The lama and the pacos appear to have more significant marks of their ancient parents: the first with the camel, and the second in the sheep. The lama, like the camel, has a long neck and legs, slender head, and the upper lip divided. He resembles the latter also by his gentle manners, servility of disposition, endurance of thirst, and aptness for labour. This was the first and most useful domestic animal of the Americans: they made use of him to carry burdens, in the same manner as the Arabs do the camel. Here therefore are sufficient resemblances in the nature of these animals, to which we can yet add the permanent marks of labour; for though the back of the lama is not deformed by hunches like that of the camel, he, nevertheless, has callosities on his breast, occasioned by the like habit he is used to of resting on that part of his body. Yet, notwithstanding all these affinities, the lama is a very distinct and different species from the camel. He is much smaller, not exceeding a fourth or a third part of the camel’s magnitude. The shape of his body, and the quality and colour of his hair, are also very different. His temperament is still more so; for he is a phlegmatic animal, and delights only to live on the mountains, whereas the camel is of a dry temperament, and willingly inhabits the most scorching sands. On the whole, there are more specific differences between the camel and the lama, than between the camel and the giraffe. These three animals have many characters in common, by which they might be referred to one genus, but, at the same time, they differ so much in other respects, that we cannot suppose them to be the issue of one another; they are, therefore, only neighbours and not relations. The height of the giraffe is nearly double that of the camel, and the camel double that of the lama. The two first belong to the Old Continent, and form separate species. The lama, therefore, which is only found in the New, must be a distinct species from both.
It is not the same with respect to the pecari, for though a different species from the hog, he, nevertheless, belongs to the same genus. He resembles the hog in shape, and every external appearance, and only differs from it in some trifling characters, such as the aperture on his back, shape of the stomach, intestines, &c. We might, therefore, be led to suppose that this animal sprung from the same stock as the hog, and that he formerly passed from the Old World to the New, where, by the influence of the soil, he had degenerated to so great a degree as now to constitute a distinct species.
With regard to the pacos, though it appears to have some affinities with the sheep, in its wool and habit of body, yet it differs so greatly in every other respect, that this species cannot be looked on either as neighbours or allies. The pacos is rather a small lama, and has not a single mark which indicates its having passed from one continent to the other. Thus of the four detached species peculiar to the New World, three, namely, the tapir, the cabiai, and the lama, with the pacos, appear to belong originally to this continent, whereas the pecari, which forms the fourth, seems to be only a degenerated species of the hog, and to have formerly derived its origin from the Old Continent.
By examining and comparing, in the same manner, the ten genera, to which we have reduced the other animals peculiar to South America, we shall discover, not only singular relations in their nature, but marks of their ancient origin and degeneration. The sapajous and sagoins bear so great a resemblance to the monkeys, that they are commonly included under that name. We have proved, however, that their species, and even their genera, are different. Besides, it would be very difficult to conceive how the monkeys of the Old Continent could assume in America a different-shaped visage, a long, muscular, and prehensile tail, a large partition between the nostrils, and other characters, both specific and generic, by which we have distinguished and separated them from the sapajous. But as the monkeys, apes, and baboons, are only found in the Old Continent, we must look upon the sapajous and sagoins as their representatives in the New, for these animals have nearly the same form, as well externally as internally, and also have many things in common in their natural habits and dispositions. It is the same with respect to the makis, none of which are found in America, yet they seem to be represented there by the opossums, or four-handed animals, with pointed muzzles, which are found in great numbers in the New Continent, but exist not in the Old. We must, however, observe, that there is much more difference between the nature and the form of the makis, and of these four-handed American animals, than between the monkeys and the sapajous; and that there is so great a distance between the opossums and the maki that we cannot form an idea that the one ever proceeded from the other, without supposing that degeneration can produce effects equal to those of a new nature; for the greatest number of these American four-handed animals have a pouch under the belly, ten incisive teeth in each jaw, and a prehensile tail; whereas the maki has a flaccid tail, no pouch under the belly, and only four incisive teeth in the upper jaw, and six in the lower; therefore, though all these animals have hands and fingers of the same form, and also resemble each other in the elongation of the muzzle, yet their species, and even their genera, are so different, that we cannot imagine them to be one and the same issue, or that such great and general disparities have ever been produced by degeneration.
On the other hand, the tigers of America, which we have indicated by the names of jaguars, couguars, ocelots, and margais, though different in species from the panther, leopard, ounce, guepard, and serval, of the Old Continent, are, nevertheless, of the same genera. All these animals greatly resemble each other, both externally and internally; they have also the same natural dispositions, the same ferocity, the same vehement thirst for blood, and what approximates them still nearer in genus, those which belong to the same continent differ more from each other than from those of the other Continent. For instance, the African panther differs less from the Brasilian jaguar than the latter does from the couguar, though they are natives of the same country. The Asiatic serval, and the margai of Guiana, likewise differ less from one another than from the species peculiar to their own continents. We, therefore, may justly suppose, that these animals had one common origin, and that, having formerly passed from one continent to the other, their present differences have proceeded only from the long influence of their new situation. The mouffettes, or stinkards, of America, and the pole-cat of Europe, seem to be of the same genus. In general, when a genus is common to both continents the species which compose it are more numerous in the Old than in the New; but in this instance it is quite the reverse, for there are four or five kinds of pole-cats in America, while we have only one, the nature of which is inferior to that of all the rest; so that the New World, in its turn, seems to have representatives in the Old; and if we judged only from the fact, we might think these animals had taken the opposite road, and passed from America to Europe. It is the same with respect to some other species. The roe-bucks and the fallow-deer, as well as the stinkards, are more numerous, larger, and stronger in the New Continent than in the Old; we might, therefore, imagine them to be originally natives of America; but as we cannot doubt that every animal was created in the Old Continent, we must, consequently, admit of their migration from the Old to the New World, and at the same time suppose, that instead of having degenerated, like other animals, they have improved their original nature by the influence of the soil and climate.
The ant-eaters, which are singular animals, and of which there are three or four species in the New World, seem also to have their representatives in the Old. The scaly lizards resemble them in the peculiar character of having no teeth, and of being obliged to put out their tongues and feed upon ants; but if we would suppose them to have one common origin, it is strange, that instead of scales, with which they are covered in Asia, they are clothed with hair in America.
With respect to the agoutis, pacos, and other animals of the seventh genus peculiar to the New Continent, we can only compare them with the hare and rabbit, from which, however, they all differ in species. What renders their being of a common origin doubtful is, the hare being dispersed almost over every climate of the Old Continent, without having undergone any other alteration than in the colour of its hair. We cannot, with any foundation, therefore, imagine that the climate of America has so far changed the nature of our hares to so great a degree as to make them tapetis or apereas, which have no tail; or agoutis with pointed muzzles, and short round ears; or pacos, with a large head, short ears, and a coarse hair marked with white stripes.
On the whole, the coatis, the armadillos, and the sloths, are so different, not only in species, but also in genus, from every animal of the Old World, that we cannot compare them with any one; it is also impossible to refer them to any common