¥ Mi f Aah dis) bree eae sy | f POT IPEY . ey \ 7 haa E : 4 f % ‘3 ie 4 wit ia todos teount, bar nontraded, Nuit - ZOOLOGICAL LECTURE avi aekvered wb the LOVAL ANSTITOTION by | GEORGE SHAW,M.D.FR.S.&e. WITH PLATES from the firft Authorities and most select specimens G oy VOUUCL fincipalty ly. y) M*®* GRIFFITH. WEARNS COLL EC TION VOL. ; LONDON Printed for G.Kearsley, Fleet Street, $309. A Wy He as ZOOLOGICAL LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE “ROYAL INSTITUTION IN THE YEARS 1806 anv 1807, BY GEORGE SHAW, M.D. F.R.S. &c. &e. VOR. LONDON : PRINTED FOR GEORGE KEARSLEY, FLEET-SRTEET ; BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS. EEE 1809. rei £ ee ei oe a i a age Saar ee erae rourbennbbg ae ii: ADVERTISEMENT. Tue present short course of Lectures is by no means intended as a deeply scientific and ela- borate series of zoological disquisitions, but may rather be termed, in the words of Sir Kenelm Digby, “ a familiar discourse with Lady-Audi- ? tors.” The general tenor of the explanations is purposely conducted with as little appearance of the parade of technical terms as possible ; and the reader must not expect to find any long disserta- tions relative to the nature of animal life, any very minute observations relative to the classification of the animal kingdom, and still less any quota- tions from Aristotle in order to prove that “a man hath ten toes * ;” but the whole is merely intend * Grew, Mus, Reg. Soe. ADVERTISEMENT. _ ed as a plain illustration of the animal world ac- cording to the Linnzean mode of arrangement, with some occasional deviations and transpositions. It should be added, that these Lectures were accompanied by a very numerous collection of en- gravings, drawings, &c. in order tor elucidate the respective subjects; and, wherever circumstances rendered their introduction possible, by preserved as well as living specimens of the animals them- selves. British Museum, May 30, 1808. The reader is requested to pay particular attention to the list of Errata, and to cast his eyes on the Notes and Lllustrations. SYLLABUS OF LECTURES. VOL. I. Lecture I. Inrropuction. General description of the Animal King- dom, according to different authors. Linnean are rangement. Union of animal and vegetable life in Zoophytes, and particularly in Polypes. General de- scription of Polypes. Lecture II. Linnean arrangement of MAMMALIA or viviparous Qua- drupeds. Order Primates, comprehending the Apes, Macaucos, and Bats. Vampyres. Order Bruéa. Bra- dypus or Sloth. Fossil skeleton, supposed to be allied to this latter genus. Lecture Iil. Continuation of Linnean Mammalia. Genera of Da- sypus or Armadillo, Manis or Pangolin, Myrmeco- SYLLABUS. phaga or Ant-Eater, Platypus or Duckbill. Order Fere. Canis or Dog, Felis or Cat, Viverra or Wee- sel. Didelphis or Opossum, Macropus or Kanguroo. Order Glires. MHystrix or Porcupine, Castor or Bea- ver, Arctomys or Marmot, Lepus or Hare, Sciurus or Squirrel, Mus or Mouse, Dipus or Jerboa. LEcTURE IV. Continuation of Linnean Mammalia. Elephant. Mam- moth. Order Pecora. Giraffa or Camelopard, Cer- vus or Deer, Bos or Ox, Camelus or Camel, Moschus or Musk, Antilope or Antelope, Ovis or Sheep, Capra or Goat. Order Bellue. Equus or Horse, Hippopota-. mus, Rhinoceros, Tapir, Sus or Hog. Pinnated Mam- mala. Phoca or Seal. Trichechus or Walruss. Whales. General History of the different genera and species of ditto. LECTURE V. Birps. General description of the anatomy of. Linnean division of. Order Accipitres. Vultures, Eagles, Owls. Order Pice. Hornbills, Toucans, Parrots, Wood- peckers, Paradise-Birds, Kingfishers, Cuckows, and Humming-Birds. SYLLABUS. 4 Lecture VI. Continuation of Birds. Order Passeres. Pigeons, Thrushes, Chatterers, Grosbeaks, Thick and Slender-Billed Small- Birds. Nightingale, Taylor-Bird, Titmice, Swallows, and Goatsuckers. Order Galline. Pheasants, Turkey, Partridge, Dodo, Peacock. Ostrich. Cassowary. Bustard. Order Gralle. Jabirus, Herons, Storks, Bitterns. Ibis, Scarlet ditto, Egyptian ditto, Curlew. Jacana. Trumpeter. Spoonbill. Snipes and Plo- vers. Flamingo. Order Anseres. Swan. Supposed song of. Black Swan. Pelican. Corvorant. Pen- guins. Albatross. Tropic-Bird. | VOL. II, Lecture VIL, Linnean Ampuipia. General description of. Genus Testudo or Tortoise, different species of. Genus Rana or Frog, different species of. Genus Lacerta or Lizard, different species of. Crocodiles, viz. Indian, SYLLABUS. American, &c. Chameleon. Salamander. Water- Newts. Sirens, viz. Carolina and Austrian..,.Genus _ Draco or Dragon, Serpent tribe, general description of. Genus Crotalus or Rattle-Snake.» Genus Boa. Boa Constrictor, &c. Genera of Coluber, Ancuis, Amphisbena, Cecilia, and Hydrus. Lecture VIII. FisHEs, general description of. Linnean arrangement of; Apodal Fishes, containing the genera of Mureena, An- guilla, Synbranchus, and Gymnotus. Jugular Fishes. Genus Trachinus or Weever, Gadus or Codfish, ; Tho- racic Fishes. Genera of Gymnetrus, Corypheena, Echeneis, Pleuronectes, Chetodon, Acanthurus, Per- ca, Holocentrus, Scomber, Mullus, and Trigla. dd- dominal Fishes. Genera of Salmo, Esox, Silurus, Exo- coetus, and Cyprinus. Cartelaginous Fishes. Lam- preys, Rays; Torpedo, Sharks, Sturgeons, Trunk- Fishes, and Porcupine-Fishes. Lecture IX. InsEcTs; general description of. Linnean arrangement of. Examples of the different divisions. Order Coleoptera exemplified by the genera of Scarabzeus, Cerambyx, and Curculio. Order Hemiptera exempli- SYLLABUS. ‘fied’ by the genera of Blatta, Gryllus, and Fulgora. Order Lepidoptera exemplified by the genera of Pa- i pilio, Sphinx, and Phalena. Order Neuroptera ex- -''2'“emplified by the genera of Libellula and Ephemera. Order Hymenoptera exemplified by the oenus Ich- neumon. Order Diptera exemplified by the genera. of Musca, Culex, and Oestrus. Order Aptera exem- plified by the genera of Aranea and Acarus. LECTURE X. “Linnean Mourusca Nuda, or Soft-Bodied Animals, ex- emplified by the genera of Limax, Aplysia, Doris, Nereis, Pyrosoma, Nais, Sepia, &c. Common Cuttle- Fish described. Ink-Fish or Calamary. Eight-Armed Cuttle-Fish. Colossal ditto. Kraken. Genus Me- dusa, exemplified by Medusa Pulmo. Genus Actinia or Sea~-Anemone. Genus Asterias or Starfish. Genus Echinus or Sea-Urchin. LECTURE XI. Linnean Moxttusca Testacea, or Soft-Bodied Animals furnished with shells.. Division of Shells into Uni- valves, Bivalves, and Multivalyes, with a general de- scription of the nature of the inhabiting animals, Particular description and history of the Argonauta SYLLABUS. Argo or Paper Nautilus. Description of the Linnean genus Nautilus, or Pearly Nautilus. Genera of Den- talium, Serpula, Teredo, and Sabella. Bivalve Shells exemplified. History of the Mytilus margaritiferus or Mother of Pearl Shell, of Pearls, of the Pearl- Fishery, and manufacture of artificial pearls. Genera of Spondylus, Chama, and Pinna. Multivalve Shells exemplified by the genus Lepas or Barnacle. History of the Lepas anatifera, &c. Hatching of shell-ani- mals, and growth of shells. LEcTURE XII. Linnean Vermes and Zoophytes. The Vermes or Worms elucidated by a description of the genera of Tenia, Gordius, Filaria, &c. Genus Furia, with the history of the Furia infernalis. Zoophytes or Plant-Animals. Genus Hydra or Polype particularly described. Gene- ral description of the Coral tribe, with the observations of Marsigli, Peyssonel, Ellis, &e. Genera of Sertularia, Tubularia, Flustra, Gorgonia, Isis, and Madrepora. Formation of coral rocks and islands in the Indian seas by the different species of Madrepoe, &c. Animal- cula Infusoria or Animalcules in fluids, general his- tory of. Description of the genus Vorticella, and of some, of the chief species. Genus Cercaria, with the particular description of Cercaria mutabilis. Genus SYLLABUS. Trichoda, with particular description of Trichoda Sol. Genus Volvox, with particular description of Volvox Globator or the Globe-Animal. Genus Vibrio, with description of the Vibrio Anguillula or Paste-Vibrio. Genus Cyclidium. Genus Monas, containing the smallest of all animals visible by the assistance of the microscope. oN ait weap tea fot) tes eae Pte Sivieet = z ; pes es . x 84s be 7% ; - Sete ene mana one, : 4 Spe = Ses wh SON ia ai KD , : 1 te 1 ‘s N sae i bai a Y * * ¢ eneetes > 5 ames Sree ~ py aslo H 7 1 Pe see ; — eae F ' > : tt BL i Sony Bae ke i x te , oa : EF f ae wire t Sidon ty t _ | a r » u 4 ak & ' i eet edals 2 b i eae ey if) ra yok Ears = i = 3 \ / 5 f ay nik vy SOS RBA as cee ) eC \_ h \ a) en ee ee Sete: 8 are atic ae tacts. A me aA tbs. Ny) . * The Vignette represents, in its natural size, an elegant species of Humming-Bird, called the Trochilus furcatus or Smaller Fork-Tailed Humming-Bird, seated on a sprig of the Ipomaa coccinea. 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Its importance begins to be understood, and it is generally acknowledged, that, exclusive of its more consequential aims, it has the peculiar advan- tage of uniting amusement with instruction, and of impressing the mind with a train of the most pleasing ideas while engaged in contemplating the infinitely-varied forms exhibited in the field of Nature, and in tracing their gradations and con f 2 LECTURE I. nexions; and we must readily allow that it is no unimportant object to be able to secure to our- selves some species of study, which in its pro- press may continue to afford a rational delight, and in the pursuit of which there can be no fear of soon exhausting the subject. I shall here beg leave to mtroduce the opinion of one of the greatest and most estimable cha- racters that perhaps ever ornamented this or any other nation. I mean the celebrated Ray, whose dignified simplicity of language enforces with peculiar energy the truth of his sentiment. «* We content ourselves, (says he) with a little skill in philology, history, or antiquity; and we neglect that which appears .to me of much greater moment: I mean the. study of Nature, and the works of Creation. Ido not mean, (he adds,) to derogate from or discommend those other studies; Tonly wish that they might not quite jostle out and exclude this; and that men would be so equal and. civil as not to vilify or disparage in others. those studies they themselves are not conversant in. No knowledge can be more pleasant to the soul than this; none so satisfying, or that doth so feed the mind; in comparison of which the study of DSI LECTURE I. 3 words and phrases seemeth insipid and jejune ; for words being but the images of things, to be given up wholly to their study, what is it but to verify the folly of Pygmalion; to fall in love with a statue, and neglect the reality! The treasures of Nature are inexhaustible: there is enough for the most indefatigable industry, the happiest op- portunities, the most prolix and undisturbed ya- cancies.” Such appears to have been the opinion of Mr. Ray. I shall next observe that the celebrated poet Gray was in a peculiar manner devoted to the study of Natural History; as appears from the testimony of his friend Mr. Mason, who assures us that Gray frequently felicitated himself on having been early introduced to so delightful a science, and which improved in so remarkable a manner the general tenor of his health and spirits. I might also here mention, as a circumstance not generally known, that Gray translated the Lin- nzean Genera or Characters of Insects into elegant Latin hexameters, some specimens of which have been preserved by his friends, though they. were never intended for publication, 4 LECTURE I. Another exalted character, whose hours of leisure from the official employments of his life were devoted to this pursuit, was the learned and accomplished Sir William Jones, whose works bear ample testimony to the attention which he paid to the history of the Productions of Nature. The mistakes which occasionally appear in the works of various authors, even of the highest cele- brity, arising from a want of accurate information relative to the natural subjects of which they are speaking, are numerous and striking; the epithets by which many objects are distinguished, are, for this reason, improperly chosen, and utterly incon- sonant with the character of the things intended. This is no where more strikingly illustrated than in the august lines of Milton, in which the de- scription of a sleeping whale is injured by an epi- thet of all others least according with the nature of the animal. “© That sea-beast ee re ee Leviathan, which God, of ail his works Created hugest that swim th’ ocean stream. Him haply slumb’ring on the Norway foam The pilot of some small night-founder’d skiff, LECT RE I. 5 Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, Moors by his side under the lee, while night Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.” But none of the whale-tribe are furnished with scales, or any thing analogous to them. It must be acknowledged, however, that this observation — may appear a mere piece of hypercriticism, and that Milton by the expression of scaly rind, might only mean rough or scaly, in the same sense that those epithets are often applied to the bark of a tree, or any other irregular surface. There can be little doubt, however, that real and proper scales were intended by the poet, nor is it difficult to dis- cover the particular circumstance which impressed Milton with this erroneous idea, viz. a figure in the works of Gesner, so injudiciously expressed as to ap- pear on acursory view, as if coated with large scales, scales, with a vessel near it, and an inscription above it, importing that sailors often mistake a whale for an island, and thus endanger themselves by attempting to anchor upon it. As the general learning and extensive reading of our great poet are so well known, it can hardly be doubted that he was conversant with the writings of Gesner, 6 LECTURE I. whose work was then the great depository of na= tural knowledge, and that the figure and descrip- tion there given left a lasting impression on his mind. It must be confessed also that the poet was here deceived by the naturalist. A modern writer, having occasion to allude to the dormant state of the Butterfly and Moth tribe, during their period of imperfection, has evidently shewn that he supposed the animal to become a chrysalis after having appeared in its complete or flying state, and has thus entirely inverted or reversed the real progress of the animal. “© Thus the gay Moth, by sun and vernal gales Call’d forth to wander o’er the dewy vales, From flower to flower, from sweet to sweet will stray, Till, tir’d and satiate with her food and play, Deep in the shades she builds her peaceful nest, Tn loy’d seclusion pleas’d at length to rest : There folds the wings that erst so widely bore ; Becomes a household Nymph, and seeks to range no more.” A curious example of ridiculous ignorance re- lative to such subjects, might be taken from some of the public papers for the month of July 1794, in which we were informed that in the neighbour- hood (I think) of Sheffield, were found (in the i) QOIQL DIY AYMOITD AQ PUYOL UIPUOT TIOD BIGT WTONLA Va Lv Ad dynos YYpep LECTURE I. 4 words of the describer) “ two strange phenomena of Nature, whose bodies were green, and covered or slated over, in regular and exact chesses, repre- senting shell-work: the heads of these animals were exactly like that of a Lion, and upon the slightest touch, it dar ted out pee spears behind, of the finest scarlet Cola and at the same time one before, which was. white, and shaped like the paw. of a bear: they had each of ‘them fourteen legs, and on each side the back of ‘these wonderful creatures, was the representation + ‘of the animal itself, in perfect white, which shone like silver.” It is extremely easy to all who are conversant in the history of insects, to guess what these for- midable monsters must have been: viz. a brace of harmless Caterpillars, of a species, singular indeed in appearance, but by no means very uncommon, and which do, bya eyeht aggravation, in some degree justify the description of the observer. A few years ago, a description, (accompanied by a figure,) of one of & most common insects in oh England, but in its: first st es Aa which it always Lal resides under water) was given, with much solem- nity, in a periodical publication, (the Gentleman’s Magazine) and was considered by its describer, So LECTURE I. who, I believe, was the late Mr. Philip Thicknesse, as.a new, and till then unheard-of animal, of which, he believed himself to have been the first describer. To a total ignorance of the real nature ofsani- mals (excusable in ancient times, but not:so inmo- dern) must be attributed the numerous histories of showers of frogs and mice, and other animals; the: raining of blood; the change of certain) Frogs:nto. Fishes, and back again from Fishes to Frogsyv with many other particulars equally extravagant ;_ and from these and many other instances: which might be adduced, we may perceive what mistaken: notions may be adopted by those, who otherwise: well informed, happen to have paid little or no re+o gard to the general doctrines of Natural History. >) Natural History at large, divides itself into what are called the three Kingdoms of Nature ; -viz. the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdom: | > Of.these the Zoological or animal kingdom sis what naturally engages our first attention, and seems to. claim.a superiority over the rest., It would be unnecessary to add, that Zoology com- prizes the whole animal world, or all those beings which are called by. the name of Quadrupeds,; Birds, Amphibia, Fishes, Insects, Testaceous LECTURE f.) 93 animals, and Zoophytes, which latter are of) veryy various forms, and are allied by many resemblancess to the:vegetable world. son beveled: 3 «In taking-a survey of the animalworld, we may either commence with the highest order.of animals, : and gradually descend from our own species to the minutest animalcules visible by the assistance of. the microscope; or from these minute points, as it. were, of existence, to Man_ himself, the chief of Creation here helow. ghasy I must observe, that it may be greatly doubted, whether it be practicable to make out.a continued natural chain or series of animals, united through-. out by evidently connecting links; at leastsall at-» tempts of that kind have hitherto failed;.and thes animal world;:and: indeed all the productions’ ot Nature, seem rather connected by many points of affinity on different sides, than by.a regular chain. of gradation; so'that, as the learned Dr.-Pallas has well observed,the face of nature may rather be said to represent a reticulated or polygonal surface, than to be disposed in‘a continued linear progression. But though a perfectly natural chain or arrange- ment. of animals cannot be. contrivedj.ib is still ne- cessary to form some kind of classification, in order 10 LECTURE I. to keep together such tribes as most evidently re- semble each other. Naturalists have therefore in- vented several systems or distributions of animals; formed, either from the general external appear- ance, or from the structure of the principal in- ternal organs. : The most ancient division of animals, (exclusive of the slight sketches to be found in some parts of the sacred writings,) is that of Aristotle, who divided animals into viviparous or such as produce living and perfectly-formed young, and into oviparous, or such as produce eggs, from which the young are afterwards excluded. - This distinction of animals was not conducted with perfect exactness, and Aristotle himself was sensible that it was liable to some exceptions, and that it contained certain inae- curacies. It continued however to be in use, with some modifications, till towards the decline of the seventeenth century, when our famous Mr. Ray formed a new classification of animals, founded chiefly on the structure and nature of the heart and lungs in the different tribes ; and the Linnzan arrangement of the animal kingdom still acknow- ledges that of Ray for its basis; particularly with respect to quadrupeds. LECTURE L i - The great or general Linnean outline or ar- rangement of the animal world is thus distributed. First, into such animals as have warm red blood, and a heart divided into two cavities, or ventricles, as anatomists term them. ‘These animals consist of Quadrupeds and Birds; the former being vi- viparous, or producing living and ready-formed young, and the latter or birds being oviparous, or producing eggs, from which the young are after- wards excluded. The next division consists of such animals as have a heart with a single cavity or ventricle, while the blood, though red, is of a far lower tem- perature than in quadrupeds and birds; insomuch that it is commonly said to be cold blood. These animals consist of what Linnzus calls Amphibia, such as Tortoises, Frogs, Lizards, and Serpents, and in the next place, of Fishes. The former of | these subdivisions, or the Frog, Tortoise, Lizard, and Serpent tribes, have what Linnzus terms ar- bitrary lungs, or such as can suspend respiration at pleasure, for a considerable time, without injury to the animal. The latter tribe, or that of Fishes, instead of lungs, is furnished with what are 12 LECTURE I. commonly called gills, in which innumerable divi- sions of blood-vessels are disposed in semicircular ranges. The third order or great division of animals consists of such as Linnzus supposes to have a heart with a single cavity, and acold whitish or nearly co-_ . lourless blood. These animals consist of Insects, and of a very numerous and diversified tribe, called, in alarge acceptation of the word, by the name of Worms. The former of these tribes, or that of Insects, is distinguished by the particular organs called antenna, and resembling small horns ; while, the latter tribe, or that of Worms, is distinguished g by having tentacula or flexible feelers. . Modern observations seem to prove that the former of these divisions, or Insects, have, in reality, no true or regular circulation: this however is a point which I confess I consider as by no means com-_ pletely ascertained. Since the establishment of the Linnzan arrange- ment, so captivating appears to haye been the... study of system-making, that numerous arrange-, ments have been attempted in different parts of the animal kingdom; more particularly within a LECTURE If. 13 few years past. It may however be much doubted whether the study of Natural History has been greatly advanced by their institution. Tt‘is impossible not to allow some degree of justice to the complaints uttered on this subject by -an ingenious naturalist in a neighbouring nation, who thus expresses his sentiments. sh soda “By what fatality does it happen, that the beau- tiful'and elegant science of Natural History is be- come an assemblage of systems, of methods, and discussions of nomenclature, as dry and tedious as , they are idle and unnecessary? How can it hap- pen that men of any sterling sense should spend — their ‘time in endeavouring to reduce into geome- 5 trical divisions the beautiful gradations of Nature, : and’ tobe the slaves to arbitrary and. petty ar rangements, which rise and perish, like so many mushrooms, and which appear to be of no other effect but to disgust and fatigue those who are ’ doomed to study them? When shall we see a stop put to that inundation of new and barbarous words and terms, which deform and disgrace almost all our new works on Natural History, ‘and Aviich LS Sekt threaten to reproduce the scholastic j jargon “of the 14 LECTURE I. ages of darkness? A certain methodical arrange- ment is indeed absolutely necessary in the science of natural history; but it is by no means necessary to obscure an easy and elegant study by the intro- . duction of innumerable harsh and ill-constructed technical terms, and to sacrifice every grace and elegance of language to the desire of torturing Greek into bad French, and to substitute unin- telligible awkwardness for elegant explanation. It is certain, continues this author, that neither Arnoldus de Villa Nova, nor Raymond Lully, or any other among the old masters of the study of Alchemy, ever introduced a diction more bar- barous, or terms more repulsive, than some of our modern managers of systematic Natural History. I give this quotation as a proof of the ridicule to which the spirit of minute arrangement, so much admired among the lower order of natural- ists, has of late unthinkingly exposed itself. I hope, however, that the author had no intention of glancing at the celebrated Monsieur Cuvier, whose arrangement of the animal kingdom, not- withstanding the unnecessary minuteness of some of his divisions, must be allowed to possess a very LECTURE I. 15 high degree of merit, and perhaps may be allowed to be the most truly philosophic that has yet been seen. Monsieur Cuyier divides the whole animal world into what he calls Vertebrated and Invertebrated animals ; that is, such as are furnished with a back- bone, divided into the joints called vertebrae, and forming a case or guard for the spinal marrow, and into such as are destitute of this series of bones, and are therefore Invertebrated animals. His first class, viz. the Vertebrated animals, are subdivided into such as have warm blood and a heart with two cavities or ventricles, and into such as have comparatively cold blood, and a heart with one ventricle. In the first division then of Verte- brated animals rank Quadrupeds and Birds, and in the second, or such as have cold blood and a single ventricle, rank the Linnean Amphibia and Fishes. The second great class, consisting of the Inver- tebrated animals, or such as are destitute of the spine or back-bone, is divided into such as have a system of blood-vessels for the purpose of circu- lation, and such as have none. The first of these divisions, or that consisting of 16 LECTURE I. animals furnished with blood-vessels, contains the major part of what Linnzeus calls Mollusca or soft-bodied animals, and also all the Crustacea or such as are furnished with a moderately hard or crustaceous covering. In the second division of Invertebrated animals, are contained those which are supposed to be destitute of a regular system of blood-vessels ; these animals are Insects and Zoo- phytes; Monsieur Cuvier not allowing a circu- lation of the blood in insects, and in the animals called Zoophytes, it has certainly never been observed. Such is the general outline of Monsieur Cu- vier’s Zoological System. His institution and arrangement of the various genera of animals, under each more particular division of his system, is conducted with great anatomical precision, and evinces the highest de- gree of philosophical knowledge of animals; but the whole arrangement has a somewhat compli- cated and forbidding appearance to a general reader, and is of course less immediately attrae- tive than the more simple arrangement of Lin- nus. | Animals are, in general, sufficiently and readily DIONAA MUSCIPULA 2808 Oct’. London Lublifhd by 6iearstey Fleet Street. LECTURE I. 17 distinguished from vegetables, and there are few instances in which we can suppose a person in the least danger of confounding them. Yet there are many indistinct approximations between animals and vegetables, exclusive of the real or acknow- ledged connecting links. Thus there.are many animals which are nearly as torpid as the major part of vegetables: and again, there are some vegetables which seem almost to trench upon the properties of animals, by their peculiar motion on being suddenly irritated ; thus, the Dionzea Mus- cipula, or Veunus’s Fly-Trap, an American plant, well known to all who are conversant with the science of Botany, is furnished with leaves pos- sessed of so strong a degree of irritability, as to confine, by. their sudden contraction, any, small animal which happens to alight upon them ; and the Hedysarum gyrans, an East-Indian plant, of the papilionaceous » or -peabloom tribe, seems £0 possess a kind of voluntary motion in the Lda gh Nan leaves situated on each side the base ¢ of ‘the larger ones. In general, however, the: distinction’ be- tween animals and vegetables is too. striking to admit of any hesitation, and. it would be a mere loss of time, in the short space allotted to our pre- . ADCET. 