18:17
3.
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ARTES
LIBRARY
TH
VERITAS
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SECULT TO UNUM
TCEBOR
CIRCUMSPICE
SCIENTIA
OF THE
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*SAPRONS
THE GIFT OF
Mrs. G. F. Allmandinger
PRO
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M94
FIRST LINES
OF
ZOOLO G Y,
BY
QUESTION AND ANSWER:
FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG.
PART I.-MAMMALIA.
PART II-BIRDS.
PART III.-FISHES.
PART IV.-REPTILES.
Play
IN SEVEN PARTS.
PART V.-INSECTS.
PART VI.-MOLLUSCA.
PART VII.-CRUSTACEA,
BY ROBERT MUDIE.
ETC. ETC.
LONDON :
WHITTAKER, TREACHER, AND CO.,
AVE-MARIA LANE.
1831.
LONDON:
HENRY BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
Ap
Mrs. B. & merdiveer
3-10
Athens
The worst he
DATES Weration d
NOTICE.
WORKS on Natural History for the use of young
persons, are but too commonly faulty in more
respects than one. They consist of mere scraps
of description, generally exaggerated, and of little
use if they were true; or they present the mere
technicalities of an artificial system, in an unknown
tongue, and thus make the real knowledge of the
subject appear twice as formidable as it actually is,
by adding an unexplained name to an undescribed
reality.
In this little work I have attempted to avoid both
these errors, and tried to blend some science with
some description; but the object has all along been
to inculcate principles, rather than to enter into
details. The system of a work which, in so small
a compass, touches upon so many subjects, is not a
matter for severe criticism. Indeed, there is no
one system, in any of the departments of Zoology,
or indeed in any branch of Natural History, upon
which one who really understands the subject will
iv
NOTICE.
be very dogmatical. Much has to be learned, and
something to be forgotten, before the systems of the
observers of Nature can be expected to agree with
that of Nature's Almighty Author.
To those who have been accustomed to pass over
many subjects by rote without understanding one
of them, there may seem to be little in these pages ;
but that the progress of elementary education may
be sure, it must be slow.
KEW,
June 1, 1831.
R. M.
12.
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CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART I.
MAMMALIA.
*(
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Q. WHAT do you mean by the Mammalia?
A. The literal meaning is, " animals which give
suck to their young," and of course bring them forth
alive.*
Q. Do they get any other name?
A. With a few exceptions they are what are, in
common language, termed "beasts," and also
quadrupeds," or four-footed creatures.
*For a full account of animals generally, the pupil may
be referred to the translation of "CUVIER'S ANIMAL
KINGDOM," and for those that more exclusively inhabit
Britain, to "The British Naturalist." The former is a
complete system of animated Nature for all classes; the
latter, sketches and explanations of natural subjects, without
any formality of system, and therefore peculiarly fitted for
the young.
B
2
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Would not quadrupeds be a better name for the
whole class?
A. The substitution of quadrupeds for mammalia
would include two animals, which, while they have
more of the characters of the mammalia than of any
other class, do not seem to suckle their young; but it
would not apply so well to man, in whom two only of
the extremities are feet, or to those mammalia that
inhabit the water, and have their feet formed into
paws adapted for swimming.
Q. What are the distinguishing characters of the
mammalia?
A. They all have bones and flesh, and blood which
is red and warm, and circulates; they all breathe
atmospheric air, by which a portion of the waste of
the system is discharged or separated in charcoal,
which charcoal unites with the oxygen of the air, and
forms carbonic acid.*
Q. Is the waste which is thus given out by animals
of any use in Nature?
A. It forms part of the food of plants. Being
heavier than atmospheric air, it falls to the ground,
and fills the openings of the soil, in which the roots of
plants are contained.
Q. How is the blood of the mammalia brought into
contact with the air?
A. By means of the circulating system, which con-
sists of two sets of tubes or vessels: one set (the
arteries) originating in the heart, and branching out to
all parts of the body, until the continuations become
* See Catechism of Chemistry.
MAMMALIA.
3
so small that they are not perceptible to the eye; and
the other set (the veins) commencing at the extre-
mities of these, uniting and becoming larger, and ulti-
mately ending at the heart.
Q. But how does that bring the blood into contact
with the air?
A. The circulation toward all the parts of the body
which has been mentioned does not perform that ope-
ration. The blood that is sent out from the heart
nourishes all the parts of the body; and that which
returns carries with it the superfluous charcoal, which
is to be discharged by another operation.
Q. Is there any difference apparent in the blood
as flowing from the heart and as returning to it?
A. Yes the blood which is sent out from the heart
by the arteries is of a bright red colour, and that
which returns by the veins is dark.
Q. Is it darkened by charcoal?
A. We do not know that; we only know that when
it comes into contact with the air, it gives out a por-
tion of charcoal, and becomes bright red.
Q. How is the contact with the air accomplished?
A. In the mammalia, and also in birds, the air
which is drawn in from the nostrils through the
trachea, or windpipe, is received into the lungs, which
are organs consisting of a number of cells or cavities,
which all open into the windpipe, receive the air from
that, when breath is drawn in, and expel it by the
same passage, after it has been in contact with the
blood.
Q. How is the blood brought to the lungs?
A. There is a scond set of circulating vessels for
B 2
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
that purpose, which, like the others, begin at the
heart, spread themselves all over the lungs, and are
there connected with veins which return the blood
back again to the heart.
Q. Then there is a double circulation of the
blood?
A. Yes; there is a general or systematic circulation,
by which the body is nourished, the waste supplied,
and substances that have become unfit for the purposes
of life, in part removed; and there is a pulmonary cir-
culation, by which the blood is purified in the lungs
so as to be made fit for these purposes.
Q. How is that accomplished?
A. The heart is double; and consists of four cavi-
ties, two of which (the ventricles) are formed of
strong muscular* fibres, which contract or draw them
together with great force; the other two (the auricles)
are less firm and muscular, and each of them opens
into one of the ventricles. Each ventricle, with its
auricle, is divided from the other by a strong partition,
so that there is no communication between the pair
on the one side, and that on the other,
Q. Are the arteries and veins connected with
these?
A. Yes; the chief arteries of the two circulations
have their origin in the two ventricles, while the
principal veins that return the blood from those cir-
culations have their terminations in the opposite auri-
cles; so that the blood that returns from the general
circulation is sent to the lungs, and that which returns
* See Catechism of Anatomy.
MAMMALIA.
5
LO
from the lungs is sent to the general circulation. The
contractions of the heart drive the respective currents
of the blood into the two great arterial branches, and
the expansions receive the returning currents from the
great veins through the auricles; and there are valves
that open to let the currents move in the proper direc-
tions, but which would close and stop those currents,
if any thing should tend to throw them the other
way.
Q. I can understand, from what you have said, that
this circulation is put in motion by the beats or pulses
of the heart, and that the blood, as it comes from each
of the two branches of the circulation, is sent to the
other one; but I cannot yet see how it can come in
contact with the air in the cells of the lungs, without
escaping into those cells?
A. The mechanism by which that is effected is very
delicate. The vessels in the cells of the lungs are
remarkably small and delicate, and have very minute
pores or openings, by means of which the air acts, at
the same time that they are too small for permitting
the particles of the blood to escape.
Q. Then the blood consists of particles?
A. It does: they are very small; their size differs
in the different mammalia; but in man it would take
about eight thousand millions of them to make a
round ball an inch in diameter.
Q. And are the particles of air smaller than that?
A. They are so very minute that their magnitude
cannot be ascertained, though they also must have
some magnitude, as various substances can be made
air-tight.
B 5
6
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are there any other changes produced through
the unison of carbon with the oxygen of the air?
A. Yes; the blood becomes less heavy and warmer.
The action of the air seems to be more immediately
necessary for the life and health of the mammalia (and
also of birds) than anything else; so much so that in
all languages breath and life are words that have nearly
the same import. If the operation of breathing be
stopped for even a very short time, the animals die.
Q. What are some of the other characters of the
mammalia?
A. They all have a skeleton or framework of bones,
which is composed of cartilage or gristle, and salts of
lime; and their cavities, which in birds are often filled
with air, contain oil or marrow, in different degrees of
consistency.
Q What is the prevailing form of the framework of
bones ?
A. The connecting or central part of it is the spine
or back-bone; to the one extremity of which the head
or skull is united, and the other, in most species, ter-
minates in a tail. The head and spine contain the
brain, and its continuation the spinal marrow, from
which the nerves (the organs of motion and sensation)
are given out; and the head also supports the organs
of the senses, and the mouth and nose, for feeding,
respiration, and voice.
The ribs, which form the sides of the thorax or
chest, are articulated to the back-bone; and outside of
these are placed the anterior extremities, which are
arms in man, and fore-legs in most of the others.
Behind the chest the ribs cease; there is a portion
MAMMALIA,
7
where only the spine and soft parts occur, and then
follow the bones to which the hinder extremities are
articulated.
The more perfect formation of these bones is one of
the most remarkable characters in the skeleton of the
mammalia.
Q. Are there any other characters?
A. The mouth is always transverse, and there is
never any motion in the upper jaw. In general, the
mouth is furnished with teeth, which are formed in
sockets, or alveoli in the jaw-bones; and very many
have milk teeth, which they shed when young, while
others have their teeth replaced periodically through
life.
Q. What are the characters of the organs of the
senses?
A. There are always two eyes for vision, two ears
for sound, two nostrils for smell, the tongue and some
of the soft parts of the mouth for taste, and the sur-
face of the body generally for touch, though the latter
sense is often peculiarly exquisite in certain parts, as in
the human fingers, the trunk of the elephant, the tips
of the wings in bats, and that particular part of the
face in which the whiskers of animals that seek their
food in the dark are inserted.
Q. What are the characters of their covering ?
A. It is always skin, covered with various forms of
hair, wool, and bristles; but these are never branched
like the feathers or the down of birds.
Q. What are the characters of the sexes?
A. They are male and female of every species; the
males are generally larger than the females; and their
8
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
skins are often more hairy, and very often are furnished
with horns, while the females have none.
Q. With regard to their young?
A. With the exception of two species (the porcu-
pine ornithorynchus, nd duck-billed ornithorynchus),
which are both natives of Australia, and but imper-
fectly known, they bring forth their young alive, and
suckle them with milk.
Q. Is there no remarkable difference in this
respect?
A. There is. In most of the species, the circulation
of the young one is, before birth, connected with that
of the mother through the medium of a placenta; but
in a few, the young are contained in an external
marsupium, or pouch, where, in the early stage of
their being, they appear to be nourished by a sort of
fluid in which they are contained, though they sub-
sequently draw milk from teats or mammæ.
Q. What are the motions of the mammalia?
A. Walking, running, and leaping, are their general
motions; but some have their extremities so formed
that they can stretch out membranes and fly; some
have their bodies formed for swimming; and as when
the lungs are full of air, all are specifically lighter than
water, they can all swim a little occasionally.
Q. Are any divisions made upon the structure of
the organs of motion?
A. Those which have the hinder extremities adapted
for walking, are called pedata, or footed animals; and
those that have the hinder extremities formed into a
sort of swimming tail resembling that of a fish, are
called apoda, or footless animals.
MAMMALIA
5
Q. Are any distinctions made of the pedata?
A. Yes; they are divided into unguiculata, or those
that have fingers or toes; and ungulata, or those that
have hoofs.
Q. Any further distinctions?
A. Yes; from the form of the feet, and the mode of
walking on them. If the feet have one portion which
acts in opposition to the rest, in the same way that the
human thumb acts against the fingers, so as to enable
them to lay hold of bodies, they are said to have hands.
If the bones of the hands be extended, and can stretch
out a membrane for flying, they are called chieroptera,
or hand wings; if they walk upon the flat parts or
soles of the feet, they are called plantigrada, or sole
walkers; and if they walk upon the toes, they are
called digitigrada, or finger walkers.
Q. Are these the only characters by which the
mammalia are classed?
A. No. The nature of the food of an animal is
that which determines the greatest number of its
habits; and as whatever that food is, the teeth are
formed for preparing it for the digestive organs, the
number, structure, and arrangement of the teeth are
very important in forming a classification of animals.
Q. How many kinds of teeth are there?
A. They vary with the kind of animal; but, gene-
rally speaking, there are three. The incisores, or cut-
ting teeth in the front; the canine teeth, tusks, cus-
pidati, or pointed teeth immediately behind these;
and the molares or grinding teeth, toward the back
part of the jaws.
Q. What are the respective uses of these teeth?
10
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The incisores, are wedges or chisels for cutting
substances in species; the cuspidati are a sort of dag-
gers for wounding and tearing; and the molares are
for chewing or bruising the food into a pulp along with
the saliva, or moisture of the mouth.
Q. What are the great divisions of the mammalia,
as founded on their characters ?
A. There is no classification that is not liable to
some objections; but Cuvier divides them into eight
orders.
Q. What are those orders?
A. 1. Bimana, or animals with two hands for
grasping, and two feet for walking, but not for grasp-
ing.
2. Quadrumana. All the four extremities formed
for grasping, and also for walking upon the palms.
3. Carnassiers, or "devourers of flesh;" very
various in their appearances and habits.
4. Rodentia. With the fore-teeth adapted for gnaw-
ing, and without any canines; though some of them
resemble, in that respect, animals that are classed with
the "devourers of flesh," and are far more fond of
flesh than several of those.
5. Edentata, or toothless animals, in which the fore-
teeth are in general wanting, and the canine teeth in
many of the species.
6. Pachydermata, or thick-skinned animals, in which
the teeth, the characters, and the habits, vary very
much.
See "Animal Kingdom, Class Mammalia," for ample,
and in many instances interesting details.
MAMMALIA.
11
7. Ruminantia, or animals that ruminate, or chew
the cud. They have four stomachs, and in their
natural state live exclusively on vegetables.
8. Cetacea. With the body more or less in the
form of a fish. These in general are inhabitants of
the water; but many of them sleep, and some of them
graze on land.
Q. In which of these orders is there the greatest
inconsistency?
A. In the "Carnassiers," which include the kan-
garoo, and some other Australian animals, that live
wholly upon vegetables, and never touch an animal
substance.
Q. Is that inconsistency corrected by any means?
A. The order is divided into four families:-
1. Cheiroptera, or those that fly, many of which are
in their other characters more nearly allied to the
quadrumana.
SAAval
2. Insectivora, or animals that feed wholly or
chiefly upon insects.
3. Carnivora, or those which properly belong to the
class, and are furnished with the means of capturing,
killing, and eating other animals.
4. Marsupiata, or pouched animals, some of which
are carnivorous, and others not.
Q. Is there any inconsistency in any other of the
orders?
A. Not in the name of the order; but the Edentatæ
include the monotrema, or animals with one posterior
aperture, which, though quadrupeds, do not appear to
be mammalia; and if the absence of teeth is to be
12
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
taken as the characteristic of a class, the common
whale is as completely toothless as possible.
HONG
CHAPTER II.
ORDER I.-Bimana.
Q. DOES the order bimana include many animals?
A. Only a single species, man.
Q. What are the specific characters of man?
A. They are many; in appearance, in anatomical
structure, and in habits; and they vary very much in
different individuals; but they are always so clear and
distinct, that even in the rudest and most unwonted
state in which man has been found by his fellow man,
there has never been the least danger of confounding
him with any other animal.
Q. What are the most remarkable external cha-
racters?
A. Standing and walking in an erect posture, with
the formation by which that posture is rendered
natural to man, is the most remarkable character.
Q. Have no other animals the power of doing
this ?
A. Several animals can support themselves on two
feet for a short time; but they do it awkwardly, and
apparently with pain and effort, as they are obliged
to throw their bodies into zigzags and contortions, in
order to preserve their balance, or to support them-
tr
MAMMALIA.
13
selves upon surfaces that were not intended for that
purpose.
Q. How do you know when the surface of any part
of an animal is intended for being walked upon ?
A. Nothing is easier. A surface so intended is
always either covered with a hoof or horny substance
of some description or other, or it is covered by a pad-
ding of an elastic matter, something like Indian rubber,
which can bear a good deal of pressure without pain,
and is so tough as not to be easily cut by the angles of
stones and other pointed substances.
Q. And is this substance found upon the human
feet?
A. It is; though among people who wear shoes
from their infancy it is not much developed, because
the artificial protection renders it unnecessary; but on
those who go barefooted, the covering, especially of
the heels, on which the shock and weight of the body
are received after a leap, or any other exertion, and
upon the ball of the foot, from which the weight of
the body is projected forward in walking, leaping,
or running, it is very conspicuous. In the human foot,
however, the surface that can be made to touch the
ground has a limit backwards that cannot be passed.
Q. What forms that limit?
A. The Astragulus, or heel-bone, by means of
which the body is kept erect upon the soles of the
feet; the portion of the back part of the leg, imme-
diately behind or above this bone, cannot be brought
in contact with the ground without an effort, even
when the body is in a recumbent position.
Q. What is the particular difference in structure ?
14
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. In those animals that are not handed, the tarsal
bones, or bones of the feet, are very much elongated,
and the base, or resting surface is obliquely on the
point of the foot. Thus in the cow, the horse, and
the dog, the hock joint is really that which corresponds
to the ancle joint in man, and the hamstring, or large
tendon of that joint, corresponds to the tendon
Achilles in man, and like that is the cord of the
muscles that extend the part; so that when the weight
of the body is thrown upon the hind legs, the whole of
its pressure tends to bend this joint, and force the tar-
sus down upon the ground; but when the animal is
brought to repose on that part, the distance from the
joint to the extremity of the foot is so long that there
is little command over the extremity.
Q. Is it the same in all quadrupeds?
A. Not exactly. In the quadrumana, the tarsal
bones are comparatively short; and the animal walks
upon the palm or flat part; but there is no heel bone
for support, and the cross strain resembles that upon
the wrist when a man attempts to walk on his hands.
In the elephant too, and some others, the part is
comparatively short; and the part that we are accus-
tomed to call the knee really is so; but the surface of
the hind part is not adapted for supporting the great
mass of the elephant, without some assistance from
the other parts of the body-the trunk, or the fore-
feet.
Q. Is there no heel-bone in quadrupeds then?
A. There is a bone on the hinder articulation of the
ancle-joint, which serves as a lever in giving purchase
to the tendon in moving the foot; but other than the
MAMMALIA.
15
additional power of keeping the foot extended, that
is given by this purchase, it is of no use to the animal
in standing upon two feet. To inan, standing erect
on two feet is a position of repose, in which the
muscles that extend and bend the limbs balance each
other, and are at ease; but in the other animals, it is
one of great exertion, as the whole strain is on the
extensor, or stretching muscles.
Man stands on one foot with probably less effort
than the quadrupeds do on two.
Q. Have you anything further to remark about this
erect posture?
A. The large base that man stands on from the
peculiar structure of the feet; the perfect command
that he has of the sole of the foot, so as to be able to
balance himself on any part of it that he pleases; the
width of the pelvis, which gives a greater base to the
trunk of the body, and the bend outward at the upper
end of the thigh-bones, by means of which, while the
joints are placed nearer the centre, each leg acts as
a sort of prop or strut to the other, at the same
time that the strain upon the supporting bones is in
the direction of their length.
Q. Does the rest of the structure of man accord
with this position?
A. It does. The back-bone is uneasy unless it has
an artificial support in every position except in an
erect one; the head is uncomfortable in every position
but vertical, unless when it reposes, as on a pillow;
the mouth and nose are so formed that, bending to the
ground on all fours, and without actually lying down,
man could neither eat nor drink; and the range of
C 2
16
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
the eye, in such a position, would be limited to a very
small portion of the earth's surface-from this posi-
tion man could take nothing for his support, how
much soever he might be inclined to do so.
Q. Anything further ?
A. The hands are as ill-adapted for walking as the
position of the head is for finding food in a recumbent
posture. The fingers have not the same elasticity in
opening as those of the animals which use their extre-
mities alternately, as hands and feet; and the thumb
is larger, and acts more directly in opposition to the
fingers. The whole hand, indeed, admits of a variety
of motions, of which there is no parallel one in nature,
not even in the trunk of the elephant, which though a
wonderful structure, is indefinite in its motions from
the want of bones, the lengths and positions of which
determine distances, and the joints or articulations
form centres.
Q. Is there any other distinction between the human
hand and those extremities of the other animals that
are formed for grasping, and called hands?
A. Yes; these are merely instruments for laying
hold, and differ little in their use from the grasping
feet of parrots and other birds, but are never used as
constructive tools in half so efficient a manner as the
bill of a swallow, or the tail of a beaver. The general
distinction however, is, that the human hand can be
educated-can be brought, by practice, to do any
thing that the strength of its muscles can accomplish,
while the hands of other animals cannot be educated,
but only to a very trifling extent, and they do not
practise what they are taught by man except under
his influence.
