10 FAMILY ODOB^ENID^E. 



ing both the Walrus and the Dugong. While this was in 

 the main a most important and progressive innovation, Eet- 

 zius seems to have labored, like several still earlier writers, 

 under the impression that the Walrus, like the Dugong, had no 

 hind feet. Ozeretskovsky,* about a year later, and probably 

 ignorant of Eetzius's paper, also placed, as curiously happened, 

 the Walrus and the Dugong together in the genus Trichechus, 

 because he supposed the Dugong had hind feet, like the Walrus ! 

 These curious antithetical mistakes indicate how little was 

 known by systematic writers about the structure of these ani- 

 mals as late as the close of the last century. 



The elder Cuvier, f in 1798, while retaining the Walrus and the 

 Sirenians in the genus Trichechus, separated them from some of 

 their former unnatural entanglements by again associating Tri- 

 chechus and Phoca in his group "Mainmiferes Amphibies," which 

 he placed between the "Solipedes" and "Maminiferes C6taces." 

 He divided this group into "I. Les Phoques (Phoea)" and "II. 

 Les Morses (Trichecus, L.)"; the latter including "1. Trichecus 

 rosmarus"; "2. Trichecus dugong"', "3. Trichecus manatus." 



As already shown, Eetzius nearly disentangled the Walrus 

 from the Sirenians, leaving of the latter only the Dugong in. 

 the genus Trichechus. G. Fischer, J in 1803, completed the sep- 

 aration by removing the Dugong and the Manatee, to which lie 

 gave the generic names respectively of Platystomus (=Halicore, 

 Hliger, 1811) and Oxystomus ( = Manatus, Eetzius, 1794), leaving 

 only the Walrus in Trichechus. The genus Trichechus, however, 

 as first instituted by Artedi (1738) and Linne (1758), as will be 

 shown later, did not relate in any way to the Walrus, being 

 applied exclusively to the Manatee. It was not till 1766 that 

 the term was first made to cover both the then known Sirenians 

 and the Walrus, although the embroilment of the two groups 

 began with Brisson, ten years earlier. 



The Pinnipeds and Sirenians, collectively considered, were 

 first separated as distinct groups by Illiger in 1811, who raised 

 them to the rank of orders, they forming respectively his orders 

 Pinnipedia and NatanUa. The former consisted of two genera,. 

 Phoca, embracing all the Seals, and Trichechus, containing only 

 the Walruses. They were regarded as forming a single family, 



* Nova Act. Acad. Petrop., xiii, 1796, pp. 371-375. 

 t Tabl. Eminent., p. 172. 



t Das National-Museum der Naturgeschichte, ii, 1803, pp. 344-358. 

 Prodromus Systematis Mammalium et Avium, 1811, pp. 138, 139 j Abliandl 

 der Akad. Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1804-1811, (1815), pp. 39-159, passim. 