1." (0) a fae i8 LECTURE Tf. sent course of Lectures, to enter, with any degree of minuteness, into the history of the possible cases in which a doubt might be supposed to arise between the two kingdoms, to which such parti- cular subject should be supposed most properly to belong. The limits of animal and vegetable life are generally allowed to concur or unite in those extra- ordinary beings called Zoophytes, and above all others in those Zoophytes called Polypes, of which four different species have been discovered in our own country, as well as in many other parts of Eu- rope. They are small water animals, of a very tender substance, and furnished at the upper part with several long and slender arms, with which they seize their prey: the body is of a lengthened and tubular form, and the whole creature possesses, in a very high degree, the power of extending or contracting itself at pleasure. It produces its young principally by a species of vegetation ; cer- tain small swellings or tubercles appearing at in- tervals on different parts of its body, which, in the space of a few days, become complete, and resemble the parent animal in every respect ex- cept that of size. When thus fully formed, they ° LECTURE I. 19 drop off from the body of the parent animal, and attach themselves to any convenient substance: it often happens that a Polype shall be loaded, not only with a primary but a secondary offspring, the young animals themselves, before their se- paration from the parent, producing others in a similar manner; so that the whole may be com- pared to a kind of genealogical tree. ‘These crea- tures are highly voracious, and possessing, as be- fore observed, a very high degree of contractile and extensile power, are capable of swallowing other animals of far larger size than themselves ; the tubular body of the Polype enlarging in order to receive them. The act of seizing their prey is very sudden and violent, but their mode of swal- lowing or absorbing it is very gradual. Whena Polype is cut into two or three pieces, each piece, in the space of a few days, especially in warm weather, becomes a perfectly complete animal, by the reproduction of every part deficient. Thus, if a Polype be cut into three pieces, the office of the head or upper part is to produce a new extremity or tail, with its sphincter-muscle ; of the tail part to produce a new head and arms; and of the middle part to produce both extremes, It there- 30 | LECTURE I. fore cannot be doubted that the Polypes do really constitute the connecting link between animal and vegetable life. The figures of the Polype, selected for our pre- sent inspection, are from the work of the cele- brated Roesel; and represent with great elegance and fidelity, the appearance of these extraordinary animals, both.in their natural size, and magnified by the microscope. The species in these figures of Roesel are :the Green, the Brown, and the yellowish-Grey Polype. These most curions and interesting animals were first fully described by a Monsieur Trembley, of Geneva, who, about the year 1730, happened to discover them in searching after some small aqua- tic plants. They had indeed been discovered long before by the celebrated Leewenhoeck, who gave a general description of the animal, and observed that it multiplied by an apparent vegetation; but it was reserved for Monsieur Trembley to discover and describe, in an ample and Gireimstantial man- ner, all its extraordinary properties. Monsieur Trembley happened first to observe the small green Polype, or Hydra viridis, and being greatly sur- prised at the appearance of a creature, which had POLYPES the middle figure magnified 1608 OctsLonton Publifrd by Clicarsley Fleet Strect LECTURE I. 91 at once the aspect of a plant, and the motions of an animal, determined to try the experiment of cutting it in two, in order to ascertain its doubtful nature; and was beyond measure astonished to find that instead of destroying it, both parts seemed uninjured by the wound, and that, in a very few days, each had reproduced every deficient organ, and that each animal seized its prey, and moved about as before. This striking discovery, being announced, was at first considered by many as a table; and it was even contended, that this division of animal life was in itself absolutely impossible upon the prin- ciples of common sense, as well as of sound philos sophy: but, at length, the attention of philosophers in every part of Europe being excited by the sin- gularity of the circumstance, the animals were every where sought after, and experiments made by cutting them in every possible direction. Their real nature was thus completely ascertained; and, from subsequent experiments, it was found, that in reality many other tribes of the inferior animals were likewise possessed of the power of repro- duction, though in a less striking degree ; and thus a wide field of philosophical investigation was sud- 22 LECTURE I. denly opened, which may be said to have consti- tuted a new era in the science of Natural History. In warm weather so rapid is the multiplication of the common Polype, that the descendants of a single animal are supposed to amount to several thousands in the course of a single summer. An ingenious observer in our own country, soon after the first account of Monsieur Trembley’s dis- coveries had been published, made the following observations, which I shall give in his own words, «* A single Polype, say she, was put into a glass by itself, on the 12th of July, with two intentions, viz. first, that I might learn how long-lived the creature is, and at what rate it produces branchers, It is still alive in this present week of September ; and goes on to produce at least five in a week, one week with another. But, because this Polype had the appearance of a young one on it when I first set it apart, (which young one was separated by falling off from the parent in three days’ time,) I was willing to make trial how long it would be before a young Polype might be expected, pro- vided the old one was without any appearance of a bud, and was itself only of moderate growth. Ac- cordingly I took such a one, which was a brancher LECTURE I. 23 from the first-mentioned animal, and put it into a glass by itself on the 23d of July, and in a week’s: time it produced a young one, and since that time produces at the rate before-mentioned, viz. five in aweek. Soon after, I sent to a friend well skilled in figures, to desire him to make a computation of the number a single Polype would produce in a year’s time, and on the moderate supposition, that, {a week being allowed for every brancher when separated, before it begins to produce,) it be sup- posed afterwards to produce one in three days. But he informs me that there exists no rule by which such computation can be made; that it is in itself extremely difficult, and that, after all, mis- takes might arise in such a multitude of figures as would be necessary; but that he went so far as to calculate the number of the second generation, which amounted to more than eleven thousand. What then, says he, must be the amount of the whole!” The objections made at the time of the first dis- covery of the extraordinary power of reproduction in the Polype were chiefly these. If the animal’ soul or life, said the objectors, be one indivisible essence, all in all, and all in every part, how comes it in this animal, to endure being divided several DA LECTURE I. times, and yet continue to exist and flourish? Again, if animal identity consists in consciousness, and if every living creature is sensible of pleasure ‘and pain, or in other words, has a consciousness, which is generally thought a reasonable suppo- sition; when the Polype is divided into several parts, which all become perfect Polypes, where shall we find the identity of the original animal ? A letter dated from the University of Cam- bridge, inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, reasons thus on the subject. The last news from Paris gives us something very surprising; viz. that an animal called the Polypus is of such a nature, that life is preserved in it after it has been cut into several pieces; so that one animal scems by section to be immediate, ly divided into two, or three, or more complete animals, each separately enjoying life, and con- tinuing to perform all the usual operations of its species. Such an account would have been less regarded, had we not been informed that letters avouching the reality of the fact had lately been, communicated to the Royal Society, and that its reality had also been confirmed by some of our best observers. | Some of our friends, who are firmly attached LECTURE I. 25 to the general metaphysical notions we have formerly learned, reason strongly against the pos- sibility of such a fact; but, as I have myself for- merly confessed my distrust of the truth of some of those principles, I shall now make no scruple of acknowledging that I have already seen so many strange things in Nature, that I am become very cautious in affirming what may, or what may not possibly be. The most common operations of Nature in the animal and vegetable world are all in themselves astonishing, and nothing but daily experience and constant observation makes us see without amazement an animal produce another of the same kind, or a tree blossom, and produce leaves and fruit. The same observation, and daily experience, make it also familiar to us, that, besides the first way of increasing vegetables from their respective seeds, they are also increased by cuttings; and every one knows that a twig of a willow, cut off, and placed in the ground, does presently take root and grow, and by degrees becomes as much a real and perfect tree as the original one from which it was taken. Here is then, in the vegetable kingdom, a fa- miliar instance of the very example hitherto un- 26 LECTURE 1. known in the animal kingdom. The best philose- phers have long ago observed very strong analo-. gies between these two classes of Beings, and the moderns have every day found reason to extend that analogy; and some have even talked ofa scale of Nature, in which, by an insensible transition, a connexion is made from the most perfect of ani- mals to the most imperfect of vegetables. Now in such a scale who shall say, here animal life entirely ends, and here the vegetable life begins? or just thus far, and no farther, one sort of operation goes, and just here another quite different sort takes place ? Or again, who will venture to say, Life in every. animal is a thing absolutely different from that which we dignify by the same name in every vege- table? and might not a man even be excused if he should modestly doubt whether vegetables may: not themselves be considered as a very low and im- perfect tribe of animals, as animals might, in like manner, be considered as a more perfect and exalted kind of vegetables? At our next meeting I shall proceed to give a general description of the different tribes of the animal kingdom. LECTURE ITI. : WeE have already seen that Linnzeus has ar- ranged the whole animal world into three great divisions; the first containing such animals as have warm red blood, and a heart divided into two ca- vities, or ventricles; the second containing ani- mals with cold red biood, and a heart with one cavity only; and the third consisting of animals with pale or colourless cold blood, and a heart (as Linneeus imagined) furnished with a single cavity. The secondary or more particular Linnean dis- tribution of Animals is thrown into six divisions, the first of which is entitled AZammata, compre- hending such animals as suckle their young, being furnished with proper organs for that purpose. The second division comprises Birds. The third the Amphibia in the Linnzan sense of the word, comprising the Lizard, Tortoise, Frog, and Ser- 28 LECTURE I. pent tribes. The fourth division comprehends Fishes; the fifth Insects, and the last Worms, which latter term is to be received in a very extended signification; comprising a great multitude of Animals which, in common language, bear very different titles. With some occasional variations and transposi- tions, the Linnean distribution of animals will be that by which we shall regulate our own survey of the animal world; and we shall, of course, begin with Quadrupeds or Linnean Mammalia. ‘The old and generally received English term Quadru- ped, means, as every one knows, a four-footed animal; and it is evident that it will apply to a Lizard, a Tortoise, or a Frog, as well as to the higher order of Quadrupeds, or such as are ge- nerally called four-footed Beasts. It was therefore absolutely necessary to fix upon some term which should sufficiently distinguish the viviparous from the oviparous quadrupeds; and Linneeus according- ly instituted the expressive term JZammalia, mean- ing such animals as are furnished with organs for suckling their young. This (except in one doubt- ful instance) sufficiently distinguishes Quadrupeds ’ of the higher order, or four-footed Beasts, from the LECTURE Ii. 29 oviparous quadrupeds, which we shall find to be more properly referred to the Linnzan Amphibia. Among the Mammalia we must not be surprised . to find all the kinds of Whales arranged; it being well known that those animals nourish their young by suckling them, in the manner of other Mamma- lia; and that in the structure of their skeleton and internal parts, they resemble quadrupeds and not fishes; so that they may be considered as Mamma- lia in the disguise of Fishes. The doubtful instance which I just mentioned is exemplified in that most singular animal called the Duckbill: a native of New-Holland, and dis- covered but a very few years ago. In this animal we have the appearance of an indistinct alliance to very different tribes, since the bill or snout resem- bles that of a Duck, and, upon the strictest exa- mination that has yet been made, no appearance of teats has been discovered in the female; so that if the animal be really destitute of those organs, it cannot belong to the Linnean Mammalia, the grand or essential character of which consists in being provided with them. The general characters of the Mammalia at large are the following. 36 LECTURE II. The plan or fabric of their Skeleton, -as well as of their internal organs, bears a degree of general resemblance to that of Man. Their outward covering consists, in general, of hair; but in some few, the animal matter or sub- stance of the hair-takes the form of distinct spines or quills, as in the Porcupine and Hedgehog tribe, and in a highly curious species of Ant-Eater dis- covered in New Holland, and called the aculeated Ant-Eater, or Porcupine Ant-Eater. In other Mammalia the same substance is expanded into the appearance of very strong and broad scales, as in the quadrupeds of the genus Manis or Pangolin, which from its general appearance has obtained the improper title of the Scaly Lizard; though no other- wise allied to the Lizards; being a genuine vivi- parous quadruped, and consequently belonging to the Linnean Mammalia; and lastly, in one set of Mammalia, called Armadillos, instead of hair, which is only sparingly scattered over some parti- cular parts of the animal, we meet with strong bony zones or bands, forming a regular suit of armour, and securing the animal from all common injuries. The instruments of loco-motion, or feet, in the LECTURE fl. 3i Mammalia are generally four in number, and fur- nished with separate toes, or divisions, guarded by claws, more or less strong in the different tribes. In some, as in the Monkeys, the feet have the ap- pearance of hands; and the claws often bear a great resemblance to the human nails, for which reason these animals have sometimes been called Quadrumanes; as having four hands, rather than four feet*. In some tribes of Mammalia the feet are armed or shod with strong hoofs, either quite entire, or cloven or divided. In such of the Mam- malia as possess the power of flight, as in the Bat tribe, the fore-feet are drawn out into slender fin- gers of an immoderate length, and united by a common membrane or web. ‘In some of the aquatic Mammalia, as the Seals, for instance, both the fore and hind feet are very strongly or widely webbed; and in the Whales, there are in reality only two feet, the bones of which are inclosed in what are commonly called the fins, while the lobes of the tail in some degree answer the purpose of a pair of hind-feet, but consist merely of strong * The celebrated Cuvier in particular has adopted this name, which indeed has often been applied to such animals by many prior writers, 32 LECTURE If. muscles and tendons without any internal joints or bones. The arms, or offensive and defensive weapons of the Mammalia, besides the claws and_ teeth, (which will be afterwards particularized,) are prin- cipally the horns; inserted in various directions, and on different parts in the different tribes. ‘The horns are either perennial or annual. In the Rhi- noceros the horn is perennial, and situated on the top of the nose. In the Deer tribe the horns are annual, branched, covered while young, with a soft villous skin or coat; they grow from the tip, and become very solid and strong at their full size. In the Ox tribe, as well as in the Sheep and Goat, they are hollow, mounted on a bony core, and grow from the base. Besides the assistance which they derive from horns and claws, the Mammalia have many other modes of defence, which they occa- sionally exert; and sometimes even deter their enemies by their voice or their scent, of which we have many curious examples in the history of par- ticular animals. The Teeth in Quadrupeds or Mammalia are of three kinds. 1. Front or Cutting-Teeth, ofa broad, compressed structure, designed for cutting their ~LECTURE II. 39 food; 2. Sharp, lengthened, or canine teeth, si- tuated on each side the cuttmg-teeth, and calcu- lated for tearing and dividing the food; and lastly, Grinders, with broad, angular tops, for cemmi- nuting or grinding the food. They are situated, as in the human subject, on each side the jaws. ‘The teeth afford a principal character in forming the tribes and genera, or particular sets of Quadrupeds;, their distribution differing greatly in the different kinds. In some the canine teeth are wanting; in others the front teeth; and some few are totally destitute of any teeth. The tail in Quadrupeds is formed by a con- tinuation of the vertebrz or joints of the back-bone; and is in some of great length, and covered with very long hair: in others very short ; and in some few entirely wanting, as in the real or genuine Apes. The Senses of the Mammalia consist, as in Man, of the organs of sight, hearing, tasting, and smelling, and the power of fecling; and in many of these animals the organs are of greater acuteness or sensibility than in Man. The Eyes, in some Quadrupeds, are furnished with what is called a nictitating membrane, or semistvansparent guard, LECT. II, dD 34 LECTURE IL situated beneath the ‘eyelids, and which can at pleasure be drawn over the ball of the eye for its farther defence. The nose or organ of smelling is more or less compressed and lengthened. In the Elephant it is extended in a most wonderful man- ner into a long and tubular proboscis or trunk, at the tip of which are placed the nostrils. The tongue in Quadrupeds is usually of a flattened and lengthened shape; sometimes, as in the Cat or Lion-tribe, beset on its upper surface, with small, reversed spines. In some few, as in the Ant- Eaters, it is of a cylindric shape, and lengthened into the form of a worm, and is extensile at the pleasure of the animal. The Teats or Mamme are found in all these animals, and, as before observed, give rise to the Linnzan title of the whole class, After this general description of the Mammalia, we may proceed to take a slight view of the prin- cipal tribes or orders, and their most remarkable genera and species. Modern Naturalists have disagreed with respect to the particular methods or distributions into which they have arranged Quadrupeds. The cele- brated Count de Buffon entirely neglected all me- LECTURE II. 35 thod or system, giving his elegant, but too diffuse descriptions without any regular order of distri- bution; and having begun his natural history of Quadrupeds in this manner, he chose to continue it through the whole of his voluminous -work, ex- cept in a few instances, in which he seems to have found the necessity of being systematic even in spite of himself. Not contented with this general neglect of all arrangement in his history of Qua- drupeds, Buffon seems to have taken a pleasure in endeavouring to depreciate the merit of systematic arrangement in general, and more particularly that of Linneus. Linnezus, however, appears to have been fully conscious of his own superiority, and to have understood the policy as well as the dignity of literature too well, to exalt into cele- brity the petulant remarks of Buffon by conde- scending to answer them. He even carefully ab- stained from mentioning that author; not a single quotation from the work of Buffon making its ap- pearance in the whole course of the twelfth edition of the Systema Nature of Linneus. A defect which is very properly remedied in the pclae edition of that work by Dr. Gmelin. The whole class of Mammaha is divided by 36 LECTURE IL. Linngus into seven orders. The first of these orders is entitled Primates, as containing the chiefs of the Creation. Its characters are, four front or, cutting teeth above and below; and one canine or sharpened-tooth on each side these. The feet are formed with a resemblance of hands, and the nails are more or less ovate in shape. Most of the order feed chiefly on vegetable substances. | In a merely zoological view, the Human kind stands at the head of this order, forming the Linnean genus Homo. Of the human species it can only be necessary here to observe, that it is strongly allied in the general structure of the body to a race of animals by no means calculated for flatter- ing us by the resemblance. The leading characters of the genus Simia, comprehending the whole race of Apes, Baboons, and Monkeys, are, that the teeth have the same disposition and general form as the Human teeth ; i.e. that there are four flattish front teeth both above and below, a sharpened or canine tooth at some distance on each side these, and several grinders beyond: the feet also have a general re- semblance to hands, and in most species are fur- nished with nails rather than claws. af hearsley Fleet Street. “6. 1808 Oct'sZLondon Publifhd b LECTURE II. 37 This numerous race, oe of the ti ee ..., : The chief of been often studi a nearer appre kind than any a degree of im animal world ; ) ) tions might be. . who given its natural his | iv p Oran Otan are] and of a blac East Indies, and of others by tyrus. The spec proach to the human ie or reddish Oran Otan z EE Bivens i in the works of Vosmaer and Audebert. Hy It is also figured by Edwards. The general fault of the mi 38 LECTURE IL. a N common figures of these animals is, that the artists repre ith as if furnished with human lips ‘ hich, as before observed, been long ago very brated work of Dr. strikingly allied to r animal, the face height has baa 2 dt t of twe Wey, bt it appears > that ut both: sp ecies at t their full length may Ls ferior to the human sta- cies, if we may rely llers, has been known se animals, in a state t of captivity a xe and void of ip, disgusting £ pa so remark: y of th he large ani- iieicn actions, and the feats of de which they have been celebrated ie been so often re- peated in various works of mteital Atbay, that they must be familianly iiown. to. all persons of soot’. AAT O-AAAO ADA TE Yj i) } ih {) OA i SITU THAN BLACK ORAN-= OTAN. f-om Tyson. 4tho0, Tun¥1 London, Pubtyna by 6. Kearsley, Fleet Street: LECTURE II. 39 reading; and it must be quite unnecessary to re- cite them to an audience like the present. ‘Those who may wish to examine their history more mi- nutely, must be referred to the works of Buffon, Camper, Vosmaer, Daubenton, and Cuvier. Convinced by the luminous observations: of these latter enquirers, relative to the anatomy of these singular animals, we shall find that there are essential differences, even between their bodily structure and that of the human race; and shall readily dismiss all apprehensions of being too nearly allied to animals, which have, by unin- formed philosophers, been held up as the rivals of Mankind. From the observations of Camper and Cuvier, it is evident that these animals are in reality cal- culated for running and climbing in the manner of most other quadrupeds, and not for walking up- right, as they are generally represented. It is however true, that they can more readily assume that position than most other quadrupeds, and may no doubt have been sometimes seen in such a posture in their native woods. Like the rest of the genuime Apes, the Oran Otans are perfectly destitute of a tail. 40 -LECTURE TI. The manner of both the species of Oran Otan, viz. the black' and the chesnut-coloured, are repre- sented as extremely gentle when in a state of cap- tivity. Dr. Tyson, who about the close of the 17th century gave a description of a young Oran Otan of the black species,*assures us that it was (to use his own expressions) “ the most gentle and. loving creature that could be. Those on ship- board that he knew, he would embrace with the greatest tenderness, and, as I was informed, al- though there were other Monkies on board, yet it was observed that he would never associate, and, as if nothing akin to them, would always avoid their company.” Mr. Vosmaer’s account of the manners of a chesnut-coloured Oran Otan, brought into Holland in the year 1776, and presented to the Prince of Orange’s Menagerie, is so curious, that I shall repeat it from his accurate publication on that. subject. This animal, says Mr. Vosmaer, was in height about two Rhenish feet and a half. It shewed no symptoms of fierceness or malignity, and was even of a melancholy appearance. It was fond of being in company, and shewed ‘a preference to LECTURE I. 4l those who took daily care of it, of which it seemed to be very sensible. Often, when they retired, it would throw itself on the ground as if in despair, uttering lamentable cries. Its keeper haying been accustomed sometimes to sit near it on the ground, it would take the hay of its bed, and spread it in the form of a cushion or a seat, and by every de- monstration inyite its keeper to sit with it. Its usual manner of walking was on all fours, but it could also walk on its two hind feet. One morn- ing it got unchained, and we beheld it, with won- derful agility, ascend the beams and rafters of the building: it was not without some trouble that it was taken, and we then remarked the prodigious strength of the animal; the assistance of four men being necessary, in order to hold it in such a man- ner as to be properly secured. During its state of liberty, it had, among other things, taken the cork from a bottle of Malaga wine, which it drank to the last drop, and had set the bottle in its place again. When presented with strawberries on a plate, of which it was extremely fond, it was very amusing to see it take them up one by one with a fork, and put them into its mouth. Its common drink was water, but it also willingly drank all 42 . LECTURE Iv sorts of wine, but preenedd Malaga. After cating it ae “— its mou . mer. Eis animale ‘anata when the ani : native of India, and grows to the height of a bout three feet. It is remarkable for having been once placed by Linnzus, in one of the earlier editions of the Systema Nature, under the genus Homo, having been considered at that time as being still wish a vi story*. ng-armed pyat differs from tl aia = fine we plates of "i ww Ve . P r 5 dla! lal Hs ; Homo Nocturnus, which was evidently no other than Otan, indistinctly described, with various circumsta vation, from certain voyages and travels. ‘ BBON WHITE LONG-ARMED GIBBON * Ib LACTK OS G ARM. 1259 Dat’, Tas Pibht lh Av lhvarclew Flee Sleeet SIMIA HAMADRYAS q iy 4 f Wy) Ht Wy } Wi DOG-FACED BABOON. Fieath. - 2 vdp 2f00Feba London Publghna by CRearsley Fleet Soeet LECTURE II. 43 ceding in being entirely white, except the face and hands: it is the Szmia Moloch of Audebert. Of this animal, an admirable specimen exists in the Leverian Museum, and is well represented in the second Pa the work entitled Museum Leverianum. It is amggpible to oo the very 1 mi lengtis rin the different species. — remar able i is the Simia Hamadryas of Linnzus, or Grey Baboon. It is of an elegant grey colour, with the hair thickly mottled or freckled with mi- nute dusky specks. As a species, it is particularly distinguished by the excessive leneth and fulness One of the most 44 LECTURE II. of the hair on each side the head, which flows over the shoulders im such a manner as to form a kind of mantle. It is a native of many parts of Africa, and, like most other Baboons, is of a ferocious dis- bee x position. — Ina siate of nature it feeds entirely on fruits ail rain ; and is said to commit great,ha- voc m plant tations of various kinds. This Baboon was one of t the. sacred animals of the ancient Egyp- tians, and frequently appears among the hierogly- phies inseribed on the ancient sarcophagi and obelisks of that country. It is also one of those species which are furnished with a tail of moderate length. : i Among the Baboons aith very short tails, the most remarkable 1 is ‘the 8; Mormon, or variegated Baboon; finely represented i in the first number af the Museum Leverianum. It i is of an olive-brown colour, with a cast of yellow, and thickly be- sprinkled with small black “specks. The whole length of the nose, im the full-grown animal, is of a vivid red, and the cheeks of a bright blue, marked on each side by several deep furrows: round the lower part of the body, the skin is of a beautiful changeable violet-colour, shaded with red. Like the former, it is.a native of various parts of Africa. Y i ny He Nit aN S i Aas ANAM ‘ ‘i \\ sj fr aN HAH NNN i ti OLD me Hit NANCE xi \\ Hl Yip NH HA ifs di VARIEGATED BABOON, 1600 Scrt1. London Publifhd by 6. Kearsley, Fleet Str-éet. NS = COAITAce SPIDER MONKEY 2608 Oct London Publijhid by Glicarstey Fleet Strect. yg S. Sabea of Linne LECTURE IL. 45 be 2 . . > . _ There is a smaller species, resembling this m every respect except size, and in having the face less brilliantly coloured It is the S. Maimon of Lin- neeus, and is often considered as a variety of the former, but Among the with very long t eems to be truly distinct. | ed, or those monkey, or | = ample. Its colour is a dat ? parts of the body the tail long and bl: I must not o keys, particular] with what itail; that part being so Gc he power of strongly coiling round any ct at pleasure, and thus ¢ of a fifth hand: the un monkeys, is general y be ; and lined wi: Me very strong elastic skin. To those who wishito 1 the several species of ail I aie recommen 46 LECTURE It. scribed. Several good figures may also be found — in the magnificent work of Audebert, though many bad ones may also be there found. It may be added, that from indistinct or transient yiews of some of the larger kind of Apes and Baboons, must have originated the ancient idea of Satyrs, as the smaller kind of Apes gave rise to that of Pygmies. The next natural genus, or assortment of the Order Primates, is that of Lemur or Macauco, It consists of a set of animals, allied to the mon- keys in some degree, but of a much more elegant appearance. The particular character of the genus Lemur consists in the disposition of the teeth, which re- semble those of Monkeys, but the lower front teeth are stretched out or forwards; and the canine ~ teeth are placed close to them. As a secondary character, it may be observed, that the feet are formed like hands, and that the index or seeond finger of the hind feet is often furnished with a sharp lengthened claw. The genus Lemur, like that of Simia, feeds chiefly on vegetables; though some species are also observed to be carni- vyorous, AO fi tijy =? 2 astgate sculp. SLOW. LEMUR 1008 OctsLondon Publifrid by Chearsley fleet Street. . LECTURE II. 1 ER Of this genus, some are totally « d tail, ¥ phale others I rave that part of illess kind is the I - that it has bee 3 though not at all alli he respect to the Sloths properly so cal Another and somewha Her species of Lemur, derness of its limbs. ral is said to be naturally ra- ther a quick and lively animal than slow in its motions, often brought o ove en = dered domestic ie en ee 48 LECTURE If. cauco, differs in being of a brown colour without variegation ; in some, rufous on the breast, and white beneath. The two genera of Simia and Lemur may be said to constitute the real or proper Primates : Linneus, however, as is well known, places in this order the genus Vespertilio or Bat; an association which at first appears incongruous, but which is justified by a consideration of many particulars in the structure of those animals; though not appa- rent at first view; nor will the transition from the genus Lemur to Vespertilio appear too abrupt, if we consider, that in the Linnean genus Lemur once stood a very curious animal, allied in many points to the rest of that tribe, but so different in others, that it is now, by the common consent of Zoolo- gists, removed from it, and allowed to constitute a distinct genus. It is the Colugo, formerly called the Flying Lemur; the Galeopithecus of Pallas, a large animal, measuring about three feet in length, or from head to the extremity of the tail, and is furnished with expanded lateral membranes, when fully extended, measurmg nearly as much: these membranes are not naked, as in the bats, but covered with a furry skin, like the rest of the = 7% ee Sate VAS Was SE Qs SS Lafigute wculp COLUGO or FLYING LEMUR 2808 Oct’ London Publifhd by Ciitarsley Flcet Sircel. LECTURE II. 49 body, and reaching to the feet themselves, and are continued from the hind-feet to the tip of the tail, which is ineluded in the same skin*. This curious quadruped, which has often been indistinctly de- scribed by Indian travellers, under the title of the Flying Cat, isa native of the East Indian islands, where it lives in the manner of the genus Lemur, but flutters about during the night in the manner of a bat. Its general coiour is grey, witha slight “east of reddish brown. Specimens are figured in the work of Audebert, from the museum of the Prince of Orange. That figured in the work of Mr. Pennant is from the Leverian museum. This animal therefore may, at present, lead us, by a kind of natural transition, to the genus Vespertilio or Bat. Linnazus has heen sometimes severely censured for placing the Bats in the same tribe with the Primates, to which, on a cursory view, they seem se little allied. As it is certain, however, that we cannotdform a fairly connected chain of the animal world, these seemingly abrupt transitions are but - * Its particular characters are: no front-teeth in the upper-jaw; but in the lower six broad, short, and distinct or separate ieeth, deeply notched or pectinated on the tips. EBCT. I. | E 50 LECTURE IL. of small consequence in an arrangement of Qua- drupeds. I may add, in the words of an inge- nious French writer, “ so easy is it for a person con- -versant in subjects of this nature to ring changes, as it were, on the animal world, that a new system of Quadrupeds might be composed in less than half an hour.” Without enquiring, therefore, whether the Lin- nean arrangement be in all points the best and most natural, it may perhaps, with some variations, be considered as the most convenient. The genus Vespertilio, or Bat, is characterized by having, in general, small, upright, numerous, sharp-pointed teeth; and the fingers or divisions of the fore-feet are stretched out to a great length, and connected by a thin, naked membrane, giving the animal the power of flight. With respect to the teeth, however, in this genus, I must observe that they differ so much in the different kinds or spe- cies, that several distinct genera might be formed, instead of one, if an exact regard were paid to the particular disposition of the teeth in the various tribes. Some of the French naturalists have pur- sued this plan, and have instituted several genera from the single Linnzean genus Vespertilio. 