MAMMALIA.
17
Q. What are some of the internal distinctions?
A. In the systems of circulation and digestion man
does not differ much from the other animals that feed
on the same kind of substances.
Q. What is the natural food of man?
A. If we could imagine man to be in a completely
savage and uneducated state, destitute of skill and
stratagem, and ignorant of the use of his grand and
distinguishing auxiliary, fire (which, whether savage
or civilized, is the grand sceptre of his dominion over
the creatures), we would infer, from the equal lengths
of his teeth, that he should live upon the mealy and
pulpy parts of vegetables; but there is hardly any
state in which his skill and stratagem do not enable
him to catch and kill animals, which the use of fire
enables him to dress and soften their flesh so that his
digestive organs can act upon it.
Q. In what then consists the chief internal dis-
tinction?
A. Chiefly in the brain and nervous system, which,
the former especially, are more abundant and more
perfectly organized than in any other animals.
Q. And, as that is understood to be the source of
sensation, are the senses more acute in man than in
any other animal?
A. In some of the individual senses, or at least in
certain uses of them, many of the other animals are
superior to man,-as a cat can see in the dark, and a
crow scent carrion from a distance of many miles, or
a dog follow its master, or its prey, upon the scent; but
taking all the senses into consideration, man may be
pronounced to have more sensation than any other
animal.
€ 3
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Does that appear from anything?
A. Yes. We have no evidence that the other ani-
mals derive any pleasure from the senses-those of
sight and smell for instance-besides the gratification
of their appetites. The best bred dog in the world
would not linger hungry in a garden of the sweetest
flowers, nor stop to gaze upon the most exquisite pic-
ture or statue, if any garbage that could supply his
appetite were accessible, even though surrounded by
the most loathsome objects, and giving out the most
offensive effluvia.
In man, there is always an inward something
to be gratified, besides the merely animal appetite,
which has the power of resisting that appetite;
whereas, in the case of the other animals, the gratifica-
tion of the appetite appears to be the only object.
Q. May not that be expressed by a sort of maxim
or short saying?
A. Yes: "Man eats to live, and beasts live to eat;'
and when we find that man so far forgets his grand
distinguishing character as that what he eats and what
he drinks are the sole objects of his attention, we cha-
racterize him as a man of beastly habits."
Q. What is the most remarkable distinction in the
external habits of man?
A. The facility with which his body tempers itself
to the elements, although it has less natural covering
than that of any other land animal.
Q. Does not that depend on his power of clothing
himself?
A. No; it is independent of that. We are taught
from the records of ancient historians, who could have
no motive for stating what was not true, that at one
MAMMALIA.
19
time the inhabitants of Germany and Britain went
naked, or nearly so, and with but trifling differences
of clothing, we find that those whose constitutions are
"educated by the weather," and not in the artificial
school of any fashion, the same race of men can exist
from the ice-hut of the Polar regions, to the margin
of the burning desart under the equator.
Q. And is that the grand distinction of man?
A. No. The mind-that which can be educated,
which can educate itself. The capacity of deriving
wisdom from his own experience as well as from that
of others, of collecting and treasuring up that expe-
rience by means of language, so that that which is
known at any one part of the world may be speedily
known over the whole of it, and never can be lost;-
that power which scrutinizes all the productions of
nature; makes the knowledge of one the ladder by
which a sure ascent is gained to the knowledge of ano-
ther; which, from the contemplation of nature infers
the existence and adores the wisdom, the power, and
the goodness of nature's God; which from what it
frames and what it feels, "takes hold on immortality"
with a faith that cannot be shaken, and a hope which
renders all the ills and reverses of life, troubles that
are lightly to be borne, for the fulness of joy that
shall come hereafter:—that is, the badge and character
of rational man, which places him above all other
animated beings, not in degree merely, but in kind,
and classes him in the sublime language of holy writ,
but "
a little lower than the angels," than those in-
tellectual existences which being uncompounded in
their nature, require no supply by nourishment, and
20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
are exempted from the possibility of decay or disso-
lution.
Q. What is the probable result of the facility with
which man adapts himself to the circumstances in
which he is placed?
A. Probably those differences of external appear-
ance,
and certainly those differences of manners which
we find in the inhabitants of different countries.
Q. Then there are not original differences?
A. Religion and philosophy combine in proving
that they are all one species.
"God made of one
blood all the kindreds of men that dwell upon the
face of the earth;" and philosophy proves that how-
ever different they may be in appearance, they are but
one species.
Q. How does that appear?
A. The more we examine the laws or habits of
natural beings, the more completely we find them to
agree with the declarations in the Bible. Not only
man, but all the species of organized beings have
been made "after their kinds." Circumstances of
climate and food, with many others with the peculiar
effects of which we are not acquainted, may produce
differences in appearance, greater even than those
that exist between different species; but if they are of
the same stock, they may be again united, but if diffe-
rent they cannot. All the varieties of the human
kind may be thus blended together, the offspring of
the two races partake of the variations of both; and
any one might in time be lost as a black among whites,
or a white among blacks, which never is the case with
different species.
MAMMALIA.
21
Q. Which are the principal varieties?
A. They have been so much blended together by
conquests and colonizations, that it is not very easy to
distinguish them; but the simplest and most obvious
distinctions are those of colour.
Q. What are the chief colours?
A. White, black, and intermediate shades of olive;
yellow, and bronze or red.
Q. In what part of the world are the whites chiefly
found?
A. Chiefly from the British islands and Norway,
southeastward toward India and the Bay of Bengal;
but we find variations of them according to the co-
lour, the whole passing into brown in the very warni
countries, and also being darker in those that are
very cold.
Q. Where are the blacks chiefly?
A. To the southward and eastward of the whites, in
Africa, in New Holland, and in the central parts of
some of the eastern isles.
Q. Where are the coloured races situated?
A. The yellow and olive to the north east of the
whites, and blended with some of the other races in
the islands.
Q. Where are the bronze or red?
A. Chiefly on the American continent.
Q. Are those races distinct?
A. No, they are blended together in most places.
Q. Among which of them have the greatest im-
provements taken place?
A. Among the whites in their shades of colour,
of which the eastern nations of antiquity, the Hin-
22
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
doos, the Ancient Egyptians, the Jews, the Greeks,
the Romans, and the nations of modern Europe are
instances.
Q. Which have been the next to them?
A. The yellow or olive, of which the Chinese and
Japanese, with the different states that have from
time to time been formed in the central parts of Asia,
are instances.
Q. Which of the other colours follow next?
A. It is not very easy to say, as much less of their
history is known; but probably the red men of
America.
Q. Which have carried on the most extensive wars
or inroads upon the others?
A. The white race and their connections certainly,
who have visited every part of the world; and after
them the yellow or olive; then probably some of the
red races, as the Mexicans and Peruvians.
Q But we read of African conquerors ;- Hannibal,
who invaded Italy; the Moors, who conquered part of
Spain; and at an earlier period the kings of Egypt,
one of whom (Sesostris) led his armies as far as
India?
A. Yes; but though these were Africans, they were
not negroes, but rather branches of the white race,
darkened by climate and habits. We have no in-
stances of a negro race, properly so called, or of any
of the classes of the red men constructing any thing
that could be called a ship, until the example had been
set them by others.
MAMMALIA.
23
CHAPTER III.
ORDER II.-QUADRUMANA.
Q. ARE there many species of the four-handed
mammalia?
A. Naturalists enumerate about one hundred and
fifty species; but as some of them have been seen
only when young, and others only when full-grown,
there is some uncertainty about them.
Q. What parts of the world do they inhabit?
A. The warm parts of it exclusively. Africa, the
south of Asia, the Asiatic isles, and the central parts
of America. They are not found in Europe, except
upon the top of the rock of Gibraltar.
Q. What is the nature of their habitations?
A. Almost exclusively the woods, as their four
hands enable them to climb trees with great facility.
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. Exceedingly so, the smaller species in particular.
The trees in many places are absolutely alive with
them; and as they are very noisy, restless, and mis-
chievous, the whole place is one continual noise and
chatter.
Q. What are their popular names?
A. The large species that resemble man the most in
their appearance are called apes; those that are less
like man, baboons; and the small ones are in general
termed monkies.
Q. Are those names sufficient for distinguishing
them all?
24
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. They are not; the species are so numerous, that
to understand them properly requires the use of many
names, and also much careful examination.
Q. What are the principal divisions ?
A. They are usually divided into Simiadæ, or the
ape tribe, and Lemuridæ, or goblins; but to what these
last owe that name, it is not easy to tell-possibly, as
one set of superstitious persons took it into their heads
that the apes were a sort of men, another race, finding
that these were not quite so like men, resolved, if not
to make devils of them, to call them devils.
Q. What are the principal genera ?
A. They are three, Simiada, Hapales, and Lemu-
ridæ; and the Simiada are generally farther divided
into -1. Simia, the apes, monkies, and baboons of the
eastern continent; and-2, the monkies of America.
Q. What are the general characters of the simia ?
A. They are found only in Africa, the south of
Asia, and the Asiatic islands, but never in Australia or
America. They live in the woods, climb trees, eat
fruits, but not grass or leaves. They also eat insects,
and many of the species of birds.
Q. What are the peculiarities of their structure?
A. They have some resemblance to man, but not so
much as seen in the species that most resemble him in
size to be compounded with even the most rude and
unseemly portion of the human race. Their eyes are
something like those of man in form and position, and
they have the glance or transparent speck upon the
retina in the back part of the eye which is peculiar to
man, and to the quadrumana. They have four cut-
ting teeth in each jaw, one canine tooth, and five
MAMMALIA.
25
cheek and grinding teeth on each side, both above and
below; so that the number and arrangement of the
teeth are the same as in the human subject, only the
teeth do not in general stand so even, and in some the
canine teeth are so long as to merit the name of
tusks.
Q. Mention some of their other characters ?
A. They in general have cheek pouches outside the
teeth, the same as man; their noses have an unhand-
some appearance, from the form and the closeness of
the nostrils to each other; they are more or less
covered with hair, and sometimes they have callosities
or pads on the buttocks; so that though their attitude
is not handsome, they can sit; some have no tails, and
others have, of different lengths in the different spe-
cies; but the tails of none of them are prehensile or
can grasp like a fifth hand, as is the case with those of
the American monkies.
Q. What are their manners?
A. Generally speaking they are mischievous and
destructive, but the females are remarkable for their
affection for their young. Their teats for suckling
are on the breast, and two in number; they carry the
young ones in their arms, or climb trees with them on
the back, and clasping the neck. When the simia are
wounded, they have something in their attitudes
and cries much more nearly resembling the expression
of anguish by human beings than is displayed by any
other race; and this, with the resemblance, has made
the superstitious impute to them many habits which
they do not possess, and tell many stories of them
D
26
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
which have no foundation but in the imagination and
credulity of the narrators.
Q. Which are the most remarkable of the larger
apes ?
A. The most remarkable of the tailless apes that
are destitute of cheek pouches (and it is somewhat
remarkable that those which most nearly resemble
the human race in appearance should be without this
character), are the Ourang-outang (Simia), the Chim-
panse (Mimetes), and the Pongo.
Q. What are the characters and country of the
ourang-outang?
A. It is chiefly found in the woods of the Malay
peninsula, and the adjacent island of Borneo. The
height is from three to four feet, and the body covered
with long red hair, thinly scattered. The face is of a
blueish colour, and nearly one half is above the eyes,
and there are no pouches in the cheeks.
The ourang-
outang is not so active and mischievous as the small
monkies, and shews some affection for those that feed
him. His hands enable him to imitate some of the
simple actions of man; and he has a good deal of
playfulness, but not very much title to sagacity. He
cannot walk erect, nor even stand in that position, and
even upon all fours he is a clumsy walker. He climbs
and swings with ease upon the branches of trees; but
owing to the structure of his hinder thumbs, which
are short and often without nails, his hind feet are not
so prehensile as the others.
His native habits are not much known, but he is
fonder of fruit than of any other food, though he has
no objection to raw flesh.
MAMMALIA.
27
Q. What are the characters of the chimpanse?
A. The chimpanse is described as being a very rare
inhabitant of the woods in those parts of Africa that
lie very near the equator; as being a foot or more
taller than the ourang-outang, and as being more fierce
and mischievous in its disposition; but the accounts
of animals of which living specimens are not often
seen, require to be admitted with caution.
Strange stories are told about the chimpanse living
in flocks, building huts, arming themselves with clubs
and stones, and carrying off negro women; but most
of these would need to be seen again before they are
implicitly believed.
Q. What is the pongo like?
A. It comes from Borneo, which is also a native
habitat of the ourang-outang; and it bears, at least in
the specimen that is said to have been seen, a consi-
derable resemblance to that animal, only the size is
larger, the colour darker, and it is said to have cheek
pouches, of which the ourang-outang is destitute.
Q. Which is one of the other classes?
A. The tailed monkies, which have in general cheek
pouches, tails longer and shorter with the species, and
varying considerably in size. They are inhabitants of
Africa, and the south of Asia. In some places they
attack orchards in troops, making a great deal of noise,
and being by no means reluctant in biting?
The bite of most of the order, from the wedge-
shape of their teeth, is apt to divide off the piece on
which they seize.
Q. Is there any other subdivision of this tribe?
A. Yes; the baboons, which are described as being
D 2
28
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY,
more ferocious in their dispositions than any of the
others.
Q. What are their habitats and characters ?
A. They inhabit the same countries with the others,
though different ones are found in different places.
It is one of them, the Barbary ape, which is hairy all
over, and of a grey colour, that has been naturalized
upon the rock of Gibraltar.
The muzzles of the baboons are much longer than
those of the apes and monkeys, and the nose comes
quite down to the extremity, which gives the head
something the air of that of a dog. They have cheek
pouches, callosities on the buttocks, and many of them
long tails; but it is not unusual for the exhibitors to
cut off the tails, partially shave, and paint, and other-
wise disfigure the animals, for the sake of producing
apparent novelties.
Q. Which is the most remarkable of the baboons?
A. Probably that which is described under the
name of the mandril, or maimou. It is described as
a large and formidable animal, with blue furrowed
cheeks, a scarlet nose, and the naked part of the but
tocks of a beautiful violet. The colours are different
at different ages however, and probably in different
individuals; so that with that and with differences in
the size, it is probable that this has been described as
different species.
Q. What is its character?
A. It is mentioned as being a very fierce animal,
and the negroes on the African shores speak of it in
terms of horror; but how much of that may be owing
to their own superstition, and how much to the real
14
MAMMALIA.
29
disposition of the mandril, has not been clearly pointed.
out.
Q. What are the characters of the American
monkeys?
A. They are in general smaller than the large apes
of the eastern continent. They have an additional
grinder on each side of both jaws (making thirty-six
teeth in all); they have no cheek pouches or naked
callosities on the hinder parts.
Q. What are the subdivisions of them?
A. The mycetes, or howling monkeys ; the ateles, or
sapajous; the cebus, which have the tail long; and
the sakis, in which the tails are not prehensile.
Q. What sort of animals are the howling monkeys?
A. They are of a reddish colour, about the size of
a fox. There are two distinct species, the red and the
brown-the latter usually called by the name of Beel-
zebub. They swarm in the central forests of America,
and make the wild quite dismal with their cries; but
they are relished by the people as food. They are
enabled to make their hideous sound by means of a
singular cavity in the bones at the larynx, or entrance
of the wind-pipe, which acts as a sort of shell or drum.
Their tails are long, naked, and prehensile.
Q. What are the sapajous like?
A. They have prehensile tails like the former, but
have not the same frightful voices; there are varieties
of them of different colours; most of them are rather
small, gentle in their manners, and easily tamed. In
most of the species the thumb is under the skin, so
that they grasp only one way.
Q. What are the characters of the cebus ?
D 3
30
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The leading ones which distinguish them from
the sapagous are a hairy, though prehensile tail; and
the thumb developed, although short and of little
service.
Q. What are the sakis?
A. They are little creatures about the size of squir-
rels, without prehensile tails: but they climb with
facility, and hop from tree to tree when not too far
distant.
Q. What are the Hapalis?
A. They combine some of the characters of the
species of the east and the west. They have the same
number of teeth as the former, are destitute of cheek
pouches and callosities, and have the thumbs small
and hardly of use, like the latter. The nails of the
fingers are compressed, and pointed into a sort of
claws.
Q. What are the general characters of the Lemu-
ridea?
A. In general their muzzle is long and pointed,
which has procured them the common name of fox-
nosed monkeys; they are in general covered with
soft woolly fur, and they are chiefly found in the
island of Madagascar, though some of the species are
met with in Bengal, Ceylon, and other parts of the
east. Those that inhabit the east are however much
more slow in their motions, and generally have their
claws and teeth more pointed.
Q. What is their food?
A. In many of the species it is fruits and roots, in
others insects.
MAMMALIA,
31
CHAPTER IV.
ORDER III.—Carnivora.
Q. WHAT are the subdivisions of this order?
A. 1.--Cheiroptera, or those that have the hands, or
fine extremities expanded out into the form of wings.
2. Insectivora, or those which prey chiefly upon in-
sects.
3. Carnivora, or those which kill and eat animals of
larger size than insects.
4. Marsupiata, not named from their food, but
from the female having an abdominal pouch, in which
the young are covered.
1.-CHEIROFTERA.
Q. What is the common name of this division of
the order?
A. Bats; but there are considerable varieties of
them.
Q. What are their general characters and habits?
A. They agree with the quadrumana in having the
teats upon the breast, and in some other particulars ;
but differ from them in not having the thumbs acting
against the fingers, so as to be capable of grasping;
and they resemble the carnivorous or rather insecti-
vorous animals in the size of their tusks as compared
with that of the animals.
Q. What further?
A. The bones of the hand are much elongated, and
between the fingers there is spread out a thin leather-
32
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
like membrane, which is also connected with the side,
and partially with the hinder leg, so as to spread out
like a wing, and answer very well for flying; but their
legs are weak, and they walk with difficulty, and in a
very awkward manner.
Q. What are some of their habits?
A. They are crepuscular, or come abroad only in
the twilight, and hide themselves in caves and other
dark places during the day. Their eyes are generally
very small, but their ears are large, and the edges of
their membranous wings have an exceedingly delicate
sense of touch. In countries where the winter is
long, and the weather cold, they remain dormant
during that season.
Q. As they have organs of flying, are they not a
sort of birds?
A. They are so far from having any resemblance to
birds in their structure, that they were classed by Lin-
næus in the same order with the quadrumana and
with man. They have one part of resemblance to
birds, and that is the ridge upon the breast bone, and
a great mass of muscle upon each side for giving
motion to the fore-arm and hand. In their flight
they have none of the buoyancy of birds. They want
the air pipes and cavities, by which birds are at once
made light, and are enabled to breathe or aerate the
blood through almost the whole of its circulation.
They do not glide along like the birds of more power-
ful way, or jerk by occasional motions like other birds;
they are in continual flutter; and notwithstanding the
great expanse of their membranous sails, appear as if
the air were not quite their element.
MAMMALIA.
33
Q. Are they numerous and widely distributed?
A. They are. There is not a latitude or region of
the world without its bat of some species or other.
The warm countries especially abound with them,
often of very large size; and in the caves in India, in
New Holland, and in many other countries, they
often repose in such numbers during the day as to
absolutely darken the air when they are disturbed and
driven from their retreat.
Q. How do they repose when in caves and other
hiding places?
A. All of them have a hooked claw upon the thumb
at the tip of the wing, and some have claws at some
or at all the fingers, and they suspend themselves by
these hooks.
Q. What are the principal divisions?
A. They may be divided into such as have claws on
all the fingers, such as have them only on the fore-
finger and thumb, and such as have them on the thumb
only.
Q. Which of them is the most numerous?
A. At present there is only one species known
with claws on all the fingers, that is, the flying lemur
or flying cat (galeopithecus). The bones of its fingers
are not elongated, so that the extension of the mem-
brane rather breaks its fall, and enables it to leap as
is the case with some squirrels and other animals, than
assists it in flying by successive motions of the arms in
the air. It is an animal of some size, lives in trees in
the eastern islands, and is supposed to live upon in-
sects, fruits, and probably birds.
34
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the characters of those that have a
claw on the fore-fingers?
A. There are two subdivisions of them, those in
which there are membranous appendages attached
to the nose, and those in which there are not; the
former are called pteropus, or winged feet," and
the latter phyllostoma, or “leaf mouths."
CC
Q. Of what countries are the first of these natives?
A. Of various parts of the east. Some of them
have been found in the tombs and caves in Egypt,
and others in the eastern islands. The Oriental ones
are by far the largest of the tribe, and much esteemed
as food. They are inhabitants of caves or of trees.
Q. And where do the ones with the membranes on
them now inhabit ?
