1910.] llliger's Classification. 69 



Il]ig:er's classification appears to be a development of BInnienbacli's 

 and Storr's systems, with details from other writers. It contains little that 

 was new in princi])le, the })rime criteria of classification being foot-structure. 

 In common with most writers of the period Illiger knew nothing of the 

 modern "law of priority," especially as applied to larger groups, and appar- 

 ently never used a group name of another author if he thought he could 

 invent a more appropriate one. Consequently his classification is chiefly 

 remarkable for the number of new terms, some applied to old groups, some 

 to new orders and "familitie" (cf. the "famille" of Cuvier, and the "familia" 

 of Klein). Some of these names of "famili;ie, " including "Prosimii," 

 "Duplicidentata," " Proboscidea," "Tylopoda," " Dermoptera," "Pinni- 

 pedia" (not of Storr), and "Sirenia," are applied to orders or suborders at 

 the present day. Because he wrote in Latin and used monomial group terms, 

 Illiger is also reckoned as the technical author of "Marsupialia," which had 

 long been used in the French form. 



Perhaps the most original feature of lUiger's system is the sequence of 

 the groups. The "Erecta" are followed by the "Pollicata" which end with 

 the Rodent-like Phascolomys. This is followed by the order "Salientia" 

 (Kangaroos) which, as in Cuvier's scheme, thus lead to the adaptively 

 similar Dipus and Pedetes of the 'Prensiculantia" (= Rodents). This 

 group in turn ends in the "Subungulata" (including Ckwia and Hijdro- 

 chcerus), which form the transition to the "Multungula," beginning Avith 

 Hyrax. The Ungulate series culminates in the "Bisulca." The Eden- 

 tates have always been a stumbling-block in any linear arrangement of the 

 orders ever since Ray called them "Quadrupeda anomala"; they had 

 usually been placed ahead of the ungulates, but as they interfered with the 

 sequence described above Illiger placed them after the ungulates. They 

 begin with Bradijpus (which, as most resembling the Primates, may have 

 been conceived as the "highest") and end with the Scaly Anteater, which 

 affords the desired transition to the Spiny Anteater {Echidna) of the "order" 

 "Reptantia." Still another series of orders begins with a Primate-like 

 form {Galeopithecus), and is followed by the Chiroptera which thus precede 

 the Insectivores ("Subterranea"). These in turn lead to the " Plantigrada," 

 while the last member of the order is the aquatic Lutra, which thus stands 

 next to the Pinnipedia, which in turn lead to the Cetacea. 



