied colourings body and arms grey ; hands, thighs and feet black j legs of a lively red j the tail and. a large triangular spot upon the loins, white; face orange; he has a black and red collar, and tufts of yellow hairs on the sides of the head ; inhabits Cochin China. (2) Another species is remarkable for the very extraordinary form of the nose — it is the S. nasica, Schr.; Buff. Supp. VII, 11 and 12. (The Kahau.) Yellow, tinted with red ; nose extremely long and projecting, in the form of a sloping spatula. This monkey inhabits Borneo, lives in great troops, which assemble morning and evening, on the branches of the great trees on the banks of the rivers— its cry is kahau. It is also said to be found in Cochin China. S. entelhis, Dufres.; Fred. Cuv. pi. 8 and 9. (The Entel- lus.) A light yellowish grey; black hairs on the eye-brows and sides of the head, directed forwards. From Upper Bengal. Is one of the species held in veneration by the Brahmins. .S*. melalophos, Raff.; F. C. pi. 7. (The Simpai.) Fur of a very lively red ; beneath white ; face blue ; a crest of black hairs reaching from one ear to the other. S. comata, Desm. ; S. cristata, Raff.; Fr. Cuv. pi. 2. Presbitis mitrata, Kotzeb. (The Croo.) Fine ash colour below, and the (1) Pennant has described certain Guenons without thumbs, Sim. polycomos and Sim .ferruginea, from which lUiger has constructed his genus Colobus, but I have not yet been able to see them, and for this reason have not mentioned them. M. Temminck assures us thattheir head and teeth resemble those of a Semnopithecus. (2) M. Diard having- transmitted to the Museum several Bones from Cochin Chi- na, it has been proved that they have callosities on the buttocks ; a fact denied by Buffon, on account of his having- seen but one specimen injured by stuffing-. The genus Lasiopyga of lUiger must consequently be suppressed, as it is based on this error. QUADRUMANA. 63 tuft of the tail white ; black crest on the eye-brows, and the hairs of the top of the head long and turned up, forming a tuft. S. maura, L.; F. Cuv. pi. 10. (The Negro Monkey.) All black, the young of a brownish yellow. The three latter species are from the straits of Sunda.(l) Macacus.(2) All the animals of this denomination have a fifth tubercle on their last molares, and callosities and cheek-pouches like a Guenon. The limbs are shorter and thicker than in a Semnopithecus ; the muzzle more projecting, and the superciliary ridge more inflated than in either the one or the other. Though docile when young, they be- come unmanageable when old. They all have a sac which commu- nicates with the larynx under the thyroid cartilage, and which, when they cry out, becomes filled with air. Their tail is pendent, and takes no part in their motions : they produce early, but are not completely adult for four or five years. The period of gestation is seven months — during the rutting season the labia pudendi, &c. of the females are excessively distended.(3) They are generally brought from India. Sim. silenus and leonina, L. and Gm. ; Ouanderoii, Buff.; Audeb. 2d fam. sect. 1, pi. 3. (The Maned Macaque.) Black; ash coloured mane and whitish beard which surround the head. From Ceylon. Sim. sinica, Gm. ; Buff. XIV, 30 ; Fr. Cuv. 30. (The Chinese Monkey.) A lively fawn-coloured brown above, white be- neath ; flesh-coloured face ; the hairs on the top of the head arranged in radii forming a sort of hat. From Bengal, Ceylon. S. radiata, Geoff.; Fr. Cuv. 29. (The Cape Monkey.) Dif- fering from the preceding in a greenish tint. Sim. cynomolgus and cynocephalus, Lin.; Macaque^ Buff. XIV, 20 ; Fr, Cuv. 26 and 27. (The Hare-lipped Monkey.) Greenish above, yellowish or whitish below ; ears and hands (1) There is some variation in their Malay names. Raffles, (Linn. Trans, XIII) calls the iS. comata, Chinkau ,- the S. maura, Lotong. Raffles calls the S. fascicu- laris the Kra. (2) Macaco is the generic appellation of monkeys on the coast of Guinea, and among the negroes transported to the colonies. Marcgrave mentions a species, which he says has " nares elatas bifidas" — and these vague words, copied from him only, have remained in the character applied to the Macaque of Buff, although it has nothing like it. (3) Hence the observation of iElian, that monkeys are to be seen in India which have a prolapsus uteri. 64 MAMMALIA. black J face and scrotum tawny.(l) The Migrette, Sim. aygula, Lin., Buff. XIV, 21, appears to be a mere variety of this one, differing by a longer tuft of hair on the top of the head. Some of the Macaques are distinguished by a short tail. M. rhesus, f Rhesus, Audeb. fam. ii; Patas a queue courte, ib. pi. 4, and Buff. Supp, XIV, pi. 16 ; the first baboon figured by Buff. XIV, ph 19.(2) (The Pig-tailed Baboon.) Greyish; a fawn-coloured tinge on the head and crupper, sometimes on the back ; face flesh-colour ; tail reaching below the hamstrings. From Bengal. (3) Sim. mencstrinus, L. ; Sim. platypigos, Schreb,; Audeb. fam. ii, sect. 1, pi. 2.; Fr. Cuv. Mammif. under the name of Singe a queue de cochon. (The Brown Baboon.) Deep brown above j black band beginning on the head, and fading as it extends along the back ; yellowish round the head and limbs ', tail thin and wrinkled.(4) Inuus, Cuv. Mere Macaques, which have a small tubercle in lieu of a tail. S. silvanus, pithccus and inuus, Lin.; Buff. XIV, 7, 8 ; Fr. Cuv. Mammif. (The Barbary Ape.) Completely covered with a light grey-brown hair, and of all monkeys, is the one that suffers least from our climate. He is originally from Barbary, but is said to have become naturalised in the miost inaccessible parts of the rock of Gibraltar.(5) Ctnocephalus, C.(6) The Dog-headed Monkeys, together with the teeth, cheek- pouches and callosities of the Inuus, Cuv., have an elongated muz- (1) Add the Black-faced Macaque, Fr. Cuv. Mammif. 28, and the other species described in the same work. (2) The two specimens used by Audebert are still in the Museum- I have ex- amined them and find they are both of one species. (3) T\\& Macaque a queue courte of Buff. Supp. VII, pi. 13, [Sim. erytrhxa, Schr.) appears to me to be a true Macaque [S. cynomolgus), whose tail had been ampu- tated. (4) Add the Macaque de I'Inde, and the Macaque a face rouge, Fr. Cuv. Mammif. (5) The Pitheque of Buff. Supp. VII, pi. 4 and 5, was a young Mag-ot. His Little Cynocephalus, ib. pi. 6, and the Great and Little Cynocephala of Prosper Alpin are also of that species, n/flaxoc is the Greek term for monkeys in general, and the one whose anatomy has been given by Galen v/as a Magot, although Camper thought it was an Ourang-Outang. M. de Blainville perceived this mistake, and I have proved it by comparing with these two species, all that Galen has- stated respecting the anatomy of his pithecus. (6) CynocepJialus, dog's head, a name well known to the ancients, especially as QUADRUMANA. 65 zle truncated at the end, in which the nostrils are pierced, giving it a greater resemblance to that of a dog than of any other mon- key; their tail varies in length. They are generally large, fero- cious and dangerous animals, found mostly in Africa. C. papio, Desm.; Sim. sphynx, Lin.; Papion^ Buff. (The Guinea Baboon.) Yellow, verging more or less on a brown ; tufts of the cheeks fawn-coloured; face black; tail long.