A. Various countries. One of the largest is the
vampyre of South America, which is about the size of
a pigeon, and is said to suck the blood of animals
while they are asleep. The horse-shoe bats, so called
from the form of the membranes on the nose, some of
which are natives of Britain, though not very common,
are a variety.
Q. Are these the bats that are found near houses
on summer evenings?
A. No; the common bat has a claw only on the
thumb.
Q. How many species of bats have been found in
Britain?
A. Seven; three of the common bat, two of those
with membranes on the nose, and two with the ears
reunited. Some of them are, however, very rarely to
be met with.
MAMMALIA.
35
II. INSECTIVORA.
mat
Q. What are the characters of the insectivora?
A. They are mostly nocturnal animals like the bats,
but they are destitute of the flying membrane. They
walk upon the webs of the feet; most of them have
five toes on all the feet, furnished with claws, and in
some of the genera the claws are adapted for burrow-
ing in the earth. Some of them are also covered
with spurs of greater or less consistency, and others
with remarkably sleek and beautiful fur. The legs in
all are short, and the motions slow.
Q. Which are some of the genera?
A. Hedgehogs, which burrow in the earth or form
nests under hedges. They are armed with strong and
sharp pointed bristles, and are capable of rolling them-
selves up into the form of a ball for defence. They
are found in all the temperate parts of Europe.
There are some varieties of the hedgehog, and there
are also some others found in Madagascar which have
spines on their back, but which are incapable of roll-
ing themselves up.
Q. What are the other genera?
A. Chiefly moles and shrews of various species and
varieties, which burrow in the ground, and feed upon
insects and earth-worms. As their habits are much in
the dark and under the ground, they have in general
very small eyes, but their sense of hearing is very
acute. The moles especially are very voracious little
animals; and if two of them be confined in any place
without food, a battle ensues, and the vanquished is
eaten.
**
36
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Is there anything in the formation of the teeth
of those animals that tends to restrict them to insect
food?
A. Yes; the upper surfaces of the cheek teeth are
formed into sharp points, so as not to be well adapted
for bruising flesh or vegetable substances.
III-CARNIvora.
Q. What animals are included in that branch of
the order?
A. Those that have their teeth adapted for tearing
and bruising flesh, and at the same time possess suffi-
cient stratagem, strength, and courage for catching
and killing their prey.
Q. Do they all live exclusively on animals that they
kill?
A. They occasionally eat other substances, but the
greater number prefer living prey.
Q. What are the characters of their teeth?
A. They all have six cutting teeth in each jaw;
the canine teeth are long and strong, and their grind-
ing teeth are invariably adapted for cutting and bruis-
ing, so as to allow of a considerable range of food in
the different species.
F
Q. What are the principal subdivisions ?
A. The order is a very extensive one, including
some of the most powerful of animals, and others that
are comparably small; but they are all endowed with
great strength in proportion to their size, and have a
sort of instinctive knowledge of the places in which
their prey may be mortally wounded. The most ob-
MAMMALIA.
57
vious division is into those that are plantigrade, or
walk upon the soles of the feet; and digitigrade, or
those that walk upon the points of the toes.
Q. Which of these are the most numerous?
A. Those that walk upon the toes are by far the
most numerous.
Q. Are there any remarkable characters in those
that walk upon the soles of the feet?
A. They have the clavicle or collar bone wanting,
or imperfectly formed; they are animals that can
either eat voraciously, or bear the want of food for a
considerable time.
Q. Of what parts of the world are they inhabit-
ants?
A. Of various parts; but the most powerful
are inhabitants of the colder regions, where they
pass a considerable part of the winter in a dormant
state.
Q. What are the chief animals in the division?
A. Bears, badgers, gluttons, racoons, and some
others.
Q. What are the principal characters of bears ?
A. They are clumsy-looking animals, with a rough,
shaggy coat, thick limbs, the fore ones close together,
in consequence of the absence of the clavicle. They
are very strong; but they prefer honey and berries to
animal food. Though unwieldy, they climb with great
ease; and as their fore-legs come almost close toge-
ther from the shoulders, they squeeze and hug with
great force.
Q. What are the principal colours?
A. They are various shades of brown, from very
E
38
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
pale to almost black; but in the land-bears the dif
ference of species is not very well defined.
Q. In what countries are they found?
A. In the forests of the northern parts of Europe,
in North America, in India, and in some other
places.
Q. Is there not also a sea-bear?
A. Yes, there is, which inhabits the polar seas, lives
upon seals and other marine animals, and is often
transported to considerable distances upon boards or
islands of ice. It is a larger animal than the land-
bear; and as its food is more exclusively animal, it is
probably more savage.
Q. What are the characters of badgers?
A. They are animals which burrow in the ground,
and seldom come abroad but during the night. They
are peaceable animals, but bite severely when they are
attacked. They exhale a strong and by no means
agreeable odour.
Q. What are the characters of the glutton?
A. It is found in the very coldest parts of Europe.
It is about the size of a badger, but of a much finer
colour, and much more of a carnivorous animal.
It does not, as is said, eat at one meal an animal
larger than itself: but it lies in wait in trees, and drops
down upon its prey, so that the speed of the rein-
deer is no security against it.
Q. What sort of animals are racoons?
A. They are nearly the size of badgers, but hand-
somer. In their wild state they eat insects, eggs, and
birds. They are nocturnal in their habits, and so
are the coatis, a race very analogous in many re-
MAMMALIA.
39
spects. These are inhabitants of warmer regions than
the bears, and are found chiefly in America. The
smaller races of plantigrade carnivora resemble the
weazels in some of their habits.
Q. What are the digitigrade carnivora?
A. They begin with the dog, (which, though a cruel
and ravenous animal in some of the species, yet has
not the teeth adapted so exclusively for animal food
as some of the others,) and proceed by a regular gra-
dation, more and more carnivorous, to the cat,
which genus contains the most ferocious, powerful,
and sanguinary of all the mammalia, the lion and
the tiger.
Q. What are the characters of the dog?
A. There are two grinding teeth on both sides in
each jaw, adapted for bruising vegetable substances;
they have a soft tongue, four toes on the hind feet,
and five on the fore.
Q. What other animals most nearly resemble the
dog?
A. The wolf and the jackall, the former an inhabit-
ant of some of the forests of Europe, and the latter of
warmer countries. Though the jackall prowls at
night, its eyes have the circular pupil of those of the
dog, and not the linear nocturnal one of the fox.
Q. How do the foxes differ from dogs?
A. In the form of the pupil of the eye, as has been
mentioned; in their superior cunning, in burrowing in
the ground, in having a peculiar odour, a more bushy
tail, a more elongated muzzle, and a certain obliquity
in the opening of the eyelids, which gives them a pe-
culiarly sinister look.
E 2
40
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Does not the hyæna resemble the dog and the
fox?
A. In some particulars it does; but the absence of
teeth adapted for the bruising of vegetables, indicates
a much more carnivorous disposition. The teeth of
the hyæna are remarkably well fitted for breaking
bones.
Q. Of what countries are they natives?
A. There are at least two species: a spotted one in
southern Africa, and a striped one in the centre and
north of Africa and the south-west of Asia.
Q. What are some of the other divisions?
A. The viverrado, named from the civet, contains
that animal, the genet, the ichneumon, and some
others. They have one bruising tooth on each side
of the lower jaw, the tongue rough, and the claws
partly retractile.
Q. Of what countries are they natives?
A. The civet is a native of the warmest parts of
Africa; the genet of Africa and the south of Europe,
and the ichneumon of Egypt, where it is domesticated
and kept for the purpose of clearing the houses of
vermin. There are many varieties of these animals.
Q. Are there any nearly allied to these?
A. There are many small but powerful animals—
martins, polecats, weazels, and a variety of others,
which are very destructive of birds, and all quadrupeds
that they can master. Many of them are found in
very cold countries, such as the north of Asia and
America. When taken in the winter there, their furs
are very valuable, and form a considerable branch of
trade.
MAMMALIA.
41
Q. You mentioned that the cats are the most san-
guinary of animals, are they a numerous genus?
A. They are very numerous, and dispersed over
most parts of the world; but the more formidable
ones, such as the lion and the tiger, are confined to
the warmer latitudes, and even there they are chiefly
found in forests and unfrequented places.
Q. Are not some of the carnivora palmated, or have
webbed feet adapted for swimming?
A. Yes; the otter, which in other respects is a
regular quadruped. It feeds chiefly on fish, and fre-
quents the banks of rivers. There is also a sea-otter,
which is much larger than the fresh water one.
Q. Are there not some others that have still more
aquatic habits?
A. Yes, the seals, which have a good deal of the
shape of a fish in the body, and the hinder extremities
formed into a sort of tail, but still retaining the claws.
The seal has many valuable qualities, and among the
rest it is easily tamed, and might be turned to use,
both in catching fish, and for the sake of its oil and
its flesh. The walrus is another animal, having
many of the habits of the seal. The tusks in the upper
jaw are very much lengthened, and turned down-
wards; so that they assist the animal in climbing
masses of ice in the Polar seas.
IV. MARSUPIATA.
*
Q. What is the distinguishing character of thes
animals?
A. A marsupium or pouch in the female, in wh
E 3
42
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
the teats are wholly or partially included, and the
young carried.
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. They are not very numerous except in Aus-
tralia, where, with the exception of a dog, or one spe-
cies of rat, both of which have probably been imported,
they are the only native quadrupeds.
Q. Are they confined to Australia ?
A. No, there are a few in central America, and in
some other places, but they are of different species
from the Australian ones.
Q. What are some of the other characters?
A. They have two peculiar bones for supporting
the pouch, which are articulated to the front part of
the body, and have muscles attached to them for
giving peculiar motions to the pouch. The young
are in all the species produced or grow upon the
teats, and have at first the form of little knobs, with-
out any perceptible rudiments of the limbs or other
parts of animals. But these are in time developed :
the little tube by which each was fastened to its teat
divides and wastes away; the teat then produces
milk, and the young one, which has now the proper
form of the animal, sucks like the young of the other
mammalia.
Q. What are the American animals of this sub-
division?
A. They are known in English by the general name
of opossums; some are about the size of cats, and
others are not much larger than rats. They have
all the characters of carnivorous animals, and they
live upon animal food, some frequenting the sea-
MAMMALIA.
43
shores, and living on crabs and other shell-fish. They
have not strength and size for attacking very large
animals. They have prehensile tails, and the thumb
on the hind foot acts in opposition to the fingers, thus
forming a sort of hand.
Q. Which are the Australian species that are car-
nivorous?
A. They get the name of dasyuri, or rough tails,
because their tails, which are not prehensile or ca-
pable of laying hold, are covered with very long
hair. The pouch does not extend so far forward in
these as in some of the others.
Q. Are they large?
A. Two species, one with short hair and a head
something like that of a dog, and another with long
shaggy hair like that of a bear, black, but mottled
with grey, are almost as large as moderately sized
dogs. They are found chiefly or exclusively upon
Van Diemen's Land; they are retired animals, and
not very often seen. The bear-looking one (D.
Ursina) is chiefly found in the fastnesses of the brake
or "bush," as it is called in that country, and is styled
a hyæna by the colonists. The other, which is more
frequent on the sea-shores, where it feeds on dead
fish and other putrifying substances, and sometimes
catches live fish, has been dignified with the name of
the devil. A number of smaller species have been
mentioned, but they have been so seldom seen that
nothing very positive can be stated respecting them.
There is a dark one with lighter spots, however, about
the size of a martin, which has been seen in Australia,
44
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
and has been called the wild cat, though it has none
of the characters of that tribe.
Q. What is the next division of the Australian
marsupiata?
A Parameles, or those that resemble badgers. They
are much less of a carnivorous structure than the
former, and have the tusks in the lower jaw either
very small or wholly wanting Their front teeth are
well adapted for gnawing bark; they burrow in the
ground; they are small and harmless animals, and
subsist upon vegetable substances and insects.
Q. Is this division of the marsupiata confined to
Australia?
A. The particular species that are found there may,
but there are others in the Oriental islands which very
much resemble them. Those (from pelander, the
Malay name for a rabbit, which they resemble both
in size and in their habit of burrowing,) have been
called philanders.
Q. Can any of the marsupiata fly ?
A. Not fly absolutely, but there are many of them
which live in the forests of Australia that can stretch
a sort of membrane between the fore and hind leg on
each side, and by that means leap to a great distance.
They are popularly called flying squirrels, or flying
foxes, according to their size.
Q. Are there any others?
A. There are two distinct genera, the koula and
the wombat, which have almost exactly the manners
of rabbits, and would deserve to be ranked in the
same order, were it not that they have the marsu-
MAMMALIA.
45
Shigats
pium, or pouch. They are very gentle creatures, and
easily tamed.
Q. Are there no larger animals of the class?
A. Yes, the kangaroos, which are the cattle or
grazing animals of Australia. They are remarkable
for the length and strength of the hind legs, and the
smallness and feebleness of the fore ones. Their
walk is on the two hind feet, and they bound along
with very singular hops. There are several species of
them, some larger and others smaller, but their gene-
ral form and habits are very similar.
Q. Then there are resemblances of many animals
among the marsupiata ?
A. There are; but they all have the singular cha-
racter, that the young first grow like buds, which is
a character of the very lowest tribes of animated
beings; and then draw milk from the teats of their
mothers, which is a character of the very highest, and
of man himself.
CHAPTER V.
ORDER IV.-RODENTIA.
Q. WHAT is the general character of the rodentia,
or gnawing animals ?
A. They have two large front teeth in each jaw,
that have the points formed like chisels, with the cut-
ting edge outwards; and these are separated by large
vacant spaces from the grinders: there being no tusks
or canine teeth in any of the order.
46
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What does such a structure of the mouth
form?
A. It forms a perfect pair of cutting pincers, such
as those that are used by workmen for cutting wires
asunder. If an animal with teeth of this description
were to bite, it would not merely wound or tear like
the carnivorous animals, but it would cut out the
piece.
Q. Are they carnivorous then?
A. In general they are not, their grinders are chiefly
adapted for bruising vegetable substances; but there
are others with the upper parts of the cheek teeth
formed into points, which eat animal matter and
sometimes kill very small animals.
Q. Is there any thing worthy of remark about the
growth of the teeth?
A. There is. In all the species the front teeth are
an apparatus for cutting the food, and they are un-
supported by canine teeth; and in many they act as a
saw or hatchet in working—in felling timber and dres-
sing it, or in cutting passages through boards, so that
they are much subject to wear.
Q. Is there any provision made for this purpose?
A. There is never any purpose in Nature for which
there is not a provision, and a provision much better
calculated for answering that purpose than any human
contrivance answers the purposes of man.
Q. What are the particular ones in the case of the
front, or gnawing teeth, of the rodentia?
A. In order that the teeth may have the requisite
hardness and yet not break, the outer surface consists
of a plate of the very hardest enamel, and this ena-
MAMMALIA.
47
mel is supported by a much thicker plate of common
ivory, or "tooth bone," which, while it is tough, and
would bend without snapping asunder, is yet so soft
that those substances which the edge of the enamel
can divide, easily wear it down, and bring the cutting
edge of the tooth to the same sort of surface as that
of a chisel, which has a thin plate of hard steel upon
the front, supported by a thicker mass of tough iron
on the other side, which supports the steel, but is
ground off into a slope or basil, so as not to interfere
with the cutting powers of the steel. Contrary to
most teeth, too, those gnawing teeth have a power
of constant growth, so that as they waste away at top,
they are supplied from the root.
Q. What is the most general division of the
order?
A. Into those that have collar bones, and those in
which these are wanting or imperfect.
Q. How are they further subdivided?
A. Into those that have the gnawing teeth more
or less pointed, and tubercles upon the grinders, and
those that live partially on animal food.
Q. Which are the genera ?
A. The prevailing ones are:
1. Hydromys, (water-mouse,) an animal about a
foot in length, with the hind feet webbed, and having
many of the characters of the carnivora. Its
habits are not much known, but it is supposed to be
met with on the desolate coasts of New Holland as
well as in tropical America.
2. The hamster, a native of the north of Germany,
and all the sandy countries eastward; of a brown
48
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
colour, marked with white; rather larger than a rat;
has cheek pouches which it uses as collecting baskets.
It hoards grain.
5. Dipus, (two feet, from the length of the hind
ones,) the jerboa. A lively little animal; native of
rather warm countries; has no cheek pouches; bur-
rows, but does not hoard for the winter; hybernates
in a dormant state.
4. Mus, (the mouse,) including all the tribes of rats
and mice which are many, and abundant in indivi-
duals.
5. Arctomys, (bear-mouse,) the marmot. Inhabi-
tants of cold countries and lofty mountains. There
are several species, some as large as rabbits. They
live in societies; burrow in the earth; hybernate; are
easily tamed, but survive the winter with difficulty.
Q. Which are the genera that have the teeth chisel-
shaped?
A. The following are some of the chief.
1. Spalar, (a mole, probably the mole of the Greeks,)
mole-rats. A curious genus. Mine the ground like
moles. European species confined to the east of the
continent, having the eyes under the skin, and so small
as to be invisible; others with visible but very small
eyes. Some in Southern Africa nearly as large as
rabbits.
2. Cheiromys, (handed mouse,) the Aye-Aye, a
native of Madagascar; has something the appearance
of a monkey; has very long fingers on all the four
extremities, with long and sharp claws, and the thumbs
acting against the fingers. Is timid, feeds during the
night, and is named from its cry.
MA
A
MAMMALIA.
49
3. Pteromys, (winged mouse, or flying squirrel,)
has the habits of the common squirrel, but can
support an extensive leap by means of a membrane
extended between the fore and hind legs.
4. Sciurus, (shadow-tail, alluding to the power that
they have of shading themselves with their long and
bushy tails,) the squirrel. All the species are play-
ful creatures, expert climbers and leapers; live in
trees, and feed upon nuts and fruits, or, in the absence
of those, buds and seeds.
Q. Which are some of the genera that live upon
vegetable matter, as on grass and bark ?
A. The following are some of them.
1. Lepus, (downy foot,) including the hare and
the rabbit.
2. Echimys, (spiney mouse,) porcupine, of which
there are several species; inhabitants of warm or
moderately warm countries. The common one is found
in the south of Europe, and is about the size of a
hare; there is one in Mexico with a prehensive tail.
The porcupine is a very timid and inoffensive animal,
and its flesh is well flavoured. The spines are wholly
for protection; it burrows like a rabbit, and hyber-
nates in its colder localities.
3. Fiber, (the musk-rat, or musk water-rat,) is about
the size of a small rabbit; has the scaly tail and
many of the habits of the beaver; feeds mostly on the
roots of aquatic plants. Is found in the north parts of
America, in societies like the beaver.
4. Georychus, (the lemming,) a native of the moun-
tains of Norway and other cold countries, from which
it descends periodically in vast numbers, and con-
F
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
During
sumes the whole vegetation of the fields.
these migrations vast numbers of them are captured
by birds of prey.
Q. What are some of the other genera?
The cobaya, or Guinea pig, the agouti, which is a
burrowing animal, and one species about the size of a
hare digs the plains of Paraguay full of vizcachèros,
or burrows hence its common name of biscachos.*
Castor, the beaver, which belongs to the same branch
of the division in some of its characters, but differs in
others, and is the nearest approximation in structure
to those indolent animals the monatremata; at the
same time that it exhibits mechanical powers superior
to any of the other mammalia, is one of the most in-
teresting of animals.
CHAPTER VI.
ORDER V.-EDENTATA.
Q. WHAT are the characters of that order?
A. They are without incisive teeth, and some with-
out teeth altogether, and even without regular jaws;
they have very large nails, and their motions are in
general exceedingly slow upon the ground, though
those of them that live in trees are excellent climbers.
Q. What are the divisions of the order?
A. The principal ones are three-sloths, which
have teeth, though no incisors; those which are with-
* See Captain Head's "Rough Notes on the Pampas."
3
MAMMALIA.
51
out teeth, but retain something like the mouth of a
quadruped; and those which have a bill instead of a
mouth. The last are the monotremata, the animals
which, though they have four feet, and a hairy or
spinous covering, the internal structure resembling the
mammalia, and destitute of the means of flight like
birds, yet do not suckle their young, or at least have
not been proved to do so.
Q. What are the characters and habitats of the
sloths?
A. They have canine and grinding teeth. One
species has three nails on the fore-feet, and the other
only two; they are unshapely in their form, and un-
wieldy in their motions; live mostly on trees, and as
the repose of the feet is with the claws compressed, they
hang by these to the branches of trees, when they
sleep. They are natives of South America.
Q. Is there any other toothed genus?
A. Yes, dasypus, which have the feet formed for
burrowing. They are without canine teeth, and some
have front teeth, some not, but they all have grinders.
