411 



MA^IMALIA. 



n^lIE following bi'ief remarks arc prefatory to Dr. Mason's Chapter on Mammalia, 

 JL and give a good idea of liis popular .st_ylo of writing : 



"Few are aware of the great difRculty that exists in ascertaining the species, 

 and occasionally the genera, of animals in an unexplored country, as this was a quarter 

 of a centuiy ago. At that time the ' rusa' deer was according to some authorities 

 a ^ wild coiv,' and according to others au 'elk.' The ' paradox ure' a 'racoon.' The 

 liamboo-rat, a tiiole. The ' wild hog,' a buibi/rmsn. The gymnura, an opo.s.sioii. The 

 ' wild dog,' a tcolf. The leopard, a cheetah. A deer, the nijhihaii. The goat-antelope, 

 a wild sheep, and we had a goat with one horn resembling the celebrated unicorn. . . . 

 In those days the jungle traveller was entertained at evening by the natives around 

 the bush-fire with wondeiiiil descriptions of the extraordinary animals that peopled 

 the surrounding forests. One was found exactly like an elephant, but never had 

 tusks, and was banded across the body with white. This proved to bo the tapir. 

 Another had a skin like a cow, a mane like a horse, and horns like a goat — the goat- 

 antelope. The third was half a dog and half a hog — the sand-badger. A fourth was 

 represented as in a transition state towards a monkey, just such an animal as would 

 certainly become a monkey in the next transmigration. This was the loris. And 

 a tilth had the breasts of a woman, the head of a quadruped, the tail of a fish, and 

 uttered, when captured, plaintive human cries, quite a new variety of the mermaid, 

 which turns out to bo the dugong. After Mr. Blyth became the Curator of the 

 Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, by far the greater proportion of tho 

 Mammalia of the country fell under his eye, and to him wc were indebted for much 

 of GUI' knowledge of species." 



Class MAMMALIA. 



"Warm-blooded vertebrata, more or less covered with hair, breathing by lungs, 

 viviparous, and the young nourislied by a lacteal secretion furnished by the mother. 

 The skull is articulated by double condyles. 



A.— LISSENCEPHALA. 



Cerebral hemispheres with a few folds, and not covering tho cerebellum and 

 olfactory lobes. 



Order BRUTA. 



Teeth iii many species entirely wanting. Molar teeth when present not dis- 

 placed by a second series, and without enamel or complex roots. Claws large. 



Family Manidse. 

 No teeth. Body covered with horny imbricate plates. Tail long. Tongue 

 cyluidrical and highly exsertile. Eood insects, chiefly ants. 