(l) They are found of various sizes, owing probably to the dif- ference of age. When full grown, frightful from their ferocity and brutal lubricity. From Guinea. There is another neighbouring species with a shorter tail, a greener fur, whiter cheek-tufts and a flesh-coloured face, •S". cynocephalus ; the Babou'm, Fr. Cuv. Mem. du Mus. IV, pi. 19. C. porcarius ; Sim. porcaria, Bodd.; S. iirsina, Penn.; S. sphyngiola, Herm. ; The Long-faced Guenon, Penn., and Buff. Supp. VII, pi. 15.; Black Monkey of Vaillant ;(2) Chcccma, Fr. Cuv. Mammif. Black, with a green or yellowish glaze, particularly on the forehead ; tufts of the cheeks grey ; face and hands black ; his tail reaches his heel, and ends in a tuft. The adult has a large mane — in every thing else, as to habits and form, resembling the preceding. From the Cape of Good Hope. C. hamaclryas ; Tartarin of Belon, Ois. fol. 101, or Papion a perruque ; Sim. hamaclryas, L. ; Bog-faced Baboon, Penn. ; Singe de Moco, Buff. Supp. VII, 10.(3) A bluish ash-colour; hairs of the ruff, and particularly those of the sides of the head very long ; face flesh-coloured. This great Monkey is also among the most libidinous and horribly ferocious of his kind — lives in Arabia and Ethiopia. There is another species which should be distinguished from other Cynocephala, which is totally black, and without the Dog played a conspicuous part in the symbols of the Egyptians, in which it represented Tot or Mercury. (1) Those which have been figured as having it short, as the Papions of Buff. XIV, pi. 13 and 14, &.c. had it cut off. M. Brongnard was the first who gave a good figure of it, but under the improper name of Sim. cynocephalus. His figure is copied by Schrebei', pi. 13, B. See the different Papios in the Mammif. Fred. Cuv. (2) All these factitious species have been established on the good or bad con- dition of individual specimens of the same species, or on their difference of age. (3) Copied by Schreber, but badly coloured- There is now a good figure of it in the Mammif. of Fred. Cuv. Vol. I.— I 66 MAMMALIA. a tail — S. nigra, Cuv. ; but whose head resembles that of the rest. The Mandrills, Of all the monkeys, have the longest muzzle (30°); their tail is very short; they are brutal and ferocious j nose as in the preceding. Sim. maimon and mormon, Lin.; Boggo, Choras, Buff. XIV, XVI, XVII, et Supp. VII, 9. (The Mandrill.) Greyish brown, inclining to olive above ; cheeks blue and furrowed. The nose in the adult male becomes red, particularly at the end, where it is scarlet, which has been the cause of its being deemed, erroneously, a distinct species. (l) The genital parts, and those about the anus, are of the same colour. The buttocks are of a beautiful violet. It is difficult to imagine a more hide- ous or extraordinary animal. He nearly attains the size of a man, and is a terror to the negroes of Guinea. Many details of his history have been mixed up with that of the Chimpanse, and consequently with that of the Ourang-Outang. Sim. Icucophxa, Fred. Cuv. Ann. du Mus. d'Hist- Nat. IX, pi. 37, from a young specimen, and Hist, des Mammif. from the adult. (The Drill.) Yellowish grey; face black; tail very short and thin ; in okl ones the fur becomes darker, and the chin of a brilliant red. The Monkeys of America Have four grinders more than the others — thirty-six in all; the tail long ; no cheek-pouches ; buttocks hairy; no callosities; nostrils opening on the sides of the nose, and not underneath. All the great Quadrumana of America belong to this division. The large intes- tines are less inflated, and the caecum longer and more slender than in those of the eastern continent. The tails of some of them are prehensile — that is, their extremity can twist round a body with sufficient force to seize it as with a hand. They are more particularly designated by the nameof Sapa- jou«, Cebiis, Erxleben.(2) At their head may be placed the Alouattes (Mycetes, Illig.), which are distinguished by a pyramidal head, the upper jaw of which descends much below the cranium, as the branches of the lower one (1) I have seen, as well as M. Geoffroy, two or three Mandrills, or S. maimon, change to the Chores or S. mormon, in the Menagerie of the Museum. The tuft of hair, which is frequently given as a character of the mormon, is often also in the maimon. (2) Cebtis or Cepus, or K»3-o{, names of an Ethiopian Monkey, which, from the description of .Elian, lib. xxvii, c. 8, must have been the Patas. QUADRUMANA. 67 ascend very high for the purpose of lodging a bony drum, formed by a vesicular inflation of the hyoid bone, which communicates Avith the larynx, and gives to their voice astonishing power, and a most frightful sound. Hence their name of Hoivling Monkeys. The pre- hensile portion of the tail is naked beneath. There are several species, whose distinguishing characters are not yet well ascertained, for the colour of the fur on which they are established varies with the age and sex. Simla senicuhis, Buff. Supp. VII, 25. (Red Howling Mon- key.) It is often sent to us from the forests of Guiana, where it lives in troops ; size that of a large fox ; colour, a red- dish chesnut, rather deeper at the head and tail. The Jlllouatte ourson {Stentor ursinus, Geoff.), Humb. Obs. Zool. I. pi. So, must differ from it, although slightly ; but it would appear that there are many others, some of which are brown or black, others of a pale colour. In certain species this pale tint is peculiar to the females.(l) The Common Sapajous have the head flat, and the projection of the muzzle very moderate — facial angle 60°. In some of them, the anterior thumbs are either totally, or nearly so, hidden under the skin, and the prehensile part of the tail naked beneath. M. Geoff, has formed them into a genus by the name of Ateles.(2) The first species, the Chamek, Ateles pentadactylus, Geoff., (1) Marcgrave, l>raz. 226, speaks of a black Guariha, with brown hands, that Spix thought he had found in his Seniculus niger. Mem. de Munic, for 1813, p. 333. Mycetes rufimanus, Kuhl. Marcgrave, 227, speaks of another species, all black and bearded, fig. p. 228, under the wrong name of Exquima, which must have been, it is probable, the Mycetes barbatus, Spix, pi. 32. The female, ib. pi. 33, is of a light yellowish grey. The male must be the Mycetes niger of Kuhl and Prince Maximil. de Neu- wied. The Caraia of d'Azzara, which is black ; breast and belly of a dark red ; the female brownish ; may be referred to this species. Pr. Max. has 2LT\oi\\e.v Mycetes ursinus, which appears to be much browner than the ursinus of M. GeofFroy, and to approximate nearer to the M. fuscus, or the M. discolor of Spix, pi. 30 and 34. This latter rather appears to be the St. fuscus of Geoffroy. The Straw-coloured Mouatte, Stentor stramineus, Geoff, and the 3fyc. stramineus, Spix, pi. 31, of a yellowish grey, appears from its cranium to be of a different species, but