1? Y Wn. Li Wi i WW) YY fy, a ih / VAMPYRE BAT wz Ovo attitudes 1808 OctiLonton Publifrd bv Ciearsley Fleet Street. LECTURE II. 51 The curious structure of the wings in the Bat tribe cannot be contemplated without admiration; being so formed as to be capable, from their thia- ness, of being contracted at pleasure into innu- merable wrinkles, so as to lie in a very small space when the animal is at rest, and to be stretched into a wide expanse for occasional flight. The common Bats of our own country, how- ever really curious, sink inte insignificant objects compared to the enormous species found in some parts of India, Africa, and South America. Of these the chief is a species, long celebrated under the name of the Vampyre Bat: it is the Vesper- tilio Vampyrus of Linneus, and its extraordinary history, if trwe, may well be said to deserve par- ticular attention. The body of this animal is twice the size of assquirrel,.or even larger, and the extent of the wings often measures at least five feet*: the colour of the body is a dusky brown, the head, neck, and shoulders of a reddish-brown: the wings black, as in the common bat. This species preys chiefly on insects and fruits; but it * Sir Hans Sloane, as appears by his catalogue, preserved in the British Museum, was in possession of a specimen measuring seven feet. ‘This is the largest I eyer remember to have heard of, and was brought from Sumatra. 52 ! LECTURE IL. is pretended that it has the power of inserting the tip of its tongue so dexterously into the vein of a sleeping person, as to draw away a considerable quantity of blood, without waking the patient; all the while fanning with its wings, and agitating — the air, im those hot climates, in so pleasing a manner, as to fling the sufferer into a still sounder ~ sleep. It is therefore said to be unsafe for any person either to sleep in the open air, in regions frequented by these animals, or to sleep in a chamber with an open window. The cattle in many parts of South America are said to be often destroyed by these bats. The tongue of the Vam- pyre bat, when accurately examined, is found to be covered with very numerous, small, sharp prickles; but, except these, as the Count de Buffon observes, there seems to be nothing very par- ticular in its structure, which can enable the animal to exert this singular power of bleeding without causing pain. It is, however, on account of this quality that Linnzeus has denominated the species Vespertilio Vampyrus; but as he has given no explanation of the name, it is probable that the reason may not be generally known, A Vampyre is an imaginary monster, or spirit, sup- posed to suck the blood of sleeping persons. It “) LECTURE II 53 also alludes to one of the most absurd and de- grading superstitions that ever entered the human mind. About the year 1732, an idea prevailed in some parts of Poland and Hungary, that certain human bodies, after interment, became possessed of a power of extracting or absorbing blood from those who were so unfortunate as to pass over, or stand near their graves: such bodies were said to be possessed by Vampyres, and in order to put a stop to their pernicious power, it was supposed necessary to disinter them, and wound them with -asword. Astonishing as this folly may appear, it is yet more astonishing to find that a great many learned treatises were written on the subject, and that while some endeavoured to combat the ab- ‘surdity upon all the principles of sound philosophy, others defended it, from what they called un- doubted facts. In the Bibliotheca Anatomica of the learned Haller may be found a list of most of the publications on this subject, and whoever reads that entertairting work of the late Lord Orford, entitled Reminiscences*, will be fully con- % In this work we are informed by his lordship, that a very exalted personage, in the time of his father, was perfectly con- / 154 ; LECTURE It. -vinced that this superstition was by no means con- fined to the vulgar. We see, therefore, the pro- priety of the Linnean name Vampyre or Blood- Sucker applied to this kind of Bat. — It is also to be observed, that. the propensity . to sucking the blood of animals is not im reality confined to. the Vampyre bats, but is practised by many other species; and even the common bats of Europe are said to possess a similar faculty. Some of the large animals of this genus are well represented in the superb work of Seba, entitled Thesaurus rerum Naturalium, and are repeated, en a smaller scale, in Schreber’s work on the Mammalia. Bats are animals that lie torpid during the winter months; sometimes concealing themselves singly in any convenient cavity, and sometimes hanging together in clusters under rocks, in ca- verns, and sheltered places. When thus taken, in a torpid state, the circulation of the blood is not to be perceived by the microscope in the vessels of the membrane of the wings; but on the vinced of the existence of these beings, and expressed high dis- pleasure against Sir Robert Walpole for speaking irreverently of Vampyres. LECTURE II. 58 application of a certain degree of heat, the animal gradually recovers from its torpor, and the.circu- lation of the blood becomes visible. The ‘general appearance of the Bat, together with its nocturnal flight, must be confessed to excite the idea of something hideous and dismal; and for this reason the ancients consecrated it to Proserpine, and supposed it to be one of the inha- bitants of her dusky regions: and it cannot fail to occur to the recollection of every one, that painters, in their representations of: fiends and demons, usually exhibit them with the leathern wings of the Bat. It is also equally evident, that the fabulous Harpies of the ancients must have originated from a similar source; the larger Bats of india and Africa, by a little poetical exaggera- tion of their manners, answering extremely well to the general description of those monsters. I know not whether it may be worth while to mention the celebrated experiments of Spallan- zani, respecting a supposed additional sense or faculty in Bats, enabling them, when deprived of sight, to avoid any obstacles as readily as when they retained their power of vision. These expe- riments are cruel, and perhaps do not lead to 56 | LECTURE IL. any very important discoveries in the animal ceco- nomy: nevertheless, that I may not seem entirely to neglect a phenomenon which has been thought worthy of attention by several eminent experi- mentalists, I shall here give a short abstract of Spallanzani’s observations. Having observed that Bats would fly in the most dusky chambers with precision, and not even touch the walls, he found them equally exact in their motions when the eyes were closely covered: and at length he destroyed the eyes, and covered the socket with leather; and even in this state the animal continued to fly with the same precision as before; avoiding the walls, and cautiously sus- pending its flight in seeking where to perch... It even flies out at a door without touching the archi- traves. The Abbé repeated his experiments on several species of Bats; and with the same suc- cess. These experiments were repeated by Vas- salli at Turin, by Rossi at Pisa, Spadon at Bologna, and Jurinat Geneva. Spallanzani’s arguments for supposing that in these instances no other sense can supply the place of sight, ‘are the following. “ Touch cannot, in this case, supply the place of sight, because an animal covered with hair LECTURE II. (1 eannot be supposed to have that sense very deli- eate. In flying through the middle of a narrow passage which turned at right angles, the Bats regularly bent their flight at the curvature, though two feet distant from the walls. They discovered holes for their retreat; found a resting-place on the cornice; avoided the branches of trees sus- pended in a room; flew through threads hung perpendicularly from the ceiling, without touching them, though they were scarcely at a greater distance from each other than that of their ex- tended wings; and when the threads were brought nearer, they contracted their wings to pass through them. ‘They equally avoided every obstacle, though the whole head was covered with a varnish made of Sandarach dissolved in spirit of wine. “The ear could not have discovered a cor- nice, or the threads; this sense therefore does not compensate the want of vision. Besides, Bats fly equally well when the ear is most carefully ‘covered. The smell might possibly assist them; for when the nose was stopped, they breathed with difficulty, and soon fell. While they did fly, however, they avoided. obstacles very well; and the smell could scarcely have assisted them in dis- 58 LECTURE II. covering the suspended threads. The ¢aste must . have been, in every respect, unequal to the task of supplying the place of sight.” — Such were the experiments, and such the con- clusions of Spallanzani. From Mr. Jurin’s anatomical observations on these animals, it appears, that a very large pro- portion of nerves is expanded on the upper jaw, the muzzle, and the organ of hearing; and these appeared to him, in a great degree, to accoynt for the extraordinary faculty above described. I shail conclude the history of these animals by observing, that they are commonly supposed to produce two young at a birth, which they suckle for a very considerable time. When. re- cently born, they adhere most tenaciously to the breast of the parent, so as not to be removed withont difficulty. The parent also occasionally flies, with her two young ones thus attached to her, even when they are considerably advanced in their growth. We have now surveyed the Linnean Order Primates, and shall pass on to that entitled Bruta, a title not easy rendered into our own language, since the word Brute is applicable to the rest of LECTURE | If: 59 the Mammalia, as well as to these. We must therefore be content to use the Linnean word unchanged. The Order Bruta is characterized by a want of front or cutting teeth, both in the upper and lower jaw. ‘The feet are armed with strong claws: their pace is, in general, somewhat slow, and their food is principally vegetable. In the rapid and general survey which the term allotted for our lectures permits us to take of the animal world, we can only mention the chief or leading particulars in each order. The genera which should properly compose the Linnzean order Bruta are those of Bradypus or Sloth; Dasypus or Armadillo ; Manis or Pangolin; and Mi ‘yrmecophaga or Ant-Eater; and lastly, the new or lately dis- covered genus Platypus, Ornithorynchus, or Duck- bill. All the animals belonging to these genera are totally destitute of front-teeth, and some are destitute of all teeth*. * Linnzus himself preferred the Elephant to the order Bruta, but it seems to’ be the general opinion of later Zoologists that it should more properly be referred to a different order. The same may be said of some other quadrupeds sometimes stationed by authors among the Bruta of the Linnean arrangement, LECTURE If. =) The genus Bradypus or Sloth is highly rema ke , able. It consists of but very few species, of wh the most curious is the three-toed Sloth, or Bre 7 pus tridactylus of Linneus. This quadruped ' native of the hotter parts of S South America, wh it resides on trees, feeding on the foliage an It is of all quadrupeds the slov P appearing even to move Wi never exerting its progressiv when urged by a want of fo covery of the western hemis Tortoise seems to have been Pin a i ae AY . €Xaggeration; it i ie that the creature ed uld sc arcely advance distance of a stoneethrow in ies than fifte ip Mie that it Shere or nine P The ‘gen neral tag 7 uncouth aes 5) HLOTS GHOL Aaa, iw ) ay 2) al, de ft fay AW, Sa { cole: Had bh \WS yyy Bl. Sy a DD y Ge aly ) 2% anal "i Wye pape Pesci f it if Nth ane i) Doi ww! 5 a: Lis llc anit SB Ny a ean Spi { TR ae re } hun hy : spss a Vy, > pag WIS Ay PUL 4 ( ) qa ‘ LECTURE IU. oL dog: the body is of a thick shape, the fore-legs very lone; the hinder far shorter: the feet are very small, but they are each armed with three mest excessively strong and large claws, of a slightly eurved form, and sharp-pointed: the head is small: the face short, with a rounded or blunt snout: the eyes small, black, and round: the ears flat, reund- ed, iying close to the head, and not ill resembling those of Monkeys. ‘The general colour of the animal is a greyish brown, and the hair is éxtreme- ly coarse, moderately long, and very thickly covers the whole body andlimbs. A remarkable character as to colour in this animal is a broad patch on the upper part of the back of a reddish or yellowish brown, marked on each side by several biack spots, and down the middle by a very conspi- cuous long black stripe. In the young animals — this stripe is but very obscurely, if at all, visible. The leading or specific character of the animal consists in ail the feet being furnished with three claws; which affords an casy and ready mark of distinction between this species and the two-toed Sloth or Bradypus didactylus, which is of similar size, and considerably allied to it in form, but has 62 LECTURE II. invariably two claws only on the fore-feet, and three on the hind*. The Count de Buffon, in one of those flights of paradoxical eloquence in which he sometimes in- dulges, is not willing to allow the common or three-toed Sloth any share in contributing to the general beauty in the scale of animated nature, but considers it as an ill-constructed mass of de- formity, calculated only for misery, which he thinks is the less to be wondered at, since perhaps the major part of Mankind experience a similar fate. “ From a defect in their conformation, says this author, the misery of these animals is not less con- spicuous than their slowness: they have no cutting- teeth: the eyes are obscured with hair; the chaps are heavy and thick; the hair is flat, and resembles withered herbs; the thighs are ill jointed to the hanches; the legs are too short, ill turned, and ter- minated still worse: their feet have no soles, and no toes which move separately, but only two * The three-toed Sloth exhibits a peculiarity in the structure of its skeleton, unexampled by that of any other quadruped: viz, that the neck has nine vertebre or bones; the number in all other quadrupeds, and even in the two-toed Sloth, being only seven. LECTURE II. ; 65 or three claws disproportionately long, and bent downwards, which move together, and are more hurtful to their walking than advantageous in as- sisting them to climb. Slowness, habitual pain, and stupidity are the results of this strange and bungled conformation. The Sloths have no wea- pons either offensive or defensive. ‘They are fur- nished with no means of safety; for they can neither run, nor dig into the earth. Confined to a small space, or to the tree under which they are brought forth, they are prisoners in the midst of space, and cannot moye the length of one fathom in an hour. They drag themselves up a tree with much labour and pain; their cry, and interrupted accents, they dare only utter in the night: all these circum- stances announce the misery of the Sloths, and recal to our minds those defective monsters, those im- perfect sketches of Nature, which, being hardly endowed with faculties of existence, could not sub- sist for any length of time, and have accordingly been struck out of the list of beings. If the regions inhabited by the Sloths were not desert, but had been occupied for any length of time by Man and the larger animals, these creatures would never have descended to our times; but would have been anni- G4 LECTURE H. hilated, as in some future period will be the case. Every thing that Nature could possibly produce, capable of existence, has been produced, of which the Sloths are a striking example. They constitute the last term of existence in the order of animals endowed with flesh and: blood: one other defect added to the number would have totally prevented their existence. To regard these bungled sketches as beings equally perfect with others; to call in the aid of final causes to account for such dispropor- tioned productions, and to make Nature as brilliant in these as in her most beautiful animals, is to view her through a narrow tube, and to substitute our own fancies for her intentions. Why should not some animals be created for misery, since in the human species the greatest number of individuals are devoted to pain from the moment of their ex- istence ? Evil, it is true, proceeds more from our- selves than from Nature. Fora single person who is unhappy because born feeble or deformed, there are millions who are rendered miserable by the oppression of their superiors. ‘The inferior ani- mals, m general, are more happy, because the species have nothing to fear from individuals: to them there is but one source of evil: to Man there LECTURE 1, 65 are two; Moral Evil,.of which he is himself the . fountain, has accumulated into an immense ocean, which covers and afflicts the whole surface of the earth. Physical evil, on the contrary, is restrained within very narrow bounds: it seldom appears alone; for it is always accompanied with an equal, if not a superior good. Can happiness be denied to animals, when they enjoy freedom; have the faculty of procuring subsistence with ease, and pos- sess more health and organs capable of affording more pleasure than those of the human species? Now the generality of animals are most liberally endowed with all these sources of enjoyment. ‘The degraded Sloths are perhaps the only animals to whom Nature has been unkind, and which exhibit to us the picture of innate misery.” In opposition however to this eloquent ha- rangue, We may venture to suppose, without any fear of being in the wrong, that the Sloth, notwith- standing this appearance of wretchedness and de- formity, is as well fashioned for its proper modes and habits of life, and feels as much pleasure in its solitary and opscure retreats, as the rest of the animal world, of greater locomotive powers, and superior external elegance. LECT. Il. F 66 LECTURE I: I should add, that although the Sloths are na- tives of South America, yet it is contended by Seba and some others that the two-toed species has been found in some parts of the East-Indies, and particularly in the island of Ceylon. A few years ago a very remarkable animal was brought into this country from the interior parts of Bengal, which by Mr. Pennant and others was referred to the present genus, and considered as a species of Sloth. Its general appearance however was so much allied to that of a Bear, that it was natural enough, at first sight to sup- pose it to belong to the genus Ursus. It was in company with Mr. Pennant that I first examined it with accuracy, and could not but agree with him in opinion that it should be regarded as a species of Sloth, from the appearance of the teeth. But the age of the animal was not ascertained, and it was not clear that it had gained the legitimate number of its teeth. It was described by myself under the name of Bradypus ursinus or the Ursine Sloth, and has been extremely well figured by an ingenious artist, whose representation has been re- peated in different works. The animal was about the size of a Bear, and of a black colour, with very LECTURE II. 67 long shaggy hair; a lengthened, naked, and flexible snout; five excessively strong, curved claws on the fore-feet, and five much smaller, and of a rounder shape, on the hind feet ; the tail and ears very short. Its motions were not peculiarly languid, as in the Sloths, but moderately lively: its manners were gentle, and it fed on vegetable substances and milk. I forbear any longer description of the ani- mal, and must refer those who wish for more par- ticular information, to the description given in the Naturalist’s Miscellany, and in last Edition of Mr. Pennant’s Quadrupeds; but I have now to observe that in consequence of information received on this subject from an ingenious naturalist lately arrived from India, and who has had opportunities of examining the animal in its native regions, it ought really to be referred to the genus Ursus or Bear, and may therefore not improperly be named Ursus Bengalensis or the Bengal Bear*. To the genus Bradypus or Sloth is allied, ac- cording to the ingenious Cuvier, the celebrated * In the Leverian Museum, the impending dispersion of which must be considered as an unspeakable disadvantage to the study of Natural History in this Country, may be seen a very fine specimen _ of this remarkable animal. - escribed ers, ac- as dered apart, also differs from the correspond- Pal lied to the Sloths than to any othes —_ nie m . The skeleton measures near Me feet. ede th, and six in height. 33% e ¥ TCM prer Me. Meas | “skeletor of a large quad dug up ‘é few years ago aw Americ ; preserved hof its bones, ¥y Bynes-o al known animals; but it appears — 4 ah OTR A A ets ~ sewers MIEGATURRIUM. AMERICANUM » 00LO* 1 Publynd by Citearstey, Fleck Saect, 69 LECTURE III. IN the preceding Lecture, I repeated the cele- brated harangue of the Count de Buffon, relative to the supposed misery of the Quadrupeds called Sloths, and concluded with a slight account of a supposed Indian species, and of a remarkable fossil skeleton, seemingly allied to the same genus. I shall now proceed to the remaining animals of this order, all of which are distinguished by the total want of front teeth, and some are totally _ destitute of any teeth. One of the most remarkable of these Genera of Quadrupeds is that of Dasypus, or Arma- dillo. This genus is readily distinguished from all others, since all the species belonging to it are by nature furnished with a most elegant suit of bony armour, so curiously disposed, that it is im- possible to behold it without the highest admira- eA a 4 | oltre PE an alle aa! | Resa Fria, 70 CSET tion. — The long 20) upper past of th different species charactor of di South Ame rocky places night, ace : grain: they als FY a pee y innocent cand inoffensive natu LD i) oe — armour i coded, with a NORD UCPUOT YA POL Pu): 9 “9 PPADS’ 2D. LAO BO ONTIENG °O WOW TACHDY CUSICLNY' MANIS TETRADACTYLA or Li ong tailed LPangolin MANIS PENTADACTYLA or short tailed Fangoln 2808 Octi London Lublifhd by Giicarstley Fleet Street. re —_— LECTURE II. 7” thin, semitransparent epidermis or skin, beneath which the bony crust itself is white. When the Armadillos are attacked by other animals, they {sth C x era _ cm - ies —* te nature. ‘ Vee The genus Vitlegs or Pangolin, i is Ries sraernaiotl by an appearance so far removed from that of the generality of viviparous quadrupeds, that, at first view, it rather suggests the idea of an animal of the Lizard tribes and hence these quadrupeds have been mah the improper satle of Seale Lizard a. h is lengt ene the totfene is very ons round, oth ‘pal e of being extended at pleasure, toa great length, and. instead of hair, the animal is coated on all parts, except on the belly, by extremely ry vlad: large scales, composing a suit of armour, Pe pable of defending the creature, when rolled up, from the assaults of the most ferocious enemies. ‘The Pan- 12 LECTURE IIi. golins are of a harmless nature, and are chiefly found in various parts of India and the Indian islands: they feed on the smaller kinds of insects, and particularly on ants, which they obtain by stretching out their long worm-shaped tongue amidst heaps of those insects, and when covered with them, suddenly retracting it, and swallowing them. There seem to be only two or three distinct species known,’ with some occasional varieties of each.. The principal species is the Manis pen- tadactyla of Linnzus, or the five-toed Pangolin ; distinguished by having five claws on the fore- feet, and four on the hind: the middle claws of the fore-feet being extremely large and strong. In India this animal is particularly called the Pangolin; it is said chiefly to frequent woods and marshy places, walking slowly, and when pursued, rolling itself up into the form of an oval ball; and thus becomes so strongly armed, that -even the Tiger and the Leopard cannot attack it with impunity, but wound their own feet in the assault. The colour of the five-toed Pangolin is a pale, yellowish brown; besides the character of five claws on the fore-feet, the tail, in this species, is ay R. q A GREAT ANT-K ATE 100. Feb!1L ondonLubuifha by G.Kearsley, FleetStreet. LECTURE UL 13 shorter than the body. four or five feet, or even more, grows to the length of The other species or four-toed Pangolin, th > M. tetradactyla of Linnzus, is very closely allied t0 the preceding, but is of a rather longer or more slender shape, with only four paws on all the f and the tail is considerably niger that the body. Its man- and its size scaly The next gen that of — uished, Tike tha : engthened into # u © ye a Yittarnaw eam) perfectly destitute: of teet 1 at the back part of th situated bail os) f (according to the observations of Camper) a pair of small bony 2 may be sup- posed to act as a kin L of grin lers: the tongue, as in the former long, round, and great distance body, except in one or two spec es ] , is covered with hair. The species | of re not nu- merous. The chief is the Great M, Jubata of Linneus, a quad ap 14 LECTURE It. siderable size and of very singular aspect, mea- suring from six to seven feet in length, from the _ tip of the snout to that of the tail; the body is of a lengthened form, with a small head, long snout, and very long hairy tail. The colour of the animal is a deep iron-grey, with a broad black band or stripe, edged with white, passing along each side of the breast and flanks ; the tail is also black: on the fore-feet are four claws, and on the hind-feet five: the two middle claws of the fore-feet being extremely strong; a circumstance which renders this quadruped, though destitute of teeth, a very formidable adversary, since it has been known to destroy animals of much greater apparent strength, by continued laceration and pressure. It is a native of South America; chiefly of Brasil and Guiana; sleeping during the greatest part of the day, and coming out by night. It feeds entirely on ants and other insects, laying its tongue on the hillocs or nests of these insects, and from time to time retracting it, in order to swallow the ants with which it is covered. The finest specimen of this animal perhaps ever brought into Europe, is preserved in the Leverian Museum. The smallest species of Ant-Eater is a highly ow el ieee 0) et RE irs i - e J eee deat Oe .: TWO.TOED ANT EATER PORCUPINE ANT EATER 1606 Oct 'zLondon Publifhd by Ghearsley Fleet Street. LECTURE Til. 15 elegant animal, scarcely eee than a squirrel, the snout » ighly ba of a tubular. rructure 5 fore feet furnish s with of oF The hind-feet r sides on . and lives on insects, and particularly | on a species of Ants, which form their nests on the trees it frequents. An excellent figure of this | species of Ant-Eater has 5 been g given by Edwards, in his ey” gi Natur ig fy} Zs a) . . \ W Wad A yy Boy 76 LECTURE Il. measures about a foot or fifteen inches in length, and is of a thick and strong form, with very short limbs, and a narrow tubular snout. It affords a striking instance of one of those collateral affinities which we had before occasion to advert to; -by which animals of different tribes have a kind of connexion with each other; in the present in-’ stance, we see an affinity between the genus Myrmecophaga in the order Bruta, and the Por- cupine, which belongs to a widely different tribe of animals, and ranks in an order called Glires. The Aculeated or Porcupine Ant-Eater, is of a black or very dark brown colour on the limbs and lower parts, while the spines or quills are of a yellowish white, with black tips. On the fore-feet are five very strong claws, and on the hind four; the tail is excessively short, and beset with large upright quills. In its mode of life this animal resembles the rest of the Ant-Eaters. It is ge- nerally found in the midst of some large ant-hill. It burrows with great strength and celerity under ground, when disturbed, and it is said that it will even burrow under a very strong pavement, re- moving the stones with its claws: during such exertions, its body is observed to be stretched or LECTURE Iii. 77 lengthened to an uncommon degree, so as to ap- pear very different from the short and plump aspect which it bears in its undisturbed state. It cannot have escaped the attention of every one, that the genera of the Pangolins and Ant- Eaters differ only in their external covering from each other; the Linnean genus Myrmecophaga ‘being covered with hair, and that of Manis with strong horny scales. In consequence therefore of the discovery of the aculeated. or porcupine Ant- Eater, it follows that the Linnean character of the genus Myrmecophaga, is in part rendered inap- plicable, since a genuine species of Ant-Eater is now discovered, which is coated, not with hair, but with strong spines or quills. We may there- fore either enlarge the Linnean character of the Ant-Eaters, by saying that the body is covered either with hair or spines, or else we may consider the aculeated Ant-Eater as constituting a new and distinct genus, of which the characters will be, a mouth of a tubular structure, and without teeth, but furnished with a long, extensile tongue, and the body covered with strong spines. I may add - that two other species have been lately discovered, 78 LECTURE Tif. somewhat smaller than the present, with shorter ney spines, and of a whitish colour. We now arrive at a genus of quadrupeds of so very extraordinary a nature, as to surpass in sin- gularity every other that has hitherto been dis- covered. This genus, which at present consists but of a single species and its supposed varieties, is distinguished