78 f. III. DIST. CHAR. Prototype. 



b. 49. BIRDS ( Aves ) are oviparous animals, hav- 

 ing two legs, and two wings, and the body covered 

 with feathers, (v. Sjst. Nat. ed. Gmel. p. 233.) 



Obs. The remains of birds are very scarce, if in- 

 deed they have been ever found, in the fossil state. 

 Such,however, are said to have been met with in lime- 

 stone. ( v.Werner's Extern. Char, by Weaver. p. 140. ) 



c. 50. AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS (^frnp/wZua) breathe 

 arbitrarily, through the mouth, by the means of 

 lungs. Their heart has only one ventricle, and one 

 auricle, (y. Syst. Nat. ed. Gmel. p. 1033.) 



Obs. The reliquia that have received the form of 

 amphibious animals are, also, rare; but the remains, 

 considered as such, are much less doubtful, than 

 those of the precedent class It is but one order of 

 the amphibia, however, namely the reptilia, that is 



eight more species of non-descripts, whose bones have recently 

 been discovered in the plaster quarries near Paris. If, with these, 

 we reckon the fossil species of pecora, that have been deemed, by 

 their horns, to be distinct from any of that order now existing, we 

 shall find the number of mammalia, either extinct, or remaining 

 undiscovered, to be more considerable, than what naturalists in 

 general have imagined. We ought to observe, that M. Cuvier, in 

 the report just referred to, appears decided in his opinion, 

 that the mammalia, furnishing these remains, have lived in the 

 places where their bones are found and, that the deluge has not 

 been the cause of their present accumulation and interment ; as 

 they exhibit none of those appearances of attrition, which necessa- 

 rily would be found in such bodies, if they had been transported, 

 from one country to another, by a general inundation. 



