10 ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 



world ; on the other hand, it is the richest in species, none 

 having yet been extirpated, possessing 557 mammalia, of 

 which 480 are its own. One curious feature is, that no coun- 

 try has contributed so little to the stock of domestic animals, 

 having furnished, with the exception of the llama and the 

 turkey, no animal serviceable to man. In connection with 

 this, however, we must remark, that a commonplace observer 

 would be apt to imagine that the vast herds of wild cattle and 

 horses which roam in thousands over the savannahs of Mexico 

 and the extreme Southern States, are indigenous ; little 

 thinking that they are the descendants of the few animals the 

 Spanish conquerors permitted to run wild, which have re- 

 sumed the originality of their species. 



The object of this work is to enumerate the different 

 species of animals of the Northern Continent of America, 

 arranged as nearly as possible according to Cuvier's system, 

 with the introduction of certain incidents and peculiarities 

 really authorized and reliable, and which are in many instan- 

 ces unknown to the majority of readers, peculiarities which 

 open new fields of enquiry, and lead the observer to perceive 

 that what appears accidental in the habits of the Animal 

 World, is the result of some unerring instinct, or some 

 singular exercise of the perceptive powers, affording the most 

 striking objects of contemplation to a philosophic mind. 



Passing over the first family (bimana, two-handed') Man, 

 and the second (quadrumana, four-handed') or Monkeys, as 

 wanting in North America, we commence with the third, 



CHEIROPTERA, (wing-handed) . The Bat. ( Vespertilio.') 



Description. Ears broad ; the anterior and posterior ex- 

 tremities connected by a more or less naked expansion of the 

 ^ skin, or a membrane including the tail, adapted for the pur- 

 pose of flight : prey upon the wing : nocturnal in their habits. 



Few if any of the individuals of the Animal Kingdom are so 

 singularly and curiously formed as the bat. It is described 

 by an eminent writer as " holding a very equivocal rank in 