by the title of Platypus or Orni- thorhynchus ; the former name having been given it on account of the very expanded webs of its fore-feet, and the latter from the appearance of the snout, which has feeresemblance of the bill of a bird. Its English generic name of Duckbsll is that by which it is commonly known. If we rank this animal according to the Linnean ar- rangement of quadrupeds, it must of necessity belong to the order Bruta, being: destitute of teeth; but if we rank it according to its general habit or appearance, it might find a place among the Seals and other web-footed quadrupeds. The fact how- ever is, that it may be questioned whether it really and properly belongs to the tribe of MZammalia or not; since no examination hitherto made, of such specimens as haye been brought over, preserved MPA ba Pep ooge "SOdALVId GuTig-wAaAC¢ SSS SSS SS ES See 20 LMG yy See SS Beak Feet gf the PLATYPUS Gf thetrNatural sexe. Ti ncith fond 7800.FebtiLondon Fublijhd by 6 Kearsley Fleet Sect, PRCEURE UR (7 yes 015 ve. ow W the Bimal could p a i ice the mouth or snow s the most Shovellers. This beak is surrounded at the base by a circular flap or border, resembling leather, and perfectly separating. the base of the bill from the fur of the head. “There are’‘no kind; and even the tubercles or proce ses, which may be perceived by dissection, on each side the base or back part of the beak, rant real teeth, having no sockets, and not being of a really bony nature. The tongue is situated very far back in the mouth, and is broad and short: the fore-feet are webbed, much ear widely in proportion than in any othe Syn also five claws, of a glishtly curved fom: “hestles which, in 2 each sixth claw" a et g the he § of a Cock: the body is of a broad, and slightly de- sn wowing 2 Te TAT Sk AsvAk West. 7 web-footed Cee and are fur- 80 LECTURE IH. pressed shape, with a rather small head, and eyes so small, and so deeply imbedded in the fur, as not to be distinctly visible without a close in- spection: the tail is broad, rather short, and very slightly pointed. The whole animal is thickly covered with strong, but soft and glossy hair, which on the upper parts is of a deep iron-grey, more or less intense in different individuals, and on the under-parts considerably paler; im some specimeus whitish. The general length of the animal, from the tip of the bill to that of the tail, is from twelve to sixteen or eighteen inches. This most extraordinary and dubious qua- druped is a native of Australasia or New Hol- land, where it inhabits fresh-water lakes, and is supposed to feed on worms, water-insects, and perhaps on various weeds, in the manner of a Duck. It is obliged to rise every now and then to the surface in order to breathe, and it is at this particular juncture that it is principally taken, by transfixing it with a small kind of harpoon. It is supposed to burrow, at a considerable depth inte the banks of the waters it inhabits. If there be no mistake in the anatomical dis- quisitions hitherto made on the Duckbill, its in LECTURE Ill. 81 ternal structure is not less extraordinary than its external; since it appears to be oviparous; presenting an appearance which gives reason for “supposing that it bears internal eggs, in the manner of many of the lizard tribe, from which the young are hatched before their final ex- clusion. This Quadruped therefore may be considered as the miracle of Modern Zoology. In the Phil. Trans. for 1802, may be found an excellent description of the anatomy of this in- teresting animal, by the ingenious Mr. Home. The order Bruta presenting several highly curious animals, we have dwelt somewhat longer upon it, than its proportional limits would other- wise have allowed us to do; and must hasten. through the remaining orders with a more rapid step. | The third Linnean Order of the Mammalia is. entitled Mere. It contains the predacious qua drupeds, and consists of several genera, all agree- ing in haying teeth evidently calculated for feeding on flesh. The front-teeth, which are usually six both above and below, approach to a conical or pointed figure; the canine-teeth are long ; and LECT, Il, G $2 LECTURE IIL. the grinders not flattened at the top, but are of a lobated and sharpened form; the claws also sonsists of the co grinder or divisions and of the hind may be added that shape. Next succeeds the genus Felis or | y Chae TSE) _ — ~~ 4 ii HH iit Yh ‘4 WU y j He Wf Wilt Uy Way iy Y WW ! i We CH ti oy Uy " | WOM 9g j fy lyf ( ull al hn, Owen seulp PANTHER £808 Ccl'r London Publifhd bs, Ciicarstey Fleet Street. LECTURE IL. 83 gerne all the Cat or Lion tribe, from the Lion, orange-colour, vith stripes. The Pant « ” four or five or sn nite one or more cen- tral spots: the Leopard extremely resembles the Panther, but is smaller, and differs in having no central spot in the circles of black spots with which the skin is covered. ‘These two animals, the Panther and the Leopard, have been very fre- naturalists : Asia, and the Lion, Parithers and | Africa ; but other spe Ad sof this genus being im P A. of them are natives \4 < JSST) Sree 84 : LECTURE III. monly called the Brasilian Tiger, about the size of a Wolf, and of a tawny colour, with the top of the back marked by long black stripes, and sides by rows of irregular lengthened spots. Many of the smaller American animals of this genus are very beautiful, and are collected and figured in the works of Schreber and others. I shall dismiss this genus by observing that the general shape of most of the species resembles that of the common Cat, which, in a wild state, is a native of many parts of Europe, and among others of our own island; being occasionally found in woods: in its natural or wild state it is far larger than the domestic kind, ana is of a grey colour, with darker stripes. The numerous varieties of the domestic Cat are well known: the variety call- ed the Angora Cat is reckoned the most elegant, and is remarkable for the fulness of its hair: it is also often seen with one eye of a bright blue, and the other yellow. All the generic characters of the whole lion tribe may be readily exemplified by an examination of the common Cat, and it is therefore unnecessary to particularize them here; we may only observe as a particular mark, that the claws are retractile, that is, sa constituted as Sch haunt EMME 3 Sent) _ mae ree eae uley STRIATED VAR; of MEPHITIC WEASEL EGYPTIAN ICHNETMON 2608 Oct London Pub ij h a by. CLearsley Fleet Street. LECTURE II. 85 to be at pleasure withdrawn into a kind of sheaths when not in use. / The succeeding genus contains a great many species, compe ee jot the s the teeth; but, 1 Sie ‘" va general iew, they may all be oC 7ep s considere ne ag eonus or sendencs tie gets oe body; with a sharpened visage, short legs, and, in most species, a longish tail; (for it is short in but afew.) The front teeth are six in number: with the middle ones shorter than the rest *. To the Weasel tribe belongs the celebrated animal called the Ichnuemon, which was so highly esteemed by the ancient Egyptians on ac- ing serpents It ha: a general re- } ao is of a brown: Baie. “The animal known ws the name , of the Polecat, (Moostela ine Ms Putorius, Lin.) may serve to give “some des of the general ap- pearance of the animals of this genus. 86 LECTURE IIr. ish-grey colour, with the hair freckled by innumer- able minute dusky specks. The snout is long and sharp, and the tail thick and full at the base, and gradually tapering to the tip. Like many other animals of this tribe it is a dangerous enemy to many creatures larger than itself, over which it gains an easy victory by fastening upon them, and sucking their blood. It is a native both of | Asia and Africa, and varies in size in the different regions. Some of the Weasel tribe are remarkable for diffusing, when disturbed or hunted, a most intoler- ably fetid small, so powerful as to taint the air to an incredible distance. If the accounts given of this odious vapor are not aggravated by those who have experienced its effects, every other ill smell which Nature is capable of producing is surpassed by the overpowering fetor of these extraordinary quadrupeds. In consequence of the dreadful ema- nation, even the dogs are said to relinquish their prey, and the men to fly with the utmost precipi- tation from the tainted spot. One of the most re- markable of these animals is the Mephitic IV easel, a North-American species, of the size of a small cat, and of a deep chocolate-brown colour, with a LECTURE III. 87 broad white stripe down the back, and a very long bushy tail of a white colour. Other animals of the Weasel tribe are equally remarkable for diffusing an odor of a highly pleas- ing kind; as the animal called the Civet-Cat for instance, which is a large viverra or Weasel, mea- suring more than three feet from the nose to the end of the tail: it is of a yellowish grey colour, marked along the sides by large blackish or dusky spots disposed into rows: the throat, breast, and legs are also black. The substance called Civet is obtained by scraping it out from time to time from a peculiar gland or cavity in which it is con- tained. When fresh, it is excessively strong, but grows milder by length of time. The remaining genera of animals belonging to the Fere or predacious tribe are the following, viz. Ursus or Bear, comprehending many species, Didelphis or Opossum, a numerous genus. Macropus or Kangaroo, a genus greatly allied to that of Opossum in some points, but differing considerably in others, and not feeding on animal food, nor in strict propriety to be ranked in this order. Talpa or Mole. geo. Ore mee _ Sarex, or Shrew ; and lastly, Hrinaceus, or Hedgehog. Of “pe a the most remarkable are those — e canine teeth are long, ‘ae on their up- ane n nediately ‘as > - Let fis. po “ig the peats al Pind whieh lie es ‘sive genus Is ing been ry (ee years fliscove ed in A Bt 7 Lh niece wt ort MBO AAI“ZIDALTY a od 2g MN Hy AN nay } WY ‘ \ \\ { iil hh AW WS 7 ar: WINS \\\ \\ \\\ KAN \ SAVY ANS WW \\ w= Wi iN WN ANY {\\\ \' \\\) ) i KY || Wald: mM (kK i) US SAC GRAN SE Se ante AES ers VIR GINIAN O P (®) S S UM, trom the Leverian Museum. Heath fi. 1800. Feb London Pubtghd by GKearsley Fleet Street. d Ficet Strect. fcarsley I bu lon Publifha iLona r 2608 Oct. LECTURE Uk | | 89 ~ wt New Holland; but the species first discovered is a native of North-America, and is said to be com- mon in Virginia in particular’. It is about the size of a Cat, with very thick fur, of a pale yel- lowish grey colour, and with a naked flesh-co- | loured tail, coated with a kind of scales like those on the tail of arat, but larger. It resides in woods, and preys principaily on birds and their eggs. Among the New Holland Opossums the Le- murine Opossum is one of the most elegant: of the size of a Cat, of a fine dark-grey colour, yellow- ish beneath; with an exquisitely soft fur, and with a face much resembling the genus Lemur; the tail is long, deeply furred, and prehensile at the tip*. A still more elegant kind of New Holland Opossum is the Petaurine Opossum, often mea- suring more than a yard in length from the nose to the tip of the tail. The Petaurine Opossum has the general appearance of a Flying Squirrel, being furnished with a broad furry membrane, from the fore to the hind-feet, by the help of which it springs * The Squirrel Opossum or Did. Sciurea is also a New-Hol- land species of great elegance: it is of the size of the Grey or American Squirrel, and is of a pale grey above and white beneath, with the tail very full of hair, and tipped with black, 90 . ‘LECTURE II. from tree to tree, and to a very considerable dis- tance: the hind-feet are furnished with thumbs, and the tail is long and thickly furred: the colour of the whole animal is a most beautiful sable or ous of all the Opossums is the Dideiph a if . 0 ela which in its — oe . 1 is similar to the Hepoona Roo, ie a C0} oa Mouse. Its colour a i ioe, white beneath, slightly flattened, with the hair small distance on each side, h length. 4 The genus ae or Kaparco, which fol- lows that of Opossum, is strongly allied to those 6 aes animals in ‘being temporary pres rm n of its young, but differs in the fronfiscctil ich ar in number in the .d ty 1 the ] ee which lower teeth are extrem mely Ie ge, long, s binrialia fag nent: : TS ae. each side, both « above and below: it also differs in its manner of | life, being wy22o090O rmeor 20 PYGMY O P O S SUM @ natural stxe. Py Li Fiz GHearsley, Fleet Strect. 1b00Fctb!1Loadon.Pubbyjnd by fe f} W GREY 1808 Oct’ iLondon Publifhid a GAea SS MW) iN or SILVE a Nas HY) A NR NK WAY SS \ ‘TD s TX hleet Sacet. WwSSS SSS ry ‘A LECTURE III. 91 orous, and in reality should not be order Ferze. It is unnecessary to . Kangaroo is one of the most curious animals discovered in first discovery of this extra- ordinary quadrupe had till then remained concealed as it w in the year 1770,. on ar e coast of New- iy" Holland which is nov South Wales. full grown, is at least equal to a wal e upper ' parts are small while the arkably large in proportion: y gance of gradation in this respec 3 roo may uresque ly short, aia die fnte are sO appear, at first sight, aes of but. aw ‘toes, of which the — middle is by far the largest, and is furnished with a claw of vast eine and what ems on a Cit on a near eae to consist of are all woes 92 LECTURE III. united under a common skin, with the respective claws placed so close to each other as to appear like a split or double claw. The Kangaroo rests on the whole length of the foot, which is callous, blackish, and granulated beneath, and bears a ge- neral resemblance to that of a bird. A popular error seems to prevail, that it never touches the ground with its fore-feet; but all who have con- templated the animal when at large, must have observed that it every now and then places the fore-feet on the ground; though its favourite atti- tude appears to be that of supporting itself, on its hind-feet, with the assistance of its tail, which is remarkably strong. This animal is observed to produce but a single young at a birth, which it carries for a great length of time in its ventral pouch, and which frequently emerges in quest of food or exercise, and again returns on the least alarm. Of the Kangaroo there seem to be differ- ent races or varieties, or perhaps even distinct species, the exact discrimination of which yet ree mains to be investigated. The common kind is of a pale brown colour; but some are of a dark iron-grey, and others of a very fine whitish or blueish grey. » Ze. * WNIT ADAG dd NOWIALO ») itis. bute ig forr nished LECTURE III. 93 get he , ) at : canine teeth, ith: grin ders hes ach side. The Bt assortment or that of Hystriv or Porcupine, which, exclusive of GZ fd! hi, i nde of the Glires is the teeth, such as just mentioned, is. distinguished, as every one knows, by the extraordinary covering of its body, which is beset, all over the upper parts, LOPE LOCH] 94 LECTURE It, with very long, strong, and sharp spines or quills, elegantly variegated with alternate zones of black and white. The common Porcupine, which is about the size of a small dog, is a native of many of the warmer regions of Asia and Africa, and even of some of the warmer parts of Europe. It is an animal of a harmless nature; feeding en- tirely on vegetable substances, as roots, barks of trees, and fruits. It inhabits subterraneous re- treats, which it is said to form into several com- partments or divisions, leaving only a single hole for entrance. It seems to admit of several va- rieties as to size, and length of its quills, and is distinguished, as a species, by having the upper ~ part of the head crested as it were by long bristles. It would be a waste of time to particularize the long-continuéd error (for such it, in a great degree, is), of the Porcupine possessing the power of darting its quills at pleasure, with great vio- lence, and to a considerable distance, at its ene- mies: this notion seems now pretty generally ex- ploded, and perhaps might have originated from some accidental circumstances ; for the Porcupine, like most other quadrupeds, having the power of LECTURE Il. 95 contracting and shaking the general skin of the body, may sometimes, by this motion, cast off a few of its looser quills to some distance, and thus .even slightly wound any animal that may happer - to stand in its way; and this may have given rise to the popular idea of its darting them at pleasure against its enemies. The poet Claudian, it is well known, has availed himself of this notion, and has represented the Porcupine in the usual stile of false wit so re- markable among the minor poets. “© Ecce, brevis propriis munitur bestia telis, Externam nec querit opem, fert omnia secum, Se pharetra, sese jaculo, sese utitur arcu !” «« Arm’d at all points in Nature’s guardian mail, See the stout Porcupine his foes assail ; And, urged to fight, the ready weapons throw, % Himself at once the quiver, dart, and bow.” There are several different species of Por- cupine, one of the most remarkable of which is: called the Canada Porcupine. It is of the size of a: small or half-grown Beaver, and has, at first sight, so little of the appearance of a Porcupine, that it would hardly be supposed by any common: LEO RUBE EM, spectator to belong to the same genus; the fur; which is extremely full, and of a dus sky. brown colour, being much longer ae the Plime from them in oe ire. at , Which are perfectly th those of th Sg; the Ctigst is that of Castor or racterized by the very strong pair of « cating teeth in each jaw, and, more strikingly, by the very singular structure of the tail, which is large, of a pegs P22 T MDPAYY SY CPUSNINE UIPUO'T, AT UDI TOGT 2 \ \ \\ \\ \K AN\\Y \ NN\\ \N AN SUMAAV ALG NO WIAOD LECTURE IV. 97 flattened oval form, and covered with large scales. The general length of the Beaver is about three feet, and its colour a fine, deep, chesnut-brown. The use of its fur is too well known to require particular mention, but it is to be observed that it is the under or inner fur, beneath the longer hair, that is used in the composition of so many articles of commerce, and varies according to the season of the year, the health of the animal, and many other circumstances. The favourite resorts of the Beaver are retired watry and woody situations. In such places the animals assemble, and sometimes to the number of several hundreds, living in a kind of families, and building a sort of arched mansions, curiously lined or plaistered with clay. Of these a long and agreeable description may be found in the writings of Buffon. In such retreats the Beavers, which are always natives of cold climates, and parti- cularly of the northern parts of America, pass the rigour of the winter months; feeding at in- tervals on the twigs and branches of the softer kind of trees, as willows, and poplars, great. quan- tities of which they cut into proper lengths, and lay up in their cells, Sometimes, however, . the LECT. ITl. H 98 LECTURE IIL. Beavers seem to forget their usual ceconomy, and five in a less regular stile, straying about, and ap- pearing to have merely a few common holes in the banks of the waters they frequent. It has been said that the Beaver fed entirely on fish; and the Count de Buffon, who delighted in such speculations, fancied this kind of diet to have been originally the cause of the flattened, scaly, and fish-like appearance of the tail of the animal; the organic particles of its fishy food having at length impressed on the Beaver something of a fishy form. It seems, however, pretty generally agreed that the principal food of the Beaver is of a vegetable nature. From the Beaver is obtained the celebrated drug called Castor, which is the product of a par- ticular gland, and is taken from the animal imme- diately after killing it: it is one of the strongest or most fetid of all animal substances, and is of very considerable use in medicine. Linnzus comprized a large tribe of animals be- longing to the Order Glires, under one extremely numerous genus entitled Mus, or Mouse, or Rat: but the genus was by this rendered too extensive; and as many of the species admitted into it were LECTURE III. Gy very different in habit or general appearance, it was at length thought better to distribute them into several distinct genera, leaving the Mouse or Rat tribe, strictly so called, to form the genus Mus. Among the genera thus formed out of the old Linnzan genus Mus, one of the chief is that ealled Cavia, or, as it may be otherwise pro- nounced, cavia, in English Cavy. As the characters of the teeth in almost all the Glires are very nearly similar, it is often un- necessary to particularize them. I shall therefore only observe, that the genus Cavia is in general of a thick and short form, and of various size, As the most familiar example, we may mention the well-known species improperly called the Guinea- Pig, which is now the Cavia Cobaya, or variegated Cavy, and was the Mus Porcellus of the earlier editions of the Systema Nature of Linnzus. It is a native of the hotter parts of South-America, and is now well known in most parts of Europe. : The South American animal called the Aguti or Java-Hare, belongs also to this genus, and is of the size of a Rabbet or larger. The largest kind of Cavy yet known, is a spe- 100 ' LECTURE, cies not often to be found in the European Mu- seums: it is called the Patagonian Cavy, and is considerably larger than a Hare, and of a pale brown colour, with a large black patch on the hind part of the body. It occurs in the Leverian Museum, and in that of the late Mr. John Hunter. Another genus lately subtracted from that of Mus, is called Arctomys or Marmot. It contains but few species, most of which are of a thick form, with large, roundish, and somewhat flattened heads, and small mouths, which, when held open, appear longer in their perpendicular than their transverse diameter. The Marmots feed on roots, grain, and leaves, which they often collect inte heaps; they reside in subterraneous holes or burrows, and sleep during the winter. The most common European species is the Alpine Marmot, a native of the Alps and the Pyrenean mountains. Its general size is rather superior to that of a Rabbet, and its colour a tawny grey. It inhabits the higher part of the Alps, in which situations several individuals unite in forming a subter- raneous retreat, well lined with moss and hay, which they prepare during the summer, as if con- scious of the necessity of providing for their long 7 LECTURE HI. 101 sleep in winter. At the commencement of the autumnal frosts, they stop up the holes or en- trances of their mansion, and gradually fall into a state of torpidity, in which they continue till the arrival of the succeeding spring. The genus Lepus or Hare, is easily distin- guished among the rest of the Glires: the cutting teeth in the upper jaw being disposed in a double pair; two small inner teeth being placed at the base of the large or outward pair. As this is a genus of which the history, (in the European species at least) is well known, I shall at present only particularize the distinction between the common Hare and the Rabbet, which two animals resemble each other so much, that the con- struction of a genuine specific character of each has been found a task of some difficulty; and it is a curious fact that the attempts at a specific character of the Rabbet in particular, by Linneus, in the earlier editions of his Systema Nature, are remarkable for want of precision. The criterion proposed by the late Mr. Daines Barrington, in the Philosophical Transactions, has been adopted by modern systematic writers, and consists in the comparative length of the hind legs with that of cae : plainer I shall only ol erve that fates ion! ihe LECTURE MI. | than half the ler ‘ata back ; ks. in te “Rabbet ree i a P aaa: = ee 4 ix Bidet rick iy ‘the remarkable disposi 10n. if : . * : _ hes the hair on the tail, as to require no eX. |e merous - that — aor exotic specie fore to he | to spring to a species which are py teral skin RII, OUR So a x ss 4 {Ow Sis CY IN ( ot. Tank 1, Longlon Tublifid by Cdcarsley, Fleet Sivet ONE C. LECTURE I. 103 The genus J/yorus or Dormouse, is principally distinguished from that of Squirrel by the form of the tail, which is round or cylindric; not flattened and spreading. The genus contains but few spe-. cies. The common Dormouse is too well known to require any description. The chief or prin- cipal species is the Giis of the ancient Remans, which is the Fat Dormouse of Pennant, and is a native of the South of Europe, living in the manner of a Squirrel, but sleeping through the winter. Its size is not very far short of that of the common Squirrel, and its colour pale grey, white beneath. The genus Mus or Mouse, under which, as we have before observed, were once arranged a great many animals now placed under different genera, is still extremely extensive; comprehending all the species of the Rat and Mouse tribe strictly so called. Of these, the chief species known to our ancestors in this country was the black Rat, now become a rare animal in comparison with the brown Rat, introduced above a century ago from the Eastern regions, and vulgarly called the Norway Rat. It is at present the common Rat of our own country, and has, in a great de- 104 LECTURE III. gree, destroyed the black Rat, or original English species: it is a size larger than the black Rat, and, as is well known, is of a brownish grey colour, white beneath. It is a native of India. The Common Mouse needs no description, and the same may be said of our common field- mice, and the Water-Rat; but the beautiful Har- west-Mouse, first distinctly described as a British species by the late Mr. White of Selburne, claims our attention from its peculiar elegance. Its size does not much exceed half that of the common Mouse, and in its colour it bears a near resem- blance to the Dormouse, being of a pale rufous brown above, and white beneath. It is common in some parts of Hampshire. The exotic species of this genus are excessively numerous, and vary in size, from nearly that of a Rabbet to a degree of minuteness beyond that of the common small British species. Among the large onaee Rats one of the mest remarkable is the Mus Typhlus or Blind Rat, a native of the Southern parts of Russia, where it burrows under ground, and feeds on the roots of various vegeta- bles. It usually measures about eight inches in length: is of a brown colour and destitute of a Ta LLP ZG SSS LS Sa Owen Seulp. BLIND RAT 2808 Oct London Publifhd by Chearsley Fleet Street. LECTURE Iii. 105 tail; but it is chiefly remarkable for the total want of external eyes, | the extreme smalliess | of eae eyes, hake still those organs complete in all the usual parts; but the Mus Typhlus is totally blind. In return, its hearing is said to be uncommonly acute, enabling it readily to avoid all the general dangers to which it may be exposed. Of the European Rats of large size the nished with ean which is capable ‘of contai quarter of a pint English measure. This animal is an inhabitant of Germany, Poland, and Russia, and is often extremely destructive, by devouring yast quantities of grain, which it carries off in its ora.” \ pital WA 5 AAW ws Novy Aa Bye? 106 LECTURE Uf. cheek-pouches, and deposits in its subterraneous — retreat in order to feed on during the autumn. Cn the approach of winter the Hamster conceals himself in his deep cell, well lined with dried | grass and moss, and falls into a state of the most profound sleep and entire torpidity; every animal function being so entirely deadened, that it is said the creature may be cut open without exhibiting any sign of sensibility: the heart, however, may be observed to contract and dilate alternately, but with a motion so slow that the pulsations do not exceed fourteen or fifteen in the space of 2 minute: the strongest stimulants are of no avail, and the electric shock may be passed through the animal without exciting any appearance of irri- tability. This lethargy of the Hamster has been generally ascribed to the effect of cold alone; but late observations have proved, that, unless at a certain depth beneath the surface, so as to be beyond the access of the external air, the animal does not fall into its state of torpidity; the se- verest cold, on the surface, not affecting it. On the contrary, when taken out of its burrow and exposed to the air, it infallibly wakes in a few hours. Its waking is a gradual operation, and . l aan, i Tae rea ag P22 | AP OPAMT O Aq PUL “Lamp tgs + JPAl] MAR ) walk, but reels ‘aboue state of iftos oxication, Another 3 with pouches 0 temporary brown or Ngeway- Rat, _ and of a yellower ca gies are extremely gigs! long, giving ae : placed i in 108 SVs TuURE ut... of the Eastern and Southern parts of the world ; frequenting dry and sandy places, where it burrows under the surface and conceals itself during the day, coming out to feed during»the night. Its general attitudes are those of a bird, hopping on its hind-legs, and when pursued, springing, by vast and quickly. repeated leaps, to a great dis- tance, so as not to be. easily.overtaken by the swiftest of quadrupeds. “The general size of the common Jerboa is that of the common or brown Rat, and its colour pale’ yellowish-brown, white beneath; the tail very long, and elegantly ter- minated by a feather-shaped tuft, of a black co- . jour, tipped with white. It is well represented in the works of Bruce, Buffon, Edwards and other modern authors. The genus Hyraxv, which concludes the Order Glires, is of rather late institution, and consists of two species, each about the size of a common Rabbet, and of nearly smmilar colour. The genus Hyrax. differs from all the rest of the Glires in the front teeth of the lower jaw, which, instead of two, are four im number, rather broad, and notched at the edges or tips. Of the two species of Hyrax, one is the Ashkoko of Mr. Bruce, which BD) SYRIAN HYRAX. CAPE HYRAX. 