They are inhabitants of the warm parts of South
America, where they live in the woods, and feed in-
discriminately upon the roots of plants, insects, and
on animal substances.
Q. What is their common name?
A. They are called " armadillos," and also " shield-
pigs," or hogs in armour.”
CC
Q. Why do they get these names?
A. Because they are covered with horny plates, like
the pieces of a coat of mail. These plates consist of
a greater or smaller number of bands, or pieces which
F 2
52
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
are moveable at the joints, and the animals can roll
themselves into balls covered with these for protection,
in the same manner as the hedgehog is by its spines.
Q. Are any of them large animals?
A. The largest is about three feet and a half in
length, exclusive of the toes. It is covered with a
great number of jointed bands, and has very powerful
claws on some of its four feet. Some of the species
are hairy, and have hairs even on the horny plates.
Q. Is there any other genus with teeth?
A. The Cape ant-eater, which is a burrowing ani-
mal with large pointed ears and a pointed muzzle,
short feet and digging claws, but covered with hair,
and not externally like the armadillos.
Q. Which are the genera without teeth?
A. 1. The ant-eaters, which have the body covered
with hair, and the tongue very slender, capable of
being projected out of the mouth and drawn in again;
and being covered with a viscid substance, to which
the ants and other insects upon which the creature
feeds adhere. The ant-eaters are natives of South
America.
2. The manis, which also has a projectile tongue,
and the feet adapted for digging; but it is covered
with scales that overlap each other like the tiles of a
house. It can roll itself into a ball like the armadillos.
It is a native of the east.
Q. Is not the manis very like a lizard?
A. In its external appearance it bears a consider-
able resemblance to that class of animals; but it
differs entirely in the internal structure, and especially
in the suckling of its young.
MAMMALIA.
53
Q. Which is the last class of the toothless ani-
mals?
A. The monotremata, or that singular class that have
but one posterior opening
Q. What are the genera of these animals?
A. There appear to be two distinct genera, and
only one species of each, for the more minute dis-
tinctions that have been noticed, appear to have an
accidental foundation, if indeed any foundation at all,
in nature. Those genera are echidna and ornitho-
rinchus.
Q. What is the general appearance of the ani-
mals?
A. The shape of the body and limbs of each is not
unlike the same part of a mole. The echidna has the
mouth drawn out into a long tube or pipe, from the
orifice of which the tongue is protruded in the same
manner as is done by the ant-eaters. The ornitho-
rinchus has the mouth formed into a bill, not unlike
that of a duck, with a very sensitive membranous
edge, and the tongue is not projectile, like that of
the other. The feet of both are adapted for burrow-
ing, though, if one may judge from appearance, the
echidna have their feet best adapted for that purpose.
Q. With what are their bodies covered?
A The echidna with spines, which though, from
the inferior size of the animal, not nearly so large
as those of the porcupine, are thicker in proportion to
the length. They are hollow, and sharp at the points,
so that the animal cannot be touched without the risk
of a wound. The ornithorinchus is covered with hair,
which, from the glossiness of its surface, appears to be
F 3
54
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
very soft; but the hairs are hollow, and conical, very
much resembling the larger ones that grow upon the
beaver.
Q. What are their habits?
A. The ornithorinchus is aquatic, and appears to
seek its food in the muddy hollows of water in the
same manner as a duck. The echidna burrow in the
earth, and live upon insects. They are found only
in New Holland, and are rare even there.
CHAPTER VII.
ORDER VI.-PACHY DERMATA.
Q. WHAT is the meaning of that name?
A. It means thick-skinned,
A. Is that the only character of the order?
A. That is general to the order, and the other
characters are so varied that it is convenient to sub-
divide the order.
Q. What are those divisions ?
A. They are-
1. Proboscidiana, or animals that have prehensile
trunks, which consist of the elephants.
P
2. Pachydermata, which may include the other
thick-skinned animals that have divided hoofs.
3. Solidungula, or solid, or entire hoofed, the horses
and the kindred races.
Q. Is the upper lip of no animal prehensile but the
proboscis of the elephant?
A. The lips of all animals are capable of taking
hold to some extent or other, and that of the rhino-
MAMMALIA.
55
ceros can pull grass; but the trunk of the elephant is
superior to them all, it being a universal hand, indeed
two hands, for the animal can hold a branch in a coil
of the trunk, and pull off the leaves with the thumb-
like process at the point.
Q. Are the large tusks of the elephant, which pro-
ject from the mouth and furnish the ivory of com-
merce, canine teeth?
A. No; they are in place of front teeth.
Q. What other teeth has the elephant?
A. Only flat-crowned grinders, composed of alter-
nate portions of ivory and enamel, by means of which
it can browze vegetable substances, even though very
tough; but the animal is incapable of biting or of
cating flesh.
Q. Are there more species of elephants than
one ?
A. There are two living species, the Asiatic and the
African. Their native haunts are in the forests of
south-eastern Asia, and in Africa, where they live in
herds.
Q. What are the specific differences?
A. The Asiatic elephant is of a larger size, has a more
oval head, smaller ears, and a less elevated crown of
the head than the African. The ridges of enamel in
the crowns of the teeth are also more wavy, and there
is a toe more upon each of the hind feet.
Q. What is the size of a full grown elephant ?
A. An Asiatic one of the largest kind is about ten
feet high: the African is less.
Q. Is the skin of the elephant impenetrable as well
as thick ?
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY
A. No; for the flies annoy him as much as they do
any other animal.
Q. Was there never any species of elephant but
these two?
A. There has been one, a stronger animal, with
larger tusks, and capable of living in cold countries,
which inhabited the north of Asia, Europe, and Ame-
rica; but it is now extinct, and only the bones are
found.
Q. Which are the genera of the pachydermata, pro-
perly so called?
A. The chief ones are these-
1. Hippopotamus. A large and unwieldy animal,
with incisors, canine and cheek teeth, that inhabits
the larger rivers of Africa. They live upon the roots
of aquatic vegetables, and also on those by the sides
of rivers. They are dull and sluggish animals, but
ferocious when enraged.
2. Sus (the hog), of which there are several spe-
cies, and many varieties. One of the most remarkable
is the babyroussa, a native of the east, which has the
tusks curled up like horns.
3. Phasco-chæres (warty swine), the Ethiopian boar
with fleshy lumps on the cheeks, and the tusks round,
strong, very large, directed outwards and upwards, and
presenting a very formidable appearance. It is in the
male only that this genus has the formidable tusks and
the shaggy mane; the female has the tusks in the
form of larger teeth, and is rather shaggy all over.
The genus is a native of Africa.
4. The pecary, a much smaller and and less formida-
ble looking animal than the other. There are two
MAMMALIA.
57
species, one about half the size of a hog, and one a
little larger. They are abundant in the South Ame-
rican forests, and much feared by the natives.
5. Rhinoceros. Probably the largest land animal
after the elephant. It is a clumsy animal, with
wrinkles or folds in the skin, short thick legs, and
three toes upon each foot. It inhabits nearly the
same places as the elephant, but is a duller animal.
Q. Are there more than one species?
A. There are three. The Indian with only one
horn on the nose, and large folds in the skin; and the
Sumatra, and the African, generally with two horns,
and the skin without folds.
Q. Upon what part of the rhinoceros is the horn
situated?
A. Upon the nose; and it is literally a horn, for it
is composed of horny fibres growing from the skin
over a strong base of bone, so that it can hardly be
broken, and the severest blow that can be struck with
it gives not much pain to the animal.
Q. Are there any other genera?
A. The most remarkable one is the tapir, of which
two species have been seen, one in South America,
which is altogether of a dark colour; and one in
Sumatra, which has the middle of the body light.
The snout is very long and moveable, adapted for
poking in streams, by the sides of which the animal is
found. Like the common hog, it is not very choice
in its food.
Q. Which are the solid-hoofed pachydermata?
A. There are four principal species; the horse, the
dziggetai, the ass, the zebra, and the quagga, none of
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
:
which are natives of America. They feed only on
vegetables They have incisive and grinding teeth,
and the males have generally small canine ones, but
not the females.
Q. Of what country is the dziggetai a native ?
A. Of the dry plains in central Asia. It is an active
animal, intermediate in size between the horse and
the ass, but has never been domesticated.
Q. Of what country is the quagga a native?
A. Of Southern Africa, where it is found in herds,
and often becomes the prey of the lion. It resembles
the zebra in form, but the markings are not so hand-
some.
CHAPTER VIII.
ORDER VII.-RUMINANTIA.
Q. WHAT is the most general character of that
order of animals ?
A. That from which the class is named,-rumi-
nating or chewing the cud.
Q. What does that mean?
A. These animals have four stomachs. First, the
paunch, which is a mere receptacle for the food in a
rude state; secondly, the king's hood, which is honey-
combed on the inner surface, and into which the
drink of the animal passes at once, while the food
passes by degrees; thirdly, the tripe, or manyplies,
which contains a great number of folds; and, fourthly,
MAMMALIA.
59
the red, which more nearly resembles the single sto-
mach of other animals.
Q. But that does not explain what is meant by
ruminating?
A. It is necessary for it. The first stomach is a
mere reservoir for the food, and the second is one
for drink, and for mingling that more or less with the
food (in some genera, as the camel, there are cells
in which a supply of water can be contained, and dis-
charged from time to time into the second stomach).
The food, as taken into the stomach, is not chewed;
but when the animal has taken enough, and it begins
to pass into the second stomach, it is thence returned
to the mouth mixed with a portion of the drink, and
when sufficiently bruised by the grinders, it is swal-
lowed a second time, passes into the second and third
stomachs, and is digested in these. This return to
the mouth, for the purpose of being digested, is rumi-
nating or chewing the cud; and if the animal be in
health, the food returns to be chewed unaltered, and,
of course, without any offensive smell.
Q. Are the ruminantia numerous?
A. They are; and they are of all animals the most
useful to man. They find him food and clothing; they
carry him and his burdens, and they do his work.
Q. Which are some of the races?
A. The most remarkable ones are-
1. The camel tribe, containing, the camel with two
lumps on the back, and the dromedary with one-
these have the feet much padded, and small nails or
hoofs on the two toes; and the lama, the guanaco,
the paco, the vicugar, the chilikuque, and the
60
CATECHISM OF 200LOGY.
huemel, all without lumps on the back, smaller than
the others, and natives of South America, as the
others are of Asia.
2. Musks, smaller animals, some of them secreting
a perfume, have the hoofs divided, found only in Asia
in mountainous places.
3. Deer, the male have horns mostly branched or
palmated. Very numerous, and found in all lati-
tudes. Generally fleet and timid.
4. Giraffe, or cameleopard, only one known species,
remarkable for the height of the shoulders and head.
5. Antelopes, very many species, all of them fleet,
and many of them very handsome animals. Chiefly
inhabit Asia and Africa; some in Europe. The Ame-
rican genera or species a little doubtful.
6. Goats, species not so numerous as the antelopes,
but individuals very abundant.
7. Sheep, of which there are many varieties.
8. Oxen, of which there are many species, includ-
ing buffaloes, bisons, and a number of others.
A. Are these all the genera ?
Q. Not nearly: a mere list of them would fill a
considerable volume.
Q. What is to be observed of the order generally ?
A. That the flesh of all may be eaten; that many
of them furnish milk, butter, and cheese; that in
most states of society they have formed a large por-
tion of the wealth of man.
Q. Are there any fossile ruminantia ?
A. Yes, especially of the larger deer.
.. . -. - اول اسفند ۹۵
MAMMALIA.
61
2.
Ada sanchavad
CHAPTER IX.
ORDER VIII. CETACEA.
Q. What do you understand by cetacea?
A. Animals which have the structure and habits of
whales.
Q. What are their leading characters?
A. They have red and warm blood, breathe atmo-
spherical air, and suckle their young; but they have
the fore-extremities formed into swimming paws, and
the hind ones into a tail bearing some resemblance to
that of fishes.
Q. Then they are all inhabitants of the sea?
A. They are all inhabitants of the water; but some
of them are found in rivers, and they quit the water
for the purpose of grazing in the meadows.
Q. And do these belong to the same order as the
whales?
A. Properly speaking they form a sort of sub-order.
They are animals which with some of the habits of
the whales, live by bruising vegetable matter. They
have been called sea-cows, sea-horses, mermaids, and
other names, and strange stories have been told re-
specting them.
Q. And is there no foundation for the numerous
stories of the mermaids ?
A. No better than there is for the centaurs, the men
without heads, or any of the fabled monsters of anti-
quity.
Q. Which are the animals to which you allude?
A. The manatis or lamantins, the dugong, and the
stellerc.
G
62
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Where do the lamantins inhabit?
A. The great rivers of tropical America and Africa,
which empty themselves into the Atlantic, particularly
the river Amazon, where they are found in great num-
bers, and many hundreds of miles from the sea.
Q. By what name is the animal known in South
America?
A. The descendents of the Spaniards call it vaca
marina, or sea-cow.
Q. Is it a large animal?
A. When full grown it is about twelve feet in length,
and nine or ten in circumference, though it is some-
times said to attain the length of twenty feet.
Q. What is its appearance ?
A. It is a clumsy animal, of a brown colour, with
the skin generally naked, but having a few grey hairs
about the upper lip. The head is very large, and but
that the upper lip is divided, the muzzle has some
slight resemblance to that of an ox.
Q. Why is it called manati or lamantin?
A. From the fancied resemblance of the swimming
paws or fore-extremities to hands.
Q. And are they not like hands?
A. They are not, any farther than having fingers
within the skin that supports the fins.
Q. Are they not adapted for motion on land as well
as in the water?
A. They are partially so, as two of the fingers on
each paw have nails or claws; but the motion on land
is waggling and unweildy.
Q. What is the character of the hinder extremi-
ties?
MAMMALIA.
63
A. They are formed into a sort of swimming tail,
intermediate in form between those of the seal and
the whale, or cetacea, properly so called.
Q. What are the habits of the lamantin?
A. It is a very peaceable animal, and resembles the
ruminating land animals in living in herds, and it
feeds exclusively upon vegetables.
Q. Is its flesh eatable?
A It is eaten, and tastes something like veal. The
fat too, which covers the whole flesh, under the skin,
like the blubber of the whale, yields a considerable
quantity of oil.
Q. Is the African lamantin like the American ?
A. It is rather smaller, has the head more broadened,
the eyes smaller, a nail or claw upon each finger of
the swimming paws, and its colour inclining to lilac.
Q. What is its food?
A. Like that of the other it is wholly vegetable, and
found chiefly on the banks of the rivers.
Q. Where does the dugong inhabit.
A. The Indian Ocean, near the Malay peninsula,
and its name is derived from the Malay language.
Q. Has it any peculiarities of character?
A. It has many. The upper lip hangs in flaps on
each side of the mouth, and the lips are beset with
horny processes, by means of which it is enabled to tear
the sea-weed, on which it feeds.
Q. Is it a large animal?
A. It is not so large as the lamantin, the largest
mentioned not being above eight feet in length.
Q. Is it used as food?
A. Yes, and considered a great delicacy by the
G 2
La nomanome
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
w
64
eastern people. Its natural history is not, however,
very clearly defined.
Q. Has the dugong tusks?
A. Yes, it has tusks of considerable size, of the
finest ivory, of which the Malays and other eastern
nations often make handles to their knives and dag-
gers.
Q. Where is the stellere found?
A. In the northern parts of the Pacific Ocean, near
the American shores, but its history is rather obscure.
Q. Is there any thing particular about it?
A. If the descriptions that have been given can be
relied on, it is one of the most singular of animals,
more especially in its covering.
Q. In what does that singularity consist?
A. It is said to be covered with a bark of tubes or
fibres of a horny consistency, perpendicular to the
skin, and forming a crust about an inch in thickness,
which shields the animal with a natural coat of mail,
which is flexible, and at the same time very difficult to
be penetrated.
Q. Is there not said to be also some peculiarities in
the teeth?
A. Yes, the teeth are said to consist of a plate in
each jaw, which is not set into sockets in the jaw-
bone, but fastened to it by an elastic matter. The fin
of the tail is also said to be very broad, in the form of
a crescent, and terminating in a horn or spine at each
extremity.
Q. On what does it feed?
A. On sea-weeds; and it is not known to come on
shore to graze like the lamantins.
MAMMALIA,
65
Q. And those animals which you have mentioned
do not belong to the cetacea, or whale tribe, poperly
so called?
A. They do not. They are a peculiar race, and the
most remarkable character that we know of in them
is that they are the only aquatic animals that graze,
and at the same time have the extremities fitted for
swimming.
THE CETACEA PROPER.
Q. Are these an interesting order of animals?
A. They are.
Some of them are the largest of
living creatures, and among the most valuable to man.
Hence they are sought for in the most dangerous seas,
and by the longest voyages.
Q. Are they numerous?
A. They are; so much so that it is convenient to
divile them into four sub-orders.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. They are
-
Edentate, or toothless whales.
Prædentatæ, or those that have teeth in the upper
jaw only.
Subdentata, or those that have teeth in the lower
jaw only; and,
Ambidentatæ, or those that have teeth in both
jaws.
Q. Have the sub orders all some common characters?
A. They have. The head is, generally speaking, ex-
ceedingly large, the eyes small, the neck short, the
bones and muscles so covered with fat that the skeleton
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66
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
has little influence on the shape of the animal. The
swimming paws contain the same number of bones as
the human arm and hand, but they are concealed in
the fin; and the hinder extremities are formed into a
tail, the lobes of which are horizontal, and not vertical
like those of fishes, and that tail is among the most
powerful of animal instruments—the muscles that move
it being of very great strength and peculiar structure,
so that, though it does not lay hold, it is, in some of
the species, as mobile as the proboscis of the elephant.
Q. In what does that appear?
A. In the tremendous blows which those whales
that have no other weapons of defence, can strike
with their tails. They can cut the strongest boat
asunder, project it many feet into the air, or many
fathoms under water, by what seems to them an ordi-
nary effort.
Q. Does it appear also in the rate of their motion ?
A. Yes, it is calculated that a whale can swim about
five hundred miles in a day, not only without fatiguing
itself, but absolutely enjoying itself, and eating its
food as it dashes along.
Q. Is the tail which gives them so rapid a motion
of large dimensions?
A. The breadth of that of the large ones across the
lobes is about twenty feet.
Q. Are their senses acute?
A. Not generally. The eyes, though very perfect
in their formation, are exceedingly small, and so situ-
ated in many of the species that they can hardly see
before them, from the great quantity of fat or blubber
with which they are covered; they do not appear to
MAMMALIA.
67
:
..
have much sense of touch; and their organs of hearing
and smell are imperfect.
Q. What appears to be the use of the great quantity
of fat or blubber?
A. It enables them to preserve the heat of their
bodies in the cold seas through which they range.
Q. What is the food of whales?
A. That depends upon the structure of the teeth,
and forms part of the particular history of the sub-
orders.
1. Edentata-toothless whales.
Q. How are these divided?
A. Into two genera, balanæ, or those that have no
fin on the back, and balanoptera, or those that have;
and there are usually reckoned two species of each.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A. Chiefly in the more northerly parts of the Atlan-
tic, which are called the Greenland seas.
Q. Which are the species of balænæ?
A. Balana mysticetus, the black whale, or common
Greenland whale; and balana nord-caper, the Iceland
whale.
Q. What is the Greenland whale?
A. It is among the largest, and at the same time the
most valuable of animals; many vessels are fitted out
from the ports of Britain, and other countries, for the
purpose of capturing it among the northern ice.
Q. What are its dimensions?
A. The ancients mention whales of the length of
800 or 900 feet; which are in all probability exagge-
rated; but in the early stages of the whale-fishery
68
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
there are authenticated accounts of individuals 90 or
100 feet long.
Q. Are so large ones not met with now?
A. No. The largest that are now caught seldom
measure more than sixty feet in length and forty round
the body.
Q. What may be the cause?
A. The fishery has been pursued with so much
ardour that the large ones have been captured and the
numbers thinned,
Q. What is the colour of the whale?
A. The upper part is black, the under part, forward,
is white, and backward, black; the skin, when the
animal is healthy, is smooth and shining.
Q What is the position of the whale on the water?
A. It swims with the body partially above the
surface, but with the mouth under it; and it is said to
sleep in the same position; but it often plunges to the
bottom, although it soon comes up again to breathe.
Q And can they breathe at the surface with the
mouth under water?
A. They can. They have the nostrils so placed
that while the mouth is wholly under water they can
breathe with ease; and there is no immediate con-
nection between the mouth and the windpipe.
Q What is the character of the mouth?
A. It is immensely large, so wide that several
men could stand upright in it; and it is adapted for
catching food without closing, as the mouths of most
animals do.
Q. How is that effected?
A. There are plates of baleen or whalebone that
MAMMALIA.
