quadrupeds, since it is common with cetaceous 
monsters. The third attribute, which mio;ht 
seem, from it's being most apparent, to be the 
least equivocal, and which consists in their be- 
ing covered with hair, is ahnost the dire<St op- 
posite of the two others in several species 
which cannot be excluded from the quadruped 
class ; because, this charafteristic excepted, 
they are like them in all other respects. These 
seeming exceptions of nature, continues Buf- 
fon, being in reality nothing more than gra- 
•dations calculated to unite, in one general 
-chain, the links of the most remote existences, 
-we must not lose sight of such singular rela- 
tions, but contrive to seize them whenever 
-they present themselves to our view. The 
Armadillos, or Tatous, instead of hair, are 
covered, like turtles, cray-fish, and other ani- 
mals of the crustaceous kind, with a sort of so- 
lid crust; the pangolins arc armed with scales, 
like fish ; and the porcupines carry a kind 
of prickly feathers, the quill of which is like 
that of a bird: thus, in the class of quadru- 
peds alone, and by the most constant charac- 
teristic of the animals of that clasSy which are 
covered with hair, Nature varies in nearly ap- 
proximating 