1401 Jae! 12" London Published by 6. Kearsley, Fleet Street. LECTURE III. 109 he supposes to be the Saphan of the sacred writ- ings. It is found in several parts of Africa, and inhabits the cavities of rocks. The other species is the Cape Hyrax, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, inhabiting similar situations with the former. LECTURE IV. | We now turn our attention to the next order of Mammalia, which is a very extensive one as to. species, though the genera are not numerous. This order is entitled Pecora, and contains ail the Cattle, commonly so called, as Oxen, Sheep, Goats and others. It also comprises the Camelopardi, the Deer tribe, the Antelopes, the Musk and some others. In this order also, at present, though perhaps not quite of a similar nature with the rest, wé may be permitted to rank the Elephant, which in its manners or habits resembles the Pe- cora, though it does not ruminate, and is not fur- nished with any front-teeth. Tn the Linnzan arrangement the Elephant is placed among the Bruta, from the want of fore- teeth. By Mr. Pennant it is arranged under the 112 LECTURE IIT. cloven-hoofed Order, in which stand the Linnzan Pecora. By Monsieur Cuvier it is considered as constituting an Order distinct from all others. The mouth is usually furnished with one very broad grinder on each side both above and below, and with two upper tusks. The genera] appear- ance, and even the general history of the Elephant is pretty well known to most persons. It is a na- tive of the warmer regions of Asia and Africa, where it is chiefly seen in woody regions, and feeds entirely on vegetable substances, as the tender shoots of trees, and various kinds of fruit and grain. The Elephant drinks by means of its trunk, first sucking up the water into it, and then conveying it to the mouth. ‘The intelligence and docility of the Elephant are well known, and are generally detailed, with sufficient enlargements in most of the common publications on Natural History. I shall here only observe that in general the intelligence of animals is in proportion to the size of the brain: yet in the Elephant that part is by no means large. In some parts of North-America, are often found fossil bones bearing a general resemblance to those of the Elephant, and commonly known LECTURE IV. 113 by the title of Mammoth bones: the teeth how- ever, (that is the grinders,) are of an appearance widely different from those of the Elephant, being deeply lobed on the top, like those of Carnivorous animals. Of this curious, and at present unknown animal in a recent state, the complete skeleton has been of late discovered in North America, and was, as is well known, exhibited in this me- tropolis.. Every one must have been struck with its general similitude to that of an Elephant, but the grinders or lateral teeth, as before observed, are of a very different appearance, and seem to indicate an animal of a carnivorous nature. By Mr. Pennant this animal is considered as a species of Elephant, under the title of the American Ele- phant, and he seems to be of opinion that it may yet exist in some of the remote parts of the American Continent yet unvisited by Europeans. Others have supposed it an animal of an extinct species, and in reality allied only to the Elephant in the general size and appearance of its bones, while some particular parts seem to prove a dif- ferent tribe, and there have not been wanting some, who have even imagined it to be a marine animal. All however is at present conjectural on LECT. Iv. iy 114 LECTURE IV. this subject, and it can only be mentioned as one of those interesting zoological curiosities which will probably long continue to remain imperfectly understood. One of the ereat or leading characters of the Order Pecora or Cattle, to which we now proceed, is the total want of front-teeth in the upper jaw. In the lower jaw there are six or eight front-teeth: the grinders or side-teeth are usually pretty numer- ous, and such of the Pecora as are furnished with horns, have no tusks or canine-teeth; which on the contrary are conspicuous in such as are not fur- nished with the defence of horns. Another cha- racter belonging to most of this tribe of Mammalia is the power of rumination, or ruminating: that is, of throwing up into the mouth at intervals a por- tion of the food which has been hastily swallowed during their feeding, in order that it may undergo a more complete grinding by the teeth. — This action is so conspicuous in Cows and other cattle, that every one is perfectly acquainted with it. The stomachs of these animals and of others that ruminate, are wonderfully calculated for facili- tating this necessary operation, and may be found described at large, accompanied by proper expla- LECTURE IV. 115 natory plates, in the ingenious observations of Daubenton, annexed to the quarto edition of Buffon’s History of Quadrupeds. All the Pecora or Ruminants as they are often called, are hoofed ; and in the major part the hoof is divided into two principal parts, with the addi- tion, im many, of two very small undivided hoofs or processes on each side, or rather behind the principal ones. In the Camel the structure of the foot is pe- culiar; the sole or part beneath the’ hoofs, being swelled into a kind of elastic pad, covered with an extremely strong, but flexible skin, admirably adapted for enabling the animal to travel over the dry and sandy deserts which it is chiefly destined to inhabit. | The whole Order Pecora, without an excep- tion, feeds entirely on vegetable food. Of these genera I shall only particularize a few of the most remarkable. One of these is the Camelopardi, or Giraffa. The most curious or singular genera in the Linnzan Pecora, or Ruminant tribe, are those of Camelopardi, Camel, Musk, and Antelope. The Camelopardi, which is the Camelopardalis Giraffa 116 LECTURE IV. of the modern editions of the Systema Nature. of Linneeus, was once considered asia species of Deer; but it differs from the | ser tribe in its re etidbhent, horns, which are never cast, bt "a skin, and simple or unbranched, covered y tles. The Ca- terminated by a tuft of short peds, often measuring seventeen fee from the top eet : its neck rts of the ani- 2 p: whitish brown, we < m¢ rosy larg > “ spots of light this animal has been much e I acdan of Mi I ‘el \ by the re- we various African travellers, and speci- | mens of. ‘the complete skin have been brought into Europe, of which one of t the finest is in the Museum of the late Mr. Hunt x; now the Mu- seum of a College of Sur eon Mr. Pennant, laa bo his History of Quadru SELVES, that had he not seen Hb taeied ee, of f thé” Gameldpardi, GIRAFFE . 7601- Tan*.1. London Publijwa by G Tearsley. Fleet Siege . \\ \ nO) dmafl yar well “MTA WRAS FMT NISDIT 949 PULMNT U0pnoy trp Lope LECTURE IV. 117 he should have been almost inclined to entertain doubts as to the existence of so extraordinary an animal. It was however well known to the an- eient Romans, who sometimes exhibited it to the people” in their public shews; and its cnt f m ain of anti- ation» occurs in the aaa ce Py anon i peniael ho deciduous, falling off at 2 a 1 gradually replaced by; ‘the largest gee I a.) a native The E elegant shape, havi thick short neck: it 118 LECTURE IV. ~ The Fallow Deer, (C. Dama. Lin.) is the spe- cies so. generally seen in our parks, and is distin- guished by haying the horns dilated into a broad, subdivided expanse at the upper parts. In colour it varies greatly, as do most animals when in a state of captivity. Rein-Deer. C, Tarandus.—A. moderately large species of a grey colour, and with slender horns of great length, dividing into numerous processes. This species, as is well known, constitutes a great part of the wealth of the Laplanders, and is most providentially ordained to support that simple and harmless people with many of the chief conve- niences of life. The Ov tribe, or the genus Bos, is distinguished by having bent or lunated horns, which are permanent, and have a core or central bony part, on which the horny shell is mounted. The Wild ‘Ox or Urus, is found in the more northern parts of Europe and Asia, and from it have been gra- dually derived all the breeds of domestic cattle. One of the most remarkable species of this genus is the Bos grunmens of Linnzeus, or grunt- ing Ox, so named from its voice. Its size is that of a small bull; and its colour blackish brown: it JO CUNT epee FHL ag WA ass oy ity ) \ we SSN P65) 3) Cire ee i of is) Y N} i Ses LECTURE IV. 119 is covered with long woolly hair, and is remark- able for the vast length and fulness of the hair on the tail, which is of a silky softness, of a milk- white colour, and‘reaches to the ground. “The iails of this species*of Ox, which in its native mT country of Tartary, is called the Yak, are used by persons of fashion in China, India, and other parts of the Eastern world, by way of fly-flaps, and are carried, on some oceasions, as ensigns _ of authority. i | i The genus Camelus or "Cael contains the Camel and Dromedary, the Lama, the Vicuna, and a few other*species of inferior note. The Camel and Dromedary are pretty well known to almost every one: the Camelus Dromedarius of Linnzus or Arabian Camel has a single elevation or bunch on the back: the Camelus: Bactrianus of Linneus or Bactrian Camel has two 5 but the _ names of Camel and Dromedary are differently i ‘applied by different writers, which. sometimes causés»a..degrce_of confusion when speaking of them. It has been supposed by some that they constitute in_-reality but one species, varying either with a single or double elevation on the back, ‘These animals are of the greatest possible 120 LECTURE Iv. utility to the inhabitants of many of the Asiatic and African regions, since with a very small portion of food they can travel for several days together, and can also suffer a long abstinence — m water. The admirable contrivance of Na- neans be omitted. ‘This consists in the sto- of the Camel and Dromedary being so ed.as to be dividedoiu lly into a vast yy : B at the { the mouth, 3 heated and pa The g by having mished witl two inches beyond the lip . - ia ee eran Nin. ; . Fring Satie mon Musk is an inhabitant of the Thibet, and is of the size of a Roebuck, and of a deep iron grey colour. The substance called Musk, by far the most powerfully diffusive of rind Drerwerna yay Wain) gxetiawwes kya tog IS Lafigate sculp MU SK by Chearsley Fleet Strcet. lifad London LPub LE. ss LECTURE IV. 121 all animal odors, (if we except that of some of the American Viverrze, before mentioned) is con- tained in a small pouch about the size of an egg, . situated beneath the body; and is of an unctuous substance, and of a reddish brown colour. When fresh, it is said to be so excessively powerful or penetrating, as to force blood from the nose, eyes, and ears of those who incautiously smell it. It forms, as is well known, an article of com- merce, and is used both as a medicine and a perfume*. | To this genus belongs a very elegant little quadruped, about the size of a small cat, and called the Pygmy Musk. It is found in many parts of Java and Sumatra, but is of so tender a nature as not to be capable of being brought alive into Furope. It is distinguished as a species, by the total want of the small or secondary hoofs behind the larger pair on each foot, and which are found in almost all the rest of the Cattle tribe. To this little species of Musk also belong the very minute legs with their hoofs, sometimes * Tt has been also observed that the smell of musk is not easily discharged even from metallic substances themselves which have been rubbed with it. 192 LECTURE IV. seen in Museums, and which do not much exceed > the size of a quill in diameter. ‘They have often been tipped with gold and used for the purpose of a tobacco-stopper, and are sometimes called by the mistaken title of the legs of Greenland Deer. In the Order Pecora we find a very extensive genus under the title of Antelope, forming the modern genus Antilope, (for Linnzus arranged the few species then known, among the Goat tribe.) The Antelopes are in general remarkable for the elegance of their appearance. The com- mon Antelope or 4. Cervicapra is a native of many parts of Asia and Africa, its general size is somewhat smaller than that of a fallow deer, and its colour a tawny reddish-brown above, and white beneath: the horns black, of a peculiarly beautiful form, having a double flexure, first in- wards, and again outwards, and they are elegantly and distinctly marked, throughout almost their whole length, by numerous prominent rings or circles. The Antelopes ‘in general inhabit the hottest regions of the globe: their swiftness is proverbial, and it is observed that most spe- cies are of a gregarious nature, forming herds of many hundreds or even thousands together. For a) Hee n\ Po AN COMMON ANTELOPE. male kK yemale. 801 Ja! London Pubifhad by 6-Tearfley. Fleck Street. LECTURE IV. 123 figures of this numerous and elegant tribe I must refer to the work: sol Schreber, where they are. collected from the works of Pallas and many other describers. In the Leverian Miaeeiim, so unfor- tunately doomed to dispersion, may be found some of the most “curious kinds. Of the Sheep and Goat tribe, or the two Lin- neean genera of Ovis and Capra, it may be suf- ficient to say, that the s species which is supposed to be the: origin of | the Common. Sheep in all its varieties, is the Argali, a large and handsome animal, found in many of the mountainous re- gions of the Eastern world. In this its natural state it is rather covered with hair hen wool, and is of a pale tawny-brown, colour i with very jarge horns. FY ohh, The Common Goat, in all its 28 is sup- posed to have descended from the animal called the Iber, alarge and very active quadruped, found in si ations not dissimilar to those in which the Argali or Wild Sheep is seen. The Ibex is of a brown colour, with excessively large and long horns, C™ or curving backwards, and marked above by rows of transverse knobs or half circles, % 124 LECTURE IV. The chief distinctive character between the two genera of Ovis and Capra or Sheep and Goat, is that in the former the horns have a spiral curvature; in the latter a simple one. The next, or 6th Linnean Order of Quad- rupeds is called BELLUz, a word which cannot admit of any very distinct English corresponding word. We must be content to take the Linnean term in its original shape. This order, Bellua, consists, in general, of animals either of large or moderate SIZ, and comprizes the Rhinoceros, Horse, the Hippopotamus, the Tapir, and the Hog. Of these Genera we surely need not particu- Jarize that of Equus or Horse, any otherwise than to say, that the common Horse is a native of the Eastern regions, in which it is still seen in a state at least approaching to that of natural wildness, and that the cultivated or improved races of the Eastern countries are allowed to excel all others in swiftness as well as in beauty. The Ass belongs to the same genus, and, like the Horse, is a native of the East, and is an animal of great elegance and fleetness; and by no means to be judged of from its degraded descendents in the European regions, where it CS Ua Tt ’ OV a LECTURE IV. 125 generally appears under every possible circum- stance of disadvantage. But, so far as regards mere beaut: , the Afri- can species of this genus, called t be confessed to stand superior to alm 4 = quadruped, even the Tiger itself ex Legg The at Bee as one k s still pre- serviceable ‘years in the erica, and ven-footed enus Horse in the hoofs it follows 5; must be consi- de ‘ed as constituting yery anomalous species, eye ve contradict ing in part, the generic character of pie ‘TESt: But as nature scorns all artificial ar- rangements, we cannot presume to suppose that 126 LECTURE IV. she may not have produced a species of this exe traordinary cast. The Cloven-footed Horse was first described by Molina, in his Natural History of Chili: In its general appearance, size, and colour, it resembles the Ass, but has the voice of the Horse, and-the hoofs are divided, like those of ruminant-animals. One might be in- duced to suppose that Molina, from its general appearance, might have chosen to consider it as a species of Horse, but that it really belonged more properly to the Antelope tribe; but this supposition is contradicted by its anatomical structure, which resembles that of other ani- mals of the Horse genus. It must therefore be considered as one of the most remarkable ani- mals yet discovered. The genus Hippopotamus, of which we only know of one species, is a highly singular genus. The front-teeth in each jaw are four; and the tusks, which are single on each side, are very large: the feet are each furnished with four hoofs. The Hippopotamus is a very large animal: its general size equalling that of the Rhinoceros: in its mode of life it is Amphibious, concealing itself during the day in large rivers, out of which LECTURE IV. 127 it Only raises its nostrils at imtervals, in order to breathe ; and coming out by night to graze, feeding entirely on vegetables. Its form is highly uncouth; the body being extremely large, fat, and round; and the legs very short and thick: the head very large, with short rounded or very shghtly pointed ears, an extremely wide mouth, with teeth of a vast size and strength ; particu- larly the tusks, or canine-teeth of the lower jaw, which are of a curved form, streaked on their outside with numerous furrows, and appear as if obliquely cut off at the tips. These teeth some- times measure more than two feet in length. The skin of the Hippopotamus is smooth, but is thinly covered with short hairs. When the Hippopotamus first. emerges from the water, it is observed to be of a brown colour, accom- panied by a blueish cast; but when dry, is of an obscure brown. It is naturally of a harmless disposition, but if pursued or wounded, is said to become excessively furious, and to be capa- ble of easily overturning a canoe or boat, and has sometimes been known to sink them, by biting large pieces out of the bottom. The young are capable of being tamed, and we are told by Be- 128 LECTURE Iv. Ion that he saw one in that state. The Hippo- potamus is a native of the large African and Asiatic rivers, and is sometimes seen in herds. The tusks are much, esteemed as a species of ivory, being more hard, and less liable to change colour than those of the Elephant: they are there- fore in great use among the dentists. f ‘shall add, that the Hipropea was known to the Scaurus a Roman /AXdile, Bcd the & of Rome with the exhibition of an Hippopotamus - accompanied by four Crocodiles, all brought out of Egypt, and exhibited in a temporary lake, prepared for that purpose. : The genus Rhinoceros, which some natural- ists have placed, like the Elephant, among the Bruta of the Linnean arrangement, is distin- guished by the remarkable circumstance of a horn or process situate above the nose, The mouth is furnished in each jaw with two )teeth, placed at the corners of the jaws in the manner of canine-teeth ; and in each jaw are six grinders on a side. The, general height of the Rhino- ceros is about eight feet, but specimens are said to be occasionally seen which nearly equal the JHIEPr OP.O TAMUS . Wieieige tyres WY ~ Late a 1801, Jat’ 1, Dondon F ublijhed fy © Kearny tev Heel Street pas nang know y k pulaind Uopun Tr gag 00GT dpe lyre "SOUWMIONINW CAINYOH-WIONIS C2oe0, Ze My Yo ZZ SS Hl i Ht H a | a \ ei WN ies Cee a ee a ee == AZOLE OS Teen rAKID ria) i“ LECTURE IV. 129 Elephant in size. The skin of the Rhinoceros is s ag and hard, of a dusky brewn colour, of the animal, osed, on the ‘up per pari os standard represer best iy _. represei ta the > Wor of a of three feet: : it is of a bl except at the base, ¢ rincipally a native K 130 LECTURE IV. of Asia and Africa, where it is still seen in consi- derable numbers, living in woody regions, and feeding on the young shoots of trees. In some parts of Africa is also found another species, called the two-horned Rhinoceros, having two. horns on the nose, one behind the other: this species, which is of equal size with the common or single-horned Rhinoceros, is farther distin- guished by having a much smoother skin than that of the single-horned species, and which (in S Pp the younger specimens particularly,) exhibits hardly any of the roughnesses or folds which dis- tinguish the common kind. The ancient Ro- mans had undoubtedly seen a two-horned Rhi- noceros exhibited ; since the circumstance is par- ticularized in an Epigram of Martial, who, in speaking of the combat between this animal and a bear, says that it threw up or tossed the bear with its double horn as easily as a bull would a bag of wool. The animal also appears with a double horn on a coin belonging to the reign of Domitian. It is well known that the cele- brated Mr. Bruce has been much censured for having figured in his travels the two-horned Rhi- noceros as perfectly resembling in every other p Pri iA — = LECTURE IV. 131 particular the common or single-horned species : it is also certain that the figure given in Mr. Bruce’s work is absolutely a copy from Buffon’s * figure of the common Rhinoceros, with the addi- ' tion merely of a second horn. It does not how- ever follow from this circumstance that Mr. Bruce’s figure is deceptive; and it is surely no improbable circumstance that the common Rhinoceros may vary with a double horn; in which case Mr. Bruce, knowing Buffon’s figure to be correct, might have thought it unneces- sary to be at the trouble of causing a com- pletely new figure to be executed. I must add, that Mr. Bruce’s description of the manners or habits of the animal, is an in- teresting and even a sublime composition; and I recommend it to all who wish for an ani- mated account of so extraordinary a quadruped. The genus called Yapir consists of a single species only, and is distinguished by having nu- merous teeth, amounting in all to no fewer than forty-two: namely six front or cutting-teeth above — and below; two canine-teeth above and below, and twenty-six grinders: the nose is lengthened out into a short proboscis, and the feet are each 132 LECTURE IV. ° divided into three narrow hoofs in front, with the addition of a small or spurious hoof behind each of the fore-feet. The Tapir is a South-American rly equal in size to a heifer. Its co- obscure brown, and the skin is but spare ed with hair. It is an animal of harm- 5 5 wandering about the — and jt i arubs. ‘having four im t wo short an and two very lone anc a fie origin of cl} : } = ] SEIC h ree fi 5 almost all the-temperate and warm the ancient Continent. It is, in gene size than the domestic Hog, and is of a davk grey s SaaS iy TAIPIOR . SS ———$—— SSC forge. —————————————— ‘oon, Tass London Publjhid by Otivaredgy. Fleet Street. 7 AIL SE COMMON Uh iy b} ' 8 ; ty ! fii yi) Heyy = = =—S= iy HH Ht i } { Hii iy i | (hi wt Witt PIED SEAL. var 2800.Feb!2zL ondon Publfha hy Gkearsley Fleet Street. PET EEE LECTURE IV. 133 colour. Between the bristles, next the skin, is a much finer and softer kind of hair, of a some- what woolly or curled nature: but the principal difference between the wild Boar and the domestic is the size of the tusks, which in the wild Boar are often several inches in length, and capable of inflicting the most severe and fatal wounds, Though the general size of the Wild Boar is inferior to that of the domestic, yet instances have occasionally occurred in which the animal has been seen of a size:so enormous as far to surpass the general measure of its tribe, and to render credible the seemingly extravagant recitals which sometimes occur in the works of ancient authors. PINNATA. We are now to take a view of the pinnated Mammatia, or those in which the divisions or toes of the feet are connected by webs; enabling the animals, whose principal residence is in the waters, 134 LECTURE IV. to swim with far greater facility than any other quadrupeds, while, on the contrary, they walk with much greater difficulty. In the Linnean System, in which, perhaps, too great a degree of attention is paid to the cha- racters of the teeth, these quadrupeds are some- what awkwardly arranged; making their appear- ance in detached parts of the class Mammalia. In this instance therefore we shall depart from the Linnean arrangement, and pursue that of Mr. Pennant and others; making a separate order for the pinnated quadrupeds, which will thus be made to lead, by a natural transition to the Ce- taceous Mammalia, or Whales. I need hardly observe, that by the pinnated or web-footed Mam- malia, must be understood those only which are strikingly and conspicuously distinguished by webs on all their feet, and not those which are par- tially web-footed, as the Otter, Beaver, and many others. Of the truly pinnated quadrupeds we are ac- quainted with but two distinct genera, viz. that of Phoca or Seal, and that of Tvrichechus or Manati. The first genus, or Phoca, (Seal,) is entirely LECTURE IV. 135 marine. It is characterized by having teeth, si- milar in form and disposition to those of the order Fer: while the feet are so formed as to resemble a kind of leathery fins, through which are very distinctly traced the toes, which are terminated by slightly lengthened nails or claws. Though the whole genus Phoca is aquatic, yet it is so constituted as to require occasional intervals of repose, and even a considerable degree of con- tiauance on dry land; forsaking at particular periods the water, and congregating in multitudes on the shores, on floating ice, or on insulated rocks, and this especially at the season in which the young are produced. The most common species, or that which seems to have been known from times of remote antiquity, is the Phoca witu- lina of Linnaeus, the common Seal, or Sea-Calf, as it is frequently termed. It is a native of the European seas, and is chiefly seen in the northern regions. Its size varies, but its general length seems to be from five to six feet, and its colour grey or greyish brown: the head is large and rounded, without any appearance of external ears: the neck small and short; the parts aoout the shoulders and breast very thick, the body tapering 136 LECTURE IV. - thence towards the extremity: the legs are so very short as to be scarcely perceptible, but the feet are large, and the hinder ones are so placed as to be of the highest use to the animal in swim- ming, being situated at the extremity of the body, and close to each other: the tail is very short: the whole animal is covered with short, thick-set, glossy hair, and its general colour is a dark grey- ish brown. In this respect, however, it is known to vary, like most others of its genus, being some- times seen spotted or variegated. Like the rest of the genus it feeds on various fishes, shell animals, and marine plants. A species much re- sembling this, but larger, is often seen about some of the European coasts: it differs in having a somewhat more lengthened snout than the com- mon Seal, and is generally black above, and white beneath, but, like the former, it varies in colour. It is the Pied Seal of Mr. Pennant, which in the first or folio edition of the British Zoology, was not considered as distinct from the common Seal, I shall not pursue the description of this genus further, than to observe that it is of considerable extent, and that several species inhabiting the Asiatic and American seas are of vast size, and Sat Tal Hf Hf} i UH qt SSS Mu HH HH Hi} i} Nem TTTI Tat “ MIU Wt) —_—s. oof Ped ee LECTURE IV. 137 in their ceconomy or mode of life exhibit many curious particularities, for the description of which I must refer to the last edition of Mr. Pennant’s History of Quadrupeds, where a full description of their manners will be found, extracted from : 1e works of Stelle thority, = and other travellers of high = DY) 138 LECTURE IV. bristles of the length of three or four inches, and of the thickness and colour of wheat straw; the tusks are of great length, measuring from eighteen inches to two feet or more. The Walruss is of a gregarious nature, often assembling in vast num- bers on the masses of floating ice so often seen in the northern seas; where they produce their young in the spring season, and have generally but one at a birth. In their manners they re- semble the genus Phoca, but feed principally on sea-plants and shell-animals rather than on fishes. The Walruss is naturally a harmless animal, unless attacked, when it becomes extremely vindictive ; roaring in a dreadful manner, and with its long tusks grappling with and endeavouring to overset the boats of those who attack it. It is an animal which has long ago been pretty well represented im the works of some of the earlier zoologists, but it is observed by Mr. Pennant, that the best re- presentation is given in the fifty-second plate of the last voyage of Captain Cook. ‘There appear, however, to be distinct races or varieties of the Walruss, those seen in the icy regions of the American seas, and represented in the above plate, having longer and sharper tusks in pro- LECTURE IV. 139 portion than those observed in the northern seas of Europe, in which also the tusks are observed to diverge, not to converge, as in the American variety. Another species is the TJ. borealis, or Whale- tailed Walruss, the feet of which very nearly re- semble those of Whales, exhibiting no distinct appearance of the toes or claws. It grows to a stili longer size than the common Walruss, sometimes measuring eight-and-twenty feet in length, and is an inhabitant of the Asiatic and American seas. A third species is the 7. J/anatus, or the Ma- nati, found in the Indian and American rivers, and of which a curious anecdote is told by the early historians of America, who relate that at the first arrival of the Spaniards, a tame Manati was kept by a Prince of Hispaniola, in a lake adioin- ing to his residence; and which, when called by its name, would readily appear and suffer itself to be caressed by its protectors. It would occasion- ally offer itself to its Indian favorites, and carry them over the lake, to the nnmber of ten ‘at time, singing and playing on its back. At lene in consequence of a violent inundation, i‘ 140 LECTURE IV. carried back to its native waters, and never more appeared. It is well known that the common Seal or Phoca vitulina, may also be readily tamed. Lastly the round-tailed A4anati, a species allied to the former, but smaller, is a native of the larger African rivers; it grows to the length of fourteen feet, and is of a dark colour, with hair somewhat resembling that of the Seals, and a flat rounded ' fin at the extremity of the body, formed by the juncture of the webs of the hind-feet: the fore- feet are each furnished with flat and rounded nails. A specimen of this animal-exists in the Leverian Museum. CETACEA. Havine taken a slight survey of the pinnated er web-footed quadrupeds, we are led by a kind of natural transition to the Cetaceous Mammalia or Vhales. These cannot in strict propriety be called Quadrupeds, since they are in reality furnished with only two feet, which have the appearance of . LECTURE IV. 141 thick fins, while the tail, which is divided into two horizontal lobes, is merely muscular and ten- dinous, being void of any bones analogous to the feet in the rest of the Mammalia ; those bars being only to be found in the fins or fore-feet. The general appearance of the Cetaceous Mammalia or Whales so much resembles that of a fish, that it is very natural for any one to sup- pose that they should be classed among that tribe of animals, and not with the rest of the Mam- malia; and indeed so far has this compliance with popular custom been followed, that most natu- ralists, till the institution of the Linnzan System, eave them the appellation of Fishes. Thus, ex- clusive of the more early writers, the celebrated Ray and Willoughby considered them in this view, and commenced their History of Fishes with that of Whales. Nay even Linneus himself, in his well-known work the Fauna Suecica, as well as in some of the earlier editions of the Systema Na- ture, arranged them under the class of Fishes. But, since their whole interior, structure agrees with that of the Mammalia; since they have lungs and breathe, since they have warm blood, and a heart resembling i conformation that of Qua- 142 LECTURE IV. drupeds, and in particular, since they produce and nourish their young in the same manner, it fol- lows very clearly that they can with propriety be ranked in no other class of animals than the Lin- nean Mammalia. In a general view, exclusive of their Fish-like form, the Whales are distinguished by a particu- larity not to be found in any of the rest of the aquatic Mammalia. This is a double opening or spout-hole, on the top of the front of the head, through which they discharge at intervals, with great violence, and to a great height, the water which they have taken in at the mouth. Though the Whales, all together, constitute a pretty