it may merely be the female of a preceding one. It is easily seen, also, that if their characters are so uncertain, their synonj'mes must be much more so. Add the St. Jlavicaudaius, Geoff, of a black brown, with a yellow streak on each side of the tail. (2) Ann. du Museum, VII, 260, et seq. (^8 MAMMALIA. diflfei-s again from the others in having a slight projection of the thumb, though but for a single phalanx, but without a nail; its hair is totally black. A second species the Mikiri, Jit. hypoxanthus, Pr. Max.; Brachyteles macrotarsus, Spix, pi. i., has also a very small thumb, and sometimes even a nail. The hair is yellowish, ferruginous towards the tail. These two species are separated by Spix under the name Brachyteles. They connect the Ateles with Lagothrlx. The other Ateles to which alone Spix restricts that name — Coaita, Buff. — have no apparent thumb whatever. Such are the following: A. paniscus; Simla panisc. L. ; Coaita^ Buff. XV, 1. (The Coaita.) Completely covered with black hair, like the Chamek, but without any visible thumb; face, flesh-colour. ^. ater, Fr. Cuv. Mammif. (The Cayou.) Face black, like the rest of the body. A. marginatus^ Geoff. The Chuva, Humb. or the Coaita a face bordee, Ann. Mus. XII, pi. 10. Black, with a border of white hairs round the face. ^. belzebiith; Sim. heelzeh., Briss. The Marimonda, Humb. or Coaita a ventre blanc, Geoff.; Ann. Mus. VII, pi. 16. Black above; white beneath; circumference of the eyes flesh-co- loured. c^. arachnoides, Geoff. Ann. Mus. XIII, pi. 9. (The Spider Monkey.) Fawn-coloured or red; eyebrows black. All these animals are natives of Guiana or Brazil; their fore-feet are very long and slender, and their gait remarkably slow.(l) Lagothrix, Geoff. — Gastrimargus, Spix. Head round, like the Ateles ; a thumb like the Alouattes; tail partly naked, like the one and the other. Such arc the Z. Humbol- c/m, Geoff.; the Caparo, Humb.; Gast. olivaceiis, Spix, pi. 28 (The Capparo); nr\d the Orison; Lag. canus., Geoff.; Gastr. infumatus, Spix, 29. (The Silver-haired Monkey.) Monkeys from the interior of South America, said to be remarkable gluttons. The other Sapajous (Cebus, Geoff.) have a round head, distinct thumbs, and the tail hairy, though prehensile. The species are more numerous than those of the Alouatte, and are characterised with nearly as much difficulty. (1) They exhibit some remarkable resemblances to man in their muscles. Of all annuals, they alone have the biceps of the thigh made like his. QUADRUMANA. 69 Some of them have the hairs on the forehead of a uniform length, such as the Sim. appella, L. (The Sajou); and the ^S". capucina, L.j Buff. XV, 4, 5 and 8, 9. (The Capuchin.) Both of them of dif- ferent brownsj in the first, the circumference of the face is blackish; in the second it is whitish; but the shade of co- lour in all the rest of their bodies varies between a brownish black and a fawn-colour, sometimes even a white. The should- ers and breast are however generally lighter, and the calotte and hands darker.(l) Others, again, have the hairs of the forehead so disposed as to form a kind of aigrette, such as the Sim. fatuellus, Gm.; Buff. Supp. VII, 29. (The Horned Sajou.) This animal has a tuft of black hairs on each side of the forehead. (2) The disposition of these Monkeys is mild and gentle, their motions quick and light, and they are easily tamed. Their name of Weeping Monkeys is derived from their soft plaintive voice. In the Saimiri the tail is depressed, and almost ceases to be pre- hensile; the head is very much flattened; in the inlerorbitar parti- tion of the skeleton there is a membranous space. There is only one known; the A'mia sciwrea, Buff. XV, 10. (The Siamiri.) Sizeof a Squir- (1) The Sajous and the Sais vary so much from a brown to a yellow, that were there not intermediate varieties, we should be tempted to make many species of them. Such is the case with the Sim, trepida, syrichta, lugubris, Jlavia, L. and Schreb., as well as some of those distinguished by M. Geoffroy, Ann. du Mus. XIX, 111 and 112. Spix has recently, and in our opinion improperly, multiplied them still more. We would refer to the Sajou (Sim. apella, Lin.) tlie Cehus robustus, Pr. Max., which appears to us an old one of that species. The Ceb. macrocephalus, Spix, pi. 1, does not seem to differ from it, so far as regards the species. We refer to the Sai (S. capucina, Lin.) the Sat d gorge blanche, Buff. {S. hypolencos); the Cebus libidinosus, Spix, 2; the Ceb. xanthosternus, Pr. Max., or the Ceb. xanthocephalus, Spix, 3; the Ceb. cucullatus, id. 6. We should be more inclined to consider as distinct species, the Sajou d pieds dores, Fred. Cuv. , the Sajou brun, id. or Ceb. unicolor, Spix, pi. 4; the Sim. Jlavia, Schreber, 31, B, from which the Ceb. gracilis, Spix, pi. 5, seems to differ only in the stuffing — but that we require numerous observations, made on the spot which these animals inhabit, before we can hope to establish their species in any other than an arbitrary manner. (2) Here should come the Cebus cirrhifer, Geoff, and the Ceb. of the same name, of Pr. Max., but which is different. Ceb, cristatus, Fred. Cuv. 70 MAMMALIA. rel; of a yellowish grey; fore-arms, legs, and the four extremi- ties of a yellowish fawn-colour; end of the nose black. Those of the American monkeys, whose tails are not at all pre- hensile, are called Sakis.(I) Several of them have that appendage long and tufted, whence they have been also termed Fox-tailed Mon- keys: their teeth project forwards more than those of the others. They are the Pitheoia of Desmarets and Illiger. Simia pithecia, L. ; Buff. XV, 12; Pithecia inusta, Spix, pi. 10. (TheYarke.) Blackish; circumference of the face whi- tish. Pith, hirsuta, Spix, pi. 8. (The Grey Sakis.) Grey hands; yellowish. Simia satanus, Hofmansegg; Humb. Obs. Zool. L. xxvii. (The Black Saki.) All black. Pith.ru/iventriSf Geoff.; Buff. Supp. VII, 31; Pith, capilla- mentosa, Spix, pi. 2. (The Red-bellied Saki.) Brown, with a red belly. Spix distinguishes those species whose tails, although tufted, are shorter than the body, by the name of Bhachiukus. His Br. Oua- raki, Sp. pi. 8, has a fawn-coloured body; head, neck, arms and feet black. To this should be referred, provided always it is ano- ther species, the Sim. melanocephala, Humb. Obs. Zool. p. 29; yel- low, with a black head. In some, also, the Callithrix, Geoff, or Sagouins, Fr. Cuv. the tail is slender, and the teeth do not project. The Saimiri were associated with them for a long time, but the head of the Sagouins is higher, and their canine teeth much shorter. Such are the Call, personata, Geoff., Spix, pi. 12.; Call, nigrifrons, id. 15. (The Masked Monkey.) A yellowish grey; head and hands black. Call, lugens; S. lugens, Humb. (The Widow Monkey.) Blackish, with a large white gorget or neck-piece. The Call, amicta, Geoff., Sp. pi. 13, and the Call, torquata, Hofmansegg, can differ but little from this species. (2) (1) All the American monkeys whose tails are not prehensile, together with the Ouistitis, are termed by Buffon SAooriNS (Callithhix, Erxl. ). This name of sagouin or gagui is in fact applied in Brazil to all the little Quadrumana, whose tails are not prehensile. N.B. M. Geoff., Ann. Mus. XIX, 112, 113, gives to his Callithrix, which are merely a division of those of Erxleben — Nodhorus and Pithecia, the common name of Geopithecus. (2) Add Call, melanochir, Pr. Max. — C. cinerascens, Spix, pi. 14, is the young' of the same according to Temminck.