296 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



sions, at least without something like a complete know- 

 ledge of the things divided, the Marsupiata should form a 

 class, including its orders, analogous to those in the 

 Mammalia, with a single matrix ; so it seems likely to 

 turn out, though on a much less extensive scale, that a 

 more complete knowledge of the Armadillos will induce 

 the necessity of further subdivisions, and that so insulated 

 a type of creation will not exist in a single form alone. 



Three of such supposed divisions have, as we have al- 

 ready seen, been alluded to, rather than established, by 

 M. F. Cuvier ; but till we know more of the genus, the 

 complete application of these divisions must be suspended. 

 In the table, therefore, of this genus, we shall enumerate 

 all the species as forming but one group, only endeavour- 

 ing to point out, though as shortly as possible, the dif- 

 ferent specific peculiarities, some of which may eventually 

 be elevated to generic distinctions. 



The genus Orycteropus includes at present but a single 

 species, or, in other words, an animal is found in Southern 

 Africa, which, when all the peculiarities of its structure 

 are considered, cannot with propriety, in the opinion of 

 systematic zoologists^be referred to either of the pre-esta- 

 blished genera. Such insulated instances in artificial sys- 

 tems are by no means uncommon ; but when we consider 

 that the operations of nature are generally of a comprehen- 

 sive character, we may fairly be suspicious that we are de- 

 parting from a natural system when we establish genera 

 which include but a single species. 



The Orycteropus, or, as we would rather call it after its 

 English name, the Cape Ant-eater, when first described by 

 Pallas, was referred to the Ant-eaters ; but Kolbe and 

 BufFon have named it, with reference to a very different 

 genus, the Ground Hog. All its analogies agree with the 

 Ant-eater except its system of dentition, on which natu- 