numerous tribe, yet the genera, or par- ticular divisions into which they have been distri- buted are but few. Linnzus institutes for the whole tribe only four distinct genera, viz. Balena, Physeter, Monodon, and Delphinus. The first of these genera, or that of BaLazwa, is distinguished by the total want of teeth; instead of which the mouth is furnished, but in the upper jaw only, with a vast number of very long and broad, horny, flexible plates, disposed in regular rows along each side. These are popularly known \ Heath sculp. My STICETE. REAT 4 T ( Jari heondon Fublishd by GC Kearsley, Fleet Street. LECTURE IV. 143 by the name of Whalebone: each plate is deeply fringed or subdivided at its lower edge into long and slender bristles, by which means the edges of the under jaw are secure from being wounded by it, and at the same time the junction of many rows of bristled or subdivided edges operates as a strainer, when the mouth, after receiving food, suddenly closes, thus retaining the prey, and per- mitting the ‘superfluous watér to escape. The principal species of the genus Balena is the B. Mysticetus or great Whalebone Whale, Mysticet, or common Northern Whale. It is on all hands allowed to be the largest of all animals yet dis- tinctly known. Before the Northern Whale-Fish- eries had reduced the number of this species, it was no uncommon circumstance to find specimens of an hundred, an hundred and twenty, or even, according to some, an hundred and fifty feet in length. Such however: are now very rarely, if ever seen, and it is not often that they are found of more than sixty or seventy feet in length. Tn its general appearance the animal is peculiarly uncouth; the head constituting nearly a third of the whole mass: the mouth is of prodigious width, the tongue measuring eighteen or twenty feet in 144 LECTURE IV. length: the eyes most disproportionably small; scarce exceeding in size the eyes of an Ox. The common colour of this species is black above, and white beneath; but in this it is known to vary: - the skin, as in all the rest of the Whale tribe, is perfectly smooth, soft, and glossy, and is entirely bare, or destitute of any appearance of hair. The general residence of the animal is in the Northern seas; its food is supposed to consist chiefly of dif- ferent kinds of small, gelatinous marine animals, particularly of the smaller Meduse: or Sea-Blub- bers, and Sea-Snails of the genus called Clio. The throat in this Whale is observed to be very | narrow, so that it only preys on the smaller sea- animals in general. With respect to the anatomy of the Whale, I shall content myself with observing, that on so colossal a scale of magnitude does nature act in these animals, that the vertebree or joints of the back-bone are of the size of moderate barrels; the ribs and jaw-bones so large as to be occasion- ally used to form the sides of tall, arched gate- ways; the heart too large to be contained in a very wide tub; the aorta or principal artery mea- sures about a foot in diameter, and it is computed LECTURE IV. 145 that the quantity of blood thrown into it at every pulsation of the heart, is ‘not less than from ten to fifteen gallons. The strength of the great Northern Whale is prodigious; it is able to shatter a strong canoe in pieces with a single stroke of its tail: it swims, according to the computation of Cepede, at the rate of about thirty-three feet in a second, and it is further computed that in the space of about forty-seven days, it might circumnavigate the globe in the direction of the equator, even allow- ing it to rest by night during the whole time. It is supposed to be an extremely long-lived animal. The female produces, in general, but one young at a birth, which usually measures something more than twenty feet in length; and she has the repu- tation of being very tenderly attached to her offspring*. The least of all the Whalebone-Whales or Lin- * B. Glacialis or Nord-Caper is a very large species of Whale, but thinner in proportion than the Mysticete: it is an extremely voracious animal; preying on many kinds of fish, and in par- ticular on Cod and Herring. In the stomach of this Whale have been observed three hundred Cod: and in the stomach of a second individual were found more than a tun of herrings, LECT, I, L 146 LECTURE IV. nean Balene is the B. rostrata, rostrated of | taper-snouted Whale. It seldom reaches to the length of twenty feet, and is of an elegant shape; its colour is blueish-black above, and white be- neath, and the skin, from the throat to the middle of the body beneath, is marked in a longitudial ' direction by very numerous, deep furrows, the in- sides of which are of a red colour: this furrowed structure of the skin beneath the fore-parts of the body, appears to be a wonderful institution of Nature for enabling the animal to increase at pleasure its diameter, and render itself specifically lighter; by inflating a vast cavity situated beneath _the breast and communicating with the throat: during this action the furrowed skin becomes ex- tended laterally, and the insides of the furrows being thus laid open, give the appearance of so many beautiful red stripes, along the sides and be- neath the body. ‘This curious structure, which, perhaps, was first distinetly described by the late Mr. Hunter, is not peculiar to the present species, but exists in some others. The Rostrated Whale is a native of the Northern seas, and has occasion- ally been taken on our own Coasts. 7 The genus Puysrrer, containing what are —_ PUOPUOT Terk] S FIT A eaVIY gy AQ'1yuos* PMLIGML 1084 — 2 SMOIWV ELV) CUAL CNY SOA, = In NIE ap 47) LECTURE IV. 147 called Sperma-Ceti Whales, is distinguished by having visible teeth in the lower jaw only, which when the mouth is closed, are received into so many open sockets in the upper jaw: an accurate inspection of the upper jaw howeyer proves that there are corresponding teeth in that also, but they are verv small, and situated so deep within the sockets as to be totally invisible on a general view. | : The Physeter Macrocephalus, or great Sper- maceti Whale, is not greatly inferior in size to the Great Whalebone Whale or Mysticete, and is of a shape not less uncouth; the head being of so vast a size as at least to equal a third of the length of the whole animal. It is from this Whale, as well as from some others of this genus, that the well- known substance popularly known by the name of Spermacetiis obtamed. ‘This substance, which in the liying animal is a liquid oil, is contained in a vast cellular cayity within the head; when ex- posed to the effect of cold air, it coneretes into a solid form: it exists in other parts of the animal, as well as in the)head, and may be gained from the blubber or common oil by proper preparation: in a smaller proportion also it is found to exist in 148 LECTURE IV. the blubber of all the rest of the Whale tribe, and even in the oil of the generality of marine animals. | aici. Another remarkable produetion of this and other species of the Physeter tribe, is known by the name of Ambergris, and has long continued © its reputation as an agreeable perfume. Am- bergris is an opake whitish, greyish, or yellowish substance, so light as to swim, not only in water, but even in spirit of wine. Its real origin was formerly much disputed, but it is now ascertained to be_a product from the Whales of this tribe,. aad it will perhaps excite some surprise in those who may not be informed of its real nature, to be told that it is no other than part of the natural con- tents of the animals’ intestines, hardened by the . effect of some disease, into a compact or unusually solid state. An idea has been entertained, and perhaps it is not an improbable one, that Am- bergris owes its odour to the flesh of a particular species of Cuttle Fish, which has naturally a musky smell, and on which these Whales are known particularly to feed.* In the larger’ pieces * Sepia moschata. Bose. Sennini’s Buffon, Mollusque. tom. 8. p. 80. pl. 34. LECTURE ry. 149 of Ambergris, -the horny beaks of these Cuttle- Fish are generally found imbedded, The genus Delphinus or Dolphin 18 charac- terized by having numerous teeth in both jaws. These animals constitute the smallest of the Whale tribe; the common Dolphin rarely exceeding the length of eight or ten feet. Its shape is leneth- ened or fish-form, with a plump or thick body, slightly sharpened snout, and a thick pointed fin towards the middle of the back. Its colour, like most others of the tribe, is dark biueish or brown- ish-black above, and white beneath: this animal was well known to the ancients, who celebrated it for a supposed affection to the human race, and regarded its appearance at sea as a prosperous omen. Modern seamen are of a difierent opinion, and consider its appearance rather as a prelude to an approaching storm. The Dolphin swims very swiftly, and preys on various kinds of fish; and it is observed by the accurate Orto Fabricius, in his work entitled Fauna Greenlandica, that in swimming it constantly assumes a curved posture, depressing very considerably both head and tail during that action; and thus justifying in some degree the observations of the ancients, who ap- 150 LECTURE IV. pear indeed to have been guilty of some averaya- tion in this respéct in their poetical and seulptorial representations, while the moderns, on the con- trary, have been somewhat too severe in con- demning them, x The Porpoise or D. Phocena, is a still more common species than the Dolphin, and so ex- tremely similar to it, that there can be little doubt of its having been often confounded with it : it is however a smaller animal, and rarely exceeds the leneth of six or seven feet: its chief mark of dis- tinction from the Dolphin seems to consist in having ashorter and blunter snout. The Porpoise, being the most common European species of all the Cetaceous tribe, has, of course, been more ac- curately imspected, as to its anatomical structure, than any of the rest; Rondeletius, Ray, Tyson, and others, having given a good general anatomy of the anima!. It is also a curious fact, (such is the revolution of taste), that the Porpoise was a few centuries ago considered as a splendid and elegant dish at royal and noble tables; and this in Eng- land even so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. By far the largest of the Dolphin genus is the species called the Grampus, the Di Orca@f Lin- DOLIPEOWN » PORPRSSE. ie - { ib i % LECTURE IV. 151 neus. It arrives at the length of five-and-twenty feet, and is of an extremely fierce and voracious nature, feeding on the larger fishes, and even, occasionally, on the Dolphin and Porpoise them- selves. It is found in the Mediterranean and Ailantic, as well as in the polar regions, and is one of the most ferocious inhabitants of the ocean. As a species it is chiefly distinguished by having the snout turned a little upwards. I cannot but here observe that the Linnzan character of this species may mislead, since it is said to be furnished dentibus serratis, with serrated or sawed teeth, a particularity not found in any of the Whale tribe, which have all simple or plain, conical teeth: but the meaning of the words dentibus serratis here is only to be understood in the common classical sense, as in Pliny and other authors; meaning so _ disposed as to give the outline of the jaw a ser- - rated appearance in profile, | : There remains one more Linnean genus of the Whale tribe, and that one of the most remarkable: this is the genus Monodon or Narwhal. It is dis- tinguished by an extremely large and long, spi- rally twisted tooth, projecting in a straight direc- tion, from the upper jaw. Sometimes there are Ni | LECTURE Iv. hese teeth, £ rallel to each other, in whieh s always observed to be somewhat shorter ver than i other. Supposing the na- to be Wo, as stated by Linneus, in aracter , L need not observe, that the do | 4 ould be peculiarly absurd. In er is two, but one is always te, and the probability as das alternately to or? y casting, on o e side. | arwhal or M. M My Ea sometime eal ed the Sea Unicorn rw A: a ind darkei imal. The food fe he great Whalebone wy Sea-blubbers or Medusze tr ne , but it is also known to prey occasionally hes, and particularly on flat-fish. Before mimal became very distinctly known to the ee Ss "IL THLAA UV NI ‘WMNISHY UDIMMAIT WOLL "YfJI2) OM) YpIM PAYS? Wh HN MAN re ah iH sete Kk ORS ay alt Per a OPEB fs ARLE ES $} ot beseig ous LECTURE IV. 153 naturalists of Europe, the teeth, or spiral horn- like processes, were held in very higa estimation, as the supposed horns of Unicorns. Various medical virtues were attributed to them, and they were even numbered among the articles of regal magnificence. At Rosenberg in Denmark is said to be still preserved an ancient throne, composed of Narwhals’ teeth, and which was once the seat of state of the ancient Danish Monarchs. I purposely omit speaking of the supposed different species of this genus; their description, as yet, being not sufficiently accurate to justify. any very clear conclusions. Having thus taken a general view of the Mam- malia or viviparous quadrupeds, we shall in our next Lecture proceed to Birds. pe iy ae ny amortien ' | (ee vist eth pelh ee: Bene } ‘ ‘ Cage EER ss 155 LECTURE V. We are now entering upon a beautiful and ex- tensive branch of Natural History, called Orni- thology or the History of Birds. These animals far exceeding Quadrupeds in point of number, it was highly necessary that they should be dis- tributed into orders, and genera, in order to faci- litate the knowledge of the species. In this part of Zoology, as in Quadrupeds, we shall pursue the Linnzan arrangement, with some variations and transpositions. I know not whether it may be thought neces- sary to be very particular in the description of a bird, as distinguished from a quadruped, but as there are some circumstances which are important in the comparative anatomy of these animals, it may not be improper to give a slight general description of them. 156 LECTURE V. The skeleton or bony frame of the animal is in general of a lighter nature than in quadrupeds, and is calculated for the power of flight: the spine is immoveable, but the neck lengthened and flex- ible: the breast-bone very large, with a prominent keel down the middle, and formed for the attach- ment of very strong muscles: the bones of the wings are analogous to those of the fore-legs in quadrupeds, but the termination is in three joints or fingers only, of which the. ‘exterior one’ is very short. What are commonly called the legs are analogous to the hind-legs in quadrupeds, and they terminate, in general, in four toes, three »f which are commonly directed forwards, and one back- wards; but in some birds there are only two toes, in some only three. All the bones in birds are much lighter or with a larger cavity than in Quadrupeds. With respect to the definition of a Bird, as ab= solutely. caalangeensed_S from all other. Sinhala, | would. escent to» say, according ‘to the old mode, that a bird is a two-footed, feathered animal, The power of flight need not enter into the defint- tion; for there are many birds which are perfectly destitute of the power of flight; as the Ostrich, DO SKELETON of TURKEY L608 Octs.LondonPublifad by Chicarsley Fleet Street. LECTURE V. oe 157 the Cassowary, all the Penguins, and some other birds. The feathers with which birds are covered are analogous in their nature to the hair of Qua- drupeds, being composed of a similar substance appearing in a dissimilar form. Beneath or under the common feathers or general plumage, the skin in birds is immediately covered with a much. finer or softer feathery substance called down. The external or common feathers are called by different names on different parts of the animal. The longest of the wing-feathers, which are ge- nerally ten in number, in each wing, are called the first or great quills, (in the Linnzan phrase remiges primores, as being the chief oars or guid- ers as it were.) The feathers constituting the middle part of the wing are called the secondaries or second quills (remiges secondarit of Linneeus,) and are more numerous than the first: the fea- thers descending along each side the back are called the scapular feathers: the small feathers covering the shoulders are called the smaller wing- coverts, (tectrices minores:) the next series to these are called the larger wing-coverts, (tectrices secondarie or majores,) and at the edge of the shoulder are a few rather strong and slightly 13s LECTURE V. lengthened feathers, constituting what is called the false or spurious wing; the alula or alulet of somé ornithologists. The tail, in most birds, ‘consists of twelve feathers; in some of ten only ; ‘and in some others of eighteen, twenty, or twenty- four. Sometimes on each side the tail or above it, at the lower part of the back, are placed se- veral very long feathers of a different structure from the rest: these have been called the hypo- chondriac and unpygial feathers. These are the principal distributions of the feathers on a bird. With respect to the particular shape of the fea- . thers themselves, they vary greatly in the different tribes. The particulars most important in the com- parative anatomy of birds are these. The throat, after passing down to a certain distance, dilates itself into a large membranaceous bag, answering to the stomach in quadrupeds: it is called the crop, and its great use is to soften the food taken into it, in order to prepare it for passing into another stronger receptacle called the gizzard: this which may be considered as a more powerful stomach than the former consists of two very strong muscles, lined and covered with a stout LECTURE V. 15% tendinous coat, and furrowed on the inside*. Int this receptacle the food is completely ground and reduced to a pulp. The lungs of Birds differ from those of quadrupeds in not being loose or free in the breast, but fixed to the bones all the way down: they consist of a pair of large spongy bodies, covered with a membrane which is pierced in several places, and communicates with several large vesicles or air-bags dispersed about the cavities of the body. The eyes of birds are more or less convex in the different tribes ; and in general, it may be observed that the sense of sight is more acute in birds than in most other animals; and they seem to possess a greater degree of power in aecom- modating the convexity of the eye to any par- ticular distance than other animals, for which purpose they are provided with a, curious ap~ paratus of scales round the iris or coloured part of the eye not be observed in quadrupeds. Birds have no outward Ear, but the internal is formed on the same general plan as in quadrupeds. Birds as every one knows are oviparous ani- mals, always producing Eges, from which the * Jn the predaceous-birds or Accipitres this is wanting, the sto« ‘ mach being allied to that of quadrupeds. 160 LECTURE V. young are afterwards excluded. The process of the young in the Egg, from the time of its first production to that of the complete forma- tion of the bird, is extremely curious and in- teresting, and may be found detailed with suf ficient exactness in the works of Malpighi, Buf fon, Monro, and many others. I shall only ob- serve on this subject that the first appearance of the young, as an organized body, begins to be visible in six hours after the egg has been placed in a proper degree of heat under the parent animal*. The number of eggs is extremely various in the different tribes of birds. | Birds are divided by Linnzus into six Or- ders or Assortments, viz. 1. Accipitres or Pre- dacious Birds, such as Vultures, Eagles, Hawks, Owls, and some others. * A particular highly worthy of attention is, that the chick, or young bird, when arrived at its full size, and ready for hatch- ing, is by nature provided with a small, hard, and calcareous protuberance at the point or tip of the bill, by which it is enabled the more readily to break the shell, and which falls off some hours after its hatching. So careful has Nature been, and so accurately has every circumstance attending the process been foreseen and provided for! LECTURE V._, 161 2. Pice or Pies; containing all the birds of the Crow and Jay kind, the Parrots, the Wood- peckers, the Kingfishers, and a great variety: of other birds. 8. Passeres or Passerine birds, comprising the Pigeons, the Thrushes, the Larks, and all the Finches or small-birds in general, either with thick or slender bills. 4. Galline or Gallinaceous birds, or such as are more or less allied to the common domestic Fowl, and consequently containing the Pheasant and Partridge tribe, the Peacock, Turkey, and a variety of other birds. 5. Gralle or Waders, consisting of all the Heron tribe, the Curlews, the Plovers, and other numerous tribes which have lengthened legs and chiefly frequent watery situations, 6. The Anseres or Web-footed birds, as the Swan, Goose, or Duck tribe, the Gulls, the Pen- guins and many others. Out of these six Linnean Orders some or- nithologists have instituted a few others, in or- der to give a greater degree of clearness and pre- eision to the arrangement of birds, but they eannot be considered as absolutely necessary. LECT. I. M _ 62 LECTURE V. Thus the Pigeons have been sometimes consi- dered as properly forming a distinct order of birds under the title of the Columba or the Colum- bine Order, instead of being ranked among the Passeres of Linnzeus ; and the Ostrich, Cassowary, and Dodo have been supposed to constitute an or- der called the Struthious Order, instead of ranking either among the Grallz or Gallinze of Linnzeus, The first Linnean tribe of Birds, called Ac- CIPITRES, consists of the Vultures, the Eagles, the Owis, and the Shrikes or Butcher-Birds ; for all these birds are of a predacious nature, and feed entirely on animal food. Their general charac- ters, considered at large, or as belonging to the whole tribe, are these. The bill is more or less curved, strong, and often covered, round the base, by a naked membrane, called a cere; and on each side, towards the tip, is a pretty strong point or projection, forming a kind of tooth, and serving the more easily to tear the prey. The wings are large and strong, and the whole body stout and muscular; the legs strong and short, the claws much curved, and sharp-pointed. These birds generally make a somewhat nég- ligently or slightly-formed nest, in lofty situa- LECTURE V. 163 tions, and lay from two to four eggs. ‘The fe- male in the predacious birds is always larger than the male; and the whole tribe, according ( to Linnzus, may be considered as analogous to the Order Ferg among quadrupeds. Of the predacious tribe the first genus or set is that of Vultur. Its chief character is, a beak of a somewhat lengthened form, running strait to some distance, but curving strongly at the tip: it has no cere or naked membrane at the base: the head and neck, in most species, are bare of feathers, being covered only with a kind of down. The species of Vultures are con- siderably numerous, and they inhabit almost all the warmer parts of the globe, but are not so often seen in the Northern regions, where their presence would be less necessary. They are observed to prey on dead animals in preference to living ones, and as they are always on the watch for those, and prefer such as are in a putrid state, they may be considered as the Sca- .vengers of Nature in the animal world, and are of extreme utility in the hotter regions, by quickly removing all such animal remains as would other- wise tend to infect the air. The largest, and most extraordinary of all the Vultures is the South-American species called the Condor, so long celebrated. as the largest of all birds posséssing the power of flight, and till lately, so very indistinctly described in the works of naturalists. It does not “appear that | a cimen of the,Condor was ever seen’ in Entope till about twelve or fifteen _ years aso, when a female bird was brought over: m a dried state by Captain Middleton, and deposited i in the Le- verian’ Museum. Aboutstwo years afterwards a male, im the most perfect preservation, was ob- tained, and placed in the same collection. It is this latter specimen that has afforded) the oppor: tunity of giving a true description of the Species, which is distinguished by being of a Black co- Jour, with the shorter or secondary wing-feathers white; the head furnished with an,upright, com- pressed, fleshy crest or comb, the throat, to a considerable distance down the breast, naked and red, and the neck furnished, down each side, with several short, circular wattles or flaps: round the upper part of the neck, where it joins the back, is a kind of ruff or tippet of milk-white, downy feathers: the wings are of vast extent, and when ONDOR 606 Ott..Lonion Publifhad by Chearsler Lleet Street. LECTURE V. 168 the bird was fresh killed, are said to haye meae sured nearly fourteen feet from tip to tip. This specimen affords an opportunity of rectifying an important error if the description of the Condor given by general observers, who have seen it in its native regions, but probably at a distance, and with its wings closed; for such descrip tions tell us that the back of the bird is milk. white, which is not the case, but the mistake may be supposed to have arisen from the white wing-feathers folding over the back when the wings are closed. In such descriptions also, the tail is said to be small, whereas, on the contrary, it is large in proportion to the bird. The ac- counts of the Condor, by some of the earlier historians of the Western Continent are singu- larly curious, and such as the more sober phi- losophic faith of European Naturalists could hardly be supposed to admit. These writers assure us that the Vulture Called the Condor is capable of snatching up, and carrying off boys of upwards of ten years of age; that a pair of these destroyers in concert, will attack a heifer in the midst of a field, and tear it in pieces with the utmost ease. In short, the descriptions of he Ne 166 LECTURE V. the Condor bring to our mind the imaginary bird called the Roc or Ruck, which ee sO conspicuous a figure’ in the Ara The most common Europe ure is the itlis’of a” d head and d the base wie castaneus, or great brown dusky chesnut-brown colour, w neck; the long wing-feat of the neck surround *t whitish feathers. This ist in the usual exhibitions o d in the South of Eure f Africa. The Falco, and ¢ pitres is called gles, Falcons and Hawks. It is a genus so very numerous that on t C3 a | computation the species mount to about 120. The ecies is the Golden which is of hades and brane round the base orsgold-colour > an similar colour. Its ets feramnt is ato three feet, and its weight about 12 pounds. It is ob- ‘served to vary in some degree i in its colours, The rIOATR ware? Yevdie Volt’, whe aes a Sofas rolvwa dd aye") Devin ae ea \\ A i ‘A Ni 1808 OctsLondon Publifhd by Ckcarsley Fleet Strect. Owen sculp: 32 LECTURE V. 167 Golden Eagle is the Bird of Jupiter of the an- cient Greeks and Romans. It is numbered among our native British birds, having been oc- casionally observed to breed in the northern parts of the island; but in Ireland it is more com- mon: its extent of wings, when fully expanded, is more than seven feet. The Osprey or F. Halietus of Linnzus is ene of the larger or rather middle-sized species of this genus, and is of a brown colour above, white beneath, with the head whitish, and the cere, legs and feet blue. Linnzeus, i mentioning this bird, falls into a vulgar error, in supposing that the left foot is slightly webbed. The Osprey is a native of Europe, and is found in our own country, chiefly frequenting the sea-shores, and the larger lakes, and preying on fish, which it seizes by precipitating itself upon them from a considerable height*. Few of the present genus * A much larger and finer species, very nearly equalling the Golden Eagle in size, is the Falco Ossifragus of Linneus, which by many naturalists is also called the Sea-Eagle, though very different from the Common Osprey. Its colour is brown with paler variegations, and it is remarkable for the strong curva tare of its sharp-pointed claws, Native of England, &c. ag6 LECTURE V. have any gayety of colours, but some are “pos-— sessed of a high degree of elegance, especially some of tl d of Falcons and Hawks, ipitres is that of - enus is hooked, nostrils are and the head, genus is or principal gle in size, 5 elegantly marked and spottec ish very numerous blackish variegations of dif ar size s;_ the head is dis- eathered tufts, 2 0 é the Eagle- Owl, or Great Horned Owl is not very uncom- bird, generally known by a nan Vee, YN oRrerwar wk Mee. eviews) yi Cait, Ir) See ie eS SSP DEES SES GREAT HORNED OWL 1606 Oct!1 Lonion Publifpd bv Ghearstey Vleet Street. LECTURE V. 169 mon in many parts of Europe, and has been sometimes found in England. In North Ame- tica is a species much allied to it, but differing in having the under parts ash-coloured and marked by very numerous transverse brown lines or bars. The common Brown Owl, and the common Barn Owl must be supposed to be known to every one. Owls in general are calculated for seeing to the greatest advantage in a sober light, for which reason they shun the glare of day, and pur- sue their prey by night; and, as an eminent writer somewhat oddly expresses himself, they see ill because they see too well; their eyes being sensible to the smallest or weakest im- pressions of light. Yet some species have been observed to prey, like Hawks, during the day- time; and it is remarkable that such species are in some degree allied to Hawks in shape; having a slender or lengthened body and a longer tail than the rest of their tribe. The bird called the Caparacoch or Hawk-Owl of North America is of this kind, and is well figured in the ornithological work of Edwards. Some of this genus are remarkable for their small size; as a Siberian species, called by Dr. Pallas 170 LECTURE V. Strix deminuta, which is hardly superior to 4. sparrow in size, and of an elegant grey co- lour, freckled with very numerous dark-brown or blackish specks. Ornithologists differ in some ‘degree about the next or fourth Linnean genus of the Acci- pitres or predacious Birds; some thinking that it should rather be placed among the Picz or Pies. Its habits however are strictly those of Birds of prey. This genus is called Lanius, in English Shrike or Butcher-Bird, which name is given to it on account of its singular practice of separating the limbs of such birds and other animals as it kills, and fastening them on thorns, by regularly transfixing each: this practice 1s not only common to the several European spe- cies, but is observed in those of Africa and Ame- rica. The Great or Common English Shrike or Butcher-Bird ts the Lanius Excubitor of Lin- neeus, and chiefly seen in the northern parts of the kingdom. It is about the size of a Thrush and of a grey colour, with black wings and tail, and a black streak across each eye: the bill and legs are also black. Some of the exotic species ef this genus are of very brilliant colours, LECTURE V. i7t The Order Pic# or Pres, at which we now arrive, is so very numerous, that, far from passing through all the genera of which it is composed, we shall only select a few as examples. » The Order Pice may be considered as analogous to that of Primates among Quadrupeds. The bill varies in structure in the different genera, but