— C. cwprea, Spix, pi. VT.—C.gigo, id. pi. 16. QUADRUMANA. 71 NocTHORUs, Fred. Cuv. — Nyctipithecus, Spix. Improperly called Aotus by Illiger. Only differs from the Sagouins in its great nocturnal eyes, and in the ears, which are partly hidden under the hair. One species only is known. Nocth. trivirgata, Fred. Cuv., Mammif. ; Nyctipith. vociferans, Spix, pi. 18. (The Douroucouli.) Ash-coloured above, yel- lowish beneath; a black vertical line on the middle of the fore- head, and one on each temple. It is a nocturnal animal of South America.(l) They are all from Guiana or Brazil. OuiSTiTis. — Hapale, Illig. — Arctopitiiecus, Geoif. A small genus, similar to the Sakis, and for a long time confounded with them in the great genus of monkeys. In fact, like the genera- lity of the American monkeys, they have the head round; visage flat; nostrils lateral; buttocks hairy; no cheek-pouches, and, like the Sakis in particular, the tail not prehensile. They have only, how- ever, twenty grinders, like the monkeys of the eastern continent ; all their nails are compressed and pointed, those of the hind thumbs excepted, while their anterior ones are so slightly separated from the fingers, that it is with hesitation we assign to them the name of quadrumana. They are pretty little creatures, of agreeable forms, and easily tamed. M. Geoffroy distinguishes the Ouistitis, properly so called, which he names Jacchus, and whose peculiar characters are pointed in- ferior incisors, arranged on a curved line, equal to the canines. Their tail is annulated and well covered with hairs ; the ears generally or- namented with a tuft. Sim. jacchus, Lin.; in Paraguay the Titi. (The Common Ouistiti.) Tail tolerably well tufted, coloured in rings of brown and white ; body greyish-brown ; two large tufts of white hairs before the ears. From nearly every part of South Ameri- ca.(2) N.B. This name of Gigo or Guigo is given by Pr. Max. to his Mdanochir, so that we must consider it generic. (1) Add Nyctlpithec. felinus, Spix, pi. 18. (2) It is difficult to establish very specificlimits between Ouistitis of different colours. The Jacch. penicillatus, Geoff., Spix, pi. 26, has a white spot on the forehead, and the tufts of the ears brown or black. — His /. kucocephalus, Pr. Max., lib. 2, has the same tufts, but the whole head and fore part of the neck are white. — His /. humeralifer has the breast, shoulders and arms white. — The /. al- bicollis, Spix, pi. 25, has the spot on the forehead, tufts of the ears and a large 72 MAMMALIA. M. Geoffroy calls those species which have inferior trenchant incisors placed on a straight line and less than the canines, Midas. Their tail is also more slender and not annulated. Sim. (Bdipus, L.; Buff. XV, 17. (The Pinche.) Grey, waved with brown ; long white hairs on the head which hang behind the ears j tail slender and red. From the banks of the Amazon. (1) Mid. rujimanus, Geoff.; Sim. midas, L. ; Buff. XV, 13. (The Tamarin.) Black, the four extremities yellowish. From Guiana. Mid. ursulus, Geoff.; Buff. Supp. VIII, 32; 31id. fiiscicollis, Spix, pi. 20. (The Black Tamarin.) All black ; reddish waved stripes on the back. Mid. labiatus, Geoff.; M. nigricolUs^ Spix, 21. (The White- lipped Tamarin.) Black; crupper reddish; circumference of the nose white. (2) Sim. rosalia, L.; Buff. XIV, 16. (Lion Monkey or the Marikina.) Yellowish; the head surrounded with a yellow mane ; end of the tail brown. From Surinam. Jlapcde chrysomelas, Pr. Max. lib. ii. (Black Marikina.) Black fore-arms; upper side of the tail and mane of a golden yellow. Sim. argentatus, L. ; Buff. XV, 18. (The Mico.) Silver grey, sometimes all white ; tail brown. From the Amazon. Lemur, Lin. The Lemurs, according to Linnaeus, comprehend all the Quadru- mana which have in either jaw incisors differing in number from four, or at least differently directed from those of the Monkeys. This negative character could not fail to embrace every different beings, while it did not even unite those which should be combined. Geoffroy has established several divisions in this genus which are much better characterized. The four thumbs of these animals are well developed and opposable, and the first hind finger is armed with a pointed, raised nail ; all the other nails are flat. Their fur collar all white. In some of them, on the contrary, all the white has disappeared. See Annal. du Mus., XIX, p. 119—122. (1)1 suspect the Mid. bicolor, Spix, pi. 24, is merely a variety of the Sim. oedipus, and his M. mystax of the M. labiatus. (2) The S. leo7iina, Humb. Obs. I. pi. 5, is brown, with white lips and black face, like this species ; but it appears the hairs of the neck are more thickly set, form- ing a mane like that of the Marikina. Add Mid. chrysopygus, Natterer. QUADRUMANA. 73 is woolly; and their teeth begin to exhibit sharp tubercles catching in each other as in the Insectivora. Lemur. — Makis, properly so called. Six incisors in the lower jaw compressed and slanting forwards, four in the upper that are straight, the intermediate ones being separated from each other ; trenchant canines ; six molares on each side above, six below ; ears small. They are very active animals, which, from their pointed heads, have been called Fox-nosed Monkeys. Their food is fruit. Their species are very numerous, and are only met with in the island of Madagascar, where they appear to replace the Monkeys, none of which it is said are to be found there. Nearly all the difference that exists between them is in the colour. L. catta, L. ; Le 3Iococo, Buff. XIII, 22. Ashy-grey; tail black, and white rings. L. macaco, h.', Le Vari, Buff. XIII, 27. Variegated with large black and white spots. L. ruber, Peron ; Le Maki rouge ; Fr. Cuv. Mammif. A lively reddish chestnut ; head, hands, tail and belly black ; a white spot on the nape of the neck, a red tuft to each ear. L. mongos, L. ; Le Mongous ; Buff. XIII, 26. All brown; face and hands black; and other neighbouring species, sucli as L. albifrons, Geoff.; Le Mongous a front blanc ; Audeb., Makis, pi. 3. Brown; forehead white, &c.(l) IxDRIS. LiCHANOTUS, lUig. Teeth like the preceding, except that there are only four below. One species only is known ; it has no tail ; is three feet high ; black ; face grey; posteriors white, (Lemur Indri,) Sonnerat, Voy. I, pi. 86. The inhabitants of Madagascar tame and train it like a dog for the chase. (2) LoRis. — Stenops, Illig. The Lazy Monkeys, as they are called, have teeth like the Makis, the grinders excepted, the points of which are more acute ; the short muzzle of a mastiff; body slender ; no tail ; large eyes ; tongue rough. (1) Add the Black Maki, L.; Niger, Edw. 218.