232 Miscellaneous. 



all birds ; for the first bird must have been brother or cousin to 

 some other animal that was not a bird, since there are other animals 

 besides birds in this world, to no one of which any bird bears as 

 close a relation as it bears to its own class. The same argument 

 applies to every other class ; and as to the facts, they are fatal to 

 such an assumption, for geology teaches us that among the oldest 

 inhabitants of our globe known, there are representatives of nine 

 distinct classes of animals, which by no possibility can be descendants 

 of one another, since they are contemporaries. 



The same line of argument and the same class of facts forbid the 

 assumption that either the representatives of one and the same order, 

 or those of one of the same family, or those of one of the same genus, 

 should be considered as lineal descendants of a common stock ; for 

 orders, families, and genera are based upon different categories of 

 characters, and not upon more or less extensive characters of the 

 same kind, as I have shown years ago (vol. i. pp. 150-163), and 

 numbers of different kinds of representatives of these various groups 

 make their appearance simultaneously in all the successive geological 

 periods. There appear together Corals and Echinoderms of different 

 families and of different genera in each successive geological forma- 

 tion ; and this is equally true for Bryozoa, Brachiopods, and Lamelli- 

 branchiata, for Trilobites and the other Crustacea, in fact for the 

 representatives of all the classes of the animal kingdom, making due 

 allowance for the period of the first appearance of each ; and at all 

 times and in all classes the representatives of these different kinds of 

 groups are found to present the same definiteness in their charac- 

 teristics and limitation. Were the transmutation theory true, the 

 geological record should exhibit an uninterrupted succession of types 

 blending gradually into one another. The fact is, that throughout 

 all geological times each period is characterized by definite specific 

 types, belonging to definite genera, and these to definite families, 

 referable to definite orders, constituting definite classes and definite 

 branches, built upon definite plans. Until, therefore, the facts of 

 Nature are shown to have been mistaken by those who have collected 

 them, and to have a different meaning from that now generally 

 assigned to them, I shall consider the transmutation theory as a 

 scientific mistake, untrue in its facts, unscientific in its method, and 

 mischievous in its tendency. — SillimarCs American Journal for 

 July 1860. 



Note on the Fox of Japan. By Arthur Adams, F.L.S. 



The Fox of Japan is quite a distinct species from that of China, 

 specimens of which I procured on the banks of the Wusung River, 

 near its junction with the Yang-tze-kiang. The Japanese species, 

 four skins of which were obtained by Mr. Bedwell from Niegata in 

 Niphon, has black ears lined with white, and a black spot on the 

 upper surface near the base of the tail. The fur on the neck and 

 back is ferruginous, and is much softer and longer than that of the 

 Foxes of Europe and China ; and the brush is also longer and thicker. 

 — Proc. Zool. Soc. March 27, I860. 