is commonly of a slightly compressed and con- vex form: they build their nests or deposit their eggs in trees, and their food is principally of a vegetable nature, though some genera feed on insects. I shall now proceed to select some examples of the genera belonging to this numerous order. The genus Buceros is one of the most singular: it consists of birds of rather large size, and dis- tinguished by the excessive size of their. beaks, -which are often still farther remarkable for some kind of large prominence on the upper man- dible. The most conspicuous species is the Bu- ceros Rhinoceros of Linnzeus, commonly called the Rhimoceros-Bird: its general size is that of a Turkey, but with a much more slender body in proportion. Its colour is black, with the tail white, crossed by a black bar: the beak is of ds, ihe haa ieee a equal in thickness to the Dill “itself, a mm upwards and | . out the entrails of its pre ‘an but c i . hat it is not of 7 a predacious nai ot on vegetable substances. This ic] is d in the FEast-Indian oe _ Museum is a remarkably ne specimen. | But the genus Ramphastos or Toucan ex- hibits a still greater degsee of disproportion us 4. a very slight substance ternal cavity, and the | bird, are so slight thi by the fingers, and aftery (OFS) © A OD) MW DO NL YT ) S CUS || LECTURE V. 173 by their own elasticity. The tongue in the Tou- cans so much resembles a long slender feather, that the first describers considered it as really such: it is of a horny substance, and divided at the edges into innumerable notches or barbs. The Toucans are all natives of South America, and feed on the softer kind of fruits. One of the most remarkable species is the Toco, the Ram- phastos Toco of Linnzus, a bird about the size of a Pigeon, black above and white beneath ; with a bill measuring more than seven inches in length, and of a reddish-yellow colour with a black tip. The Toucans are not very numerous, and are in general of very gay colours; the under parts being commonly either red or bright yel- low, or varied with both these colours; while the prevailing colour of the upper parts is a greenish black. The bills are, in some species, not less brilliant, being richly marked and shaded with red, green, or yellow, generally in the form of long and broad stripes or bands on each side. The genus Psittacus or Parrot needs very little description, since every one knows the usual #14 LECTURE V. shape of a Parrot’s bill, and that the feet are formed for climbing, or are, in the Linnzan phrase, scansorial, that is, with two of the toes forwards, and two backwards. Every one how- ever may not have observed that in a Parrot’s bill the upper mandible is moveable as well as the lower; a very rare particularity in animals; and that the tongue, in most species, is thick and fleshy: mm some however, and particularly in some which are natives of New Holland, the tongue is tipped by a fringe of white cartilagi- nous fibres. So very numerous is this splendid genus, that the species already described in the works of authors amount to more than 170, and new ones are frequently added to the list, particularly from the regions of Australasia or New Holland, and from the Indian islands. The whole genus, for the convenience of investigation, is divided into the long and short-tailed kinds: the long-tailed kinds are remarkable for having the two middle feathers of the tail longest, the rest shortening gradually on each side, so that the shape of the tail is more or less lanced or sharpened in the dif- ferent species. On the contrary, in the short- « ae Griffith scalp GREAT SCARLET Maccaw 2608 OctilLondon Publifhd by Kearsley Fleet Street. LECTURE V. 115 tailed Parrots the feathers of the tail are of equal length, and the end or tip is nearly,even or slightly rounded. The larger kind : | ! rots are called Maceaws ; i : Her Par- The English tern language being 1 . even-tailed kinds. rakeets. rots or Maccaws the most ous is the Psittacus Macao of a or Great Scarlet AMaccaw, which be well considered as one of t of. the whole feathered trib 2 cies, it is di istinguished by having ue, with Te, whi ite, and By Pcie! varies a ike the rest of the a bar of ive of South-America. mt is that of Edwards, Mression of character, as natiy (e.fe a2 feta : is often seen in large flocks, ‘which, from the brilliancy of their colours, when seen at a distance, exhibit the appearance of a kind of flying rainbow. An appearance A wer ww AS eA WAYS “ wolnws LAASLY Boda 5 ~ Parrokeets as, they. are i76 LECTURE V. of this kind is described in Anson’s voyage, of the description of the beautiful isle of Tinian. The Psittacus Ararauna or Blue and Yellow —Maccaw is of similar size and shape, but is entirely of a fine blue colour above, and gold- yellow beneath. — iy set black, and se of the lower man= yellow skin. This very fillit made known to Naturalists fill rh / > a $ ; It is The smaller kind c Parrots, or 0. y called, are wonderfully numerous. As example of these I shall mention the Psitt UC ~ is Alevandri or com- mon Ring-Parrakeet, wl ch a“native of India and the Indian islands, and is supposed to have been first made known to the Greeks and Ro- mans by means of the Indian expeditions of Alexander and his Generals. It seems to have been almost the only Parrot distinctly known tothe Ancients. It is to this species that Ovid’s IC Net O) Heath sculp: USTUS ¥ IF AcuUS ADE SITTA P tS7CCE. C: by CLhearsley Lle tLondonLublifnad 2. LE0E Oct. LECTURE V. Ti beautiful Elegy on the death of Corinna’s Parrot must be referred. One of the most elegant of the Parrakeets is a species lately brought in a dried state from New-Holland, and which I have myself. lately described under the name of Psittacus Melanotos or black-backed Parrakeet. It is a middle-sized species, and remarkable for the vivid contrast of its colours. | Among the short or even-tailed Parrots the common Grey Parrot may serve as an example: it is the Psittacus Erithacus of Linnzus, and is a very well-known species, generally of the size of a small Pigeon, and of a deep-grey co- lour with a red tail: it is a native of the inland parts of Africa. The Parrot called the Ama- zon’s Parrot (P. A’stivus) is also of this di- vision, and is subject to much variety in point of colour. The Parrots called Lories belong also in ge- neral to the short-tailed division in this genus. As an example we may take the Psittacus Gar- rulus or Scarlet Lory, remarkable for the beauty of its plumage. SEGNE PK. N 178 LECTURE V. Among the numerous genera of the Order Pice one of the principal is the genus Wood- pecker or Picus. It is distinguished by having climbing feet, as in the Parrots, and a strait, strong, pointed bill; while the tongue is wonder- fully calculated by Nature for the mode of life to which the animal is destmed, being of equal length, when extended, with the body of the bird; but by an admirable apparatus of muscles and tendons, it is either withdrawn into the bill, or thrust out at pleasure, and is tipped with a sharp horny point, serving to seize and transfix the softer kind of insects upon which the birds of this genus feed ; as well as to probe or search for them in the cavities of the bark and bodies of trees. The residence of the whole genus Pi- cus, which is very numerous, is in the hollows of trees, in which they breed. ‘The most fami- liar example of the genus is the common Green English Woodpecker or P. viridis Lin. frequent in this country, and of a green colour, with the top of the head sprinkled with bright scarlet spots. The Picus major is an elegant British spe- cies also, and notwithstanding its name, is of % AX XN . S MS S S WY SNS 4 x 4 i We t) ti ey Kip e - baoee F Ts 2 Griffith scile se G. @ D My tp ed LTH f Uff ane) »> ATU TH TG i>) a) ae ee ee |=) Pe) Dante tN & Ncarsley Fleet Strecé 7. 4 Octitondon Liublifid by ¢ LECTURE V.. 179 smaller size than the former, and of a black with a red bar across the Of the exotic species, the greater numbe a; one of the chief is the is or White billed Wood- by, the ivory white- “: are natives of A Picus principal is one of the ae ness 0 with a white known some years ago, but w increased by the persevering researches of mo- vd 1$0 LECTURE V. dern naturalists that the number is pretty con- siderable. Of these theliaost common, or that which was earliest knows to the Europeans is the Paradisea apeda of to give it that wir ee Hi Get. Ary of the _ eee remarkably stout and large. The cha- racter of the Paradise-Birds is that the bill, which is somewhat me slightly curved and sharp-pointed, is beset, round the base, with up- right velvet or plush-like feathers, and that from each side, beneath the wings, springs, in most species, a cenain number of loose-webbed fea- thers, of a peculiar construction, and greatly ex- ceeding the rest in length. The P. apoda or common Paradise-Bird 1s about the size of a Thrush, and of a very fine reddish chesmut-colour on the upper parts, and yellowish-white beneath : the velvet-feathers round the bill are black ; the top of the head and the back of the neck yellow, and the throat of the most brilliant golden-green: the tail is of mo- fA vie A 56 Cr wth sculp. EERIE a BE but long and e plumage of a nduct of the not be caleba for th ae when aia On this subject may be found a highly curious and interesting paper in the 78th vol. of the Phil, Trans, by the celebrated Dr. Jenner, from which AD ad Wye” dow det) ein 00 I Ghiee Wolpe Pili! COMMON CUCKOW L606 Octi London Lublifpa by GLearsley Leet Street. LECTURE V. 185 it appears that the young Cuckow, on the very first day of its exclusion from the egg, employs itself in throwing out all the young of the bird under which it. has been hatched; remaining sole possessor of the nest, and engrossing all the care of the parent bird. Whether any of the nu- merous species of Exotic Cuckows pursue a plan so much differing from the general institution of | Nature, seems as yet unknown. But, of all the order Pica, none is so remark- able for beauty and singularity as the numerous genus Trochilus or Humming-Bird. This bril- liant and lively race is peculiar to America, and with few exceptions, to the hottest parts of South America. Their vivacity, swiftness, and singular appearance unite in rendering the Humming- Birds the admiration of mankind; while their colours are so brilliant, that it is not by com- paring them with the analogous hues of other birds that we are enabled to describe their ap- pearance, but by the more exalted brilliancy of polished metals and precious stones; the ruby, the topaz, the garnet, the sapphire, the emerald, and polished gold being considered as the most proper objects of elucidation. It is not however 16. LECTURE V. to be imagined that all the race of Humming- Birds are so decorated; some are even obscure in their colours, and instead of the prevailing splendor of the major part of the genus, exhibit only a faint appearance of a golden-green tinge slightly diffused over the brown or purplish-brown colour of the back and wings: neither are all the species very small, for some few exist which mea- sure many inches in length, and may be con- sidered as the giants of this generally diminutive genus. The structure of the tongue in the Humming- Birds, which constitutes the chief part of the ge- neric character, cannot be sufficiently admired. It consists of a very long double tube, formed somewhat on the principle of the long trunk in some of the Moth and Butterfly tribe, except that instead of being rolled into a spiral form when contracted, it is merely withdrawn and doubled deep into the throat as m the Wood- peckers, and at the tip it is frmged on each side with a few horny hairs or processes. By means of this tongue the animal absorbs the sweet juice or nectar at the bottom of flowers, and always feeds on the wing, stretching out its OZ BIRD C a Xr MMS ATED HU HR © A RED T bp CLear: Lorton Lublyfha % ZE06 O sley Fleet Saeel. es | 187 tongue in the manner of a large Moth, and dart- ing off with the most rapid motion on the least apprehension of danger. One of the most com- mon, as well as one of the most Reauti ful of all oy the Humming-birds is ihe Trochilus Colubris or red-throated Humming-bird, which is not confined to South America, but occurs also in most of the ha ie hs northern parts of that conmnent™ and: ‘is even found as far north as Cansidar Its colour above is green-gold; with purplish-brown ‘wings, and tail; and beheath white, with the throat, to a considerable distanee-over the breast, of the most cP intense and vivid crimson changing, on the least alteration of posture, into the most brilliant gold- colour, and again in some partigular lights, into a ay very dark or blackish: cast. ~ As be ore observed, ok it 1s fount in ee parts ‘of: North gs and ae LS -whoever oe. in summer-time, some of its fa- as the scarlet Mo- Portia tics ag itate ler ee a little breasts: they have often dreadft contests, eS" 2 Reto gag ean when numbers happen to dispute the pos PaaS 2. says an est shat, « 188 LECTURE V. the same flower: they will tilt against each other with such fury as if they meant to transfix their antagonists with their jong bills. During the fight they often pursue the conquered into the apart- ments of houses which happen to have the windows open, and, taking a few turns round the room, like the flies in Europe, again make their escape into the open air. They are almost fearless of mankind, and, in feeding, will sufler people to approach within two yards of them, but if ap- proached more nearly, fly off with the rapidity of lightening.” An author of high credit, Fer- nandez Oviedo, in his History of the Indies, speaks from his own experience of the wonderful cou- rage and spirited instinct of this minute bird in defence of its young. “ When they see a man (says he) climbing a tree where they have their nest, they will fly at his face, and strike him in the eyes, coming, going, and returning, with such swiftness, that no man would lightly believe it that had not seen it.” The nest is of an elegance suited to the architect, being composed of small fragments of mosses and lichens on the outside, and lined within with the down of the leaves of plants: it is somewhat like the nest of a Chaffinch Ay ce i hap * Bravia Lica - ee NT te Bs eek LA oer pe ae TROCHILUS MINIMTS or Least Humming Bird 4608 Oct'1London Publifhid by CMearsley Fleet Street. LECTURE V. 189 in miniature, its internal diameter being about an inch, and its depth about half an inch. The bird lays only two eges, which are white, round, and of the size of small pease. It is a general ‘tule of nattire that the smallest birds lay the The aii O: Trochilus Minimus Splerlid in co , being at a dul eilded green above, with brown or pur plish wings and tail, and white beneath; it measures only. an inch and quarter in total length, frou the tip of the bill to . the end of the tail. Itisa native of South-America, to be sometimes found in the =. yf; vA ‘but is said bkegre the Trochilus Pella ov Topaz biuta Ringer, the body of which is of the size of a Wreay, but as the two middle tail-feathers greatly exceed the rest in length, and 3 the bill is also of consider- able length, the total extent of the bird amounts to more than eight inches. The colour of the body is a deep brownish rose-red; of the back, wings, and tail purple; the head black, and the throat “as MibeeSe 5 Wack ANVAK say Veayy \ 190 LECTURE V. and breast of the most vivid changeable polished- gold or topaz-colour, varying according to the light, into deep green. It is a native of Surinam. I should observe, that this very numerous genus is divided into two assortments, according to the shape of the bill, which is either stract or curved. The species just mentioned is one of the curve- billed kinds, but the two preceding ones belong to the strait-billed division. The Humming-birds _ have rarely been so coloured in the figures given in the works of naturalists, as to convey any very - exact idea of their brilliant hues. An ingenious _ attempt has been lately made by a French artist, Audebert, to express by means of prepared gold itself, properly rubbed on the copper-plate used in the process, the metallic brilliancy of the birds; but though the work be highly. elegant, yet it must be acknowledged that the experiment has not succeeded so completely as might be wished. The publication itself however is highly valuable, since it collects in one view more species and va- rieties than had ever been represented in any one work before. In this work also the peculiar struc- ture of the brilliant feathers of the Humming- bird is well explained, and it is justly observed LECTURE V. 19} that this is owing to the barbs or lateral plumes of the feathers being of a flattened form, of a some- what horny structure, and so disposed as to form on each feather very numerous rows of concave cylindric mirrors as it were, which very strongly reflect the light which falls upon them in different directions. There is one more particular to be noticed with respect to this curious genus, which is, that if we may rely on the observations of a French observer, who had frequent opportunities of examining their manner of life in the West Indies, some of the larger Humming-birds have been known to swallow minute insects as well as the juices of flowers; fragments of such, accord- ing to Monsieur Badier, having been sometimes found in their stomachs. ‘This however is con- tradicted by others who have never been able to perceive any remains of insects in the stomachs of these birds, but merely the chrystallized sac- charine matter or juice which had been extracted from flowers. ) One would almost be tempted to suppose that in those cases in which the remains of insects had been found, some species of Certhia or Creeper had been mistaken for a Humming-bird; the Certhie 192 LECTURE V. feeding on insects, and the smaller kinds being se nearly allied in appearance to the Humming-birds that they seem to differ only m the structure of the tongue, which is not of a tubular form. 193 LECTURE VI. Tue Order Passeres of Linnzeus may be said to comprehend most of the smaller kind of land birds in general, together with some of a larger size than the rest. ‘The natural characters of this order of birds are the following. The bill is form- ed so as to operate in the manner of a forceps; the limbs are rather weak than strong: their flight is quick, with a frequent repetition of the move- ment of the wings: they chiefly build in trees, or shrubs, and in general lay a moderate number of - eggs, except some of the smaller species, which lay numerous ones. They excel in the art of nidi- fication or constructing their nests. Their food is either animal or vegetable; some live chiefly on insects, some on seeds, and some on both. The whole order is considered by Linnzus as ana- logous to the Glires among Quadrupeds. The Pigeon tribe, forming the first Linnzan LECT. I. Oo 194 LECTURE VI. genus in this order, under the title of Columba, is by some referred to a distinct order called the Columbine. The generic characters of the Pigeon are a rather weak and slender bill, swelled at the base into a soft protuberance in which the nostrils are situated: the tongue is entire or undivided. The common Pigeon may stand as an example. To give a particular history of the Pigeon would be superfluous. In its wild state it is known by the name of the Stock-Dove, and mhabits the hollows of rocks and other similar situations. In its domestic or cultivated state it runs into a number of beautiful varieties, the culture of which forms a particular kind of business. This ad- diction to the more rare and singular kind of Pigeons is not confined to modern times, but may be traced to the ancient Romans, who, ac- cording to the testimony of Pliny, were as far gone in the expensive varieties of tame* Pigeons * Among others the variety called the carrier Pigeon was highly esteemed both among the Greeks and Romans: it is the nature of this bird to retain a very strong and almost invincible attachment to the place of its early residence: being therefore carried elsewhere, it hardly ever fails to fly back again to its native spot. If therefore marked by any particular token, as a signal of LECTURE VI. 195 as the moderns*. The Pigeon is the C. Oenas of Linnezus. It must not be confounded with the Wood-Pigeon, Ring-Dove; or the Columba Pa- lumbus of Linnzeus, which is of much larger size: in some writers, however, we find this latter bird improperly named the Stock-Dove. Thus Thom- son in particular so names it. “ The Stock-Dove only thro’ the forest cooes Mournfully hoarse; oft ceasing from his plaint, Short interval of weary woe; again The sad idea of his murder’d mate Struck from his side by savage fowler’s guile Across his fancy comes; and then resounds A louder song of sorrow thro’ the grove.” intelligence ; or if a letter be tied to its leg, it becomes the swiftest of all messengers. The tales related of this bird are almost in- credible. One has been known to fly from Babylon to Aleppo, (which is considered as a distance of thirty days journey,) in the space of forty-eight hours. * Linnzus observes that the domestic Pigeon commonly, or at least frequently, breeds once a month; laying two eggs each time: the increased production of the whole, would amount in the space of four years to the number of eighteen thousand, Others say that from a single pair of Pigeons may proceed four- teen thousand in the space of four years. — etter \ku ee 196 _ LECTURE VI. The species of Pigeons are ony merous, and many are remar pressed crest. The eyes are of t and the whole bird has an air of : nificence. | The Pigeons are s tribe of Thrushes Linnzus. that those at renus consists in having Pbending towards the tip ch side: the nostrils are ~The common Song-T ‘stand uh = example. ‘Tt ‘is Drown above, V uitish | neath, with reversed arrow-shaped spots. on the breast and belly. The Fieldfare is another species, brown above, Mi A WA SWAN GREAT CROWNED. PIGEON 28008 Octi7 London Publifiid bv Clhtcarstey Fleet Sirect. Kearsley Fleet Strecl a fr. hd bi tb Lif 18008 OctiiLonion Pub 65 UVLTRAMARINE AMPELIS 08 Cctr Londen Publif{hd bv Chearsley Fleet Street. ' LECTURE VI. 197 CR with the head lead-coloured or blueish grey, the body white beneath. Of the exotic Thrushes none are more remark- able than the celebrated bird call efhe es the nostrils over them. It is ne for the extre ne splendor 6 numerous ge mae peltg Coting for instance, or] * In the large picture at a, us, may be seen both these beautiful species by the Hips Sat glee pea of the Chevalier . de Barde; they are taken from select specimens in the Leverian | Museum. iii Merk pea! A wilt 3 PA ah ae i 198 LECTURE VI. The only European species is the A. Garrulus, or * Bohemian Chatterer of the older writers; it is a native of many parts of Europe, and is an occa- sional visitant in our own country. It is of a beautiful bright bay Si ur, ‘with the larger wing and tail-feathers blacl s easily distinguished by the remarkable appearance of the secoudary wing-feathers, whic sach tipped with a small, flat, oval append pant red colour and 7 Se a y t ‘the Bullfinch, the Cross , ar d paee ey by the bird a or Se Rf sir usually rircithtseare a hard or callous tubercle, serving for the convenient ‘breaking of seeds and other vegetable substances on which. these birds chiefly live. Like the genus Loxia, it contains a great number of speciesn.. 0 = o> pare ne Waza5e,* Meath sculp: COCCOTHRAUSTES o7 GROSSRB Ti, 2808 Oct/1L nbon Lublif{ha by Chicarstey Llict Street. LECTURE VI. 199 The remaining genera of the Order Passeres, consist of the more Slender-billed small birds; or such as, from the structure of their beaks, are more calculated for feeding on the smaller and softer insects than on grain. Linneus ranges the major part of these birds under a vast genus called Motacilia or Warbler, the characters of which are a weak, slender bill, slightly notched at the tip: the tongue either divided or jagged at the tip, and the legs slender. These birds live Pe pay on the smaller kind of insects and worms. Among the principal species is the Nightingale, which is the 17. Luscinia of Linnzeus, a native of most parts of Europe and Asia, and of a migra- tory nature. In our own country it arrives, as is well known, about the beginning of April, and leaves us in the month of August. « To every person, (says the Count de Buffon,) whose ear is not totally insensible to melody, the name of the Nightingale must recal the charms of those soft evenings in spring, when the air is still and serene, and all nature seems to listen to the songster of the grove. Other birds, the larks, the canaries, the chaffinches, the petty-chaps, the linnets, the goldfinches, the blackbirds, the Ame- 200 . LECTURE VI. rican mocking-birds, excel” in the several: parts which they perform: but the nightingale com- bines the whole, and joins sweetness of tone with variety and extent of execution. | His notes assume each diversity of character, and receive every change of modulation; not a part’ is re- peated without variation; and the attention is kept perpetually awake, and charmed by the endless flexibility of strains. The leader of the vernal chorus begins the prelude with a low and timid voice, and he prepares for the hymn to na- ture by essaying his powers and attuning his organs: by degrees the sound opens and swells ; it bursts with loud and vivid flashes; it flows with smooth volubility; it faints and murmurs; - it shakes with rapid and violent articulations: the soft breathings of love and joy are poured from his inmost soul, and every heart beats in unison, and melts with delicious languor. But this continual richness might satiate the ear. The strains are at times relieved by pauses, which bestow dig- nity and elevation. The mild silence of evening heightens the general effect, and not a rival in- terrupts the solemn scene.” J must not omit to observe, that, according to LECTURE VI. . 901 the united testimonies of all modern naturalists, the admired song of the Nightingale is that of the male bird, who thus employs himself, as if to entertain and soothe the female during her task of incubation; so that the celebrated lines of Virgil, however beautiful in point of poetry, are in reality inaccurate in point of natural history. Qualis populea meerens Philomela sub umbra Amissos queritur foetus, quos durus arator Observans, nido implumes detraxit ; at illa Flet noctem, ramoque sedens, miserabile carmen Integrat, et meestis late loca questibus implet. So close in poplar shades, her children gone, The mother Nightingale laments alone: Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence, By stealth, convey’d th’ unfeather’d innocence. But she supplies the night with mournful strains, And melanchely music fills the plains. Among the very numerous species of the genus Motacilla, every one must be acquainted with the common Water-Wagtail, or M. Alba of Linnzus; ._-but so very marked and peculiar is the appearance of this bird and afew others nearly allied to it, that Dr. Latham in his excellent Ornithology, has instituted for these birds a separate genus to 202 : LECTURE VI. the i Motaci I | the Indian specie called tl It is so name oie toge- ther se for this yeep oe of any ki setable filament that it can most >. prepared from e sewn toge- mY 4 : if r ther, so as to if of two leaves, the edge fed in a similar manner, “The figure at p : exhibited is copied from Mr. Pennant’ : Zoology ; and the original Is a ir 0 in the possession en, ‘The rg of the leaves a The colour ~ - pat the European birds genus Parus or Titmouse is distinguished for the remarkable neatness of the nest in some species ; more parti- cularly the elegant little species called the long- 67 RRR SS LZ Zs -BIRD ) XN weet. a Si lev Fleet T'S: Le E : \ VYLOE KN A \ N ) AANA ANANSNNNNY ANY lt A LL Tie wy ANN SEEEFEE y ly ANY Za Z Os WY SS hd b Lind 1808 Oct1Lontlor Lub LECTURE VI. 203 tailed Titmouse, which builds a deep oval nest with a lateral opening. Others build pendent nests as the Polish T. or P. pendulinus. Among the soft-billed Passeres or small-birds the genus Hirundo or Swallow is remarkable for many particularities. The characters of the genus consist in a small short bill, with a broadish base; a wide mouth or gape; a short, divided tongue ; long wings, and short legs. The common Swallow, or Hirundo rustica, is a migratory bird, varying its residence according to the season, on account, chiefly, of the insect tribes on which it feeds. If kept in a sufficiently warm apartment, and supplied with insect food, the common Swallow may be kept throughout the winter, without exhibiting any symptoms of an inclination to torpidity. It is well known that it has been by many supposed to remain torpid, or rather concealed in close caverns and other retired situations durmg the winter season; and this really appears to have been sometimes the case | with the later broods; instances having been known of Swallows suddenly appearing on the tops of suxny buildings and rocks in the middle of winter. Among the most extravagant theories, | 204 LECTURE VI. was that of the supposed submersion of the Swal- low tribe under water during the winter ; but I forbear to dwell any longer on a topic so often discussed, and shall recommend to those who may wish to pursue the argurhents on all sides, relative to the dormancy of Swallows, to the pages of Pennant, Buffon, Klein, Willughby, and especially to those of the Gentleman’s Magazine, where they may find an ample harvest of observations on the subject, One curious circumstance should not be omitted in the history of the Swallow, which is, that the same pair have been known to return to the self- same spot in which they bred the year before: this has been -observed for at least three years successively, and has been ascertained by mark- ing the birds, before their disposition to migration, by a circle of red or other coloured silk fastened round their legs. Allied to the Swallow genus is that of Capri- mulgus or Goatsucker, a genus of birds, differing, as Linnzus observes, in the same degree from the Swallows that Moths do from Butterflies; for in reality the Goatsuckers may almost be considered - as a kind of nocturnal Swallows. The bill is very LECTURE VI. 205 small in most species, but broad at the base, the gape or swallow excessively wide; the edges of the jaws beset with strong bristles, the wings long, and the tail even, or not forked. They are, in general, birds of moderate size, and are remark- able for their curiously variegated or speckled plumage, without any briliancy of colour. The common European Goatsucker, the only species known in Europe, is a migratory bird, appearing in England during the summer months, and feed- ing, like the rest of this genus, on the larger kind of Moths, Beetles, and other insects*. ~The largest of the genus is the Caprimulgus Grandis or Great South American Goatsucker, in size scarce inferior to a Buzzard, and with a mouth so wide as to measure three inches in the gape, or from the tip of the bill to the angle of the mouth. Its plumage is a dull cream colour with very nu- merous brown freckles or variegations. But the most curious or singular of all the Goatsuckers is an African species discovered not many years ago in Sierra Leona, and which is somewhat smaller than the common European Goatsucker. It is * It flies by night, and is sometimes called the Fern-Owl, or