MUSTELUS. 



MYCETE3. 



1"JO 



Lo*tra BratUiauif, the Lontra. Cayenne. 



Luln m/oorw, the Otter. England. 



L. flbWiwu (Gray), the Chinme Otter. China and India. 



L. Cali/aniea (Gray), the Califomian Otter. California. 



L. wvortMKM (Hodgson), the Golden-Brown Otter. NepauL 



Aonyx Itptonyr, the WarguL India. 



A. DHalttHdi (Lettou), the Gray Otter. South Africa. 



i'nJtydra Luirii, the Kolan, or Sea Otter. California. 



Foiril 



Fonil remaini of Weasel* hare been found in the Tertiary Series, 

 in the Bone-Caret and Bone Breccias at Luucl-Yieil, Kirkdale, Puy- 

 de-Dome, Ac. 



Dr. Buokland states, in his ' Reliquitc Diluvianto,' that a few jawi 

 and teeth were found in Kirkdale Care belonging to the Weasel, and 

 that at Oreston there were marks of nibbling by the incisor and 

 canine teeth of an animal of the size of a weasel (pointed oat by 

 Mr. Clift), showing distinctly the different effect of each individual 

 tooth on the ulna of a wolf and the tibia of a horse. In his ' Bridge- 

 water Treatise,' Dr. Buckland figures a weasel among the Land 

 Mammifers of the third tertiary period. 



The only fossil species named in Meyer's ' Pakcologica ' is Miulda 

 antiqua. 



MOSTELUS, a genus of Fishes. [SQUALID*.] 



MUTI'LLIDjE, a family of Hymenopterous Insects corresponding 

 to the l.inrnnan genus Muiilla. These bees belong to Latreille's 

 division Pouortt, and some of the species are remarkable for the 

 power of their stings. 



The females are generally destitute of wings ; the males are winged. 

 It is on this account that Latreille places them in his sub-section 

 ttetcropyna with the Ante. Their economy and habits however 

 decidedly correspond with the foesorial or burrowing Sand- Wasps. 

 This family comprises the following modern genera : Douglut, 

 Labidui, Aptcroyyna, Piammothcrna, Myrmota, Myrmtcodtf, and 

 Methoca. 



Mutilla Europaa is a British species. It is of a bluish-black colour, 

 with the thorax red, and with three white bands across the abdomen ; 

 the male is winged. It has been taken in Coombe Wood in the 

 neighbourhood of London. 



MY A. [PTLORIDU.] 



MYA'RIA, Lamarck's name for a family of Dimyarian Couchifers, 

 consisting of the genera Mya and Anatina. [PVLORIDEA.] 



MYCETES, Illiger's name for a genus of Quadrumana, consisting 

 of the largest monkeys of America, remarkable for the powerful 

 development of the organ of the voice. The species are, as the name 

 implies, Howlers, and the horrible yells sent forth by these animals 

 from the depths of the forests are described by those who have heard 

 the mournful sounds as surpassingly distressing and unearthly, 

 Humboldt and Bonpland heard the Araguato, one of the species, at 

 the distance of half a league. 



The genus is distinguished by a pyramidal head with the upper jaw 

 descending much lower than the cranium, while the lower has its 

 ascending rami very high, to afford room for the bony drum formed 

 by a convexity of the os hroides, which communicates with the 

 larynx, and gives to the voice tho enormous volume above alluded to. 

 Humboldt giTes, the following as the external form of the drum in 

 this genus. 



Drum "f Howling Honker. 



The Uil in this genus is prehensile, and the part applied by the 

 animal when laying hold of a branch or other body is naked below ; 

 o ** such portion must have a higher sensibility of touch. 

 r. Clavier gives the following as the dentition of the Howling 

 Monkeys, from the Alouate Fauve, 



Teeth of Howling Monkey. 1 . Curler. 



-Mr. Swainaou ('Classification of Quadupeds') observes that it is 

 rather singular that F. Cuvier should not have specially noticed 

 the remarkable size of the canine teeth in the Howlers, which be says 

 are uncommonly large; and adds that in a specimen before him when 

 he wrote, they are nearly six times bigger than the cutting-teeth, a 

 structure which at once separates this group from the geuus Cebia. 

 Facial angle about 30 degrees. 



Cuvier, in common with most other zoologists, places the genus at 

 the head of the monkeys of the New Continent 



Dr. i. E. Gray ('Annals of Phil,' 1825) places the form among the 

 Anthropomorphous Primate* in the second family (Sariguida), and as 

 the sole genus of its first sub-family Sfycetina. 



M. Lesson arranges it between Lagothrix and Ccbta. 



Mr. Swainson makes Mycelei the first genus of the Cebidct, the second 

 family of his first order Quadmmana. 



Mr. Ogilby observed in the summer of 1829 that two living individuals 

 of ifyceta trnicultu did not use the extremities of their anturior limbs 

 for the purpose of holding objects between the finger and thumb, as 

 is common, among the Qitadrumana; and he ascertained also, on 

 closer examination, that the thumb, as it has generally been considered, 

 was not in these animals opposeable to the other fingers, but originated 

 in the same line with them. Struck with the apparent singularity of 

 the fact, he was induced to pay particular attention to all the other 

 animals referred by zoologists to the Quadrumanous Family to which 

 he had access ; and the continued observation of more than six yean 

 assured him that the non-opposeable character of the inner finger of 

 the anterior extremities, which he first observed in the specimens 

 referred to, is not confined to the genus Myccltt, but extends through- 

 out the whole of the genera of the South American monkeys, individuals 

 of all of which had been seen by him in a living state. He remarked 

 that a true thumb existed on the anterior limbs of none of them, 

 and that consequently they have been incorrectly referred to the 

 Quadrvmana by zoologists generally. [CiiEinoroDA; QCADRUMANA ; 

 SIMIAD.E.I 



Tho habits of these animals are social, and most of them have thick 

 beards. Their deep and sonorous yells are supposed to be a call to 

 their mates ; in short, to be a hideous love-song. In their gregarious 

 habits and bowlings they may be considered as bearing some analogy 

 to the Gibbons of the Old World [Are ; HTLOBATESJ ; whilst their 

 low facial angle has induced some to look upon them as representing 

 the baboons of the ancient continent. 



it, L'rtintu (Stailor L'rtinu* of Geoffrey), the Araguato. 



Length nearly 3 feet, without including the tail. Hnir, which is 

 longer than that of M. scniculiu (Mono Colorado of Humboldt), of a 

 golden red, but the beard, which is of a deeper colour than the rest, 

 is less bushy than it is in if. teniculiu; and the circumference of the 

 face where the hair is red is also paler. Humboldt states that tho 

 eye, voice, and gait, denote melancholy. He saw young ones brought 

 up in the Indian huts, which never played like the Sagoins. [JACCHUS.] 

 Lopez de Qomara speaks of the Araguato de los Cumanenses as 

 having the face of a man, the beard of a goat, and a grave demeanor. 

 Fruit and the leaves of plants form their food. The females carry 

 the young upon their shoulder. Humboldt counted above forty upon 



