108 MAMMALIA. 



are lozenge-shaped, is the most celebrated species. It equalled the Ele- 

 phant in size, but with stLU heavier proportions. Its remains are found ina 

 wonderful state of preservation, and in great abundance throughout aU parts 

 of North America. They are infinitely more rare in the eastern continent. 

 The M. angustidens was a tliird less than the great Mastodon, and much 

 lower on its legs. Its remains are found throughout the greater part of 

 Europe and of South America. In certain places, the teeth, tinged with 

 iron, become of a beautiful blue when heated, forming what is called the 

 oriental turquoise. 



FAMILY IL 



PACHYDERMATA ORDINARIA, 



Or the ordinary Pachydermata, have four, three or two toes. 



Those in which the toes make even numbers have feet somewhat 

 cleft, and approximate to the Ruminantia in various parts of the 

 skeleton, and even in the complication of the stomach. They are 

 usually divided into two genera. 



Hippopotamus, Lin. 



These animals have a very massive and naked body; very short legs; the 

 belly reaching to the ground; an enormous head terminated by a large inflat- 

 ed muzzle, which encloses the apparatus of their large front teeth; the tail 

 short; the ears and eyes small. They hve in rivers, upon roots and other 

 vegetable substances, and exhibit much ferocity and stupidity. One species 

 only is known. 



H. amphibius. (The Hippopotamus. ) Now confined to the rivers of the 

 middle and south of Africa. 



Sus, Lin. 

 Hogs, properly so called, have twenty-four or twenty-eight grinders, of 

 which the posterior are oblong with tuberculous crowns, and the anterior 

 more or less compressed, and six incisors in each jaw. 



S. scropha, L. The Wild Hog, which is the parent stock of our Domestic 

 Hog and its varieties, has prismatic tusks that curve outwards and slightly 

 upwards; the body short and thick; straight ears; the hair bristled and black; 

 the young ones striped black and white. It does great injury to fields in 

 the vicinity of forests, by tearing up the ground in search of roots. Natural- 

 ists now separate from the Hogs the subgenera Phacockaerus, and Dicotyle or 

 the Peccaries. 



Here may come a genus now unknown in the living creation, 

 which we have discovered, and named 