Churn-Owl. 206 LECTURE VI. remarkable for having two excessively long naked shafts, springing from the upper part of the shoulders, in the middle of the smaller covert- feathers: these naked shafts far exceed the length of the whole bird, and are dilated at the tip into a very large oval web or plumed part. This spe- cies, which in colour pretty nearly resembles the European species, is known by the name of the Caprimulgus longipennis or long shafted Goat- sucker, and may be considered as one of the most remarkable of the whole feathered tribe. The Order Gallinz, to which we shall now turn our attention, contains the Gallinaceous birds, meaning such as are allied in habit or general ‘ap- pearance, as well as in their mode of life, to the common domestic fowl. This order comprises the Cock or Pheasant tribe, the Turkey, the Par- tridges and Quails, and several other birds of a similar nature. The birds of this tribe have, in general, heavy bodies, short wings, very conyex, strong, and rather short bills, the upper mandible closing or shutting over the edges of the lower: they have strong legs, and the toes are usually connected at the base by a strong membrane, reaching as far as the first joint, and they are fur- LECTURE VI. 207 nished with rather broad claws, formed for scratch- ing up the ground in search of food, and other purposes: these birds have also in general more than twelve feathers in the tail, in which par- ticular they resemble the web-footed birds. The Gallinaceous birds feed chiefly on grains and seeds, and sometimes on insects: they build a nest of a careless structure, and in general lay numerous eggs. This tribe of birds is considered by Lin- nzeus as analogous to the tribe of Pecora or Ru- minants among Quadrupeds. It is remarkable that, according to the old Mosaic Law, these birds alone were considered as pure, or proper for human food, Of the common domestic fowl, of which the history and manners are too well known to require particular illustration, we need only observe that it is of East Indian extraction, and still occurs in its natural or wild state in some of the East Indian islands. In this state it is generally of a dark or blackish grey colour, barred and streaked with white variegations, and the narrow feathers of the neck haye the shafts or middles dilated into a kind of horny tip. In its domestic state it is well known to run into very numerous 208 LECTURE VI. varieties, of which the most remarkable «is that called the Svdk Fowl, (S. lanatus Lin.) in which the whole body is covered with feathers so loosely webbed as rather to represent hair than plumes. This variety is most common in some parts of — China and Japan. Another very remarkable va- riety of the common fowl is called the Negro Fowl, in which not only the whole plumage, but the comb, wattles, skin, and even the flesh itself are entirely black. This variety is said to be chiefly found in some of the lower parts of Africa. The genus or particular set in which the fowl is placed is entitled Phasianus, and comprehends not only the fowl but all the Pheasants. Its cha- racters are that the cheeks or sides of the head are bare, or covered by a naked skin: that the bill is short and strong, and that the legs, in most species, are armed with spurs. / The common Pheasant or Phastanus Colehheus of Linnzeus, takes its title from the regions of the ancient Colchos, where it was formerly found, and — from whence it was first brought into different parts of Europe. Of late years some other highly beautiful birds of this genus have been rendered ie kK = ARGUS PHEASANT M08 Ob Lond E ub hifhed by Ghcarstea Lect Street. - LECTURE VI. 209 common in our own country in a domestic state, as the Gold Pheasant of China or P. pictus of Linnzus, of which if we had seen the figure only, and not the bird itself, we might have rather ima- gined it to have been a mere pictorial animal, than a real or genuine species, so peculiarly vivid and varied is its elegant plumage. The Argus Pheasant, so remarkable for its size and beauty, though unaccompanied by any brilliancy of colour, is a native of Sumatra, and has for many years been considered as consti- tuting one of the chief ornaments of the Eu- ropean Museums. | There exists in China some very large species of Pheasant as yet undescribed, and known to us only from the long tail-feathers, which are some- times brought over, and which are of such a length as to exceed six feet: their colour is grey, with very numerous brown bars. This may perhaps be the bird mentioned by Marco Polo, who says that in the neighbourhood of the city of Sirigas in Carthage are large Phea- sants, with tails measuring from seven to ten spans in length. LECT, I. P 210 LECTURE VI. The P.ignitus or Fire-backed Pheasant, de- scribed in Sir George Staunton’s, Account of the Embassy to China, is a species, which till that period had either never been described, or so im- properly and indistinctly as. to convey no just idea of the bird. I confess however. that I have. some suspicion of its being very nearly allied to the Guan of Edwards’s Ornithology. If so, it has been referred by Linnzus and others to.a, wrong, genus, and considered as a species of ‘Turkey... | The Turkey, so long domesticated. in, this country as well as in most other parts of Europe; is a native of North America, and by no means of India, as sometimes imagined. The. genus to which the Turkey belongs is called, Meleagris, and is distinguished by a short, thick bill, and the head and throat covered by spongy tubereulated, bare, reddish, vr other coloured membrane, . The Turkey in its native regions of North America is commonly ofa black colour, accompanied bya coppery and greenish gloss. It is seen in, nu- merous flocks, and is principally found in woods, A. very fine specimen, of the Wild American Tur- key may be seen in the Leverian Museum, The LECTURE VI. 911 Turkey is commonly said to have been intro- duced into England, or cultivated in a domestic state, in the reign of King Henry the Eighth. ~ A very numerous genus called Tetrao or Par- tridge succeeds. It contains a vast variety of species, of which by far the major part are inha- bitants of Africa and America. In our own country the two prevailing species are the Com- mon Partridge and the Common Quail. The former of these is so well known that it would appear a mere loss of time to particularize its description. The latter or the Quail is less com- mon; and is a migratory species, varying its quarters according to the season. The Quail, says an excellent ornithologist, seems to spread en- titely through the old world, but does not inhabit the new: it is seen from the Cape of Good Hope” even to Iceland ; and throughout Russia, Tartary, and China; and is mentioned by so many tra- vellers and in so many places, that we may almost call it a universal inhabitant of the old continent. In spring it migrates northward, and in autumn southward ; and this in large flights, like most other migrating birds. Twice in a year such vast flights come into the island of Capri (in the 212 LECTURE VI. Archipelago) that the bishop of the island draws his chief revenue from them, and has thence been sometimes e Bishop of Quails. Almost lan Archipelago, and on the op- so at particular times covered ~ On the western coast also of aples, within a space of about é bashed da in the Wind sen, neat hts, am , athong the : nail having been th during their abode i The Quail is the nus, aes, pd esas as of Lin- ‘ BX thes foe = , edth;eye. <7) tags ee In China is a species much allied to it but of a smaller size, and with a black crescent be- neath the throat. ‘This is the species trained by ak > A Wwitddet\ 1) 1] Ni Hy) Ze Hy ay Wi MM AY i] “Yip, DODO 1608 Ocki Lonbon Lublifiia by 6 Kearsley Lleet Street. k 24 Fy) ae LECTURE VI. ais the Chinese for fighting, in the manner of Cocks in Europe. The Francolin is a beautiful species, about the size of the common Partridge or rather larger, and elegantly variegated with different colours: it is a native of the Grecian Islands, and is the F. Francolinus of Linnezus, Among the Gallinaceous tribe we must by no means omit that most singular bird the Dodo, a very large and thick-bodied bird, formerly seen in the island of Bourbon in the Indian seas, as well as in some parts of Africa, but which for nearly two centuries appears to have eluded all the diligence of naturalists to detect. The only authentic original figure of the Dodo is a paint- ing preserved in the British Museum, which is said to have been executed from the living bird, brought into Holland by the Dutch some time after the discovery of the Indies by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. The bird appears to be considerably larger than a Turkey, with very short wings, useless for flight, and with a large head, an extremely large thick bill, and very short, thick legs. A skin of a Dodo was preserved in the Museum of the famous John 214 LECTURE VL Tradescant, at Lambeth, and was seen by our famous Ray, who mentions it in his Synopsis of Birds; but this skin appears to have been after- wards suffered to decay; the beak alone, with one of the legs, and that in a state of consi- derable decay, being now preserved in the Ash- molean Museum at Oxford, which is well known to contain the old collection of Tradescant. The Leg of a Dodo was also preserved in the Mu- seum of the Royal Society, and is well described by Grew in his description of that collection: it is at present in the British Museum, and, (fortunately for ascertaining the real existence of so extraordinary a bird,) is in a good state of preservation; amply confirming the description given. by Dr. Grew, and at once demonstrating to the eye of every ornithologist that it cannot belong to any other known bird. This leg, from the British Museum, with the beak from the Oxford Museum may be found amply de- scribed and figured in the Naturalists’ Miscellany, where I have taken some pains to evince the existence of the animal, which has been some- times considered as doubtful. The bird. itself - however is either grown so rare as to be,no LECTURE VI. 215 longer easily discoverable in the regions where it was formerly found, or else, like some other animals, must have become extinct, from some causes of destruction with which we’ are un- acquainted. It would be unnecessary to observe that the generic characters of the Dodo, (which is the Didus ineptus of Linnzeus,) are taken from the figures. published by Edwards and others, and which have been copied from the painting in the British Museum. The colour of the Dodo is a variegation of black and white, as may be seen in the coloured engraving of Edwards. The figure of the Beak from the Oxford Museum, and of the Leg from the British Museum wilt give a sufficiently clear idea of the characters of the genus. The bill is strongly wrinkled or indented in the middle; and the legs are thicker in proportion to their length than in any other bird. But the Pride of the order Gallinze, and indeed of the whole feathered race, is the genus Pavo or Peacock; in the chief species of which, or Pavo cristatus, Nature seems to have exhangved all her powers of splendor combined with ele- 216 LECTURE VI. gance. The Peacock is a native of India, and when the conquering Alexander led his deso- lating Myriads into the peaceful plains of India, he is said to have been so struck by the sight of the Peacock in its native regions, and in the full magnificence of its plumage, as to have for- bidden any one to destroy a Peacock under pain of death. It may not be improper to observe, on the subject of the Peacock, that the beau- tif 1 set of.feathers ing from the lower yart of the b : led the tail, do not it Sail i h is si uated be- e that of feathers co nsti uting the yadmired train 1 together with the ‘upright and sl] feathers on the head, constitute of the genus Pavo. : There are two remarkable e penera of bi which are placed by ornith olosists in diffe Orders; some referring them to the present Order Galling, while ot ers rather choose rank them among the Gre lle. These are genera called Struthio yee’; OSTRICH LAE Ot 1 London Publifiiid by Chi asley Lleck Stevi ii. eR RE SE DR be TR ORO oye ARE : ih ; fs re tk i ay i SR [ - , 2 5 ‘ *® . La | \ # a iy oh : nak ’ | st \: nt fc) ‘eel, ‘ Bre i ie } ' ne b, . 7 ’ \ ' sh ; / ji 4 ‘ ) ; . . . b pS. , . : -——* bg ‘ * rw : ” LECTURE. VI. 217 these two genera seem to be of an ambiguous cast, and may with almost equal propriety be placed in either order. The genus Struthio or Ostrich is eminently conspicuous among birds; containing by far the largest of the feathered tribe. The generic characters consist in a some- what conical, and slightly flattened bill; wings useless for flight, and feet formed for running, being destitute of the hind or back toe. The Common Ostrich, of which at least the general appearance and common history must be known to almost every one, is a native of the hottest parts of Africa; the body of the male is black, of the female brown; the wings and tail in both are white; the neck neagly bare, and of a flesh colour: the legs excessively strong, and the feet have only two toes, a particularity not to be found in any other bird. The Ostrich is supposed to feed principally on vegetable substances: it has been accused, from the earliest times, of a proverbial neglect of its eggs, which it is supposed to leave in the sand withdut paying any regard to their se- curity. Dr. Sparrman however is inclined to 218 LECTURE VI. believe that the male and female Ostrich sit by turns on the eggs, which are generally from ten or twelve to twenty in number; (not fifty, as mistakenly stated by Linnaeus in the Systema Nature. ) | Other travellers of high reputation assure us, that the male Ostrich, accompanied by three, four, or five females, makes a kind of nest or cavity, in which all the females deposit their re- spective eggs, which they all likewise sit on, the male occasionally relieving them by exercising that office himself. The American or three-toed Ostrich was of course unknown till the discovery of that Con- tinent. It is a native of South America, and perhaps the only specimen known in Europe is that in the Leverian Museum; but it has rather the appearance of a half-grown bird than one of its full growth. The colour of the American Ostrich is brown, with whitish wing and tail feathers, and the feet have three toes. In the same genus with the Ostrich is by Linneus placed the Cassowary, or Emu, under the title of Struthio Casuarius; but of late it has S OLILW aL 2) S$ DUCED OLS 'V >.) STIUVILL SIVY SAU DLS V ———— = = LECTURE VI. PAY been rather considered as belonging to a distinct genus onde the name of Casuarius, and is called pie ; us Galeatus. The,Cassowary is a native ‘of the E islands, and was first brought | ds the close coal-black otal want “3 of W -side: 1ead is a very § some= what 4 ising crest or helmet, down each — side the neck run a pair of long spongy wattles of an irregular surface and of a mixed red and violet-colour. The feathers of this bird are re- markably long and narrow, so as to give the bird at first sight the appearance of being co- Lei be H ‘i uble, two springing from one i oe ee the legs f ll, StiA ACSF Tee, Miscellaneous f; and Barraband in (, 74 ed at Paris. A 229 LECTURE Vt. In New Holland is a species of Cassowary of rather superior size to the Indi: n Casso- Fe wary, ¢ s a brown cle destit 78.2. under the n name of Casuarir i The genus Otis or Bustard=is by a slightly convex and rather poi “open nostrils, ee divided legs, naked above th runnin g, h ¥ <, nd sometimes a open plains, is a very Jarge bird, of Ny ne neck and legs, and il6wish bye wi our, elegantly varied erse streaks and bars. this pc ‘ uA oo bait it 3 is s remarkabl e emale bi bird is des. titute of a similar She a a A general food of the bustard is supposed to be of a vegetable nature, but it also feeds on worms and insects, J arf ie i 1 i] i. i AAS ii hy Y jpeg OPE vn DOR BUS TARD 26068 Ot'1 London Publif~had bv Chearstey I leet Street _ Yt 0 . LLP F, a ee 2s 2 aSnig: . ew ey LECTURE VI. 921 and, according to some late observations, on rats and field-mice. A very extraordinary cir- cumstance has been lately related of ‘this bird ; viz. that it has been known to descend suddenly from its flight, and from some unknown caprice, to attack a horse and its rider with great vio- lence, and with such blind fury as to suffer itself to be seized by the traveller, rather than at- tempt an escape. Two instances of this are recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine of the date of about two years past. The two remaining Orders of Birds are the Gralle and Anseres, or the /Vaders and the Web-footed Birds. The former of these tribes is termed Gralle on account of the general length of the legs in these birds, which in some genera is such as to give the appearance of the birds walking as it were on stilts, the Latin word Gralle signifymg a pair of. stilts. The birds contained in this tribe are all the Herons, Cranes, Storks, and Bitterns; all the Snipe and Pinata. The Jbises, the Coots and Rails, and several other birds, some of very large size, and some rather small. I must also here ob- serve, that systematical ornithologists differ in 222 LECTURE VI. opinion as to the arrangement of some of the genera in the Order Gralla, some of which ap- pear of a dubious cast, and may with almost equal propriety be referred either to the Grall@ or Galling; while others seem to hang in equal suspence between the Gralle and the Anseres or Web-footed Birds. In both these tribes I shall, as usual, parti- cularize only some of the most important genera. We shall commence with the Order Grallae. The Order Gralle is considered by Linneus as analogous to the Order Bruta among Qua- drupeds. The bill in these birds .is generally rather long than short: the legs lengthened, and the thighs often bare of feathers above the knee. Their chief residence is in watery situations, and their food consists of various kinds of aquatic animals, though some feed also on vegetable sub- stances. Their nests are often on the ground, sometimes in tall trees. It is observed that’ few of the birds of this order lay more than four egos, and some genera only two. Perhaps the most remarkable genus among the Grallz or Waders is that of Mycteria or Jabiru. It is distinguished by having a very COMMON JABIRU mw HOLLAND JABIRU NI LECTURE VI. 223 large, pointed beak, which instead of descending, as in the generality of birds, turns slightly up- the front or face is bare of feathers, e legs are of great length, with feet of a es ay ae idle Ware the oe | or general structure; that is having forwa rds and. one backwards, ‘The -. speci es of this genus. mentioned by pinnae is the Mycteria Americana or Common Jabitt, — a very large bird, a native of See ce of a white colour, with the bill, long wing- feathers and. tail black, and the neck bare, of a black colour, encircled at the bottom by a broad red, zone or collar; but-of late years two other species have been added to this genus, one of which is the bird now before us; it is called the M:. Senegalensis or Senegal Jabiru, and differs from. the American or Common Jabiru beak, with a ne in having a pale one whitis _ base, and crossed near the midd r am black bar, OF this species 1 mo one a description may be found in ‘the ‘fifth | volume of | the Transactions of the Linnean Society. New Holland has also afforded another species, smaller than the former, and distinguished by having the 224 LECTURE VI. neck covered with feathers, and of a deep change- able greenish-black colour. A fine specimen may be seen in the Leverian Museum, now (unfor- tunately for the study of natural history,) con- demned to dispersion. The birds of this genus are supposed to live in the manner of Herons, to which their whole habit bears a near resemblance. ‘The Herons, which belong to a genus called Ardea, are by far the most numerous of all the tribe of wading-birds or Grallz, and are distin- guished by a rather large and long, strait sharp- pointed bill, generally marked on each side by a longitudinal furrow. Their legs are very long, and the feet of the usual or general structure, except that, in some species, the claw of the middle toe is deeply serrated or toothed on its inner edge, in order the better to enable such species to hold their prey, which often consists of fish, frogs, and other water-animals. The common Heron must be known to every one, and is a very frequent inhabitant of the country. The Crane, now so rarely seen, and that only as an accidental visitant, was once a constant inhabitant. It is a migratory species, and, unlike most of the genus, LECTURE.VI. 225 feeds, at least principally, on grain of, different 'kinds*. The largest bird of the Heron tribe. is ‘the East Indian species called the Hargil, or Giant -Crane, or Giant-Heron; chiefly seen in Bengal. It is of a blackish colour, with a nko ‘yellowish neck, an extremely large beak, and a long, pendent craw or crop. On opening one of _these birds, says an eminent traveller, was found e land-tortoise ten inches long in its craw, anda ‘large black cat in its stomach. It is said to be easily tamed, and rendered issih: in which ‘state it has been permitted to fly about at plea- sure in the neighbourhood, when it has been ob- served to sit on the tallest trees, and at the dis- tance of two or three miles could spy the dinner ‘carrying along the court-yard; and would then dart from its station, and soon join the company, and has been known or snatch up a whole fowl 7 from the dish, and sw allen it in an instant: the traveller adds, that the bone of a shin of beef, being broken asunder, served it but for two mouth- # The Indian Crane or Ardea Antigone of Linnzus, ie nearly allied in general appearance to the Crane, but differs in having a red bare collar round the neck: it is well figured in the works of Edwards. LECT. I: bt Pe 226 LECTURE VI. fuls. A young bird of this species is preser the British Museum. The Stork is a large species of Heron, af a white colour, with the longer wing-feathers black, and the legs and beak of a bright red. The Bitterns are a kind of Herons which differ from the rest in the thicker or shorter appearance of their bodies, and in the fulness of the feath on the breast. The common Bittern, wh _Ardea stellaris of Linnzeus, is a very dle; Yi. of a pale yellowish brown, beautifully. darker streaks and specks: it is found situations, 2 and is thus explaine ee Sir Thome Browne, « That a Bittor maketh that mugient noise, Lor NS oS eS f Ff : ) Bee ae TERRY ; BIT TERN | STORK 26006 Ovtir.London Lublifhi bv Chearstey “lect Sree. LECTURE VI. 227 as we term it, bumping, by putting its bill into a reed, as most believe, or as Bellonius and Aldro- ~ yandus conceive, by putting the same in water or mud, and after a while retaining the air by sud- denly excluding it again, is not so easily made eut. For my own part, though after diligent enquiry, I could never behold them in this motion; notwithstanding by others whese observations we have expressly requested, we are informed, that some have beheld them making this noise on the shore, their bills being far enough removed from reed or water; that is, first strongly attracting the air, and unto a manifest distention of the neck, and presently after with great contention and vio- lence excluding the same again. As for what others affirm of putting their bill in water or mud, it is also hard to make out. For what may be observed from aiiy that walketh the fens, there is little intermission, nor any observable pause, be- tween the drawing in and sending forth of their breath. And the expiration or breathing forth doth not only produce a noise, but the inspiration or hailing in of the air, affordeth a sound that may be heard almost a flight shot. Nba Now the reason of this strange and peculiar 228 LECTURE VE. noise, is deduced from the conformation of the wind-pipe, which in this bird is different from other volatiles. For at the upper extream it hath no fit larynx or throttle to qualify the sound, and at the other end, by two branches deriveth itself into the lungs. Which division consisteth only of semicircular fibres, and such as attain but half way round the part: by which formation they are dilatable into larger capacities, and are able to contain a fuller proportion of air; which being with violence sent up the weazon, and finding no resistance by the larynx, it issueth forth m a sound like that from caverns, and such as some- times subterraneous eruptions from hollow rocks afford. As Aristotle observeth in a problem; and is observable in pitchers, bottles, and that instru- ment which Aponensis upon that problem de- scribeth, wherewith in Aristotle’s time gardiners affrighted birds. Whether the large perforations of the extre- mities of the weazon, in the abdomen, admitting large quantity of air within the cavity of its mem- branes, as it doth in Frogs, may not much assist this mugiency or boation, may also be considered. For such as have beheld them making this noise rel ~ Sarect. hd by GIearsley Fleet 1608 OctiLondon Publi LECTURE VI. 229 sut of the water, observe a large distention in their bodies; and their ordinary note is but like that of a raven.” The Hudson’s Bay Bittern or American Bittern, elegantly figured in the works of Edwards, is very nearly allied to the English Bittern, but of rather — smaller size. The Ardea minuta, ‘or Smallest Bittern, is not much larger than a Thrush, and has been sometimes found in England. The genus of birds called Tantalus claims our attention, from its having been supposed to con- tain the celebrated bird called the Jdis, so much esteemed by the ancient Egyptians, for its useful quality in destroying various troublesome reptiles and other animals. The Linnzan genus Tantalus is distinguished by having a long, curved bill, nots sharpened, but rather slightly rounded at the tip ; ig and the front or fore-part of the face is covered by a bare skin. ass of the handsemiess species . is the 7. Ruber or rl eee a native of South- America, and entirely of a most brilliant scarlet colour, except the tips of the wings, which are black: its size is that of a common fowl. The Egyptian Ibis has generally been sup- 230 LECTURE VI. posed to be the 7. bis of Linnzeus, a large spe- cies, of a white colour, with the tips of the wings black, and the beak yellow. From the exami- nation, however, of such specimens of embalmed Ibises as have lately been brought over from Egypt, Monsieur Cuvier is of opinion that the Egyptian Ibis is not the 7. Ldcs of Linneus, but either the same with, or very nearly allied to, the bird described and figured by Mr. Bruce, under the title of Abbou Hannes. It is about the size of a Curlew, and is of a white colour, with the tips of the wings and the seapular-feathers black, the base of the beak greenish, and the head slightly tinged with brown. The bird however embalmed by the ancient Egyptians, and examined by Cuvier and others, has the head and neck naked or bare of feathers, and of a blackish colour, a particular W hich Ido not recollect that Mr. Bruce has men- tioned in his description ; nor does it appear in the figure annexed to the description, in which both the head and neck appear plumed; so that it is not quite clear that Mr. Bruce’ s bird is really 9 SS the Ibis of the ancient Eg ptians, or that it is the same with the Fines of ar A arier. “It is OUTLINE ofan IBIS from an Ligyplan Obelisk EGYPTIAN IBIS 4 1608 Octs London Publifhd by Chearsley tlcet Sirecl. LECTURE VI. 231 most probable that the Egyptians held several different species of this genus in nearly equal veneration. Herodotus tells us he was assured that the Egyptians were annually invaded by swarms of small flying serpents, which were attacked, con- quered, and killed by the Ibis, which on this account was revered by the Egyptians. He adds that he had been shewn heaps of the bones of these serpents near the confines of the de- serts. As to the winged serpents, we well know that no such animals are now discoverable; and it is not very probable that any such have ever existed. The animal called the Dragon indeed, or the Flying-Lizard might be adduced as in some degree justifying such an idea; but the Dragon is a harmless animal, whereas the Flying-Serpents mentioned by Herodotus are sup- posed to have been highly poisonous. An in- genious French author, Monsieur Savigny, so far from supposing any natural antipathy to exist be- between the Ibis and the serpent tribe, imagines that neither the Egyptian Ibis nor any other of the genus feed on such reptiles, being by no means calculated for such a kind of food, but that the 232 LECTURE VI. whole is nothing more than a metaphorical illus- tration of the effects of the hot scuth-wmds and clouds of sand, which at a particular period, viz. during the spring, invade, or as it were threaten the borders of Egypt, at which time all man- ner of contagious diseases prevail, and of the salubrious effects of the cooling north-winds, | which blow after the inundation of the Nile, at which time the Ibis makes its appearance, and may therefore be said to have conquered the winged Serpents; 1. e. the hot winds, with all their accompanying evils. The Cerastes or horned Serpent, which is an inhabitant of the hot sandy deserts, was therefore very naturally made an em- blem of the malignity of these winds, with their accompanying sands and diseases ; while the Ibis, which so constantly accompanied the effects of the cooling north-winds and the recovered ver- dure of the country, became a kind of emblem of salubrity, and of the conquest over the winged Serpents. | The Egyptians, according to this author, instead of saying in common language, The sands, in which the Cerastes resides, are blown into the air and arrive among us with their train of eyils; eA aii MAT MO 2 LECTURE VI. 233 may perhaps overwhelm our cultivated lands and cause our. destruction; and yenomous serpents may then possess our abodes as they now do their na- _ tive deserts; 1 instead of speaking thus, they would. ee in ametaphor, The Flying Ser Pees will destroy ! Fee _In the same manner, when, by the effect of - the ‘north- ands the country was purified, ood the # we ~ Ibis, the harbinger of fertility, ‘re-appeared, they i bf aula say, The Lbises have conquered the Serpents. | Lastly, the sands, accumulated on the confines of the desert, arrested by vegetation in those places where the openings between the hills afforded them a passage, might well be denominated the heaps of bones, which declared the victory of the Ibis, and justified the veneration paid to the bird. The genus Numenius or Curlew is so closely allied to that of Ibis, that it only differs ip not © having a naked front. The oe (Curlew 1 is a oto ws native of our own island, and is 0 often, seen on our coasts. Its colour is pale-brown, varied with deeper brown, and the lower parts are white. The genus 1S fot very numerous, but some of the exotic species are birds of ‘considerable elegance ; one in Aa which sometimes strays into this country, and is of a brilligigltoppery-brown colour, 234 LECTURE VI. with greenish, iridescent variegations, pee to the direction of the light. It is naturally an inhabitant of Russia, Siberia, and other distant nd is the Numenius igneus of modern -- pects much allied to ie yes ihe ae al 3 Hf : 2 wir : of South-America, has be ey N, Guar meioed to his