SALOON.] 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
21 
comes white in winter, and in that dress forms an important 
article of the fur trade, under the well known name of Er¬ 
mine ; the tip of the tail is black at all seasons of the year. 
These animals inhabit the northern parts both of Europe 
and Asia, and are very abundant in Norway and Siberia. 
In the upper part of this Case are some large Bats 
( Pteropi ), from India and New Holland. 
Case 22 contains the small digitigrade carnivorous ani¬ 
mals, as the Paradoxuri, from India; also some of the 
lesser marsupial animals, as the Opossum, ( Did el-phis 
virginiana, Linn.) from Brazil, the Spotted Weasel 
(Dasyurus macrGurus) , a young specimen of the Wombat, 
{Phascolomys fusca, Desm.), the Pigmy Opossum (. Didel - 
phis pygmcea , Shaw), and the Flying Opossum ( Didelphis 
petaurus , Shaw), all from New Holland. 
Case 23 contains the minor animals belonging to the 
order Glires, as the Water Rat, (Mas amphihius, Linn.), 
Dormice, (M. glis, Linn.), Pouched Rat, ( M . bur sarins , 
Shaw), Chinchilla, ( Chinchilla Lanigera , Bennett), valu¬ 
able for its peculiarly soft fur; and a series of Squirrels 
from various parts of the world. 
Case 24 contains other Glires, as the Flying Squirrel, 
(Scuirus volans, Linn.), Hare, Rabbit, ( Lepus timidus, and 
L. cuniculus, Linn.), and the prehensile-tailed Porcupine 
(Hystrix insidiosa , Illig.); also some of the smaller 
Edentata, as two species of Armadillo ( Dasypus duodecimo 
cinctus , and minntus , Desm.), from South America; the 
long and the short-tailed Manis, the former from India, 
and the latter from Africa ( Manis tetradaciyla and penta - 
dactyla , Linn.),—very young specimens of the two, and of the 
three-toed Sloth (Bradypus didadylus and tridactylus, 
Linn.) ; the Small Ant-eater ( Myrmecophaga didactyla , 
Linn.), from South America; and the Ornithorhynchus, 
or Duck-billed Platypus, (0. paradoxus, Blumenb.) from 
New Holland. 
The forms of the Armadillo and the Manis, and the 
curious shields with which they are furnished by nature 
are sufficiently wonderful; but the structure of the Orni¬ 
thorhynchus is so anomalous, that Dr. Shaw, who first de* 
scribed this “ most extraordinary genus" in the Natu¬ 
ralist’s Miscellany, hesitated whether to admit it into his 
History of Quadrupeds, in the first volume of his General 
