SECRETARY'S REPORT. 137 



STATE CABINET. 



Constant effort has been made during the past year to enlarge 

 the collection designed to illustrate the natural history and 

 material resources of the Commonwealth. The interest mani- 

 fested in it by tlie increasing number of visitors, from day to 

 day, shows plainly that the cabinet may be made the means of 

 great usefulness and value, especially as a State collection, to 

 which it is confmed. 



In this connection, Mr. E. A. Samuels, who has made the 

 subject a special study, having had charge of this branch of 

 the cabinet, has presented the following paper on the Animals 

 of Massachusetts. 



MAMMALIA. 



Mammals, or animals which suckle their young, from " mamma," a 

 teat, are divided by naturalists into three great classes, which are called 

 unguiculata, animals with claws, tmgulata, animals with hoofs, and 

 pinnata, animals with fins. These classes are divided into orders, which 

 are divided and sub-divided into genera and species, as careful investi- 

 gation and examination discovers in a number of animals traits or char- 

 acters essentially different from others closely related, or with some 

 traits or characters common to both. 



The great orders or divisions of these primary classes, represented in 

 the terrestrial mammals of this State, are — 



I. Cheiroptera. — Animals whose anterior fingers are prolonged 

 and connected together, and with the posterior extremities, by a naked 

 membrane, which enables them to fly as the bats, of which this order is 

 composed. These animals are nocturnal in their habits, lying concealed 

 during the day ; their food consists almost entirely of insects, (chiefly 

 nocturnal lepidoptera,) which they catch while on the wing. They have 

 three kinds of teeth, incisors, canines and molars ; two teats situated 

 on the breast, and bring forth from one to three at a birth, in the summer 

 months. At the approach of winter, they retreat to caves and hollow 

 trees, where they suspend themselves by the hooked nails of their thumbs 

 and feet, and remain torpid until spring. 



II. Rapacia. — Animals which live on animal food, which they 

 usually seize in a violent manner ; they are generally provided with 

 strong, sharp claws for this purpose ; they have three kinds of teeth, 

 incisors, canines, and molars, have teats placed on the belly, and have a 

 simple stomach. 



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