66* NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



Dasypus is a vermiform type., while it is almost the 

 only one among quadrupeds, which,, from being covered 

 with bony plates, can be compared to the tortoises or 

 chelonian reptiles. The smallness of the head and 

 mouth in the vermiform caterpillars is very remarkable ; 

 and upon looking to quadrupeds and birds, we find that 

 the GlireSy or mice, the armadillos, and the wading tribes 

 (Grallatores), have the smallest and most pointed muz- 

 zle,, the narrowest gape, and the least mouth of all ver- 

 tebrate animals. Now, the only difference between the 

 general form of these tortoise-like caterpillars, and that 

 of the common earth-worm, is this, that in the former 

 the body is excessively contracted, whereas in the latter 

 it is excessively lengthened : the pointed extremities of 

 the head and of the tail, in both animals, is a common 

 character, which, as we have already seen, belongs to no 

 other type of larvae of insects or of vertebrate animals ; 

 this at once accounts for the excessive length of body 

 possessed by all the gnawing quadrupeds (Glires Linn.), 

 and by all the birds in the order of waders (Gralla- 

 tores). 



(62.) There now only remain the Rasorial or Thy- 

 sanuriform caterpillars; and these, if the preceding views 

 are correct, must of necessity represent the Gallinacece, 

 or Rasores, among birds, and the horned cattle, or 

 ruminants (Ungulata), among quadrupeds. Now, both 

 of these groups of vertebrate animals, in their respec- 

 tive classes, are the only ones which have horns, crests, 

 or pointed appendages on their heads. Look to the 

 whole of the order Ungulata, and you will find the 

 rhinoceros, with its horned snout, and the numerous 

 families of deer and antelopes and oxen, all decorated 

 in this manner : turn to the gallinaceous birds, and 

 you will find nearly all the peacocks and pheasants 

 ornamented either with conspicuous crests, or with little 

 ear-like egrets ; the different fowls with fleshy combs 

 cresting their heads, and the front of the different 

 Guinea hens armed with bony protuberances. These 



