Ii8 Of AxN AMERICAN SPECIES 



is the Dipus meridianus of Gmelin. I cannot, for rnr 

 part, doubt that the two animals are really diftin£t fpe- 

 cies, although they are confiderably allied to each other. 



In this place, I take an opportunity of obferving, that 

 much confufion has been introduced into zoological fci- 

 ence in confequence of the fyllematic or fpeculative 

 genius of Mr. de BufFon, and other writers, who have 

 too frequently thought it neceffary to refer the animals 

 which inhabit the northern parts of the old and the 

 new world to one and the fame fpecies, becaufe between 

 thofe animals there is a general refemblance, and becaufe 

 it has commonly been imagined that America muft have 

 received her animals from Europe and from Afia. I do 

 not mean to deny that America Tpoff^&s/owe fpecies of 

 mammalia in common with Europe, and with Afia, 

 efpecially perhaps with the latter. But I am perfuaded, 

 from a long and attentive inveftigation of this fubjecl, 

 that the number of mammalia that are common to the 

 old and the new world is much fmaUer than naturalifts 

 have fuppofed, and that America polTcfl'es many fpecies 

 of thefe and other animals, as well as of vegetables, 

 which ever have been peculiar to herfeif. Every thing, 

 in my opinion, favours the idea, that with refpeft to 

 ma/iy of the living exiftences, there has been a feparate 

 creation in the old and in the new world. 



I fhall now mention in what particulars, or charadlers, 

 the Dipus which I have defcribed differs from any of the 

 known fpecies of the fame genus to which it bears the 

 greateft refemblance. 



It is hardly neceffary to obf Tve, that of the five fpecies 

 of Dipus enumerated and briclly defcribed by Gmelin, 

 in his new edition of the Syjtema 'Naturce of Linnaeus, 

 there is but one with which our Pennfylvania animal can 

 be confounded. This is the " Dipus meridianus: palmis 

 fubtetradadylis, plantis pentadadylis, cauda concolore." 



" Corpus 



