184 On the Classification of Mammalia. 



Carnivora are absent from America : Carnivora are the most 

 numerous where ruminants are most numerous, the former 

 feeding chiefly upon the latter. 



Each group has a part to perform in the economy of nature. 

 Carnivora, the most powerful in the animal creation, check 

 the Ruminants, the most bulky and most clumsy of the terres- 

 trial forms of the class, and partly the Rodents ; the Rodents, 

 in their turn, check the arborescent vegetation, whilst Rumi- 

 nants check chiefly the grass. Ruminants are constructed to 

 walk on the ground ; whilst the organization of Rodents is 

 adapted either for ascending trees, or for burrowing in the 

 ground. Ruminants are timid, constantly in fear of becoming 

 the prey of others, and have for their only retreat the depths 

 of the forests, or the unbounded plains and deserts. 



The Insectivora feed upon Articulata, and are intended 

 chiefly to check the never-resting class of Insects : they are 

 adapted to divers situations ; for the aerial element, the sur- 

 face of the soil, and under it, as their peculiar instinct will 

 lead them to feed either on flying, creeping, or burrowing 

 articulates. The Insectivora increase in number from the 

 north to the equator, as the class of Insects does. 



Amongst the eccentrical types, the majority of the species 

 inhabit the warm zone ; a very significant fact. Cheiroptera 

 exist in both hemispheres, increasing in number from the arc- 

 tic regions to the tropics. Quadrumana are chiefly tropical ; 

 and so are Bradipodidse. Flying squirrels belong to the tem- 

 perate and tropical zones. 



On the Reproduction of the Toad and Frog without the in- 

 termediate stage of Tadpole. By Edward Joseph Lowe, 

 Esq., F.G.S., F.R.A.S. 



The following brief remarks on the Toad (Bufo vulgaris) and the 

 Frog {Rana temporaries) may perhaps be received with some degree 

 of interest, as they are, I believe, contrary to the generally received 

 notion of the procreation of these reptiles. Ray, and most natural- 

 ists, at least, consider toads and frogs as oviparous animals, yet it 

 is apparent that they are viviparous as well, or if they do not bring 

 forth their young alive, have the power of reproduction in a differ- 

 ent manner to the ova and subsequent tadpole. 