69
descend at the sides, and rest upon the tongue, having
the one edge furnished with a fringe. As the animal
moves along open-mouthed a current of water passes
through these crevices, and with it the food, which is
entangled as in a net.
Q. And does the water pass into the throat?
A. No. A portion, carrying with it the food,
passes close to the entrance, is received into two
cavities in the head; from which it is occasionally
spouted with great force through the spiracles or
blow holes.
Q. And the whale cannot bite them?
A. It cannot, nor swallow a substance much larger
than a herring.
Q. Then the whale could not have swallowed
Jonah ?
A. The Greenland whale could not, and besides, it
is not an inhabitant of the seas where he sailed; but
there are other whales that can swallow objects much
larger than a man.
Q. Are many parts of the whale useful?
A. The fat for oil; the whalebone of the mouth
for many purposes; the jaw-bones and ribs, for tim-
ber in the northern countries; and the flesh in the
same for food.
Q. What is the value of a whale?
A. A full-sized one is worth about a thousand
pounds.
Q. How are whales captured?
A. They are struck with harpoons, which are barbed
darts of iron to which lines are fastened; and when
the animal is exhausted by running and plunging,
70
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
which it often does to a very great depth, it is finished
by spears and lances.
Q. What are the general characters of the Iceland
whale?
A. It is grey and mottled, has more white on the
under part, is more slender and active, more difficult
to capture, and less valuable than the common whale.
Q. Which are the balanoptera?
A. The gibbar, or fin-fish, which has a remarkable
fin on its back, and the beaked whale, which has a
lengthened and pointed mouth. They have but little
either of fat or of whalebone. The last species is never
so long as thirty feet; and it is occasionally met with
in the British seas.
2. Prædentate--toothed above.
Q. Which are these?
A. The narwhals, which are remarkable for a long
twisted ivory tooth that projects from the upper jaw.
They yield fine oil, and the tooth is valuable.
3. Subdentata-toothed below.
Q. Which are these?
A. The cachalots or spermaceti whales, of which
the species are the great-headed, the blunt headed,
and the small eyed,
Q. What are their characters?
A. They are larger than any of the common whales
that are now met with, and they are very active and
voracious, ranging over all seas, and feeding upon large
fish. A shark twelve feet long has been found entire
in the stomach of a cachalot. The blunt-headed is
MAMMALIA
71
the most valuable inhabitant of the sea, for oil and for
spermaceti.
Q. What is spermaceti?
A. Crystallized fat, but convertible into pure oil.
Q. In what seas is the spermaceti whale found?
A. Its range is much greater than that of the com-
mon whale, but it is chiefly fished for in the Pacific ;
and hence the fishing for it is called the South Sea
fishing.
Q. And where is the common whale principally
found?
A In the northern parts of the Atlantic, close by
the Polar ice, and often in the bays or openings of
that ice.
Q. What appears to be their chief attraction to
these places?
A. They are understood to be attracted by the
green water, which is remarkable in that part of the
ocean.
Q. To what is the green colour owing?
A. To the vast number of little animals of the mcl-
luscous or crusted tribes that are contained in it.
Q. And do these form the food of the whales?
A. It is understood that they do. They enter the
vast opening of the mouth, as the animal swims along,
and are entangled in the fringes of the baleen, or
whalebone, as in a net.
Q. And do not the spermaceti whales feed in that
manner?
A. No; they can bite or swallow large fishes; and
all their habits are muchmore ferocious than those of
the common whales.
72
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Is the capture of them attended with more
danger?
A. Of course it is, though there are not so many
dangers from the ice, as in the north, or Greenland
fishing.
4. Ambidentata-teeth in both jaws.
Q. Which are the animals of that order?
A. The dolphin, of which there are several species;
and the piked whale, which has the most singularly
pointed and small teeth on the palate.
Q. Which are the dolphins?
A. 1. The porpoise, about six feet long, very thick,
and destructive of salmon and other fish.
2. The dolphin, about ten feet long. It is not the
dolphin of the Straits.
3. The grampus, a very voracious animal, about
twenty-five feet long.
4. The sea-sword, about the same size, and yet more
voracious. Attacks the common whale.
THE END.
LONDON:
HENRY BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
INDSFISHER
UNIL
OF
LARK
PH.
PEACOCK
EAGLE
avg
NIGHTINGAL
APCH
WOODPIGEON
CRAND
Drawn & Eng by C. Marr
RAVEN
termedia, et sintem elégende duas
imgjivijaj
BUANO
vect
WOODPECKER
We ma
SWAN
Swrpt
CARGOWARY
vuggerit
Caller
497%
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART II.
ORNITHOLOGY, OR BIRDS.
INTRODUCTION.
Q. WHAT is the Natural History of Birds called?
A. ORNITHOLOGY, from the Greek gu
" of a
bird,' and ^oyos, “the explanation, or knowledge.”
+
Q. What is a bird?
A. A warm blooded animal, with a double heart, a
back-bone, and four extremities like the mammalia;
but walking only on the hinder extremities, having the
fore ones adapted for motion through the air, the
mouth with horny mandibles, the body covered with
feathers, and produced from eggs.
Q. Is not flying a sufficient character for a bird ?
A. No; there are some kinds of birds that cannot
fly; and there are many insects, some reptiles, some
mammalia, and even some fishes that can fly.
Q. Is there any thing curious about birds?
A. Yes; though their mouths be much less like the
human mouth than the mouths of the mammalia are,
they have natural songs, can be taught music, and
even to speak.
B
01
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the principal divisions of the science
of Ornithology?
A. The structure of birds, their habits, and the
classification of them, and the description of the
different species.
PART. I.-STRUCTURE OF BIRDS.
Q. What are the principal parts of which a bird is
composed ?
A. A skeleton of bones for the support of the other
parts; muscles for motion; nerves for sensation ;
organs of the senses; a heart and circulating system;
lungs for breathing; organs of nourishment; a skin,
with its covering; and organs of defence or destruc-
tion.
SECT. I.-BONES OF BIRDS.
Q. Of what parts are the skeletons of birds com-
posed?
A. They have some resemblance to those of the
mammalia.
Q. In what do they differ?
A. One very remarkable difference is that the thick
bones of birds are hollow, and have openings in them
to admit air.
Q. Does not that weaken the bones?
A. No; they are stronger than if they had been
solid with the same quantity of matter, especially if
they be round or cylindrical; and they are much
lighter, and consequently burden the bird less when
it flies.
BIRDS.
5
10
Q. But are not the sides of them liable to be
squeezed together?
A. That is prevented by little ties of bone, that
unite the sides across the opening; and these are
nicely adapted to the pressure that the bone may have
to bear.
Q. Is there any peculiarity in the back bone of
birds ?
A. Yes; the part forming the neck consists of more
vertebræ, or joints, than in the mammalia; it admits
of more motion, and the rest of the back-bone ad-
mits of less.
Q. Does that answer any important purpose to
them?
A. It does. As the bird, whether walking or flying,
is supported upon only one pair of its extremities-
the feet on the earth, and the wings in the air—it has
a firmer support to the pair of extremities that are in
use; while the greater flexibility and length of the
neck gives a greater range to the beak or bill.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the bones of the
legs?
A. Yes; the bone that is usually called the thigh, is
in reality the leg; and that which is usually called the
leg, is the tarsus, or foot.
Q. The divided part of the foot is then really the
toes?
A. Of course it is.
Q. What is remarkable in the head of birds?
A. The skull is small; the rudiments of jaw-bones
are cased with horn; there are no teeth; and the
B 2
4
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
mandibles are connected by a peculiar bone, which
allows of great opening to the bill or beak.
Q. Are there any peculiarities in the bones of the
under part of a bird?
A. There are, in the merry-thought, which sepa-
rates the clavicles, or collar-bones; in the breast-
bone; and in the situation of the ribs.
Q. What is peculiar in the merry-thought?
A. In birds of powerful wing and rapid flight-as in
eagles-it is a strong circular arch; while in feebler
birds it is angular and weak.
Q. What is peculiar in the breast-bone?
A. It is very much extended, and has a keel in the
middle, for supporting the large muscles on the
breast that moves the wings.
Q. Is there any difference in the keel?
A. Birds that use their wings much, have it very
deep, and it deepens towards the front; while in those
that fly little, or creep along the bark of trees and
other surfaces, have the keel flat.
Q. What is there with regard to the ribs?
A. In birds of flight, the ribs are thrown forward;
while in water-birds they reach back, by angular bend-
ings, almost to the tail.
Q. What is the object of these differences?
A. In birds of rapid flight, the throwing forward of
the bones gives them more strength against the air, as
they cleave their way through it; and the backward
ribs protect the hinder parts of water-fowl from the
pressure of the water.
Q. Is there any other thing peculiar in the skele-
tons of birds?
BIRDS.
5
LA
mya shengengede
Det sagdi huge seg et avanens sarunu atat agent in
A. Yes; the most powerful birds have the largest
and strongest bones, especially the breast-bone and
the extremities. An owl and a hawk may appear
equally large, and weigh the same, and yet the breast-
bone of the owl may not be one-fourth the size of that
of the hawk.
SECT. II.-MUSCLES OF BIRDS.
Q. What are the characters of the muscles of
birds?
A. They contain less blood in their substance, and
endure longer fatigue than those of the mammalia;
but they vary very much with the different species.
Q. What are some of the leading differences?
A. Birds that continue much and long upon the
wing, have the muscles on the breast large, in propor-
tion to those on the hinder extremities; those which
run, but do not fly, have the ones behind largest; and
those that spend equal portions of their time in the
air, and on the wing, and on the ground, have them
nearly alike, or of equal strength.
Q. Which muscles of the wings are, in general, the
largest ?
A. Those that move the whole-that is, those
which are on the breast.
Q. Are there any cases in which the muscles of the
other parts of the wing are more than usually strong?
A. Yes; birds that strike with the wing have the
particular muscles very strong.
Q. What are the particular portions of the wing?
A. The wing is in its bones a sort of arm and hand,
although these be enclosed in one skin.
B 3
6
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What parts of the wing bear this analogy?
A. The shoulder-bones, which are imbedded in the
muscles that raise the wing; the humerus, which an-
swers to the arm above the elbow, and has the most
powerful motion; then there is a fore-arm of two
bones, a wrist, a hand, and two fingers, the one
consisting of two sets of bones, and the other of
one.
Q. Is there any thing resembling a thumb in the
wing of a bird?
A. Yes, there is a sort of thumb that supports the
bastard-wing; and in some birds there is a sort of
nail or claw upon it.
Q. Are there any differences in the muscular struc-
tures of the legs of birds?
A. Yes, to answer three functions, which birds per-
form with their feet.
Q. What are those three functions?
A. They may be described as, simply walking and
running; clutching or perching, by drawing the toes
together; and swimming, by working the leg much in
the same manner as an oar, expanding the toes when
the foot strikes the water, and contracting them when
the foot is drawn through the water.
Q. Is there not a fourth function?
A. Hopping may be considered as a sort of fourth
one.
Q. How is it performed?
A. The body of the bird is thrown upwards and
forwards, by a sudden contraction of the toes; and
many birds, when they take wing, perform an opera-
tion of that kind.
BIRDS.
7
Q. What is requisite for the performance of that
operation?
A. The bird must have a back toe of considerable
power; a swimming bird could not hop.
**
Q. Then what does the term swan-hopping"
mean?
A. It means "swan-upping”—that is, taking swans up.
Q. In simple walking, what muscles must be the
strongest?
A. Those that move the foot-bone of the leg.
Q. And in a clutching-foot-such as that of a hawk
or eagle?
A. Those that draw the claws together, and those
that extend the leg, as the feet of these birds strike as
well as clutch.
Q. Which are the most powerful muscles in a
perching-foot-such as that of a parrot ?
A. Those that draw the toes together; the ones
that spread the toes, and move the feet in walking, arc
very weak, and therefore such birds walk with diffi-
culty.
Q. Where are the muscles of the clutching-feet
seated?
A. They are seated on the tibia, or leg-bone?
Q. And is there any greater protection to them
than to the legs of other birds?
A. They are, generally speaking, better defended
by feathers.
SECT. III.-SENSES OF BIRDS.
Q. Have birds five senses, the same as the mam-
malia?
8
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. It is understood that they have in all cases,
though the sense of taste is probably not very delicate,
and that of touch is limited.
Q. By what is the sense of touch limited?
A. By the body being covered with feathers, and the
legs by horny plates.
Q. But may they not feel in the feathers?
A. Not in the feathers, because they are not fɑr-
nished with nerves; but they may feel through the
medium of the feathers, just as man and other mam-
malia feel through the medium of the hair.
EX
Q. What species of feeling is that?
A. Tickling, if the application be gentle; and pain,
if it be severe.
Q. How does it differ from touch?
A. The mere presence of the object is perceived,
but not its kind of surface or texture.
Q. Are there no parts of birds that have the sense
of touch?
A. The margins of ducks' bills, and some other
parts of birds, which have neither feathers nor scales,
are understood to have a very acute feeling of touch.
Q. What is the use of the keen sense of touch in
those parts ?
A. In the duck it enables the bird, when dabbling
in muddy water, to find that food which no other
sense could discover under the circumstances.
Q. Upon what senses have birds the greatest de-
pendence?
A. Upon the senses of sight, hearing, and smell.
Q. Are those understood to be more acute than the
same senses in the mammalia ?
BIRDS.
9
momore modAANTE
..:
A. They are.
Q. Which birds are supposed to have the most
acute sense of sight?
A. Birds of prey; but the qualities of the sight
vary, from the eagles down to the owls.
Q. What is the remarkable character of sight in the
eagles?
A. The distance at which they can see their prey.
An cagle will stoop with unerring certainty upon a
small quadruped or bird, though not in motion, and
very like the earth in colour, when the eagle is so
high as barely to be visible.
Q. What is the purpose of that great range of
vision in eagles?
A. They frequent lonely places, in which prey is
not very abundant, and thus they require to take in
a great extent of space.
Q. Have they any particular structure of the eye
for that purpose?
A. The eye stands out upon a socket of bone: the
crystalline lens* has great power, and the focal length
can be much varied.
Q. What is the change in the other birds of prey?
A. As their flight is lower, their eyes have more
magnifying power, but they see to a less distance.
Q. What is the difference in the lenses of the
eyes?
A. They become more convex, or thicker in the
middle in proportion to the size.
Q. Which have the eyes of the greatest magnifying
power?
* See Catechism of Optios.
10
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
wap..
Skole K TANA
A. The owls, and next to them the twilight hawks.
Q. Is there any other peculiarity in the eyes of
owls?
A. They admit so much light, and the light has so
powerful an effect upon them, that they see with dif-
ficulty during the day.
Q. Have not birds a peculiar kind of eyelid ?
A. They have a curtain that sweeps over the whole
eye in an instant, while the common eyelids remain
at rest; and that curtain is called the nictitating mem-
brane.
Q. What is the meaning of nictitating?
A. Winking.
Q. Are the organs of hearing as perfect in birds as
in the mammalia?
A. They have no external ears, because these would
both impede their flight and make a noise in the
wind; but many of them have peculiar feathers which
probably assist them in hearing.
Q. In which birds are these most conspicuous?
A. They are most so in owls.
Q. What purpose do they apparently serve in them?
A. They serve two-prevent the owl from making
a noise itself, and enable it to hear its prey in the dark.
Q. Which birds have the keenest sense of smell?
A. Vultures, and other birds that feed upon putrid
substances.
Q. And do these far exceed other animals in that
sense?
A. They do. The distances over which some of
them will fly to a putrid carcase are almost incredible.
BIRDS.
11
SECTION IV.CIRCULATION AND RESPIRATION OF
BIRDS.
Q. Does the circulation of birds resemble that of
the mammalia?
A. In most respects it does.
Q. In what do they differ?
A. The principal difference is in the heart, which
has a greater power of sending the blood to the lungs.
Q. Is the breathing of birds like that of the mam-
malia?
A. They breathe by lungs as the mammalia do;
but a bird is in some measure lungs all over.
Q. How do their lungs differ from those of the
mammalia?
A. They are of stronger substance, and have the
cells larger; they are also connected with cells within
the animals, and those cells extend to the bones, and
even to the feathers.
Q. Do those cavities and air-vessels communicate
with the lungs?
A. They do; and there have been instances of
birds breathing through them when the windpipe was
tied.
Q. What purposes do these serve?
A. They furnish a supply of air when the motion of
the bird is so rapid that it could not breathe wholly
by the windpipe, as is the case with quadrupeds; and
thus birds do not lose wind.
Q. Any other purpose?
A. Yes. The air in those tubes and cavities has
access to the blood in other vessels besides those of
12
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
the lungs; and thus the action of the air is extended
over the system, and the fatigue of the bird is, in con-
sequence, chiefly confined to muscular exhaustion.
Q. Is there any thing particular in the windpipe of
birds?
A. Yes. The rings of cartilege are more complete,
and in many of the species there are enlargements and
convolutions in the windpipe.
Q. What purposes do these serve?
A. They partly increase the internal supply of air,
and partly contribute to the voice of the birds.
Q. Is there any structure of the ordinary openings
for breathing that appear to render those internal sup-
plies of air necessary
?
A. There are. The openings of the nostrils are
slits, which the bird can shut when necessary.
Q. Is there any necessity for shutting them?
A. Yes; birds have no teeth, and thus they can
only bruise their food, and many of them swallow it
entire; and thus the apertures of respiration have to
be shut in the act of swallowing.
SECTION V.-FOOD AND DIGESTION OF BIRDS.
Q. What forms the food of birds ?
A. A variety of substances, animal and vegetable.
Q. What is the form of the stomach?
A. In many birds there is an enlargement of the
gullet, which forms the craw or crop-a receptacle for
a greater quantity of food than the digesting stomach
can act upon at one time.
Q. And in addition to that?
A. Those birds that feed upon seeds, buds, and
BIRDS.
15
other vegetable substances which are not easily di-
gested, have a very thick and strong muscular gizzard,
in which mechanical action assists the gastric or diges-
tive juice; and those that feed upon insects or animal
food have a membranous stomach.
SECTION VI.-COVERING OF BIRDS.
Q. What are the coverings of birds?
A. The proper coverings are feathers.
Q. Are not particular names given to the feathers?
A. Yes, from the places on which they grow, and
the purposes which they serve.
Q. What are the distinctions in the wings?
A. The most remarkable ones are the follow-
ing:-
1. The primaries, or quills, which form the extremity
of the wings, and grow from the tip to the first
moveable joint.
2. The secondaries, from the next joint, and which
cover the primaries for a portion of their length.
3. The tertiaries, which grow from the humerus.
After these there are the upper and under coverts,
or covers, which gradually diminish in size as they are
farther from the quills.
Q. Is there any advantage in this arrangement?
A. The wing is made strong as well as light, as
each overlapping feather supports a portion of the one
under it, just as the plates in a coach-spring support
each other.
Q. Is there any peculiar adaptation in the upper
side being better supported than the under one?
A. Yes; the greatest action being to pull the wing
C
14
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
downwards, the resistance on the upper side prevents
the wing from bending.
Q. Is the action increased by any other peculiarity
in the form?
A. Yes, the curvature of the wing-the hollowness
in the under side, enables it to take a better hold of
the air.
Q. Is there any other appendage to the wing?
A. Yes; between the primary and secondary quills
there is a bunch of stiff feathers that form the winglet
or bastard wing.
Q. Are names given to the feathers of the tail?
A. Yes; the largest ones are called feathers, and
there are upper and under tail covers.
Q. On what part of the body are the scapulars?
A. On the shoulders and sides of the back.
Q. Do not birds dress their feathers?
A. They have an apparatus near the insertion of
the tail, from which they obtain oil to dress, or
preen" their feathers, and protect them from
rain.
CC
Q. What birds are best protected in that way ?
A. Water-birds, upon which the water has little
effect.
Q. Are there not some birds that have their fea-
thers powdered?
A. Wood-pigeons, and some other species, have
powder on the feathers under the wings.
Q. Have not some birds two kinds of feathers ?
A. Water-birds have down as well as feathers; and
there are some that have whiskers, and others hair
upon their bodies.
BIRDS.
15
Q. Are there not some differences in the texture of
the feathers of birds?
A. Yes. Birds that fly high and rapidly have the
webs of their feathers strong to the extremity; but
there are other birds that have a fringe of remarkably
delicate fibres on the edge of the web.
Q. In what particular class of birds is that most
remarkable?
A. In the owls.
Q. What purpose does it serve in them?
A. It enables them to glide along in perfect silence.
An owl will pass close to one without being heard,
and brush through the boughs of a forest without
even disturbing the leaves: thus it is enabled to steal
on its prey without exciting the least alarm, and the
unsuspecting mouse is seized at the very entrance of
that hole, in which, had the least sound been made,
it would have found perfect safety.
