PREFACE. he 
in the firft order, after the Mujk , a hornlefs cloven- 
hoofed quadruped. 
The Apes are continued in the fame rank Mr. 
Ray has placed them, and are followed by the 
Maucaucos . 
The carnivorous animals deviate but little from 
his fyftem, and are arranged according to that of 
Linn/eus, after omitting the Seal , Mole, Shrew and 
Hedge-hog . 
The herbivorous or frugivorous quadrupeds keep 
here the fame ftation that our countryman affigned 
them; but this clafs comprehends, befides the 
Shrew , the Mole and the Hedge-hog. The Mole is 
an exception to the character of this order, in re- 
fpeCt to the number of its cutting teeth j but its 
way of life, and its food, place it here more natu¬ 
rally than with the Feral, as Linn^us has done. 
Thefe exceptions are to be met with even in the 
method* of that able Naturalift; nor can it be 
otherwife in all human fyfterns ^ we are fo ignorant 
of many of the links of the chains of beings, that 
to expeCt perfection in the arrangement of them . 
would be the moft weak prefumption. We ought, 
therefore, to drop all thoughts of forming a fyftem 
of quadrupeds from the character of a ftngle part: 
but if we take combined characters of parts, man¬ 
ners and food, we bid much fairer for producing an 
intelligible fyftem, which ought to be the fum of 
our aim. 
* Such as the ■Trichechus Rofmarus, which has four diftinft 
grinders in every jaw, the Pboca Urfina and Leonina , the Mujiela 
Lutris , and the Sus Hydroch<zris; and particularly in the genus of 
Vefpertilio , which confifts of numbers of fpecies, many of which 
vary greatly in the number of their fore teeth. 
A 5 
i he 
