LINNvEUS AND THE LINNEAN CLASSIFICATION. 59 



from the selection of some one or two arbitrary characters 

 as the basis of a classification ; since there is in reality no 

 close relationship between the bats and the monkeys, and 

 still less between the bats and man. As an instance of 

 the progress of zoological discovery since the time of the 

 great Swedish naturalist, it may be mentioned that while 

 Linnaeus, in the twelfth edition of the ' Systema Naturae,' 

 described or enumerated two hundred and twenty species 

 of quadrupeds, arranged in forty genera, a recent writer 

 (Mr Dobson) is able to describe, in the single order of the 

 Bats alone, some four hundred species, distributed in eighty 

 genera. One of the least satisfactory features in the 

 Linnean classification of the Mammals is, that he broke 

 up the great and natural division of the hoofed quad- 

 rupeds, which Ray had established under the name of 

 Ungulates, and disposed of them by establishing three 

 orders (the Bruta, Pecora, and Belluce\ in which they 

 were placed in unnatural juxtaposition with forms in no 

 way related to them. 



(2) Aves, or Birds. Linnaeus divided the birds into 

 six orders, comprising less than a thousand species. 

 His classification was a decided advance in clearness and 

 general applicability upon that of Ray and Willughby; 

 and his orders, though to a large extent artificial, have 

 remained in general use, with more or less extensive 

 modifications, even up to the present day. 



(3) Amphibia. By this name Linnaeus understood 

 the animals which we now know as the Reptiles, such 

 as lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and serpents. At the 

 same time he placed with these the animals which 

 modern naturalists call Amphibia, namely, the frogs, toads, 