Q. Are there any parts of birds in which the skin
is destitute of feathers?
A. Many birds have a naked cere at the base of the
beak, or bill, and in some it extends as far as the eyes,
in which case it is termed a lore; and some have the
head and a portion of the neck wholly or partially
naked.
SECTION VII.-FEET OF BIRDS.
Q. Have the feet of birds many differences of
character?
A. They have; and each kind of foot is beautifully
adapted to the habits of the bird.
Q. Mention some of them.
C 2
16
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Eagles, hawks, and other birds that kill their
prey, have the legs short and strong; and the hind
toe and inner front one come together with great
force, and plunge the claws, which are strong and
crooked, deep into the body of the prey.
Q. What is a second character?
A. Birds which live wholly or chiefly in trees have
only two toes to the front, the outer one being either
wanting or turned backwards. These birds walk very
awkwardly on a plane surface.
Q. What is a third character ?
A. Birds that have to rise suddenly from the surface
of the grass have the toes and claws, especially
the hind one, very long; and by the rapid compres-
sion of these together, they throw themselves so high
that the wings are not obstructed by the grass.
Q. What is a fourth character?
A. Birds which scratch the ground for their food,
and consequently run in places that are bare, have the
claws and hind toe short; and in many cases the
outer and middle toes are united as far as the first
joint.
Q. Are there not some peculiar characters in the
feet of aquatic or water birds?
A. Yes, and there are varieties of them, according
to the habits of the bird.
Q. Mention some of them.
A. Birds that do not swim, but wade in shallow
water for their prey, have stilts, that is very long legs;
and the horny plates with which these are covered
are so close as to be a complete defence against the
water.
BIRDS.
17
Q. And is there any corresponding adaptation of
the neck and bill?
A. Yes; the neck is always long, and remarkable
for the rapidity and variety of its motions.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the bill of such
birds?
A. Yes, if the bird is to catch swimming prey, such
as fishes, the bill is pointed, and the edges of the man-
dibles are toothed or notched, so that they may retain
the prey.
Q. If the bird find its food by dabbling in the
mud?
A. The bill is flattened like that of a duck, and has
a soft margin or covering, more or less sensitive.
Q. What are the characters of the feet of those
birds that swim in the water?
A. Some of them are palmated, or have the whole
of the toes connected by a membranous web; some
are only partially palmated; and others, again, have
the toes separated, but the sides pinnated or feathered
by membranous lobes.
PART II.- HABITS OF BIRDS.
Q. Which are the principal points in the outline of
the habits of birds?
A. They are so many that it is not very easy to
classify them; but the following are some of the most
simple and apparent :
Locality and range-flocking-migration-mating
-treatment of their young-moulting
changes.
seasonal
C 3
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
SECTION I-LOCALITY AND RANGE OF BIRDS.
Q. What do you mean by the locality of birds?
A. The places, whether as to the latitude or the
different kind of surface, on which they are chiefly to
be found.
Q. What do you mean by the range?
A. The extent or change of country that they pass
over, when that does not appear to be influenced by
the seasons.
Q. What is the chief distinction as to locality?
A. The most obvious is sea-birds, water-birds, and
land-birds.
Q. Are those equally proportioned to each other
all over the world?
A. No. Land-birds are most numerous in the
warm latitudes, and sea-birds in the cold; while in
temperate countries the numbers are more equa-
lized.
Q. Has the distribution in latitude any influence
the colours of birds?
upon
A. Upon sea-birds its influence is not very remark-
able, as the different latitudes of the sea have not the
same differences of temperature as those of the land;
but in the land-birds the influence is
very remarkable.
B
Q. What is most conspicuous in it?
A. The land-birds of the tropical countries present
the most brilliant colours that are to be met with any
where in nature. Reds, greens, blues, yellows, in
short, all colours, of the most intense depth, and
varying in tint as seen in different lights, with a play
of brilliance that no art can imitate.
BIRDS
19
Q. And do the colours become pale as the climate
becomes colder ?
A. They do, till the birds at last display only the
grey, brown, black and white colours of the barren
lands of which they are inhabitants.
Q. Does there appear any adaptation or design in
that, or is it merely the effect of the different degrees
of solar heat.
A. There is no part of nature in which design is
not perfectly apparent; neither is there any circum-
stance even so simple as that of a tint of colour, that
has not its use, if we were sufficiently wise for finding
it out.
Q. Which is the most apparent use of those
varieties of colour?
A. To protect the birds from their enemies.
Q. How does it accomplish that?
A. The trees of the tropical forests, in which the
parrots and other birds of brilliant plumage reside,
are constantly green with leaves; they have generally
flowers and fruit upon them; and they are festooned
with climbing plants that display very splendid colours.
Q. Have we the same adaptations in the colours of
birds in this country?
A. We have to a considerable extent. The birds
resemble in colour those substances or surfaces on
which they are generally found.
Q. How does that apply in the case of rooks, which
are black?
A. It not only contributes to their safety, but
enables them to perform a very useful operation to
the farmer, by immediately following the plough, and
20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
destroying the larvæ of those insects, which, if they
remained in the ground, would destroy the young
plants of corn.
Q. What are the several classes of land-birds, con-
sidered with relation to their dwellings?
A. House-birds, such as sparrows and swallows,
which reside near the habitations of man, form one
class.
Q. What form another?
A. Garden-birds, which change with the seasons,
eat insects, and sometimes fruits and buds, and also the
seeds that are newly sown.
Q. Whether do these do more good or harm?
A. It is not very easy to say; but probably from
the vast number of insects that they destroy, and
which, if left alone, would eat up the whole vegeta-
tion, the good that they do is greater than the harm.
Q. What form another local class?
A. Field-birds, or those that are chiefly found in
cultivated grounds, larks, partridges, and many others.
Q. What form another class?
A. Hedge-birds, or those that nestle in hedges; and
these are nearly allied to coppice-birds.
Q. Are there any forest-birds ?
A. Yes. Rooks, woodpeckers, pigeons, and many
others. There are also heath-birds, mountain-birds,
and rock-birds. Eagles and ravens are among the
latter; the first in mountain rocks, and the last in
those that are less elevated.
Q. What are the distinctions of water-birds as
depending on locality?
A. Pelagic birds, or those that are found on the
BIRDS.
21
open seas; they are generally birds of powerful wing,
and can sleep on the water. They are found in the
tropical seas often at a great distance from the land.
Q. What form a second division?
A. Littoral or shore-birds, that are not generally
found very far out at sea, and generally sleep on the
land. Many of them are birds of powerful wing, and
others cannot fly at all, but use the rudiments of wings
that they have as a sort of oars.
?
Q. Is there any other kind connected with the sea
A. Yes. There are beach-birds, that cannot swim,
but can run with great rapidity along the sands.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar about them?
A. As they pick their food out of the margin of
the water they have generally very long bills.
Q. What is the distinction between beak and bill,
as applied to the mandibles of a bird?
A. When adapted for tearing, with the upper
mandible crooked downwards at the point, it is a beak;
in all other cases it is a bill.
Q. Which are the fresh-water birds ?
A. They are not so distinct as the sea ones; but
there are marsh-birds, such as snipes, swimming-birds,
wading-birds, bank-birds, and skimming-birds, that
catch insects over the surface.
Q. Do these birds vary much in range?
A. They do. The sparrow continues near the same
cottage, the magpie near the same tree, the partridge
in the same field, and though the rook takes daily
journeys of considerable length, she always returns to
nestle in the same rookery, or even in the same tree.
The eagle, too, remains in the same rock for cen-
22
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
turies, and keeps the moors and valleys around her as
her own preserve.
Q. Have any others a wider range
A. There are many birds that summer in the in-
land and winter on the coasts; and some sea-birds
nestle by thousands on the banks of lakes, many miles
from their natural element.
SECTION II.-FLOCKING OF BIRDS.
Q. What is meant by the flocking of birds?
A. Their associating together in great numbers at
certain times of the year.
Q. At what seasons of the year do the flockings take
place?
A. There are partial flockings in the spring, but the
principal ones are in the end of autumn and the early
part of winter, when the fields are clear of herbage,
and the seeds that have been shaken from the plants
can be seen.
Q. What is the purpose of the flocking of birds?
A. It is not easy to say, unless it be that they are
all attracted to the place where they are the most
likely to find food.
Q. Is it not in some way connected with their
migration?
A. In all probability it is; and yet rooks, which do
not migrate, flock as conspicuously as any class what-
ever.
SECTION III.-MIGRATION OF BIRDS.
Q. What do you mean by the migration of birds?
A. Their shifting from one country to another, or
BIRDS.
25
from one place of the same country to another that is
at a considerable distance, and in the same direction
in which those that take longer flights migrate.
Q. What is the direction in which birds migrate ?
A. From south to north, or from north to south.
Q. Does that migration enable us to divide birds
into seasonal classes?
A. It does; and at any one place we have three
classes-constant residents, summer migrants, and
winter migrants, besides occasional stragglers, which
belong to the migratory birds of other longitudes.
Q. Is any common name given to the two classes of
migrants?
A. They are called birds of passage.
Q. At what periods do the summer birds of passage
come?
A. They come at some period of the spring or early
summer; and take their departure in autumn; but
they come and depart at different times according
to the distances that they have to fly.
Q. Are they all birds of the same natural class?
A. No. Some of them are land-birds, and some
water-birds; some of them feed on grain, some on
insects, and some on fish.
Q. For what purpose do they come to us in the
spring and summer ?
A. For the purpose of building their nests, and
rearing their young; and many of them give us
music the while.
Q. Is it the warmth that sends them to us?
A. That cannot be, as they come from countries
that are warmer than our own.
24
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What then can impel them?
A. The time at which they come to us, is that at
which there is the greatest quantity of food for them,
and the summer days are longer with us than with the
people farther to the south, so that they have morc
time to gather food for their little ones.
Q. Do they arrive in all parts of Britain at the
same time?
A. No. They arrive sooner in the southern parts.
Q. From what distances do they come?
A. Many of them are understood to come from
Africa.
Q. Have we any summer visitants from America?
A. Not any summer birds; the difference of longi-
tude in the regions of the equator is too wide for
that.
Q. Then the time during which the summer birds of
passage remain with us is a time of labour with them?
A. The first part of it is a time of severe labour, as
they have their nests to build, one has to find the food
of two, during the greater part of the incubation or
sitting on the eggs; and the old birds have to find
their own food, and also that of the broods, until these
are fledged and able to provide for themselves.
Q. Do the parent birds shew any signs of the effects
of this severe labour?
A. They do; for by the time that they have only
themselves o provide for, their plumage is disordered
and torn.
Q. Have they any means of repairing those injuries?
A. They have. They retire into those places where
their food is most abundant, and change their feathers,
BIRDS.
25
wholly or partially, thus becoming new winged for
their flight.
Q. From whence do the winter birds of passage
come?
A. From regions that are farther to the north; and
they are impelled southward by the same influence of
the cold that drives the summer visitants from our
shores.
Q. Are the winter ones as varied in character as
those of summer?
A. They are not. The land-birds of the cold lati-
tudes are comparatively few; and thus our winter
visitants are for the most part water birds.
Q. Are there any exceptions?
A. The snow-bunting, which is one of the most
northerly inhabitants of the land, its nesting place
being in Lapland and the dreary rocks still farther to
the north.
Q. What places do the other winter birds frequent ?
A. The shores of the sea, the banks of lakes and
rivers, and any open marshy or watery places.
Q. Have we not some winter birds that migrate to a
considerable distance within the country?
A. Yes. The wild swans and geese that are found
nestling in vast numbers by the lakes and pools in the
north, during the summer, scatter themselves all over
the country during the winter, and make their journeys
farther to the south, the more severe that the weather
is.
Q. Is there any remarkable difference in the coming
and going of those birds?
A. Yes, the winter ones, with the exception of
D
26
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
stragglers, come in flocks of greater or smaller numbers,
according to the habits of the birds.
Q. And how do they depart?
A. They depart singly, as there is no flocking of
them together, as in the other case mentioned.
Q. What is the case with the summer birds?
A. They come singly, flock partially before they
pair, and collect in large flocks before they leave the
country.
Q. Are there any exceptions?
A. There are, and cuckoos may be considered as
an instance of them; they come into the country, and
go out of it nobody knows how; but they are retiring
birds at all times.
Q. What is the object of the flocking of the summer
birds of passage?
A. As the flocking is always after the young broods
are reared, it may be that it is to enable the young to
find their way to the winter retreat; although there is
not much reason to suppose that birds stand in need
of any such pilotage.
Q. Why?
A. We have few, if any, well authenticated in-
stances of animals standing in need of schooling from
other animals; but very many in which all the propen-
sities of the kind of animal have been developed with-
out any schooling.
Q. You mentioned that there are more stragglers or
occasional visitants among the birds that migrate south-
ward, than among those that migrate northward: what
is the reason?
A. The degrees of longitude are so short in the high
BIRDS.
27
latitudes, that a very little deviation to the east or the
west, may waft a bird of Russia or Greenland, that is,
a bird which has passed the summer in either of those
countries, to England.
Q. Is there any other circumstance that would faci-
litate a communion of birds in the northern regions of
the world?
A. The ice in the polar seas generally, and the short
distance from Siberia to America, may enable grouse
and other birds not capable of very long flights, to
pass from the one continent to the other.
SECTION IV.-NESTING AND TREATMENT OF THEIR
YOUNG.
Q. What are the situations of the nests of birds?
A. There is one peculiarity worth notice, and that
is, that the care bestowed upon the safe place and
neat structure of the nest, is always in proportion to
the length of time that the young birds are to re-
main in it.
Q. What birds remain longest in the nest ?
A. Those of course that are the worst adapted for
walking on the ground, and especially those that have
not perching feet, and which in consequence spend
the greatest part of their time upon the wing.
Q. Mention some instances.
A. Plovers, partridges, and other birds that run
about the moment that they are out of the shell,
make hardly any nest at all; and the same may be
said of some of the water-fowl. Common poultry do
make a sort of nest, but a very rude one. Others are
gradually more careful in the formation of the nest,
D 2
28
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
as the young birds have to depend more upon their
wings, until we come to the swallows, and some ana-
logous tribes, that actually build houses.
Q. What is the reason?
A. Adaptation to the habits of the bird.
Q. In what way?
A. The feet of all birds are formed and entire at
the time they come out of the shell; but they have
no feathers; and therefore birds that constantly use
their wings must remain in the nest till the feathers
upon which their flight depends be grown; and the
larger and stronger the feather is, it must take the
longer time in growing.
Q. Have birds any affection for their young?
A. Nature is always true to her purpose; and there
are no young of animals that need any assistance and
protection from their parents, to which there is any
fear of disappointment from the want of affection in
the parent.
Q. Do all birds shew their affection in the same
way?
A. There is rather a marked distinction, founded
upon the difference that has been mentioned, in the
lengths of time that the young birds remain in the
nest.
Q. What is that?
A. The runners and the swimmers that almost im-
mediately take their own food need only protection,
and to be led to the place where it is; and we have
remarkable instances of this in hens and geese. All
the other land-birds that are fed in the nest, and are
about able to provide for and protect themselves as
BIRDS.
29
soon as they leave it, or its immediate vicinity, have
no need of the attention of their parents afterwards,
and thus the affection between them ceases.
Q. Have we any remarkable instance of that?
A. The eagle will fight desperately and almost to
the death for her eaglets while they are in the nest;
but as soon as they have got their wings, and are able
to kill their own prey, they are driven from their mo-
ther's eyrie, and not suffered again to approach it.
Q. Is it different with other birds?
A. Yes; the hen continues to watch over her
brood; and partridges and grouse remain in family
coveys till the winter.
SECTION V.-MOULTING Of Birds.
Q. You have mentioned that the moulting of birds
is the seasonal change of the feathers ?
A. Yes, rather the whole or the partial change of
them.
Q. How long does a feather last?
A. Only one year in the natural way; and if it be
broken or destroyed by accident it is replaced sooner.
Q. Are there then two moults in the year?
A. There are a great one and a partial one-the
one in the spring and the other in the autumn, or
rather the end of summer.
Q. Which of them is the great one?
A. That depends something on the habits of the
bird. They may be described as in general having
the great moult, and the new coat of feathers, just
before the commencement of their labours in that part
of the year when they are most scarce.
D 3
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. And does that vary with the habits of the birds?
A. Yes, the resident birds have the hardest labour
from the beginning of the winter to the time that
their broods are reared, and hence they have their
great moult in the autumn; winter migrants have it
in the autumn, also, in those countries where they
breed; but summer migrants have it in the spring, as
there is no time for a moult between their arrival in
this country and that of pairing.
Q. Then the swallow cannot pass the winter at
the bottoms of pools, as is vulgarly said?
A. That is impossible, as the bird could not possi-
bly moult there.
Q. What is the probable origin of this absurdity?
A. Swallows, the instant that they arrive, resort to
the waters in quest of the early water-flies; and their
passage to those places is not observed.
Q. Can any judgment be formed of the time of
moulting in birds in a state of nature, from the moult-
ing of those that are confined or domesticated ?
!
A. No correct judgment can be so formed, as the
very climate and seasons are changed to birds kept in
the house.
Q. Then artificial collections are not places in
which to study the habits of animals?
A. They are not. Only the appearance can be
noticed then, and even these are liable to be changed.
SECTION VI.-SEASONAL CHANGES OF BIRDS.
Q. What are the most remarkable seasonal changes
to which birds are subject?
A. Seasonal changes of colour are the ones for
BIRDS.
31
which they are most remarkable, and the ones that
are most perplexing to naturalists.
Q. Do the changes take place at the same times of
the year?
A. The changes are always gradual; and they take
place sooner or later, and are completed in longer or
shorter times, according to the weather.
Q. Does any other change accompany the change
of colour?
A. The winter change is accompanied by an in-
crease of down among the feathers, and the summer
by a diminution.
Q. What is the general change of colour?
A. In cold places all birds become lighter in their
tints, and some of them white altogether during the
winter months.
Q. What bird becomes white?
A. The ptarmigan, or white grouse, which is
ashen grey, with dark spots, in the summer, is white
in the winter; and the Alpine sandpiper, which is
mottled black and brownish red in summer, is of a
pale ashen colour in winter.
Q. Do similar changes happen to water-birds?
A. The black guillemot becomes white with ash-
coloured spots in the winter; and the black-headed
gull gets a white head.
Q. Do those seasonal changes answer any useful
purpose?
A. They answer a most important one: both the
down and the lighter colour tend to make the birds
warmer in the winter; and the darker colours and
absence of the down keep them cool in the summer,
32
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are those seasonal changes necessary for the
water-birds?
A. They are; as they have often to be in shallow
water, and melted snow and ice, which are nearly as
cold as the temperature of freezing.
SECTION VII.-USES OF BIRDS.
Q. What are the uses of birds?
A. They are very many-in the economy of nature,
and also to man. Some of them are scavengers, and
clear the earth of substances that would otherwise be
offensive; others protect vegetation from insects; many
of them furnish us with wholesome and nutritious
food, in their flesh and in their eggs; some supply us
with our softest pillows, and others have feathers
which nobles and kings are proud to wear.
Q. Have they any other uses?
A. The songs of the birds, as they cheer each other
in the labour of preparing cradles for their young,
give to the season of spring half its delights; the
raven in the storm, the cagle floating over a mountain
top-any situation in which we can see almost any
bird, imparts pleasure, if that situation be in accord-
ance with its natural habits.
Q. Any further use?
A. The coming and departing of birds, their silence
and their breaking into song, the times at which they
separate and at which they flock together, are all so
many points in the kalendar of nature, far more true
to the state of the season than any which man can
contrive.
Q. Any thing further still?
BIRDS.
53
A. The structure of birds, the elegance of their
general forms, the admirable skill with which the seve-
ral parts of them are adapted to the functions which
they have to perform, so that nothing either of matter
or of moving power may be wanting or wasted: all
these, with the reflections to which they give rise,
make the study of birds one of the most delightful and
the most instructive about which the thoughts of man
can be occupied.
PART III.-CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS.
[Note. In the whole space to which this little
work is restricted, it would be impossible to give an
enumeration of the genera even in one order of birds ;
and the proper description of a few species would also
occupy the whole of it. All, therefore, that can be
done usefully, is to give some short account of the na-
tural orders.]
Q. How are birds classified?
A. There has never yet been a perfectly satisfac-
tory classification; but that which can best convey
some general notion of them is a natural system,
founded partly upon their appearance, and partly on
their habits.
Q. What part of their appearance is best for that
purpose?
A. The beaks and feet. As those are the means
by which the bird gets its food, they are better adapted
for classification than any other of the external cha
racters.
