162 PROGRESS IN ZOOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE xn 



pangolin, and Dasypus or armadillo. The advances during 

 the century have consisted in the accumulation of a great 

 mass of details respecting these groups ; the addition of a 

 fifth and very distinct existing form, the Orycteropus or Cape 

 ant-eater ; and the discovery of numerous and very remarkable 

 extinct forms, such as the Megatheriums and Glyptodons of 

 South America, now so fully known by their well-preserved 

 osseous remains. There is, however, still much to be done in 

 working out the real relationship of the somewhat isolated 

 members of the order, if it be a natural order, both to each 

 other, and to the rest of the Mammalia, from which they 

 stand widely removed in many points of organisation. 



The third order of Linnaeus, FER^E, contained all the then 

 known animals, which, with whatever diversities of general 

 structure, agreed in their predatory habits, and possessed 

 certain general characters of teeth and claws to correspond, 

 though the terse definition of " Denies primores superiores sex, 

 acutiusculi canini solitarii," is by no means universally 

 applicable to them. This order was broken up by Cuvier into 

 the orders Carnivora and Insectivora, and the genus DidelpTiys, 

 included in it by Linnaeus, has been since by universal assent 

 removed to another group. 



The first six genera belong to the very well-defined and 

 probably natural group now called Carnivora. The one placed 

 at the head of the list, Phoca, is equivalent to the large and 

 important modern sub-order Pinnipedia, the walrus, however, 

 though essentially a seal, having been, as before mentioned, 

 relegated by Linnaeus to another order, on account of its 

 aberrant dentition. But three species are recorded in the 

 genus ; P. ursina, the sea-bear of the North Pacific (now 

 Otaria ursina) ; P. leonina, founded on Anson's sea-lion, now 

 commonly called the elephant seal, or sea-elephant (Macrorhinus 

 proloscideus, or more properly leoninus) ; and P. vitulina, the 

 common seal of our coasts. 



The terrestrial sub -order of Carnivora is represented by 

 five genera : 1. Canis, including the dog, wolf, hyaena, fox, 

 arctic fox, jackal, etc. 2. Felis, with only six species, but 

 still one of the few Linnaean genera, which covers exactly the 

 same ground as at present in the opinion of the majority of 



