l88 Notes, iii. i — 2. 



genera that live on Testacea and Crustacea. The rays, again, and skates have the 

 mouth paved with flat teeth, and A. was familiar with these fishes. He speaks moiie 

 guardedly elsewhere (iv. 13, Note 30). 



8. "In the sharks and rays the teeth are supported by the upper and lower jaw ; but 

 many other fishes have teeth growing firom the roof of the mouth, from the surface of 

 the- tongue, from the bony hoops supporting the gills, and some have them developed 

 from the base of the nose and base of the skull " [Owen). 



9. The mouth in many fishes, e.g. the pike, is beset with a countless number of sharp 

 teeth which project from all parts of the internal surface. The object of this is not so 

 much the comminution of the food, as A. supposes, as to enable the fish to retain 

 hold of its slippery prey. Similarly the recurved form of the teeth, noticeable in many 

 predatory species, serves to prevent the prey when once in the mouth from escaping, 

 the points being all directed towar3s the oesophagus. 



10. The other weapons are the dorsal fin, armed with rigid spines and highly developed 

 for defence in such a fish as the perch, where the dentition is "en fin velours" (cf. 

 Rolleston, Forms of Animal Life, p. 43) ; and the still stronger spines on the back of 

 dog-fishes, and the skin of rays, etc. 



11. Namely, at ii. 16, 6, when speaking of the elephant's trunk. Similar statements 

 are made (Z?. P. iv. 10, 33, and 58) concerning the female mammae, and the tails of 

 animals. 



12. That is to say without any compulsion from the necessary laws of matter. As to 

 the general statement, cf. M. Edwards (Lefons de Phys. Comp. i. 21), "En effet, lorsq'une 

 propriete physiologique commence a se localiser dans un§ serie d'animaux de plus en plus 

 parfaits, elle s'exerce d'abord a I'aide d'une partie qui existait deja dans I'organisme des 

 especes inferieures et qui est seulement modifiee dans sa structure pour s'approprier a des 

 fonctions speciales. Tantot c'est, pour ainsi dire, un fbnds commun qui fournit aux 

 diverses facultes leurs premiers instruments particuliers ; d'autres fois c'est a un appareil 

 deja destine k des usages speciaux que la fonction nouvelle emprunte ses organes, et c'est 

 seulement apres avoir epuise les ressources de ce genre, que la puissance creatrice introduit 

 dans la constitution des etres a organisation plus parfaite un element nouveau." 



13. i.e. the Raptores, cf. iy. 12, Note i. 



14. The example is well chosen. For in woodpeckers, especially in the larger species, 

 the beak acquires the density of ivory (cf. Owen, Vert. ii. 146). In the raven also, 

 which is the bird usually meant by A. when he speaks of crows, the beak is hard and 

 strong. 



15. A. does not make 'the mistake committed by many other writers, of basing man's 

 supremacy on his power of gazing upwards ; on the contrary he rightly describes him 

 as looking in front. The error he escaped is ridiculed by Galen {De Usu part. iii. 3), 

 who says it can only be entertained by those who had never seen a flat fish, and that 

 every donkey can bend back his neck and look upwards as easily as can man. But 

 that man alone of animals is erect, is repeatedly mentioned by A. as a proof of his 

 superiority. Doubtless the erect position leaving as it does the upper extremities free 

 for skilful manual operations is an important element in man's structure. But this 

 position is not the exclusive privilege of man ; some birds, as the penguin, having a 

 vertical attitude, and even some mammals, as the kangaroo. Cf. Lewes, Arist. p. 309. 



(Ch. 2.) 1. For instance in some male fishes, lizards, and many beetles, where the 

 horns are not weapons but mere ornaments. So A. calls the antennae of Crustacea 

 horn? (// A. iv. 2, 10). He alludes however more especially to the Egyptian snake 

 (//. A. ii. I, 36) : "Thus the Egyptians speak of the snakes about Thebes as horned. 