Q. How many orders may be formed in this way?
A. About fourteen.
34
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is the first order?
A. ACCIPITROUS BIRDS.
Q. What does that mean?
A. Hawks, or plunderers; those birds which kill, or
live wholly upon flesh, the same as birds of prey.
Q. What is the second order?
A. OMNIVOROUS BIRDS; or those that eat flesh, and
do not hesitate to kill small animals, but which can
also eat vegetables when animal food is not to be
found.
Q. What is the third order?
A. INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS, or those that feed chiefly
upon insects, though some of them kill small birds.
Q. What is the fourth order?
A. GRANIVOROUS BIRDS, or those that eat seeds;
but many of them also eat worms and other sub-
stances.
Q. What is the fifth order?
A. ZYGODACTYLOUS BIRDS, or those that are yoke-
footed, or have the toes opposed, two and two, to each
other.
Q. What is the sixth order?
A. ANISODACTYLOUS BIRDS, or those that have
climbing-feet.
Q. What is the seventh order?
A. ALCYONIAN BIRDS, or those that in their habits
resemble the kingsfisher.
Q. What is the eighth order?
A. CHELIDONIAN BIRDS, or those that have the
habits of swallows.
Q. What is the ninth order?
A. COLOMBIAN BIRDS, or pigeons.
BIRDS.
35
Q. What is the tenth order?
A. GALLINACEOUS BIRDS, or fowls.
Q. What is the eleventh order?
A. CURSORES, or running-birds.
Q. What is the twelfth order?
A. GRALL, or wading-birds-literally, birds on stilts.
Q. What is the thirteenth order?
A. PINNATIFID, or fin-footed birds.
Q. What is the fourteenth order?
A. PALMIPED, or web-footed birds.
Q. Is there any thing like a regular gradation in
these orders?
A. There is a very marked gradation. The eagle,
the first of the first order, is the loftiest inhabitant of
the air, and the bird of most powerful wing; while
the penguin, the last of the last order, is mostly con-
fined to the water, is fat, unwieldy, and sluggish in
its motions, and incapable of flight.
ORDER I.-ACCIPITROUS BIRDS.
ZA
Q. What birds belong to that order?
A. Eagles, hawks, vultures, kites, buzzards, and
owls, which form a sort of descending scale from the
eagle to the owl-the eagle hunting for her prey in
the clearest weather, and from great elevation; and
the owl flying low, softly, and in the dark.
Q. What are their common characters?
A. Strong, crooked beaks, and talons or claws; fe-
rocious dispositions, fondness for slaughter and raw
flesh; a disposition to avoid the habitations of men;
no association but of the pair with each other-but
that is constant, and for life.
36
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are these destroyers of any use?
A. No question but they are.
The owls are very
useful to the farmer in the field, and even in the barn;
the harriers, and kites, and hawks reduce the numbers
of birds and small quadrupeds; the vultures consume
carrion; and the eagles also perform their function in
nature.
Q. But are not the birds of prey cruel ?
A. Not more so than man when he kills a sheep, or
that sheep when it bites grass. The productions of
nature are all subservient to each other, and the sup-
ply of each is proportioned to the demand that there
is for it.
Q. What do you mean?
A. Were it not for the birds of prey, those animals
upon which they live would multiply so fast, that pro-
bably more would die of hunger in the winter than
are killed all the year round.
Q. Whether is the male or the female of birds of
prey the more powerful?
A. The female is always the larger and more power..
ful bird.
Q. Are the genera and species numerous?
A. There are a good many of them, but from the
differences between the two sexes, and between the
young birds and the old, and also from the places that
they inhabit, they are not very clearly defined.
ORDER II.-OMNIVOROUS BIRDS.
Q. What birds belong to that order?
A. Crows, jays, magpies, choughs, mandrills, star-
lings, birds of paradise, and many others.
BIRDS.
37
Q. What are their characters ?
A. Their bills are nearly straight and pointed, very
sharp at the edges, and generally at the point; they
have four toes on the feet, and many of them hop upon
both legs.
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. Some of the species are very much so; and some
of them, as the raven and the carrion-crow, are found
in all parts of the world.
Q. On what do they feed?
A. Their taste is very general; and most of them
are very voracious.
Q. Are they tameable?
A. Many of them are, and not a few may be taught
to articulate words.
ORDER III.-INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS.
Q. Which are the principal birds in that order?
A. Skrikes, fly-catchers, thrushes, warblers, and
many others.
Q. What are some of their characters?
A. Their bills are straight, rounded, and have the
upper mandibles a little covered at the point. Their
notes are mostly musical; they live upon insects, and
sometimes berries; build their nests apart from each
other; and generally breed more than once in the year.
Q. Are they numerous?
A. They are rather so; and they are useful birds to
man in destroying insects and snails, of which last the
thrushes destroy vast numbers.
ORDER IV.-GRANIVOROUS BIRDS.
Q. What birds belong to that order?
E
38
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Larks, titmice, buntings, finches, canary birds,
orioles, and many others.
Q. What are some of their characters?
A. They have strong conical bills, live in pairs,
migrate in flocks; feed mostly on seeds, but feed
their young with insects; they approach the habita-
tions of man, and live in confinement. Many of
them are birds of song; and the summer plumage of
the male is usually much more splendid than the
winter.
Q. Are they useful to man?
A. In some cases they are rather hurtful, as they
feed on seeds, and sometimes on buds, which they eat
very dexterously from the trees.
ORDER V.-YOKE-TOED BIRDS.
Q. Are there many birds in that order?
A. There are a good many in all countries, and
in the warm latitudes they are exceedingly nume-
rous.
Q. Which are some of them?
A. Cuckoos, toucans, parrots in all their variety,
woodpeckers, conynichs, and many others.
Q. What are their distinguishing characters ?
A. Their food is very different, and so are their
beaks. In some, as the woodpecker, the beak is long
and straight; in others, as the parrots, it is a pair of
nut-crackers.
Q. Have they no general character?
A. That of the toes acting two against two; but
some of them can remove the outer toe, and use it
either before or behind.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
BIRDS.
39
Be my Phantom a pareja Matowaga pena
A. Trees continually, as the feet are not suited for
walking on the ground.
ORDER VI.-ANISODACTYLOUS BIRDs.
Q. Which are some of the birds with climbing feet?
A. Nuthatches, creepers, humming-birds, the trooper,
and some others.
Q. What are their characters?
A. Most of them run upon the trunks and boughs
of trees, but some of them feed upon insects.
Q. Are not the humming-birds remarkable for some-
thing?
A. They are remarkable for their great number and
variety, for the beauty of their colours, and for the
smallness of their size.
Q. What is the size of the smallest ones?
A. About an inch and-a-half in length, and it weighs
no more than twenty grains.
Q. What are the eggs like?
A. Not much bigger than grains of mustard seed.
Q. Do the humming-birds feed upon insects?
A. They are generally understood to feed upon the
honey in the nectaries of flowers.
ORDER VII.KINGSFISHER BIRDS.
Q. Is that an extensive order?
A. No, it contains very few birds.
Q. What are their leading characters?
A. They can neither walk nor climb; but they are
very rapid on the wing, and almost instantaneous in
the changes of their motions.
Q. On what do they feed?
A. The bee-eater feeds on the larger insects; the
E 2
40
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
common kingsfisher on little fishes, which it seizes with
much dexterity; and the large brown kingsfisher, which
is a native of the southern hemisphere, also feeds on
fish.
Q. Where do the kingfishers nestle?
A. In holes by the sides of rivers.
ORDER VIII.-CHELIDONIAN BIRDS.
Q. What birds belong to that order?
A. The different species of swallows and goat-
suckers.
Q. Do the latter suck goats?
A. Of course not; they live entirely upon insects;
and have got that absurd name from following animals,
upon the skins of which insects settle.
Q. Do any of the order remain in England all the
year round?
A. No, they are only summer visitants.
Q. Are there many species of swallows?
A. There are the house-swallow, which is blackish
blue above, and whitish below, and builds in chimneys;
the window-swallow, which builds in the corners of
windows or on walls; and the sand-martin, which is
lighter coloured than the others, and some others.
Q. Is there not another kindred genus?
A. Yes, the swifts, which are, excepting perhaps
some of the humming-birds, among the swiftest birds
that fly.
Q. How do the birds of this order feed?
A. They catch insects when on the wing; and the
keenness of their vision to discover is as remarkable
as the rapidity of their motion to seize.
BIRDS.
41
ORDER IX.COLUMBINE BIRDS.
Q. What are the general character of the pigeons?
A. They are very elegantly shaped birds; the co-
lours, though by no means gaudy, are fine; they are
warm in their temperaments, and they consume
more food than any other birds of an equal size.
Q. Are there many of them?
A. There are a good many species--the varieties of
the domesticated ones are very many, and as they
breed very fast they are found in great numbers.
Q. To what order have the pigeons the greatest
resemblance?
A. To the gallina, or poultry; and some of the
pigeons in the south-east of Asia seem to be a sort of
link between the two orders.
ORDER X.-GALLINACEOUS BIRDS.
Q. From what are the birds of that order named?
A. From the resemblance that they all bear to the
domestic cock.
Q. What are the birds belonging to the order?
A. Peacocks, turkeys, common fowls, pheasants,
grouse, partridges, and some others.
Q. What characters have they in common?
A. They walk heavily, and fly more so, and with
much apparent effort; and they live in families. Most
of the males have the tarsi armed with spurs, which
are their weapons of war.
ORDER XI.-CURSORES, OR RUNNERS.
Q. Which are the birds that belong to that or-
der?
£ 3
42
CATECHISM OF 20OLOGY.
A. The bustard, the ostrich, the rhea, and the cas-
sowary, are the principal ones.
Q. Which are their distinguishing characteristics ?
A. They have the legs very long, and naked for so
far above the knees, no toes behind, and three, and
in some of the species only two, forward. Some of
them can fly none, and all of them but little.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A. They generally inhabit remote and desart places,
and are very shy.
Q. Are they all natives of the same countries?
A. No. Two species of bustards are found in the
warm parts of Europe, and used not to be uncommon
as seasonal birds in England before the country was
so populous.
Q. Where are the ostriches met with ?
A. In Africa and the south-west of Asia.
Q. Where the rheas?
A. There is one in the plains of South America,
and another in Australia, where it is called the emu.
ORDER XII.-GRALLE, OR WADERS.
Q. Are they numerous?
A. They are a very numerous order of birds, and
they are very much diversified in their characters.
Q. What birds does the order contain ?
A. Plovers, sandpipers, lapwings, cranes, storks,
herons, the flamingo, the spoonbill, ibises, snipes, and
a great variety of other birds.
Q. Where do they frequent?
A. Some of them frequent the shores of the sea,
and others the margins of ponds and lakes, and moist
places.
BIRDS.
43
ORDER XIII.-FIN-FOOTED Birds.
Q What are the characters of these?
A. The bill is straight, and of a medium size. They
have three toes before and one behind, with marginal
webs. They are excellent swimmers and divers, and
they have considerable powers of flight.
Q. On what do they subsist?
A. On insects, worms, fish, and sometimes vege-
tables.
Q. What sort of plumage have they?
A. It is very firm and glossy, and contains a great
deal of down.
Q. Can they walk well on land?
A. Generally speaking they cannot.
Q. What are the names of the principal genera ?
A. The principal ones are coots and grebes.
ORDER XIV,-WEB-FOOTED BIRDS.
Q. Are these a numerous order?
A. They are very numerous.
Q. Whether do they live most on the land, or in
the water?
A. They live most in the water, and they are better
adapted to that element than any other order of birds.
Q. How are they adapted?
A. Their plumage is so compact and thick that the
temperature of the water can have little or no effect
on them, and they are more abundantly supplied with
oil for the dressing of their feathers, than any other
birds. Their webbed feet also answer as broad pad-
dles, and force them through the water with great
rapidity.
44
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Do they swim in any peculiar manner?
A. Yes, they walk through the water, as it were,
moving the one foot forward, while the action of the
other is impelling the body; and thus their progress is
uniform.
Q. Do they perform any other operation in the
water than swimming on the surface ?
A. Many of them can dive, and spend the greater
part of their time actually under the water.
Q. On what do they feed?
A. The greater number feed upon fish; but some
prefer vegetables, and the flesh of those that do so is
much esteemed as food, while that of the others is not
relished.
Q. Which are some of them?
A. The whole races of ducks, geese, and swans be-
long to the order.
Q. Which are some of the others?
A. The cutwater, an American bird, which is con-
stantly on the wing, terns, gulls, petrels, albatrosses,
pelicans, auks, penguins, and an almost countless num-
ber of others.
Q. Do the individuals appear in great num-
bers?
A. In rocky places, which are remote and undis-
turbed, they are often in numbers that are altogether
incredible, many millions in one flock.
PART III.-SOME ORDERS of BRITISH BIRDS.
Q. ARE the British birds numerous ?
A. There is a considerable number of them; and as
the surface of Britain is much diversified, the shores,
indented by arms of the sea and rivers, and in some
BIRDS.
45
parts of the country the lakes numerous, the birds are
much varied in their kinds and habits.
Q. Are there many British birds of prey ?
A. The number is considerable; but as they are
hunted and destroyed with possibly more zeal than
wisdom, the individuals in the more powerful kinds
are but few.
Q. Are there any of the order wanting?
A. There are of course many species, and there is
one tribe; there being no British vulture.
Q. What is the usual division of the British birds
of prey ?
A. There are two genera--hawks (FALCO), and
owls STRIX).
Q. What are the tribes of the hawks ?
A. There are six of them-
1. Eagles,
2. Kites,
3. Buzzards,
4. Harriers,
5. Hawks,
6. Falcons.
Eagles.
Q. What are the distinguishing characters of the
eagles ?
A. Superior size and strength, more lonely and re-
tired habits, and a loftier flight.
Q. How many British eagles are there?
A. There are three species; but as their plumage
and appearance vary in the young and the full-grown,
they have sometimes been considered as more nume-
rous.
46
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Which are the three?
A. The golden eagle (chrysaetos), the white-tailed
eagle (albicilla), and the osprey (haliæetus).
Q. Where does the golden eagle inhabit?
A. The wild mountainous parts of Scotland and
Ireland.
Q. What is its size?
A. The female, which is the largest bird, is often
more than three feet long, and eight feet in the stretch
of the wings.
Q. What is its prey?
A. Mountain birds and small quadrupeds, the young
and weak of the wild deer, and sometimes lambs.
Q. Does it fish?
A. It is a land bird, and not known to fish or to eat
fish ; but in extremities of hunger it will eat carrion.
Q. Where do those eagles form their nests?
A. In lofty cliffs; they have seldom more than two
young in the year, which they feed with great assiduity
till fledged, and then drive away. The old ones sel-
dom go very far from home.
Q. What is the colour of the golden eagle?
A. A mixture of black, brown, and orange; the
young have the insides of the thighs, and the under tail
coverts white.
Q. What is the locality of the white-tailed eagle?
A. It is more diffused than the former; and as it is
a fishing bird, it is found on many of the rocky shores:
but still it is most abundant in the northern parts of
the country.
Q. Is it a powerful bird?
A. It is, though not so strong or well made as the
golden eagle.
BIRDS.
47
Q. Does it feed wholly on fish?
A. No. Indiscriminately on fish and land animals.
Q. What is its colour?
A. It is not so dark as the golden eagle, and more
of an ash-colour.
Q. What are the haunts of the osprey?
A. The shores of the sea and the margins of
lakes, almost exclusively. It lives by fishing; beats
over the surface of the water, and shoots down with
the rapidity of an arrow when it sees a fish near the
surface. Its plumage on the under part of the body
resembles that of the water-fowl.
Q. What are its colours?
A. Brownish and mottled on the upper part, and
white below.
Kites.
Q. Are there many British kites ?
A. There is only one, which is a beautiful bird,
with a forked tail, and remarkable for the gracefulness
of its flight.
Q. Of what places is it an inhabitant?
A. Of the cultivated countries, rather than the
wilds like the eagles.
Q. What is its prey?
A. Birds and small quadrupeds. It is voracious, but
supposed to be rather cowardly in proportion to its size.
Q. Where does it make its nest?
A. In trees; and it prefers those parts of the coun-
try that contain woods and coppices.
Buzzards.
Q. Are there many species of these?
48
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. There are three. The common buzzard (buteo),
the rough-legged (lagopus), and the honey buzzard
(apivorus).
Q. Where does the common buzzard inhabit ?
A. Woody districts, where it is often found perched
on a withered tree. It is a heavy bird.
Q. What is its prey?
A. Birds, small quadrupeds, and sometimes frogs
and insects.
Q. Where does it catch its prey?
A. Always upon the ground. In some countries it
is eaten.
Q. What is its colour?
A. The colour varies considerably, but the shape
and habits of the bird cannot be mistaken.
Q. What is the character of the rough-legged buz-
zard?
A. The tarsi are feathered. It is a native of the
very northern parts of Europe, and visits Britain only
occasionally.
Q. What is the honey buzzard?
A. It is smaller than the others, and feeds partly on
insects. It is very rare in Britain.
Harriers.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. They have often a ruff of feathers about their
necks; they beat over the surface of the ground on a
low flight, and pounce on their prey.
Q. Are there many of them?
A. There are three. The marsh harrier, the hen
harrier, and the ash-coloured harrier.
Q. Where does the marsh harrier inhabit ?
BIRDS.
49
A. Marshes, where it preys on ducks or other
water-fowl; or low sandy commons, where it preys on
rabbits.
Q. Where does the hen harrier frequent?
A. Fields, where it is very destructive to game. It
also preys upon mice and reptiles.
Q. The ash-coloured harrier?
A. It is a bird of the uplands, and flies more vigo-
rously than the other harriers, but it is not common in
this country.
Q. Where does it form its nest?
A. On the ground, among furze, or other bushes.
Hawks.
Q. Are there many British species of hawks?
A. Of hawks, properly so called, there are only two.
Q. What are the distinguishing characters of a
hawk ?
A. They are three. The first quill of the wing is
very short; flight rapid; they strike their prey upon
the wing, are bold, and will attack birds much larger
than themselves.
Q. Which are the British species?
A. The gos-hawk and the sparrow-hawk.
Q. Where does the gos-hawk inhabit?
A. In the wild districts of the north. It preys upon
hares, rabbits, and the larger birds.
Q. Where does the sparrow-hawk inhabit.
A. It is pretty generally diffused, especially in the
cultivated parts of the country. It is very destructive
to game and pigeons.
Q. Is there not a remarkable difference in the
sexes?
F
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Yes, the female is very much larger than the
male. It will prey upon its own species.
Falcons.
Q. What are the characters of the falcons?
A. A tooth on the upper mandible of the beak, and
a corresponding notch on the lower one; the wings
long, and the second feather the longest.
Q. Are there many British falcons?
A. There are at least five species. The jer-falcon,
the peregrine, the hobby, the merlin, and the kestril.
Q. Where does the jer-falcon inhabit ?
A. It is found in Scotland, though its proper place
of habitation is farther to the north.
Q. Is it a powerful bird?
is
A. Yes, very powerful and very daring. Its prey
game and large birds, which it strikes with amazing
force. It is rarely if ever seen in England.
Q. Where is the peregrine falcon found?
A. Chiefly in the north too, though it is occasion-
ally met with in England.
Q. Is it a bold bird?
A. Very much so.
It sometimes accompanies
sportsman during the grouse shooting on the moors,
and shares with them the coveys of birds raised by
the dogs.
It can fly at the rate of more than 150
miles an hour.
Q. Where is the hobby found?
A. It is a summer visitant, and found only in some
of the southern parts of England.
Q. What form its prey?
A. Larks and other small birds, in pursuit of which
it flies with great rapidity.
BIRDS.
51
Q. What are the characters of the merlin?
A. Smallness of size, boldness, and activity. Its
prey is small birds, and it follows them in their sea-
sonal migrations, though itself breeds in the country.
Q. Where does the kestril inhabit?
A. Most parts of the country; but it retires to
rocky places in the wintry season.
Q. What are its chief food?
A. Mice and large beetles, especially cock-chaffers.
Q. How does it catch the latter?
A. It darts through the swarms of them that are
flying about in the summer twilight, catches one in
each foot, and eats them on the wing.
Owls.
Q. What are the characters of the owls?
A. They have the bill hooked, the eyes large, the
face broad, the plumage so soft and downy that they
make no noise when they fly, and they fly chiefly
during the night.
Q. Is there not something peculiar in the formation
of their ears?
A. They are much more elaborate in their structure
than in other birds.
Q. Are there not two divisions of owls?
A. There are smooth-headed owls and horned
owls?
Q. What is meant by horned owls?
A. Owls that have a tuft of feathers standing up on
each side of the head.
Q. How many British species are there?
A. Four of each kind are occasionally met with in
the country.
