Chap. 2. 



QUADRUPEDS OF VERMONT. 



23 



CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. 



ORDERS OF MAMMALIA. 



eriy direction, or passing nearly at right 

 angles across the great northeasterly cur- 

 rent of the ocean, and we believe it to be 

 the influence of these warm waters of the 

 ocean upon the westerly and northwester- 

 ly winds, which produces tlie phenomenon 

 in question. On the eastern coasts of 

 North America, these winds come from 

 mountainous, snowy regions, or from 

 lakes and seas, which are covered with 



ice the greater part of the year; and 

 hence they are excessively cold. In their 

 progress over the Atlantic, they are grad- 

 ually warmed by imbibing heat from the 

 surface of the ocean, so that when they 

 arrive upon the continent of Europe, their 

 temperature is so much elevated as to 

 produce the remarkable difference obser- 

 ved between the climates of the coasts of 

 the two continents.* 



CHAPTER II. 



QUADRUPEDS OF VERMONT 



Preliminary Observations. 

 All animals are divided by Baron Cu- 

 vier, the celebrated French naturalist, 

 whose arrangement we shall endeavor 

 mainly to follow, into four general divis- 

 ions, viz. I. Vcrtehrated animals, or such 

 as have a spine, or back bone, II. Mulvs- 

 cous animals, or such as have no skele- 

 ton, \\\. Articulated animal s,if;h.ose trunk 

 is divided into rings, and IV'. Radiated 

 aiiim.als, or zoophytes The/irsi division 

 embraces the mammalia, the birds, the rep- 

 tiles and the fishes; the second, the shell 

 fishes ; the third, the insects, and the 

 fourth, polypi. In this work we shall at- 

 tempt but little beyond an account of our 

 vertebrated and moluscous animals. 



MAMMALIA. 



The Mammalia are such animals as 

 suckle their young, and are divided by 

 Cuvier into tJie following orders : 



I. Bimana — having two hands and three 

 kinds of teeth. Man is tlie only species. 



II. Q_aadrumana — animals having four 

 hands and three kinds of teeth. Mon- 

 kies and baboons belonir to this order. 



III. Carnivora — having three kinds of 

 teeth and living principally upon animal 

 food, as the dog, cat, &c. 



IV. IJarsupial ia-TpxoA\\c\ng their young 

 prematurely and bringing them to perfec- 



tion in an abdominal pouch, which inclos- 

 es the teats, of which the opossum is an 

 example. 



V. liodcntia — have large incisory teeth 

 suitable for gnawing, and grinders with 

 flat or tuberculated crowns, but no canine 

 teeth, as the rat, beaver, &c. 



VI. Edentata — having no incisory teeth 

 in either jaw, and in some genera no teeth 

 at all, of which the sloth and ant eater 

 are examples. 



VII. I'achydcrmata having either 



three or two kinds of teeth, toes varialde 

 in number and furnished with strong 

 nails or hoofs, and the digestive organs 

 not formed for ruminating, as the horse, 

 ele])hant and hog. 



VIII. liuminantia — having no incisory 

 teeth in the upper jaw, cloven hoofed 

 feet, and four stomachs fitted for rumina- 

 ting, or chewing the cud, as the ox, 

 sheep, deer, &c. 



IX. Cetacea — Aquatic animals havino- 

 their bodies shaped like fishes, as the 

 whale, dolphin, &c. 



Of these nine orders of animals, only 

 three are found in Vermont, in a wild 

 state. These are the Carnivora^ the Ro- 

 dentia and the Ruminantia. We have one 

 order more, the Packydcrmata, among 

 our domestic quadrupeds, including the 

 horse, ass and hog. 



* Mr. Darii«ls in his meteorological essays en- 

 deavors to accoont for tlie liighijr temperature of 

 the western coasts of continents in a ditierent 

 manner. He suppose.'! tlie northwesterly winds 

 to arrive loaded with vapor and that the caloric, 

 liberated liy its condensation, raises the general 

 temperature of the atmosphere on the western 

 coast; but, as the winds proceed eastward, they 

 become dryer and when they roach the eastern 



coasts contain little vapor to be conden-sed, and 

 consequently do not produce an elevation of tem- 

 perature. If this were the principal cause of the 

 phenomenon under consideration, the quantity of 

 rain on the western coasts should be greater than 

 upon tlie eastern in proportion as the tempfraturo 

 is higher, but so far as observations e.xtend the re- 

 verse of this seems to be true, the quantity of rain 

 on th? eastern coast bein? greatest. 



