328 Zoological Collections. 



Art. XXXVIII.— ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 



1. Professor Harlan on the Mammalia of North America. * 



Professor Harlan enumerates 14-7 species of Mammalia as inhabiting 

 North America. 



Of these, several are entirely new, and not before described : eleven 

 species are fossil, and no longer exist in a living state, in this, or any 

 other country ; many were imperfectly noticed, or erroneously described ; 

 others merely indicated. In several instances species, and in three or four 

 cases, genera, have been confounded. 



With regard to the distribution of the North American mammalia, 

 they are thus divided — 119 are Quadrupeds, 28 Cetacea. 



To the order Primates belong, 1 species. Pachydermata, 2 



Carnivora, - 60 Ruminantia, 13 



Glires, - 37 Cetacea, - 28 



Edentata, - 6 



147 

 Twenty-five species are common to both Continents, without including 

 the cetaceous animals, viz :— 



Total, - 25 



2. Account of a remarkable Extinct species of Beaver. 

 Osteopera, Harlan. 



CHARACTERS. 



{Incisor 2. 

 Canine 0. 



-"- ""'»- — - "~\ f Er * 



^inferior 10. < Canine 0. 

 C Molar 8. 

 Inferior incisors, slender, laterally compressed, nearly pointed, not ap- 

 proximate, convex anteriorly ; molars nearly similar to those of the beaver ; 

 head very broad and flat ; snout rapidly attenuated ; eyes widely separat- 

 ed ; zygomatic arches exceedingly large, descending beneath the inferior 

 molars, scabrous and convex externally, forming within large osseous 

 pouches communicating with the mouth, anterior to the molars ; lower 

 jaw proportionably small and slender; the condyloid extending above the 

 coronoid process. 



• From Harlan's Fauna Americana. 



