136 



ON SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 



(187.) The system of Aristotle in regard to insects, 

 or annulose animals, has been collected and digested by 

 a commentator eminently qualified for such a task. It 

 is as follows : — 



fCoIeoptera. 

 Pedetica — Orthoptera Saltatoria Lat. 

 Astomata = Hemiptera Lat. 

 Psychas = Lepidoptera. 

 fPTiLOTA - -{ rMajora = NeuropteraZ. Orthop. 



ITetraptera -J tera cursoria Lat. 

 t Opisthocentra = Hymenoptera. 

 r Minora = Musca, Tipulae, &c. 

 INSECTA -i LDiptera < Emprosthrocentra =: Culex, Ta- 



It banus, &c. 

 Pterota simul f Myrmix = Formica L. 

 et Aptera I Pygolampis = Lampyris. 

 LAptera. 



(188.) We shall now offer a few observations on 

 these arrangements of the two most important divisions 

 of the animal kingdom. On looking to the first table, 

 we are surprised at the accuracy with which this great 

 philosopher has perceived the distinction between the 

 Unguiculata and the Ungulata, or the clawed and the 

 hoofed quadrupeds ; a distinction which laid the found- 

 ation for one of the best divisions of Willughby's system, 

 and some of the most defective in that of Linnseus. If 

 we wished to cite authority in support of our opinion, 

 that the Cheiroptera, or Bats, are the representatives of 

 the Glires in the circle of the Quadrumana, we might 

 appeal to the views of Aristotle, who considered the two 

 groups so similar, that he actually places them together. 

 His disposition of the oviparous birds is still more 

 admirable. There requires no great talent, it is true, 

 to perceive that the rapacious, the gallinaceous, the 

 ■wading, and the swimming birds, constitute so many 

 orders or primary divisions ; but that Aristotle shoidd 

 have seen that the Climbers formed only a division of 

 the Perchers (^Insessores), and were not to be elevated to 

 the rank of a primary division, is most surprising, and 

 annuls all the modern claims that have been set up for 

 priority in proclaiming a truth, given to the world by a 

 Grecian philosopher centuries ago. But if this dispo- 

 sition of the vertebrated classes claim our admiration, 

 still more must we extol these just conceptions, which 



