216 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



If the clime of America is fo pernicious to the tails 

 of animals, how comes it that while four fpecies of apes 

 of the old continent are deprived of fuch a member, 

 namely, the Pongo, the Pithecus^ the Gibbon , and the 

 Cynocepbalus, all the fpecies of apes of the new world 

 have them, and fome, fuch as the Saki, have tails fo 

 long that they are twice the length of their bodies ; 

 why do fquirrels, Coquallines, ant-killers, and other 

 fuch quadrupeds, abound in America, which are fur- 

 niflied with fuch enormous tails in proportion to their 

 bodies? Why has the marmot of Canada, although it 

 is of the fame fpecies with that of the Alps, a larger 

 tail, as count de BulFon himfelf confeiTes ? Why have 

 the deer of America, although fmaller than thofe of the 

 old continent, a longer tail, as the fame author af- 

 firms (/) ? If the climate of America was ever polfeifed 

 of fome principle dellru&ive to tails of animals, thofe 

 which Columbus tranfported there from Europe, and 

 the Canary Ifles, in 1493, W0U Jd nave by this time loft 

 all tail, particularly hogs, which carried fuch (hort tails 

 there, or at leafl: they would have been remarkably 

 fliortened after two hundred and eighty-eight years ; but 

 among all the Europeans who have feen the fheep, 

 horfes, oxen, &c. bred in America, and thofe which 

 were bred at the fame time in Europe, there has not 

 been one writer who could find any diJerence between 

 the tails of the one and the other. 



This fame argument is equally valid againfl what 

 count de Boifon fays upon the want of horns, and tufks 

 in the greater part of American quadrupeds, as the ox- 

 en, the fiieep and goats, preferve without change their 



horns, 



(/) Hift Nat. torn, xviii. 



