River Thames, is in many refpects new; and, as we are informed, very little known or understood by the oldest merchants. The compendium of the laws relative to coals, fish, &c. must be useful to every inhabitant of London; but to nautical people in particular, it must be both valuable and interefting. A Map of the Port of London and the River Thames, from London-Bridge to Sheernefs, is prefixed. ART. VIII. General Zoology, or fyftematic Natural Hiflory. By George Shaw, M. D. F. R. S. c. With Plates, from the firft Authorities and moft felect Specimens, engraved principally by Mr. Heath. Volume 1. In Two Parts. 552 pp. with 120 Plates. 11. 11s, 6d. Large Paper 21. 12s. 6d. Kearsley. 1800. IN N the prefent extended state of Natural Hiftory, the objects of which have been nearly doubled within the memory of perfons living, to compile a general fyftem of Zoology, with defcriptions fufficiently ample to ferve for popular ufe, is an undertaking of great magnitude. The verbolity of a Buffon would extend it beyond the reach of purchase or perufal; even the fyftematic brevity of Linnæus, though too dry for any but philofophers, cannot confine it within a very narrow compass. Something of more intereft than the one, and lefs bulk than the other, and at the fame time triatly fyftematic, feems to be required for general information; and this deficiency Dr. Shaw has undertaken to fupply. That he is well qualified for the work has long been known, from his elegant publication, the Naturalift's Mifcellany, which amounts at prefent to more than eleven volumes. Our countrymen have long been diftinguished for the culti vation of Natural Hiftory. Some of the moft fplendid, and fome of the most useful works in that fcience, that the world has feen, have been produced in England. The names of Edwards, Catesby, Drury, and many others, bear witness to the former part of the affertion; while, among more modern writers, Pennant and Latham bear away the palm for judicious and fyftematic compilation. Pennant had done much for the history of quadrupeds, and Latham for that of birds; but still a general fyftem was wanting, to which the ftudent or unlearned enquirer might refer for any information he might with to obtain ; obtain; or might be enabled to acquire an equal knowledge of the animated creation, in every fubdivifion of the whole. We do not know that fuch a work has hitherto been produced in any language; and we are happy to fee the example fet in our own country, in a style of elegance, as well as accuracy, that does honour at once to art and fcience. The defcriptions here given, are fufficiently extended to convey the clearest ideas; and the plates, which are executed by Heath, and other able artifts, have been corrected by the author with the most minute attention. A fhort Advertisement, prefixed to the work, marks at once the extent of the defign, and gives fome notion of the magnitude of the publication neceífary to comprehend it. "In the courfe of this work," it is faid, "will be comprifed the whole of what is termed ZooLOGY, or the hiftory of the animal world. It will commence with Quadrupeds, and will proceed, in fyftematic exder, through all the remaining branches, viz. Birds, Amphibia, Fibes, Infects, Vermes, Teftaceous Animals, Zoophytes, &c. The number of volumes will probably amount to ten or twelve." The author profeffes to adhere in general to the Linnean arrangement, though he mentions fome occafional variations; of thefe, fome will be found to occur in the volume already publifhed, and others, of perhaps greater magnitude, may occafionally be expected. We are affured, however, that the author does not often mean to recede very far from the steps of his great inafter. The volume now published is fo fwelled by the number of plates, that it has been thought convenient to divide it into two parts. The generic and fpecific characters are given both in Latin and English, and are often either enlarged or abbreviated, according to the neceffity of the one or the other. Specific chaTacters are alfo given of all the newly difcovered quadrupeds, and of fuch as had not before made their appearance in any fyftematic work; and this conflitutes an important part of the prefent publication, which, in point of number of fpecies, will of course be found much richer, than even the latest edition of the Syftema Naturæ. We muft now give fpecimens of the work, and this we fhail do by taking, without much fele&ion, that which happens to occur on opening the volume." "MYRMECOPHAGA. ANT-EATER.