THE 



FOURTH ORDER 



MAMMALIA. 



THE RODENTIA. 



We have just observed in the Phalangers canine 

 teeth so very small, that they can scarcely be con- 

 sidered as such. Accordingly the nutriment of these 

 animals is for the most part vegetable. Their in- 

 testines are long, and they have an ample caecum ; 

 and the Kanguroos, which have no canines at all, 

 subsist entirely on an herbivorous diet. 



The Phascolomys might with propriety commence 

 the series of animals of which we are about to speak, 

 and which have a system of mastication still less 

 perfect. 



Two large incisors in each jaw, separated from 

 the molars by a wide space, cannot easily seize a 

 living prey, nor tear flesh. They cannot even cut 

 the food, but they serve to file it down, to reduce it 

 by continual labour into fine molecules, in a word to 

 gnaw it. From this comes the name of Rodentia, 

 given to this order from rodo, to gnaw, in French, 



Vol. III. G 