— The Black-fronted Maki{L. 7ii- grifrons, Geoff.). — The Black-headed Makis (L. melanocephalus), Fr. Cuv. — The f" Straivberry Maki. — The Red Maki, Audeb. pi. 2, &c. It is not certain, however, that these species are all distinct. See Geoff., Ann. Mus. XIX, p. 160. (2) Tfte Long-tailed Ijidri, {Lemur laniger, Gm.) Sonnerat, Voy. 11. pi. 87, needs "^^ revision. Vol. I.— K 74 MAMMALIA. They feed on insects, occasionally on small birds and quadrupeds, their gait is excessively slow, and mode of life nocturnal. M. Car- lisle has found that the base of the arteries of the limbs is divided into siTiall branches, as in the true Sloths. Two species only are known, both of them from the East Indies. Lein. tardigradus, L. ; (The Slow Loris, or Sloth of Bengal.) Buff, Supp. VII, 36. Fawn-coloured grey, a brown streak along the back ; two of the upper incisors sometimes want- ing.(l) Lem. gracilis, L. (The Slender Loris.) Buff. XIII, SO, and better, Seb. I, 47. Fawn-coloured grey; no dorsal stripe ; rather smaller than the preceding; nose more raised by a pro- jection of the intermaxillaries.(2) Galago, Geoff. — Otolincus, Illig. The teeth and insectivorous regimen of the preceding; elongated tarsi which produce a disproportion in the dimensions of their hind feet ; a long tufted tail ; large membranous ears and great eyes, which announce nocturnal habits. There are several species known, all from Africa.(3) It ap- pears also that we should refer to them an animal of that coun- try {Lemur potto, Gm.), Bosman, Voy. in Guin., p. 252, No. 4, Avhose gait is said to be as slow as that of the Loris and Sloths. Tarsius. Elongated tarsi, and all the other details of form belonging to the preceding division ; but the space between the molars and incisors is occupied by several shorter teeth ; the middle superior incisors are lengthened and resemble canini. The muzzle is very short, and the eyes still larger than those of the Galago. They are nocturnal animals, and feed on insects. From the Moluccas. Lemur spec- trum, Pall., Buff. XIII, 9.(4) (1) The slowness of its gait, which caused it to be mistaken for a Sloth, has induced some authors to maintain, in opposition to BufFon and to truth, that the genus of the Sloths exists also in Asia. (2) From this diffei-ence in the nose, Geoffroy makes of the first species the genus NxcTicERus, andof the second that of Lonis. (3) The great Galago, as large as a Rabbit {Galago crassicaudatus, Geoff.). The middling one the size of a Rat {Galago senegalensis, id.); Schreb. XXXVIII, Bb, Audeb. Gal. pi. 1. — The small one a litde less. Brown, III. 44. — Compare also the Galago oi Demidorf, Fischer, Mem. des Nat. de Mouscou, I, pi. 1. (4) Compare the Tarsius fuscomanus, Fischer, Annat. des Makis, pi. 3, and the Tarsius bancanus, Horsfield, Java. MAMMALIA. 75 ORDER III. CARNARIA. This order consists of a considerable and varied assemblage of unguiculated quadrupeds, possessing like Man and the Quadrumana the three sorts of teeth, but which have no op- posable thumb to their fore-feet. Their food is animal, and the more exclusively so, as their grinders are the more tren- chant. Such as have them wholly or partly tuberculous, take more or less vegetable aliment, and those in which they are bristled with points live principally on Insects. The articu- lation of their lower jaw, being transversely directed and hinge-like, allows of no lateral motion, it can only open and shut. Although the convolutions of the brain are still tolerably well marked, it has no third lobe, nor does it cover the cere- bellum any more than in the following families ; the orbit is not separated from the temporal fossa in the skeleton; the cranium is narrowed and the zygomatic arches widened and raised, in order to give more strength and volume to the muscles of their jaws. Their predominant sense is that of smell, and their pituitary membrane is generally spread over numerous bony laminae. The fore-arm has still the power of revolving in nearly all of them, although with less facility than in the Quadrumana, and they never have the thumb of the anterior extremities opposed to the other toes. On account of the substantial nature of the aliment, and to avoid the pu- trefaction it would undergo by remaining too long in an elon- gated canal, their intestines are less voluminous. There is a great variety in their forms and in the details of Travellers should search for certain animals drawn by Commerson, and which M. Geoffroy has had engraved. Ann. Mus. XIX, 10, under the name of Cheirogaleus. These figures seem to announce a new genus or subgenus of the Quadrumana. 76 MAMMALIA. their organization, which produce analogous differences in their habits, and to such an extent as makes it impossible to arrange their genera on one line, and compels us to form them into several families, which are variously connected by multi- plied relations. FAMILY I. CHEIROPTERA. This family still retains some affinity with the Quadrumana by the pendulous penis, and by the mammae which are placed on the breast. Their distinguishing character consists in a fold of the skin, which, commencing at the sides of the neck, extends between their four feet and toes, supports tiiem in the air, and even enables such of them to fly as have their hands sufficiently developed for that purpose. This disposition re- quired strong clavicles and large scapulai to give the necessary solidity to the shoulder, but it was incompatible with the ro- tation of the fore-arm, which would have diminished the force of the stroke requisite for flight. They have all four great canini, but the number of their incisors varies. They have long been divided into two genera, founded upon the ex- tent of their organs of flight. The first of these, however, requires several subdivisions. Vespertilio, Lin. The arms, fore-arms and fingers of the Bats are excessively length-| ened, forming, with the membrane that occupies their intervals, true wings, possessing even a greater extent of surface than those of Birds — they consequently fly very high, and with great rapidity. The thickness of their pectoral muscles is proportioned to the mo- tions they have to execute, and there is a ridge in the middle of the sternum like that of Birds, to which they are attached. The thumb is short and armed with a claw, by which they are enabled to creep and to suspend themselves. Their hind feet are weak and are divided into five toes, almost always of equal length, armed with trenchant and pointed nails. They have no caecum. Their eyes are exces- sively small, but their ears are frequently very large, and together with the wings form a vast membranous surface, which is almost CARNARIA. 