212 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



species, and shall refer to the Table for the short specific 

 characters which distinguish the rest. 



The several species of this genus, which, although they 

 are so analogous as to compose one of the most natural 

 groups of Mammalia, are, nevertheless, spread over a very 

 wide surface. This fact should, perhaps, make us very 

 cautious on the subject of specific appropriations. The 

 great and astonishing changes wrought in the physicalities 

 of animals, by change of place and circumstances, are, to a 

 considerable extent, well known to us ; but the limit of this 

 operation is by no means defined by us ; hence, it becomes 

 very difficult to distinguish between analogy and affinity in 

 animals. The Lions of Barbary, of South Africa, and of 

 Asia, differ not inconsiderably from each other ; but their 

 affinity is not doubted, and but one species is acknow- 

 ledged. The Hyaenas of northern Africa and those of the 

 south differ, perhaps, but little more than the varieties of 

 the Lion externally; in one race they are striped, with the 

 hair elongated on certain parts ; in the other they are 

 spotted, with the hair equal, and the osteological differences 

 consist rather in degrees of development than in essential 

 characters ; yet the affinity of these has hardly been sug- 

 gested, they have always been treated as distinct species. 

 And in the species of the preceding order (Hystricc,) we 

 may notice, that there is a difference between those located 

 in Africa and Asia, and those of Europe, though these dif- 

 ferences have never been ventured upon as other than cha- 

 racters of variety. 



These different results, from premises so much alike, 

 seem greatly to be attributed to accident. When the na- 

 tural history of an animal, as in the common example of 

 the Hog, is sufficiently known, when its first transportation 

 from one climate to another is matter of unquestioned 

 notoriety, whatever may be the differences that have sprung 



