Oh the Natural History of North America. 99 



to the same species : at all events, to an animal ol' the same 

 genus ; the megatherituii of yoi"" countryman M. Cuvicr. 

 Many similar discoveries may be expected from the coun- 

 tries of the United States when it shall be our lot to possess 

 men of more leisure than we do at present ; or even when 

 our labourers shall more generally know that subjects of 

 this kind are interesting to philosophers both here and 

 abroad. 



In the fourth volume of the Transactions of the American 

 Philosophical Society, I have given an account of a new 

 species of dipus or jerboa, which I call dipus Arnericanus. 

 I have discovered some other species of this genus, parti- 

 cularly one, which I call dipus mcU'ivorus. It is very de- 

 structive to our bee-hives, eating the honev : hence the 

 specific name. We are very rich in small animals of the 

 order glircs of Linnaeus. There has lately been discovered 

 a species of mus, somewhat larger than the common house- 

 mouse, which has some of the smgular habits of the opos- 

 sum tribe. 'I'his animal is a native of Virginia and other 

 parts of the United States. You have seen Dr. Shaw's ac- 

 count of the mus Imrsar'ms, or Canada rat. Either this" 

 species (which was discovered in Canada), or another very 

 nearly allied to it, is common in the state of Georgia and 

 other southern parts of the United States. In Georgia it is 

 known by the ridiculous name oi salamander. I take it to 

 be the tozan or tuza of Clavigero. If the Canada and 

 Mexican animal be the same species, its range through the 

 continent is very great. But I have long since discovered 

 that the quadrupeds of America have a very extended geo- 

 graphical range. I mav say the same of the trees and other 

 vegetables of this portion of the world. 



I must now return to some of our large animals. The 

 animal best known in the United States by the name of elk 

 is essentially difi'erent from the cervus alces, or moos, and 

 has not hitherto been described by anv of your systematic 

 naturalists. I call it cervus wapiti (ivapiti being one of its 

 Indian names), and shall give a pretty ample account of it 

 in my Fragments, part ii., now in the press. This is not 

 the only North American cervus with which the naturalists 

 of Europe appear to be unacquainted. But what will you 

 say, when 1 nilbrm you that there has lately been ditco- 

 vered an American species of sheep ! You know that some 

 of the missionary Jesuits, who visited California towards the 

 end of the 17th century, inform us that they found in that 

 country two sorts of deer, which they call sheep, from their 

 resemblance, in make, to the sheep of Europe. The first 

 G 2 3ort 