77 naked, and so extremely sensible that it is probable they guide them- selves through all the sinuosities of their labirynths, even after their eyes have been plucked out, solely by the diversity of the impres- sions of the air. They are nocturnal, and in our climate pass the winter in a state of stupor. During the day they suspend them- selves in obscure places. They generally produce two young ones at a birth, which cling to their mammae, and whose size is con- siderable in proportion to that of the mother. This genus is very numerous, and offers many subdivisions. We must begin by sepa- rating from it the PxERorus, Briss. Trenchant incisors in each jaw, and grinders with flat crowns ;(1) the food, consequently, consists chiefly of fruit, of which it destroys considerable quantities ; it also successfully pursues birds and small quadrupeds. It is the largest Bat known, and the flesh is eaten. It inhabits the East Indies. The membrane is deeply notched between the legs ; it has no tail, or nearly none ; the index finger, which is but half the length of the medius has a third phalanx, and a little nail which is want- ing in the other Bats ; each of the following fingers, however, has but two phalanges. The muzzle is simple, the nostrils are widely separated, the ears are of a middling size, but without a tragus, and the tongue is bristled with points that curve backwards j the sto- mach is an elongated sac, unequally inflated. They have never been found out of the south of Asia or the Indian Archipelago. i ;4iP a. Without tails, and four incisors in each jaw. (2) P. eclulis, Geoff". (The Black Rousselte.) Blackish brown, deepest beneath, wings nearly four feet from tip to tip. From the Moluccas and the straits of Sunda, where they are found in great numbers during the day suspended to the trees. To pre- serve fruit from their attacks, it is necessary to cover it with nets. Their cry resembles that of the goose. They are taken by holding to them a bag fastened to the end of a rod ; the flesh is esteemed a delicacy by the natives, but Europeans dislike it on account of its musky scent.(3) (1) The grinders have two longitudinal and parallel projections separated by a groove, wliich wear away by attrition. (2) Linnaeus confounded them under his Vespcriilio vampirus. (3) The Pter. Edwardsii of Geoff., Edw. 103, fawn-coloured, with a dark brown back, is the young of this species. .^ 78 MAMMALIA. PUT. vulgaris, Geoff.; Buff. X, 14. (The Common Rous- sette.) Brown, face and sides of the back fawn-coloured. From the Isle of France and Bourbon, where it is found on the trees in the forests. Its flesh has been compared to that of the hare and partridge. Pter. rubicollis, Geoff.; Buff. X, 17. (The Red-collared Rous- sette.) Greyish brown, the neck red. From the same islands, where it lives in the hollows of trees and in caverns.(l) b. With a small tail and four incisors in each jaw. M. Geoffroy was the first who described the species of this subdivision. One of them grey and woolly, Pter. aegypticus, is found in the caves of Egypt. A second is reddish, and has a somewhat longer tail, half involved by the membrane — Pter. amplexicaudiis, Ann. du Mus. tom. XV, pi. 4. From the Indian Archipelago, See. (2) c. According to the indicia of M. Geoffroy, we also separate from the Pteropi the Cephalotes which have the same kind of grinders, but whose index, short, and consisting of three phalanges, like that of the preceding, has no nail. The membranes of their wings, in- stead of meeting at the flank, are joined to each other on the middle of the back, to which they adhere by a vertical and longitudinal par- tition. Very often they have but two incisors. C. Peronii, Geoff. ^ Ann. du Mus., XV, pi. 4. Brown or red. From Timor. The Pteropi being taken away, we have the true Bats left, which are all insectivorous, and have three grinders on each side in each jaw, bristled with conical points, that are preceded by a variable number of false molars. Their index never has a nail, and, one (1) Add Pter. medius; — Pter. pliseops; — Pter, polincephalus; — Pter. dasymallus; Temm., Mamm. , pi. 10. — Pter. pallidus; — Pter. Keraudrenius, Quoy and Gaym., Voy. de Freycinet; — Pter. griseus, Geoff. Ann. Mus. pi. 3, XV, vi, cop. Temm., pi. 11; — Pter. personatus; — Pter. melanocepJialus, Temm. pi. ]2. (2) Add Pter. stramineus; — Pter. marginaius , Geoff, loc. cit. pi. 5; — Pter, minimus, id. or the Kiodote, Fr. Cuv., or the Pter. rostratus, Horsf. M. Isidore Geoffroy — Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. article Roussette, — gives us a monography of this genus, in which he forms the Pter. personatus of Temm., and some neighbouring species into the subgenus Pachisoma, which has four molars less than the others, and the zygomatic arches more projecting; the Pter. minimus or rostratus into the subgenus Macrogxossa, in which the muzzle is longer and more slender, and where there are spaces between the grinders. Its tongue is thought to be extensible. He, finally, separates the Cephulote of Peron from that of Pallas, and gives to the first the name of Htpodeiimis, on account of the com- plete dorsal insertion of the membrane of its wings. CARNARIA. 79 subgenus excepted, the membrane is always extended between the two legs. They should be divided into two principal tribes. The first has three ossified phalanges in the middle finger of the wing, but the re- mainder, including the index itself, consists of but two. To this tribe, which is almost exclusively foreign, belong the fol- lowing subgenera. MoLossus, Geoff. — Dysopes, Illig. The muzzle simple; ears broad and short, arising near the angle of the lips, and uniting with each other on the muzzle; the tragus short, and not enveloped by the conch. The tail occupies the whole length of their inter-femoral membrane, and, most generally, even extends beyond it. They have very seldom more than two incisors in each jaw, though, according to Temminck, several of them have at first six below, of which four are successively lost. The DiNOPs of M. Savi belong to this Molossus, with six inferior incisors. There is one species in Italy — Dinops cestonii, Savi, Giorn. de Letter., No. 21, p. 230. M. Geoffroy calls those in which he has counted four inferior in- cisors Nyctinomus.(I) The Molossi, at first, were only found in America ;(2) at present, however, we know several of both continents. (3) Some of them have the hinder thumb placed at a greater distance from the first finger than the fingers are from each other, and endowed with a separate motion, a character on which, in a species where it is very strongly marked, M. Horsfield has established his genus Cheiromeles.(4) It is here, perhaps, that we should also place the Thiroptera of Spix, which appear to have several characters of the Molossi, and (1) The Nydinome d'Egypte, Geoff., Eg. Mammif., pi. 2, f. 2, and Temm., Monog. des Mammif. pi. 19; — the Nydinome du Bresil, Isid. Geoff., Ann. des Sc. Nat., I, pi. 22, or Mol nasutus, Spix, pi. 35, f. 7"; — the N. tenuis, Horsfield, Java, No. 5, and Temm. Monog. pi. 19, bis. (2) Buffon has three of them confounded by Gmel., under the common name of Vespertilio molossus; M. longicaudatus, Buff. X, xix, 2; — M. fusciventer, ib. 1; — M. guyanensis, id. Supp. VII, Ixxv. Since then they have been increased. M. rufus, Geoff., Ann. Mus. VI, 155; — M. aledo, Temm., Monog., pi. xx; — M. abrasus, Temm., ib., pi. xxi; — M. vehx, Natterer, Temm., pi. xxii, 1; — 31. obscurus, Geoff., Temm., ib., pi. xxii, 2. These species, however, have not been suffi- ciently compared with those of Buffon, nor with the M. ursinus, Spix, pi. xxxv, f. 4, and the M- fumarius, ib., f. 5 and 6. (3) M. plicatus; Vespert. plicatus, Buchan.; Lin. Trans., V. pi. xiii; — Dysopes ruppelii; Temm., Monog., pi. xviii. (4) Cheiromeles torquatus, Horsf., Jav. or Dysopes cheiropus, Temm., Monog., pi. xvii. 80 MAMMALIA. whose thumb has a little concave palette peculiar to them, and by which they are enabled to cling more closely. (1) NocriLio, Lin. Ed. XII. Muzzle short, inflated, and split into a double hare-lip, covered with odd looking warts and seams; ears separate; four incisors above, and two below ; tail short, and free above the inter-femoral membrane. The species best known is from America. It is of a uniform fawn-colour — Vespert. leporinus, Gm,,Schreb. LX.