On some Quadrupeds supposed to be extinct. 365 



Cuneboline and his son Arviragus having had the elephant, 

 tapir, and unicorn on their coins ; and as the first was brought 

 up at the court of Augustus *, there is every probability of 

 their having possessed tortoises at Harwich, the port of the 

 capital of the British king. 



Species. 



With regard to elephants, the number of species appears to 

 be very great, even with the extremely limited knowledge we 

 possess. The writer saw three distinct kinds captured in one 

 keddah at Tippera, when he was there during Mr. Corse's 

 residence at that place, and who has described them. Some 

 African females have tusks as large as the males, but it is not 

 known to be so in Asia. Le Vaillant mentions a race of 

 elephants which never have tusks. Two Ceylon elephants 

 were found to differ in the shape of the jaws, and another is 

 mentioned by Baron Cuvier, which is dissimilar to any that 

 had been seen f . 



The Camelopard now at Paris differs in many essential 

 anatomical characters from the kind at the Cape of Good 

 Hope J. 



The Romans and Moguls crossed the species and genera of 

 different animals. The crocotta was between a dog and a 

 wolf; the crocuta, between a hyaena and a lioness §. The 

 Moguls cross the breed of dogs with leopards, the best of 

 which are those of Hezereh and Tesheen in Cabulistan ; and 

 some are so brave that they will attack a lion ||. Four towns 

 near Babylon were exempted from any other tax than the 

 maintaining of dogs which were supposed to be produced 

 between the tiger and bitch ^. We thus may perceive how 

 impossible it is to be certain of a fossil species being extinct 

 because we are not acquainted with it, 



* Milton's Hist. 8vo. p. 62. t Cuvier, Osseraens Fossiles, p. 185, 

 ^ $ Ed. New PhU. Journal, Sept. 1827, p. 390. Here is a direct 

 instance, that if a fossil Egyptian camelopard had been found, it would, 

 like elephants, &c., have been pronounced to be an extinct species, the 

 modern specimens being from South Atrica. 



^ Pliny, b. viii. (( Ayeen Akbery, vol. i. p. 242. 



^ Herodotus, Clio, cxci. We may conjecture that tiger has been 

 written for leopard, a frequent error. 



OCT.-'DBC. 1827. 2 B 