-Generic Character. Dentes nulli. Os anguftatum in rollrum. Corpus pilis tectum. Teeth, none. Tongue cylindric, extenfile. Body covered with hair. "The "The animals of this genus live entirely on infects, more particularly on the various kinds of Ants; in order to obtain which, they extend their tongue, which is of a very great length, and of a roundish or worm-like forin, into the nests of thofe infects, and when, by means of the vifcid moisture with which it is covered, a fufficient nuinber are fecured, they retract it fuddenly into the mouth and swallow them. A part of the generic character of the Myrmecophaga is the total want of teeth, in which particularity it refembles no other animals except thofe of the genus Manis, in which the fame circumftance takes place. There are, however, in the Ant-Eaters according to the obfervations of Monf. Brouffonet, certain bones or proceffes not unlike teeth, fituated deep at the entrance of the gullet or cefophagus; or rather, according to the celebrated Camper, at the lower end of the jaws. The fpecies of Ant-Eaters are not numerous. "GREAT ANT-EATER. "Myrmecophaga Jubata. M. palmis tetradactylis, plantis pentadactylis cauda jubata. Lin. Syft. Nat. p. 52. Grey-brown Ant-Eater, with four toes on the fore feet, five on the hind, long fnout, and very long bushy tail. Tamanoir. Buff. 10. p. 141. pl. 29. Great Ant-Eater., Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 256. "This is by far the largest of the Ant-Eaters, being upwards of feven feet in length, from the tip of the nofe to the eni of the tail; but if measured to the origin of the tail, it is no more than about five feet and a half. It is an animal of an uncouth appearance: the head is fmall: the fnout very long: the eyes fmall: the ears fhort and round the fhoulders thick and mufcular, from whence the body tapers towards the tail; but the thighs are thick and itout: the colour of the animal is a deep grey, with a very broad band of black running from the neck downwards on each fide of the body, growing gradually narrower as it paffes down; this black band is accompanied on the upper part by a freak of white; the fore legs are of a lighter caft than the hinder; and have a patch or fpot of black in front not much above the foot: the tail is black, extremely long and bushy: the hair on the whole body, but especially on the tail, is very harth and coaric: there are four toes on the fore feet, and five on the hind; the two middle claws of the fore feet are extremely large and ftrong; which render this creature, though deftitute of teeth, a very formidable adverfary; fince it has been known to destroy animals of much greater apparent ftrength than itself; fixing its claws upon them, and exerting fuch powerful ftrength as to kill them by continued laceration and preffure. It is a native of Brafil and Guiana: it is chiefly a nocturnal animal, and is faid to fleep during the greatest part or the day in retired places. Its pace is fomewhat flow, and its manners dull and heavy. It is faid to fwim with eate; at which time it fings its tail over its back. A living fpecimen was fome years ago brough into Spain, and kept in the Royal Menagerie at Madrid in this rate of confinement it would readily eat raw meat cut imall, and was faid to fwallow fwallow four or five pounds in a day. Its length was fix feet, from the nose to the end of the tail, and its height was two feet. The fpecimen in the Leverian Museum is of fuperior fize, and is commemorated by Mr. Pennant, in his Hiftory of Quadrupeds, as being the largeft fpecimen he ever heard of. Its dimenficns, however, do not feem to exceed those of a skin preferved in the British Museum, and which once belonged to that of the Royal Society. A beautiful figure of the Leverian fpecimen is given in No. 2. of the Museum Leverianum, and is copied in the prefent work." P. 166. The feveral remaining fpecies of this curious genus next follow; among which, none are more remarkable than the newly-difcovered Aculeated Ant-Eater from New-Holland. "ACULEATED ANT-EATER. "Myrmecophaga Aculeata. M. aculeata, cauda breviffima. Vi varium Natura, tab. 109. Spiny Ant-Eater, with very fhort tail. Porcupine Ant-Eater. Naturalift's Mifcellany, pl. 109. "The Aculeated Ant-Eater is one of those curious animals which have been lately difcovered in the vaft island, or rather continent, of Auftralafia or New Holland; and is a striking inftance of that beautiful gradation, fo