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grada, or walkers on the flat of the feet. The last 

 character must, however, especially in the hind feet, 

 be received with some explanation, as there arc none 

 of the carnivora which walk on the entire length of 

 the tarsi of these when they walk upon all fours. 



Only a single species of this genus is known, 

 Ailitrux fn/gcnx the panda, ckectquha, and various 

 other names of the mountaineers of northern India. 

 The last name is compounded of" checta," the Indian 

 name of the smaller leopards, or larger cats, and 

 " quha," the cry of the animal as nearly as it can be 

 expressed by letters. 



The panda is but a recent addition to European 

 zoology. The animals to which it bears most re- 

 semblance are the raccoons of the American conti- 

 nent, but the following figure will give a better idea 

 of its shape than could be derived from a verbal 

 description. 



Ailurus fulgens. 



The whole length of the animal is about forty-two 

 inches, of which the head occupies seven and a half, 

 the neck four and a half, the body fifteen, and the tail 

 the same. The face and parts of the cars are white, 

 with a few fulvous hairs, and a fulvous patch on each 

 cheek. The neck and back of the ears are deep 

 yellow, which passes into golden yellow on the ridge 

 of the back, and from that to yellowish brown, with 

 sprinkled hairs of golden yellow on the rest of the 

 body. The tail is ringed with yellow and fulvous 

 brown, which pass gradually into each other, and its 

 tip is black. The fur on the body and tail is very 

 thick and close, and rather long. The legs are short 

 and stout, and entirely covered with blackish woolly 

 fur, including the soles of the feet ; and as the bright 

 fur of the body hangs so far over them, they have the 

 appearance of being inserted in the body like the feet 

 of a stool. The toes arc five on each foot ; the claws 

 rather long and partially retractile ; but they are 

 straight, and so not adapted for clutching. The teeth 

 are singular. The cutting teeth are conical ; the 

 canine nearly straight; there is one false grinder 

 in each side of the upper jaw, and two in each side of 

 the under. The first false grinder is a flat cone 

 shouldered at the base; the shoulder of the second 

 rises into tubercles, about half the height of the 

 central cone ; that of the third rises nearly to the 

 whole height; and in the remaining ones all the 

 tubercles are nearly the same, and in the aged speci- 

 mens they are flattened or truncated at the points. 

 This last circumstance was at first proposed to be 

 made a character of the animal, and led to the sup- 

 position that it fed partly on vegetables; but it has 

 been found to lie merely the result of wearing. 



The panda is a mountaineer, inhabiting the banks 

 of streams and torrents on the secondary ridge of 

 the Himalaya mountains, between Nepal and the 

 snowy summits. It lives much in trees, and catches 



birds with dexterity. Its furry feet enable it to steal 

 onward with silent tread, and to traverse the snow 

 without inconvenience. Very little is known of its 

 manners, but its aspect is not ferocious ; and as it is an 

 animal of singular beauty, and a native of a cold region, 

 there is some probability that, by a little care, it 

 might be added to the list of our domestic mammalia. 



AIR. (From a Greek word which signifies "to 

 breathe.") The gaseous fluid of which the atmosphere 

 is composed, which everywhere surrounds the earth 

 to a much greater height than any living creature, 

 animal, or vegetable can be supposed ever to ascend, 

 and which penetrates the earth and the water, at least 

 to the greatest depth at which any creature of what 

 kind soever can live and grow. Air is so important 

 an agent in the economy of nature, that no portion of 

 Natural History can be understood without a know- 

 ledge of its nature and properties. In so far as these 

 are mechanical or chemical, and have relation to 

 mechanical or chemical arts, they belong to the first 

 division of the Cyclopaedia. But the Natural History 

 properties of the air are highly important, and corre- 

 spond more nearly with its physical properties as matter, 

 than those of almost any other natural substance. 



In order that our understanding of this agent may 

 be clear, and expressed in short space, it becomes 

 necessary to subdivide our notice of it, and consider 

 it as air, and also as atmosphere. Under the first of 

 these titles, we shall have to consider it as local and 

 temporary, without reference to extension in space, 

 or succession in duration ; and under the second (for 

 which see ATMOSPHERE,) we shall have to consider it 

 with reference to varieties of climate and successions 

 of seasons, and all the effects which result from these. 



The air, taken in its simple and more restricted 

 sense, needs no definition ; and indeed, considered 

 merely in itself, it does not admit of any. It is not 

 apparent to or cognisable by any of the human senses ; 

 and therefore it can be described only by negatives, 

 which do not amount to definition. Like animal life, 

 or the human mind, of which in almost all languages 

 it is the type and the name, it is known only by the 

 functions which it performs, or the phenomena which 

 result from the actions that take place between it and 

 other things. These, however, are often as grand, and 

 even terrific, as they are important in their results. 



Air is a compound fluid, consisting substantially of 

 oxygen and nitrogen gases, in nearly the same pro- 

 portions under all circumstances, and it also receives 

 into its mass many other gases, and also liquids and 

 other substances not gaseous, in that state of minute 

 division which is called vapour, and by a process, 

 understood to be always the same in kind though 

 differing in degree, which is called evaporation. 

 That process is a very important one in the economy 

 of nature, as all land plants and animals may be said 

 to depend upon it for their subsistence ; but it belongs 

 to the general consideration of the atmosphere, and 

 not to air as temporary and local. 



But though air consists of two principal ingredients, 

 and also admits of other substances being diffused 

 through its mass, it is merely a mixture, and not a com- 

 pound in the chemical sense of the word. This state 

 of it is highly important to be known, not only in 

 order to prevent us from drawing false conclusions 

 from those phenomena which take place by the action 

 of the air or of some of its ingredients ; but also as 

 affording one of the most beautiful of those instances 

 of design and adaptation of which creation is so full. 