(2) Phyllostoma, Cuv. and Geoff. The regular number of incisors is four to each jaw, but a part of the lower ones frequently fall, being forced out by the growth of the canini. They are moreover distinguished by a membrane resembling a doubled leaf, that is placed crosswise on the end of the nose. The tragus of the ear resembles a small leaf, more or less denticulated, The tongue, which is very extensible, terminates in papillae, which appear to be so arranged as to form an organ of suction — the lips also are furnished with tubercles, symmetrically arranged. They are all from America, run along the ground with more facility than the other bats, and have a habit of sucking the blood of animals. a. Without a tail. — Vampirus, Spix. P. spectrum; V. spectrum, Lin.; ^ndira-guagu o[ the Brazi- lians; Seb. LVIII; Geoff. Ann. Mus. XV, xii, 4. (The Vam- pire.) The leaf funnel-shaped ; colour a reddish brown ; size, that of a Magpie. From South America. It is accused of causing the death of men and animals by sucking their blood ; the wound, however, is small, though it may occasionally prove serious from the effects of the climate.(S) b. The tail involved in the inter -femoral membrane. F. ^as/«^t/s, L. Buff. ; XIII, xxxiii. (The Javelin Bat.) The leaf shaved like the head of a javelin, the edges entire.(4) (1) Thir. tricolor, Spix, 36, f. 9. It is with some hesitation that we have thus placed this subgenus, its description being incomplete. (2) The N. dorsatus, Geoff., or the N. vittatus, Pr. Max., hasa white stripe down the back. — The N. albiventer, Spix, 35, 2 and 4, is fawn-coloured above, white be- neath, and rather smaller. Add, N. rufus, Spix, 35, 1. (3) Add la Lunette,- Vesp. perspicillatus, L.; Buff., Supp. VII, Ixxiv; and the three species from Azzara, by Geoff., Ann. du Mus., VI, 181—182. (4) Add Pkilost. elongatum, Geoff., Ann. Mus., XV, ix. ^ CABWARIA. 81 c. The tail free above the membrane. P. cremtlatum, Geoff. Ann. du Mus. XV, pi. 10. (The In- dented Javelin Bat.) The leaf denticulated on the edges. M. Geoffroy, Mem. du Mus. IV, p. 418, separates from the Phyl- lostomee those species whose tongues are narrow, susceptible of elon- gation, and furnished with papillae resembling hairs — he calls them Glossophaga. These species are likewise from America.(l) In the second great tribe of Bats the index has only one bony phalanx, while all the other fingers have two. This tribe is also divided into several subgenera. Megaderma, Geoff. Ann. du Mus. XV. The membrane on the nose, or the leaf, more complicated than that of the Phyllostomje ; the tragus large and most commonly bifurcated ; the conchs of the ear ample and soldered together on the top of the head ; tongue and lips smooth ', the inter-femoral mem- brane entire, and no tail. They have four incisors below^ but there are none above, and their inter-maxillary bone remains cartilaginous. They are all from the eastern continent, either from Africa, the Zeo/ from Senegal for instance, {Meg. Frons., Geoff.) whose nasal membrane is oval and nearly as large as the head ; or from the Indian Archipelago, as the Spasma of Tern ate, Ves- ■pert. ed with trenchant nails, which arc not longer than the toes, so that the mcml)rane which occupies their intervals, and extends to the sides of the tail, can only act as a parachute. The canini arc denticulated and short like the molars. There are two upper denticulated incisors widely separated from each other; below there are six, split into narrow strips, like a comb, a structure alto- gether peculiar to this genus. The animals belonging to it are found in the Indian Archipelago, on the trees, among which they pursue insects, and perhaps birds. If we can judge by the injury the teeth sustain from age, they use fruit also. Their caecum is very large. One species only is well ascertained, the Flying Lemur. Audeb., Galaeop., pi. 1 and 2. Fur greyish red above, reddish (1) Add the Flee, iimoricnma, Geoff. — PL velntus, Isid. Geoff. — PI. maugei, Desm. —Pkc. cornutus. Fab. — Vcsji. mtgahiis, Rafin. [See Append. 11. of .dm. Ed.] N.B. As our plan permits us to class those animals only whose characters we have ascertained either from personal observation or from very complete descrip- tions and figures, we have been compelled to omit several of the g-enera of MM. Leach, Rahnesque, &c.; and while on this subject, we must observe that there is no family which stands more in need of revision than that of the Bats — a revision from nature and not by compilation. (2) Vespertilio Imhirus, Schreb., LXII, B. — V. novchoraccnsis, Penn- (-iuadr.,pl 31, fig. 2.— Vesp. horhonicm, GeofF., Ann. Mns. VITT, pi. 4fi, These three are the same. [See fippaid. III. of Jbm Ed. ] CARNARIA. 85 below; spolted and striped with various shades of grey when young. From the Molucca islands, straits of Sunda, 8cc. All the other Carnaria have the mammse situated under the abdomen. FAMILY IL INSECTIVORA. The animals of this family, like the Cheiroptera, have grinders studded with conical points, and lead a nocturnal or subterraneous life. Their principal food is Insects, and in cold climates many of them pass the winter in a torpid state. Unlike the Bats, they have no lateral membranes, although they always have clavicles. Their feet are short, and their motions feeble ; the mammas are placed under the abdomen, and the penis in a sheath. None of them have a caecum, and in walking they all place the whole sole of the foot on the ground. They differ from each other by the relative position and proportions of their incisors and canini. Some have long incisors in front, followed by other incisors and canini, all, even sliorter than die molares, a kind of den- tition of which the Tarsiers, among the Quadrumana, have already given us an example, and which somewhat approx- imates these animals to the Rodentia. Others have large sepa- rated canini, between which are placed small incisors, the most usual disposition of these parts among the Quadrumana and the Carnaria ; and these two systems of dental arrangement are found in genera, otherwise very similar in the teguments, shape of the limbs, and mode of life. Erinaceus, Lin. The body of the Hedgehog is covered with spines instead of hairs. The skin of the back is furnished with such muscles, as, by inclin- ing the' head and feet towards the abdomen, enable the animal to shut himself up in it, as in a purse, presenting his spines on all sides to the enemy. The tail is very short, and there are five toes to each foot. There arc six incisors in each jaw, the middle ones being the 86 MAMMALIA, longest, and on each side three false molars, three bristled with points, and a small one studded with tubercles.