frequently obferved in the animal kingdom, by which creatures of one tribe or genus approach to thofe of a very different one. It forms a connecting link between the very diftant Linnæan genera of Hyftrix (Porcupine) and Myrmecophaga (Ant-Eater), having the external coating and general appearance of the one, with the mouth and peculiar generic characters of the other. This animal, fo far as may be judged from the fpecimens hitherto imported, is about a foot in length. The whole upper parts of the body and tail are thickly coated with itrong and very fharp fpines, of a confiderable length, and perfectly refembling thofe of a Porcupine, except that they are thicker in proportion to their length; and that, instead of being encircled or annulated with feveral alternate rings of black and white, as in that animal, they are moftly of a yellowifh white with black tips; the colour running down to fome little diilance on the quill, and being feparated from the white part by a circle of dull orange: others have but a very flight appearance of black towards the tips. The heads, legs, and whole under parts of the body, are of a deep brown, or fable, and are thickly coated with strong, close fet, briftly hair. The tail is extremely fhort, flightly flattened at the tip, and coated on the upper part of the bafe with fpines, at leaft equal in length to those of the back, and pointing perpendicularly upwards. The fnout is long and tubular, and perfectly refembles in ftructure that of the M. jubata, or Great Ant-Eater; having only a very small rictus or opening at the tip, from whence is protruded a long lumbriciform tongue, as in other Ant-Eaters. The noftrils are fmall, and feated at the extremity of the fnout. The eyes are very fmall and black, with a pale blue iris. The legs are very fhort and thick; and are each furnished with five round, ed, broad toes: on the fore feet are five very ftrong, long, and blunt claws, laws, of a black colour: on the hind feet are only four claws; the thumb, which is broader than the rest of the toes, being deftitute of a claw the first claw on the hind feet is extremely long, fomewhat curved, and fharp-pointed; the next rather fhorter, but of fimilar appearance; the two remaining ones far fhorter, very flightly curved, and not fharp-pointed. In its mode of life this animal refembles the reft of the Ant-Eaters, being generally found in the midst of fome large ant-hill it burrows with great ftrength and celerity under ground, when difturbed; its feet and legs being moft exceffively trong, and fhort, and wonderfully adapted to this purpose. It will even burrow under a pretty ftrong pavement, removing the ftones with its claws; or under the bottom of a wall. During thefe exertions its body is ftretched or lengthened to an uncommon degree, and appears very different from the fhort or plump afpect which it bears in its undisturbed ftate. "It cannot escape the obfervation of every scientific naturalift, that, in confequence of the difcovery of this curious animal, the Linnæan character of Myrmecophaga is, in part, rendered inapplicable. Since, therefore, the genera of Manis and Myrmecophaga differ only in the external covering, the former being coated with fcales, and the latter with hair, it would, perhaps, be not improper to conjoin the two genera, to add this as a new fpecies, and to give as part of the generic character, Corpus pilis, fquamis, vel aculeis tectum. Or it might even conftitute a new genus, which would differ from thofe of Manis and Myrmecophaga, in having the body covered with fpines." P. 175, From the above fpecimens, our readers may have fome general idea of the manner in which this fcientific and useful publication is conducted. The prefent volume contains the three first orders of Quadrupeds, Primates, Bruta, Fera; those that remain are Glires, Pecora, Belluc, and Cete; and the volume comprifing thefe, is expected to appear at Chriftmas. ART. IX. Bibliotheque Portative des Ecrivains Francois ou choix des meilleurs Morceaux Extraits de leurs ouvrages. Par M. Moyfant, Profeffeur Emerite de Rhetorique, ancien Bibliothecaire de l'Univerfitë de Caen, &c. &c. Two Volumes. 8vo. 11. 4s. Dulau. 1800. THIS compilation is obviously formed upon the plan of our English Elegant Extracts, and as it is the production of a man of tafte and learning, it may naturally be prefumed to contain a great number of the most excellent pieces in profe and verfe, which are to be found in the French language. It |