LECTURE U. 3i 



Mammalia are generally four in number, and fur- 

 nislied with separate toes, or divisions, guarded by 

 claws, more or less strong in the different tribes. 

 In some, as in the Monkeys, the feet have the ap- 

 pearance of hands; and. the claws often bear a 

 great resemblance to the human nails, for which. 

 reason these animals have sometimes been called 

 Quadriimanes ; as having four hands, rather than 

 four feet *. In some tribes of Mammalia the feet 

 are armed or shod with strong hoofs, either quite 

 entire, or cloven or divided. In such of the Mam- 

 malia as possess the power of flight, as in the Bat 

 tribe, the fore-feet are drawn out into slender fin- 

 gers of an immoderate length, and united by a. 

 common membrane or web. In some of the 

 aquatic Mammalia, as the Seals, for instance, both 

 the fore and hind feet are very strongly or widely 

 w^ebbed; and in the Whales, there are in reality 

 only two feet, the bones of wliich are inolosed in 

 what are comm.only called the fins, while the lobes 

 of the tail in some degree answer the purpose of a 

 pair of hind-feet, but consist merely of strong 



* The celebrated Cuvier in particular has adopted this nani«^ 

 which indeed has often been applied to snob aniinals by many 

 prior writers. 