(l) E. europceus, h.; Buff. VIII, vi. (The Common Hedgehog.) Ears short; common in the woods and hedges ; passes the win- ter in its burrow, whence it issues in the spring with an ampli- tude and complication of the vesiculae seminales that is almost incredible. To insects, which constitute its ordinary diet, it adds fruit, by which at a certain age its teeth become worn. The skin was formerly used to dress hemp. E. auritus, Pall.; Schreb. CLXIII. (The Long-eared Hedge- hog.) Smaller than the preceding; ears as large as the two- thirds of the head, otherwise similar to the europaeus in form and habits. It is found from the north of the Caspian sea, as far as Egypt inclusively. Centenes, Illig. The body of the Tenrec is covered with spines like the Hedge- hog. It does not however possess the faculty of rolling itself so completely into a ball: there is no tail; the muzzle is very pointed, and the teeth are very different. There are four or six incisors, and two great canini in each jaw. Behind the canini are one or two small teeth, and four triangular and bristled molars. Three species are found in Madagascar, the first of which has been naturalized in the Isle of France. It is a nocturnal animal, which passes three months of the year in a state of lethargy, although inhabiting the torrid zone. Brugiere even assures us that it is during the greatest heats that they grow torpid. Erinuceus ecaudatus, L. ; Buff. XII, Ivi. (The Tenrec.) Co- vered with stiff spines ; only four notched incisors below. It is the largest of the three, and exceeds the hedgehog in size. Erinaccus setosus, L.; Buff. XII, Ivii. The spines more flexible and setaceous ; six notched incisors in each jaw. Erinaceus semi-spinosus. Covered indiscriminately with spines and setae ; striped with yellow and black ; its six incisors and canini are all slender and hooked ; size hardly that of a Mole.(2) (1) Pallas has noted as an interesting fact, that the Hedgehog eats hundreds of Cantlvarides without inconvenience, wliile a single one produces the most horrible agony in the Dog and the Cat. (2) Buff., Suppl. Ill, pi. 37, has mistaken it for a young Tenrec. Voy. a la Chine, U, p. 140, gives a wrong description of the teeth. CARNARIA. '^ 87 Cladobates, Fr. Cuv. — Tupaia, Raff. This is a new genus from the Indian Archipelago. The teeth have much affinity with those of the Hedgehog ; their middle upper incisors, however, are proportionably shorter, and the four lower ones elongated j there is also no tubercular one behind. The animal is covered with hair, has a long shaggy tail, and, contrary to the habits of other Insectivora, climbs trees with the agility of a Squir- rel ; the pointed muzzle, however, makes the animal easily distin- guishable even at a distance.(l) SoREX, Lin. The Shrews are generally small, and covered with hair. Under this, and upon each flank, there is a small band of stiff, thickly set setse, from between which, in the rutting season, oozes an odorous fluid, the product of a peculiar gland. (2) The two middle upper incisors are hooked and dentated at their base, the lower ones slanting and elongated : five small teeth on each side follow the first, and two only the second. There are moreover in each jaw three bristled molars, and in the upper one, the last is a small tuber- culous tooth. This animal lives in holes it excavates in the earth, which it seldom leaves till evening, and lives on worms and insects. One species only was for a long time known in France ; the Sor. araneus, L.; Buff. VIII, x, 1. (The Common Shrew.) Grey above ; ash-coloured beneath j tail square, and not so long as the body by one-third ; teeth white ; ears naked and ex- posed ; common in the fields, Sec. This little animal has been accused of producing a disease in horses by its bite ; the impu- tation however is false, and arises, perhaps, from the fact, that though Cats kill the Shrew, they will not eat it on account of its unpleasant odour. Daubenton has discovered the Sor.fodiens, Gm. ; 'S'. Daubentonii, Blumenb.; Buff. VIII, xi. (The Water Shrew.) Rather larger than the common one ; black above ; white beneath ; tail compressed at the end, and not so long as the body by one-fourth ; the incisors red at the ends ; (1) The hanxring; Cladob.javanica, Fr. Cuv.; ThpaiajavanicUfllovsf. Ja.v.; — CI. tana, Fr. Cuv.; Tup. tana, Horsf.; — Clad, ferruginea, Fr. Cuv.; Tup. ferrugi- nea, RafF. The genus Gtmnuha of Vigors and Horsfield — Zoolog. Journ. Ill, pi. 8, appears to approximate to Cladobates by tlie teeth, and to the Shrew by its point- ed snout and scaly tail. There are five unguiculated toes to each foot, and tolera- bly stiff setae growing among' woolly ha'u-s. It can only be properly classed when its anatomy is known. (2) See Geoff., Mem. du Mus., vol. 1, p. 299. 86 MAMMALIA. the ear surrounded with ■white, and almost hidden in the hair ; it has the faculty of hermetically closing when the animal dives, while the stifF bristles which fringe its feet give it a facility in swimming, in consequence of which it prefers the banks of creeks and rivulets. Several Shrews have been observed in Europe, somewhat dif- fering from the preceding ones ; but as in this genus the age and season materially affect the cplours of the fur, it is by no means certain they are distinct species. (1) Other countries also have their own, the most remarkable of which is the S. myosurus^ Pall., Act. Petrop. 1781, part II, pi. 4 5 Mils inusqiice de r ]nde,BnS. Supp. VII, 71. (The Rat-tailed Shrew.) In its form and colour it resembles our common Shrew, and also has its large naked cars, but the tail is round, furnished ■with scattering hairs, and is almost as large as that of our Long-tailed Field-mouse. It gives out a strong musky scent which impregnates every thing it touches. It is found through- out India and part of Africa, and is one of the animals the an- cient Egyptians were in the habit of embalming. (2) Mygale, Cuv. The Desmans differ from the Shrews in two very small teeth placed between the two great lower incisors, and in their two upper (1) The S. kucodoji, Schrcb. 1j9, D, does not appear to me to differ from the common Shrew. I strongly susjjcct the S. tdragonurus and constridus, Herm., Sclucb, 159, B and C, or Geoff. Ann. Mus. XVII, pi. 2, f. 3, and pi. 3, f. 1, and even the S. ranifer, Geoff. Ann. Mus. XVII, pi. 2, f. 1, to be different ages of the W.ater-Shrc\v;the ranifer particulail)-, whose belly is sometimes white, sometimes black; the S. Uneatus, Geoff, ib. 181, is an accidental vai-iety of the tetragonurus arising from age. The S. minutus, Lasmann, Scbreb. 161, B, is merely a mutl- Jatcd specimen of the S. pygmceus, Pall. Such Is not the case however with the