356 Mr. Burnett's Illustrations of the Cetetherce, Sfc, 



or fins ; and as they are associated by the comparative abor- 

 tion and retraction of their digits, so are they, by these cha- 

 racters, very strongly contrasted with the other types, in all of 

 which the limbs, at least, are distinct and well developed. 



As in this prodromus the chief design is to indicate in out- 

 line, not to descant at large on the natural associations which 

 may thus be formed, let it suffice to state, that the trichecus, 

 otaria and phoca, with all other mammalious beasts possessing 

 four partially -develoiped limbs, the digits especially of the hind 

 extremities being more or less abortive, and the whole bound 

 together, or retracted greatly, are associated in one group, and 

 form the first type of the Cetetherae, for which their structure 

 will suggest the name Loripeda, or Loripeds, i, e., bound or 

 club-footed beasts. The next series, of which the dugong may 

 be considered the normal species, will include all those mamma- 

 lious beasts endowed with only two partially exserted limbs, 

 and these the fore-extremities ; the hinder ones being wholly 

 retracted, and joined to form a flat horizontal tail. The dimi- 

 nution of their limbs to half the ordinary number; and the 

 retraction of the two remaining to half the ordinary develop- 

 ment of the previous group, will suggest semipeda, or semipeds, 

 i. e., half- footed beasts, as an appropriate denomination for 

 this second type. Whilst the dolphins, the porpoise, the 

 grampus, the narwhal, the cachalot, and the common whale, 

 in all of which the hinder extremities are merged in a horizon- 

 tal tail ; and even the fore-extremities are retracted to the form 

 of mere pectoral fins, will hence most properly assume their 

 name, pinnipeda, or pinnipeds, i. e., fin-footed beasts*. Of 

 these three types, the Loripeds answer to the mammiferous 

 amphibia of Cuvier and Latreille, to half the amphibia of 

 Lamarck, the Ferae and part of the Bruta, excluding the Glires, 

 of Blumenbach's palmata, or to the misnamed pinnipeds of 



* That Cuvier was right in removing the Dugongs from the genus Trichecus, 

 cannot be doubted when we consider that the Walrus has four extremities, although 

 but partially developed, when the Semipeda have never more than two. Tha^ 

 Cuvier is correct in placing them among the Cetacea, may still be questioned, 

 when we observe that the dugongs have nails on their anterior extremities, which 

 are not merely fins, but with which they are able to hold their young to their pec- 

 toral breasts, while the fore-limbs of the whales are merely pectoral fins, that their 

 mammae are anal, and that they all possess the characteristic spiracles, or blowing 

 boles, of which the dugongs are devoid. 



