of certain Birds of Cuba. 37 
Cuvier* ; some, such as Dasyurus cynocephalus, having the den- 
tition as well as habits of the Fere ; while others, such as Phas- 
colomys, present us with the structure of a Rongeur. "There is 
also some sort of relation existing between the Glires and Cetacea, 
as Hermann*t mentions in alluding to the Beaver and Manati. 
Hence we get two affinities of transultation or species of relation, 
which are exactly parallel to those which we have seen existing 
in Birds between the Raptores and Rasores, and between the 
Rasores and Natatores. 
It is a fact as extraordinary in itself, as humiliating for the 
modern zoologist, that not one of the principal groups of Birds, 
as given to us in the Régne Animal, escaped the keen eye of 
Aristotle; nay, there is not one of the orders that has not been 
named by him. It must still give us a more ample notion of 
the' ancient naturalist's skill in zoology to find, that not one of 
Cuvier's principal groups of Mammalia was unknown to him, 
except the Marsupiaur and Edentés. And, independently of 
these curious animals being principally natives of the New 
World, we may conclude that he never saw an example of 
either group ; else, from the attention he paid to the system of 
generation and of dentition in the annals he has described, 
these groups could not have escaped him. — 
The Edentata have always been reckoned to be a very ano- 
malous group of animals, and yet they appear essentially neces- 
sary for the fulfilment of the general plan of Nature. These 
interesting quadrupeds are divided by M. Cuvier into three 
smaller groups, of which the types may be considered to be the 
Sloth, the Armadillo, and the Duck-Bill or Ornithorhynchus of 
New Holland. Now, with respect to the Bradypode, Hermann 
says, p. 64: ** Primatibus cognatum est genus Bradypodis mam- 
mis pectoralibus et aliquali habitu ob quem quondam Linnzus 
* Règne Animal, vol.i. p. 170. + Tab. Aff. p. 37. 
cum 