F 2
52
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Which is the most remarkable ?
A. The great-horned owl, which is as large as an
eagle; but it is only an occasional visitant.
Q. Is it as powerful as the eagles ?
A. Very far from it, though it can kill grouse and
rabbits. The skeleton is very slender as compared
with that of the eagles.
Q. Which is the next species?
A. The long-horned or long-eared owl; its colours
are handsome.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. Woods, and it feeds chiefly on mice and moles.
When wounded, it fights lying on its back.
Q. Which is the third?
A. The short-eared owl, which winters in the south-
ern parts of the island, and summers in the northern.
It preys on mice and small birds.
Q. Which is the last of the British eared owls?
A. The scops-eared owl. It is a small and hand-
some species, rarely met with in England, but common
in warmer countries, where it is a seasonal migrant.
It feeds on mice, insects, and worms. This little owl is
easily tamed.
Q. Which are the smooth-headed owls?
A. The snowy-owl, the white or barn-owl, the tawny
owl, and the little owl.
Q. Where does the snowy-owl inhabit ?
A. It is a native of the snowy regions of the world;
but it is sometimes met with in Scotland, and more
rarely in the north of England during severe snow-
storms from the north.
Q. What are its characters?
A. It is a large, beautiful, and powerful bird, prey-
BIRDS.
10
LO
ing upon alpine hares, rabbits, and other animals,
which it catches in the day-time. In the old birds,
though their bill is black, the plumage is snow-white,
and the animal distinguished with difficulty from the
snow on which it sits.
$
Q. Where does the barn-owl, or white owl, inhabit ?
A. It is common in most parts of Britain, and found
about old buildings and hollow trees. As it flies, it
utters loud screams; on which account it is called the
screech-owl. On its perch, it makes a hissing and
moaning noise. Mice are its principal food; and thus
it is valuable about farm-yards. When young, it is
easily tamed, and becomes very domestic.
Q. Where does the tawny owl inhabit?
A. Like the former, it is very generally diffused;
but it does not come so familiarly near the habitations
of man. Its favourite abode is in woods and thickets,
where it hoots, in a very noisy manner, during the
night.
Q. Is it as harmless as the white owl?
A. By no means. It destroys rabbits, young hares,
and pigeons.
Q. Where does the little owl inhabit ?
A. It is a native of warmer climates, and rarely seen
in this country. Though small, it has some of the cha-
racters of the hawks, and pursues birds during the day.
Q. Are there many species of British
OMNIVOROUS BIRDS?
A. There are, at least, not fewer than fourteen.
Q. Which is the most common genus?
A. That which includes the several species of crows
(corvus).
F 5
54
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are their characters?
A. The bill is middle-sized, strong, horny, coulter-
shaped at the edges, and adapted for thrusting or
digging. They live in pairs, and some of the species
in societies. They are very indiscriminate in their
eating.
Q. Which is the most powerful of the genus?
A. The raven (corax); and its power of endurance
is equal to its strength, for it can stand every climate,
however cold, or however warm.
Q. Then are ravens found in all parts of the
world?
A. They are: from the snows of Greenland to the
most sultry climes.
Q. What are the favourite haunts of the raven ?
A. Woods and wild rocky places; but as its sense
of smell is very acute, offal and carrion can bring it to
any place.
Q. Is its food confined to substances of that descrip-
tion ?
A. No; it is very destructive to game, to lambs,
and to sheep that are diseased.
Q. What is its mode of attack upon large animals ?
A. It first punches out their eyes with its formidable
beak; and then they become an easy prey.
Q. Can the raven be tamed?
A. It can, and when that is done while it is young,
it may be taught a number of tricks, and even to pro-
nounce words.
Q. Is that common to any other of the crow tribe?
A. Many of the order can be made to articulate
and perhaps those birds that have the hardest natural
voices are the most easily taught to speak.
BIRDS.
55
Q. Are the ravens gregarious?
A. No, they live only in pairs.
Q. Are they long lived?
A. Very much so; but the precise period of their
natural lives is not known. Pairs have been known to
frequent the same cliffs for more than a century.
Q. What is the colour of the raven?
A. Wholly black, beak and all; but the upper part
is glossed with blue.
Q. What other species most resemble the raven ?
A. The carrion crow (corone); but it is not nearly
so large, and the gloss on its back has a greenish
tinge.
Q. Where do they inhabit ?
A. Wooded districts are their favourite places; but
they are found generally all over the country.
Q. On what do the carrion crows feed?
A. On carrion, on the young of birds and small
quadrupeds, eggs, roots, and sometimes on pigeons and
other birds which they can master.
Q. Is there any other species resembling the
raven ?
A. Yes, the hooded crow-of which the head,
wings, and tail are black, and the rest of the body
grey-has some of the characters and habits of the
raven.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. It is found chiefly in the northern parts of the
island, where it remains the greater part of the year,
resorting to the shores in winter, where it feeds upon
shell-fish. In England it is a seasonal bird, appearing
in October, and departing in the spring.
Q. Does it come from the north of Scotland?
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. No; it appears rather to come from Sweden and
Norway along with the woodcock.
Q. Is it a destructive bird?
A. In spring it destroys great numbers of the eggs
of grouse and other birds; and it also destroys birds
when they are weak or sickly.
Q. How does it manage with the shell-fish in win-
ter?
A. If its beak will not take the animal out of the
shell, it rises in the air, and, dropping the shell on a
rock, breaks it, and so gets the contents.
Q. Which is the most interesting of the crow tribe?
A. The rook (frugilegus), the one which, in its
manners, least resembles the raven.
Q. What is the colour of the rook?
A. Black, finely glossed with blue and purple.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A. Woods and plantations of tall trees in cultivated
districts.
Q. Do they dread human habitations ?
A. No; they often prefer that part of the plantation
which is nearest to a house, a village, or even a po-
pulous town.
Q. Then rooks are social birds?
A. They live near man, and they live in numerous
societies, though every pair have their own nest.
Q. Do they never quit the nesting-place?
A. They do in summer and the early part of au-
tumn; but they return to it before winter, and at that
time look after the repair of their nests.
Q. Are those that frequent the same rookery the
same tribe, or their descendants?
A. There is every reason te believe that they rever
BIRDS.
57
admit strangers, although they sometimes expel mem-
bers of their own assembly.
20
Q. Are they useful?
A. Where they are abundant, they destroy more
insects than would eat up the whole of the cultivated
grasses.
Q. But do they not sometimes pull up tufts of grass,
and otherwise disfigure the surface ?
A. There are always at the roots of the grass which
they pull, insects that would do much more harm than
is done by the rooks.
Q. Are there any others of the tribe ?
A. There are. The jackdaw is well known as fre-
quenting old buildings and cliffs; the magpie, with its
fine colours, its long tail, its specks, and its hopping
gait, is found in trees near cottages; the screaming
but beautiful jay is common in the coppices; and the
chough is not uncommon on the bald and cliffy parts
of the western coast.
Q. Are there any stragglers of the class?
A. Nut-crackers, rollers, wax-wings, and orioles.
They are shewy birds, but they only occasionally visit
Britain.
Q. Is there any other common and permanent bird
of the order?
A. Yes, the starling, which in the male bird is black,
with purple and golden-green reflections. They can.
be taught to whistle musical airs, and to imitate
sounds.
Q. Where are they found?
A. In most parts of the country; and in the autumn
and winter they are very abundant in low and fenny
places, and by the shores.
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are there many
YOKE-FOOTED BIRDS?
A. There are two visitants-the cuckoo and the
wryneck; and several woodpeckers, which are con-
stant, though peculiar in their localities.
Q. What is the character of those birds as depend-
ing on the feet?
BUS
A. They can run up the trunks and branches of
trees, but not down.
Q. On what do they feed?
A. Wholly upon insects and their larvæ. The
cuckoo upon the living larva of butterflies and
moths.*
Q. Is there not something peculiar in the habits of
the cuckoo?
A. There are many things peculiar in its habits. It
is a retired and solitary bird, seldom more than one
being seen at a time. It comes late to Britain, and is
understood to quit the country early. Its young are
said to be hatched and reared by other birds; and, al-
together, it is an anomaly among birds.
Q. Why does the other yoke-toed visitant get the
name of wryneck?
A. As it moves its head in search of food, in the
crevices of the bark of trees, a line that reaches from
the nape down the back is constantly bending.
Q. Is it a handsome bird?
A. The markings of the colours are remarkably fine.
Q. When does it come?
A. A few days before the cuckoo ; but it is not so
* See Catechism of insects.
BIRDS.
59
widely diffused over the island as that bird, being con-
fined to England.
Q. Where does it build its nest?
A. In holes of old trees.
Q. What forms its principal food?
A. Ants and their eggs, of which it consumes great
numbers.
Q. You mentioned the woodpeckers, are there
many of them ?
A. There are three British species, one green, and
two spotted.
Q. Which is the most common?
A. The green, which is found in most of the wooded
parts of England and Scotland.
Q. Then it inhabits trees?
A. Yes, it does; and is seldom found on the ground
unless when attacking the ants. It builds in natural
holes of the trees, or in holes that it makes itself; and
it finds the greater part of its food in the bark, or in
the wood under it.
Q. How does it get at its food?
A. Sometimes the tapping which it makes on the
tree with its bill forces out the insects, sometimes it
digs down to them, and sometimes it brings them out
of their holes with its tongue, which it can extend
rapidly, and which is beset with spines turned backward,
and covered with a substance to which the insects
adhere.
Q. And it sometimes makes a hole in a tree for its
nest?
A. Yes; and does it very rapidly. The bill strikes
so quick that the motion is not seen; and yet the
sound it makes can sometimes be heard half a mile off.
60
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. How does it adhere to the tree whilst perform-
ing this operation?
A. Its feet are short, and the claws very strong, so
that it holds with those, at the same time that it places
its stiff tail against the tree lower down as a prop.
Q. What are its colours?
A. The prevailing ones are green and yellow, and
the crown of the head and the moustaches red. It is
not unlike some of the mossy trunks of old trees.
Q. What are the spotted woodpeckers?
A. They are the greater and the less; but none of
them so common in Britain as the green one.
Q. Where is the great spotted woodpecker found?
A. In wild and lonely woods in the north parts
of the country. It is chiefly found on pines and
birches, and its colours something resemble their bark.
Q. Do they excavate their nests in the same manner
as the green woodpeckers?
A. They probably do it more habitually, as the trees
among which they are found are not so apt to be
hollow.
Q. Where has the small spotted species been found?
A. Only in the inland counties in the west of Eng-
land.
Q. Then taking them altogether, the yoke-toed
birds are a curious order?
A. They are all singular in their habits, and well
worthy of study.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the habits of the
unequal-toed birds-the
ANISODACTYLI?
A. Their characteristic peculiarity is that they can
BIRDS.
61
run rapidly along the bark of trees, in all directions,
upwards, downwards, or horizontally.
Q. What are their leading characters ?
A. The bill is sometimes straight, and sometimes
curved, but it always has a fine point; the feet have
three toes before and one behind, the hind one gene-
rally strong; the outer toe is joined at its base to the
middle one; and the claws are long, barbed, and
sharp.
Q. On what surfaces are they adapted for moving?
A. On the trunks and branches of trees, and also on
walls and perpendicular rocks.
Q. Which are the genera?
A. The nuthatch (sitta), the creeper (certhia), and
the horpoe (upupa); they are all small birds.
Q. Are there many species of nuthatch?
A. There is only one. It is found in many parts of
England, but not in Scotland; they are found also on
many parts of the continent, and they are never mi-
gratory.
Q. Where do they reside?
A. In trees, in the holes of which they nestle; and
they pick insects and larva from the crevices of the
bark.
Q. Does the tail assist them in climbing as it does
the woodpeckers?
A. It does.
Q. What are their colours?
A. White on the sides of the face and throat, buff on
the belly, and reddish brown and blueish above. They
have a black streak from the opening of the bill, down
each side of the neck.
Q. What are the characters of the creepers?
G
62
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The bill is long, slender, triangular and sharp-
pointed, the tail wedge-shaped, formed of twelve very
stiff feathers. They feed wholly upon insects and
larvæ.
Q. Are there many British species ?
A. Only one, and, except the golden-crested wren,
it is the smallest of British birds.
Q. Where is it found?
A. Generally in woods throughout England and
Scotland. It climbs admirably, running up the trees in
a sort of spiral.
Q. What are its colours?
A. White below; and brown and black above. It
nestles in holes of trees.
Q. What are some of the characters of the horpoe?
A. The claws are shorter, and not so well adapted
for climbing as those of the creeper; and the tail is
square at the end. It is only an occasional visitant.
It has a movable crest, and is beautifully marked with
black, brown, and white.
Q. Are there many British birds among the kings-
fishers,
ALCYONES?
A. There is only one resident-the common kings-
fisher. It is a curious and beautiful little bird.
Q. Is it abundant?
A. No, it is rather a scarce bird, although met with
in many parts of the country.
Q. What is the appearance of the kingsfisher?
A. It is about seven inches long, eleven in the
spread of the wings, and weighs an ounce and a half.
Plumage above, blueish green, marked with beautiful
BIRDS.
63
azure on the head, shoulders, back and rump; the
chin white, and the rest of the under part orange-
brown; the tail (which is very short) and wings green-
ish blue.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. The banks of clear streams that flow slowly,
especially if they be grown with ridges and reeds.
Q. On what does it feed?
A. On small fishes and water insects, which it may
be seen watching perched on a reed, and which it
seizes with great dexterity.
Q. Where does it breed?
A. In holes in the banks. Though a very beautiful
bird, its nest is neither very neat nor very clean.
Q. Can it be tamed?
A. It would make a beautiful aviary bird, but it
cannot be reared in confinement.
Q. What do you mean by an "aviary" bird?
A. One which forms part of an artificial collection
of living birds, such a collection as the place in which
it is held being called an aviary.
Q. Which is another British order of a curious
description?
A. The insectivorous birds, the swallows and goat-
suckers.
Q. Are not some of those that you have mentioned
already insectivorous?
A. Some of them are; but it is doubtful whether
any bird which remains in Britain during the winter
lives wholly upon insects, as there are times when the
earth and the waters are so covered with ice and snow,
that no birds but those that have access to the sea can
get insects.
G 2
64
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Then the insect-eating birds, properly so called,
are all summer visitants?
A. They are. The swallows, the martins, and the
swifts, feed upon flies, which they capture in the air
upon the wing; their powers of flight and of vision
are both very wonderful. They are familiar to every
body.
Q. What other British bird is there of that or
der?
A. The goat-sucker, which is a sort of night, or
twilight bird. It is found near woods and banks, and
feeds upon moths, in coursing for which it makes a
jarring noise, something like the sound of a spinning-
wheel.
COLUMB.
Q. Are there many of the Columbæ, or pigeon
tribe, natives of Britain?
A. There are four; but one of them is a summer
visitant of particular districts only: and another is
found only in some places.
Q. What are their names?
(C
A. The ring-dove or cushat," the stock-dove, the
rock-dove, and the turtle.
Q. Which of these is the most common?
A. In a wild state, the cushat is, being found in
woods and coppices in most parts of the country.
Q. What are its colours?
A. Blueish-grey and white, with reddish-brown and
green on the breast and belly.
Q. What is its size?
A. It is larger than the common pigeon.
Q. Where does the cushat nestle ?
BIRDS.
65
A. In trees; and as it builds earlier than almost any
other British bird, it prefers the pine tribe.
Q. How many young does it have ?
A. Only two at a hatch; but there are more hatches
than one in the year.
Q. Has it any song?
A. Its cooing is very plaintive, and heard at a con.
siderable distance.
Q. On what does the ring-dove feed?
A. On grain of all kinds, especially pease, and also
on acorns and beech-mast.
Q. Does it bruise those substances with its bill?
A. No; its bill is not well-adapted for bruising; its
food is swallowed entire.
Q. Is the ring-dove eatable?
A. In the early part of the winter, when they resort
to the stubble-lands in flocks, and feed on the grain
that is left there, they are very fine, equal in flavour
to grouse; but when the severe weather forces them
to eat inferior food, they become rank and unpa-
latable.
Q. Can they be domesticated?
A. They can be tamed; but they do not breed in
confinement.
Q. Where is the stock-dove found?
A. In some of the midland counties of England. It
breeds in trees and coppices, and in its habits very
much resembles the ring-dove?
Q. How does it differ from the ring-dove?
A. It is smaller, and darker in the colour, especially
of the wings and tail.
Q. On what does it feed?
A. On grain.
G 3
66
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are there not some mistakes about the stock-
dove?
A. There are.
rock-dove, though they are distinct species.
Q. What are some of the distinctions?
A. They do not breed together; the stock-dove
does not breed in a domesticated state, and it is rather
larger than the rock-dove.
Q. Are their habits the same?
A. They are not. The stock-dove inhabits woods;
the rock-dove, in a wild state, inhabits cliffs, especially
those near the sea; and it forms its nest in deep holes
and caves.
It has been confounded with the
Q. Is there any characteristic difference in the co-
lours ?
A. Yes; the rump of the rock-dove is white, and
that of the stock-dove is blueish-grey.
Q. Does not the habit of the rock-dove, in building
in holes, assimilate it to the common domestic
pigeon?
A. It does, and there can be no doubt that the
rock-dove is the parent-stock of all the varieties of
pigeons. The other species nestle in pairs apart from
each other, and always in trees, and they do not flock
but in autumn and the early part of winter. The rock-
doves have, even in their wild state, nearly the same
habits as the tenants of a pigeon-house.
Q. But the domesticated pigeons are of different
colours?
A. So are almost all domesticated birds; but most
of the tame pigeons have traces of the white rump,
and the two dark lines on the closed wing that cha-
racterise the rock-dove.
BIRDS.
67
Q. Are there many varieties?
A. There are about twenty; and by crosses between
them and the common rock-dove, new varieties may
be formed without limit.
Q. What parts of Britain does the turtle inhabit ?
A. The south-east of England, where it arrives
about the beginning of May, and takes its departure in
September.
Q. Where does it build?
A. In thick woods; but when the pear ripens, it
resorts to the fields, though the flocks seldom contain
more than twenty.
Q. What is its size?
A. It is much smaller than the common pigeon, and
not much more than half the weight.
Q. What are its colours?
A. The fore part light brown, tinged with grey, and
having a black patch on each side of the neck; the
hinder part orange-grey and black, and the belly
white.
Q. On what does it feed?
A. On grain and insects.
Q. Has it any note?
A. Its cooing is very plaintive, the more so that the
bird itself is concealed in the depths of the forest.
Q. Is there any variety in the colours?
A. There is. The sides of the neck are sometimes
black, with a white spot.
:
GALLINE.
Q. Do not the Gallinaceous birds, or fowls, have
some resemblance to the pigeon tribe ?
68
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. In some of their characters they have; but in
others they differ very much.
Q. What are some of those in which they differ?
A. The pigeons build on trees, or in the holes of
rocks; the gallina upon the ground. The pigeons
never have more than two in one brood-the gallinæ
have many; the pigeons are rapid on the wing, but
run with difficulty-the gallinæ have short wings, and
fly laboriously; but they run well, and the young of
some of the species run the instant that they are out of
the shell.
Q. Are the gallinæ valuable birds ?
A. They are better food than any of the other
orders.
Q. Are there many British species?
A. There are several indigenous, and some that are
domesticated.
Q. What are the indigenous ones?
A. There are two tribes of them. One with the
tarsi feathered, and one with them naked.
Q. Does that point out any difference in their
habits?
A. The feathery-footed ones are all natives of the
bleak upland countries, and the naked-legged of the
cultivated districts.
Q. Which are the feathery-footed ones?
A. Grouse, or heath-cock, ptarmigan, and black
cock.
Q. Where do the grouse inhabit?
A. The open heaths and moors; they are pretty
widely diffused in Britain, and not found in any other
country.
Q. Are they large birds?
BIRDS.
69
A. About sixteen inches long, and twenty-six in the
stretch of the wings; and the weight is about a pound
and a quarter.
Q. What are their colours?
A. Brown and black, with some lines of white; and
they are finely mottled and glossy.
Q. Where do they nestle?
A. On the ground; but they form hardly any nest.
Q. Are their broods numerous?
A. From eight to twelve; and they remain in com-
pany till the winter be considerably advanced.
Q. On what do they feed?
A. Chiefly upon the tender tops of heath, and upon
mountain berries. In very cold seasons they come
down as far as the uppermost corn-fields.
Q. Are they numerous?
A. On the northern moors they are; but they have
many enemies; and man destroys a number of them
every autumn.
Q. Can they be tamed?
A. They can and they breed in that state; but
they are not nearly so profitable as the common do-
mestic poultry; and they are said to lose their flavour.
Q. Are their feet much feathered?
A. