48 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



an egg a chestnut as to seeke to reduce to the known kinds of 

 Europe the divers kinds of the Indies." He was even willing to 

 admit that it may not be necessarv to say that the creation of the 

 world was finished in six days, and that beasts of a more perfect 

 character may have been made subsequently ; and in his anxiety 

 to escape the alternative of a Noah's ark almost committed him- 

 self to a theoiy of evolution " We may consider well upon 

 this subject," he wrote, " whether these beasts differ in kinde 

 and essentially from all others, or if this difference be accidentall. 

 which might grow by divers accidents, as we see in the Images 

 of men, some are white, othersblack, some Giants, others Dwarfes ; 

 and in Apes, some have no taile, others have ; and in Sheepe, 

 some are bare, others have fleeces, some great and strong with a 

 long necke as those of Peru, others weake and little, having a 

 short necke, as those of Castile. But to speak directly who so 

 would preserve the propagation of beasts at the Indies, and re- 

 duce them to those of Europe, hee shall undertake a charge he 

 will hardly discharge with his honour." 



Francesco Hernandez, a repi'esentative physician and man of 

 science, was sent by Philip II. of Spain to Mexico, with unlimited 

 facilities for exploration, and remained in that country' from 1593 

 to 1600. His notes and collections seem to have been very exten- 

 sive, and it is said that over 1,200 drawings of plants and ani- 

 mals were prepared under his direction. Editions of his works 

 were published in Mexico in 1604 and 161 5. I am assured by 

 Mexican naturalists that his work was careful and valuable, the 

 only defect being that he trusted too implicitly in what he was 

 told by the native Mexicans. 



Among the animals not met with in previous writings are the 

 coyote (Aztec, Coyotl), the buffalo, the axolotl, the porcupine 

 {Hoitztlacuatzin) , the prong-buck (Afazame) , the horned lizard 

 (Taj)ayaxin), the bison, the peccary (Quapizotl), and the 

 Toucan. 



Among those of which figures are for the first time published 



