324 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTION8. [aNNO J 766. 



of them, by dashing it against the stones, it broke into 3 or 4 pieces : he fur- 

 ther says, that he has had an opportunity of seeing many of them lately of a 

 much larger size, and that he never saw one with more than 2 feet ; so that he 

 is fully convinced, that it is quite a new genus of the animal kingdom. 



XXIII. Observations on Animals, commonly called Amphibiom,* by Authors. 

 Presented by Dr. Parsons, F. R.S. p. 193. 



If we consider the words ajuKpt and iSi'of, from which the term amphibious is de- 

 rived ; we should understand that animals, having this title, should be capable 

 of living as well by land or in the air, as by water, or of dwelling in either con- 

 stantly at will ; but it will be difficult to find any animal that can fulfil this defi- 

 nition, as being equally qualified for either ; and in classing creatures of this 

 kind, authors are much divided, and sometimes mistaken. 



Now if any natural historian should deduce his distinction of this class, from 

 the structure or characteristic of any part of the animal. Dr. P. thinks he would 

 be a little out of the way ; because the term comprehends nothing but what re- 

 gards its living in both air and water at discretion ; however, since the word am- 

 phibious is adopted by the writers of the history of animals, let us retain it still, 

 and examine some of this class, and, by considering their natural economy re- 

 spectively, endeavour to range them according to that standard in the following 

 manner. They are such as : 1 . Enjoy their chief functions by land, but occa- 

 sionally go into the water. 2. Such as chiefly inhabit the water, but occasionally 

 go ashore. Of the latter there are but very few species. And though none of 

 the winged tribe are to be ranged under this class, yet as many of them remain 

 ong on the water, in search of their proper food, we shall enumerate some pe- 

 culiar advantages, which have been allowed to several of them by the bountiful 

 wisdom of the Creator, in order to render them the more able to obtain it ; and 

 this will make one curious part of the present purpose, not generally known. 



As to the class of the phocae, which consists of a very numerous tribe of dif- 

 ferent species ; he thinks that none of them can live chiefly in the waters, but 

 that their chief enjoyment of the functions of life is on shore. These animals 

 are really quadrupeds ; but, as their chief food is fish, they are under a necessity 

 of going out to sea to hunt their prey, and to great distances from shore ; taking 

 care that, however great the distance, rocks or small islands are at hand, as rest- 

 ing places when they are tired, or their bodies become too much macerated in 

 the water ; and they return to the places of their usual resort to sleep, copulate, 

 and bring forth their young, for the following reasons, viz. It is well known 



* It is to be observed that Dr. Parsons in this excellent paper, uses the term, amphibious, in a 

 large or general sense, and does not restrict it to the Linncean Amphibia. 



