10 FAMILY ODOBtENID^. 



iQg botli tlie Wali'us and the Diigong. While this was in 

 the main a most important and progressive inuovation^ Eet- 

 ziiis seems to have labored, hke several still earlier writers, 

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

 hind feet. Ozeretskovskj-,* 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, hke 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, t 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- 

 chechu.s and Phoca in his group "Mammiferes Amphibies," which 

 he iDlaced between the " Solipedes " and " Mammiferes Cetaces." 

 He divided this group into "I. Les Phoques (P/ioc)" and "II. 

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

 rosmariis-^; '-2. Trichecus dugong^^ ; "3. Trichecus manatus.'' 



As already shown, Retzius nearly disentangled the Walrus 

 from the Sk'enians, leaving of the latter only the Dugong in 

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

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

 gave the generic names respectively of P/rt/j/.s'/o/s {=ITaJicorc, 

 niiger, 1811) and Oxystonms { = ManatHS,Jiet/Ans^ 1701), lea vnig 

 only the W^akus in Trichechus. The genus Trichechus, hoAve\er, 

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

 shown later, did not relate in any way to the Walrus, l)eing 

 applied exclusively to the Manatee. It was not till 1760 that 

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

 and the Wabus, although the embroilment of the two groups 

 began with Brisson, ten years earlier. 



The Pinnipeds and Skenians, collecti^'ely considered, were 

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

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

 Finnipedia and Natantia. 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,. 



* '2 



* Nova Act. Acad. Petrop., xiii, 1796, pp. ;}71-37.5. 

 tTabl. filament., p. 172. 



t Das National-Museum der Natiirgeschiclite, ii, 1803, jp. 344-358. 

 $ Prodromus Systematis Mammalium et Avium, 1811, pp. 138, 139 ; Abliaudl 

 der Akad. Wisseuscli. zu Berlin, 1804-1811, (1815), pp. 39-159, jjssin. 



