MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS. 307 



suckle. Such animals have their bodies more 

 usually covered with hair ; they belong to the 

 earth, and live upon its productions; (though 

 some also resort to the water in search of food,) 

 and they approach the nearest to the human 

 species, in structure, habits, and intelligence. 

 From their mode of feeding their offspring, they 

 have been classed by naturalists, under the head 

 of Mammalia; to which, from a similar cause, 

 and from a strong resemblance in their internal 

 structure, the whale tribes have also been at- 

 tached ; but as the latter animals differ from the 

 former in their external conformation, in their 

 mode of action, and in the element in which they 

 live which equally entitle them to be ranked 

 with fishes, they will be brought under a separate 

 consideration. 



Linnaeus has divided the rnammiferons quad- 

 rupeds into six orders, the character of which 

 is taken from the number, structure, and situation 

 of the teeth ; each order into genera, from a still 

 greater variety in the above particular, or, in the 

 formation of some other external part ; each ge- 

 nus into species, from a difference in the general 

 outline, and in the particular habits of the ani- 

 mal ; and each species into varieties, from some 

 slighter shades of distinction. 



In the first order, which, from including the 

 human species, has heen denominated Primates; 

 the animals, excepting some species of bats, with 



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