28 



CHIRONEMUS CHI RO NOME S. 



hind feet, but crooked claws on all the others ; plan- 

 tigrade in walking ; tail cylindrical, covered with 

 scales, and prehensile. There is only one species 

 which is often described as the palmated or web- 

 footed opossum. This species is CHIEONECTPS 

 YAPAK, the Yapack. It is found in the rivers of 

 Guiana, and the adjoining 1 parts of South America. 

 It is a small animal, not a foot in length, with a tail 

 of six or seven inches. The form of the head is long 

 and pointed, the muzzle very slender, and the ears 

 large and naked. The tail is naked, with the skin 

 granulated like shagreen leather, and with scaly 

 plates on the under side. The ground colour of the 

 body is greyish yellow ; the upper part being marked 

 with blackish brown spots. These spots or patches, 

 which are of large size, give rather an elegant, mark- 

 ing to the animal. There is one between the eyes, 

 another on the top of the head, and a third and broader 

 one on the shoulders, which is continued down the 

 front sides of the fore legs to the toes, which are 

 blackish, a fourth of a rounder shape on the middle of 

 the back, and one on the rump, which extends some 

 way down the hind quarters, but not to the legs. 

 Three are united down the back by a narrow dorsal 

 line. The cheeks, and the under part, are marked 

 with pale yellow ash, inclining to white. The general 

 expression of the animal may be judged of by inspec- 

 tion of the annexed figure. 



Chironectus Yapak. 



- It is highly probable that, when the banks of the 

 rivers and streams in South America have been ex- 

 amined with sufficient care, there may be found many 

 species ; or at all events varieties of these fresh water 

 marsupial animals, occupying the same place in the 

 natural history of that part of the world, as the water 

 rats and water mice occupy with us. Mention has been 

 made of some as having been met with both in Brazil 

 and in Peru, or on the very opposite sides of the con- 

 tinent. Of these, one is said to have been not more 

 than two inches, in length. The larger ones, such as 

 the Yapack, feed in part upon small fishes ; and it is 

 probable that the smaller ones may live upon water 

 insects ; but the country in which they have been 

 seen is so extensive, and has been viewed by scien- 

 tific eyes at so few points, that all the information 

 which we have, amounts only to a very rude guess at 

 its natural history. America is among the latest ad- 

 ditions to the known parts of the world ; and, in the 

 southern parts of the mainland and the islands espe- 

 cially the very abundance with which nature has 

 endowed it, has been the means of keeping us in ignor- 



ance of its natural history. The gold and silver of 

 the Andes, and the vegetable wealth of the islands 

 and the alluvial parts of the mainland, have so capti- 

 vated the bad passions of men, that they have not 

 attended to the productions and the working of nature 

 with even half the attention which has been bestowed 

 upon the most sterile parts of the globe. 



CHIRONEMUS. A genus of spinous-finned 

 fishes belonging to the perch family. They have 

 seven rays, and are without the crooked teeth which 

 characterise perches. There is only one known 

 species, a native of the Australian seas. 



CHIRONIA (Linnaeus). A beautiful genus of 

 undershrubs, natives of the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Linna;an class and order, Pentandria Mmwgynia ; 

 natural order, Gentlanecc. Generic character : calyx 

 in five divisions ; corolla open bell-shaped, limb five- 

 cleft ; stamens bearing oblong erect anthers ; stigma 

 round ; capsule united to the calyx. The chironias 

 should be in every greenhouse, as they are free 

 flowerers, and bear purple, or red or white blossoms. 

 They are easily propagated by cuttings, and require 

 to be often renewed by this means, as old plants 

 become irregular in growth, and unsightly. 



CHIRONOMUS (Meigen). A genus of dipterous 

 insects belonging to the great family Tipulidce, and to 

 the sub-family Culiciformet of Latreille. The insect* 

 of which this very numerous genus is composed are 

 of small size, and are often, but inappropriately, termed 

 gnats, that name being, as it seems to us, more strictly 

 applicable to the Culicidce, from whose stings, or rather 

 bites, we have so often cause of inquietude and alarm. 

 We would apply to the present and other harmless 

 insects belonging to the former family the name of 

 Midges. Generally these insects are distinguished by 

 the beautiful antennae of the males, which are thirteen- 

 jointed, and form a complete feather, being entirely 

 enveloped in a pencil of hairs reaching to the tip; 

 those of the females are clothed with a few short 

 hairs, and only six-jointed, the terminal joint being 

 very long. The abdomen is long, slender, and hairy, 

 the legs long and slender, the anterior tarsi being 

 often very long, and seldom employed in walking, 

 and the wings are laid parallel upon the back during 

 repose. 



It is these insects which are so often observed in 

 fine summer evenings hovering in great swarms over 

 moist situations, and alternately rising and falling 

 with a motion somewhat like that of the May-flies, 

 Ephemera. In the Linnaean system the midges 

 formed portion of the genus Tipula, which from its 

 great extent has been separated by modern authors 

 into numerous generic subdivisions ; they resemble 

 the true gnats, but the proboscis which in the latter 

 is so direful an organ is here nearly rudimental. 

 Like the gnats they reside in the larva state in water, 

 and are provided with various organs for respiration, 

 which they continually apply to the surface in order 

 to procure a sufficient supply of air. The larva of 

 the common C. plumosus has been observed by 

 De Geer and others. It is long, slender, worm-like, 

 and may constantly be seen in stagnant water and 

 ditches, being of a red colour, whence it has obtained 

 the name of the blood-worm, its body is articulated, 

 and its tail is furnished with several short fin-like 

 appendages for respiration. These larva? form long 

 cylindric tubes in the banks, in which for the most 

 r>art they reside, and in which they change to pupae. 

 An anecdote is recorded respecting these blood- 



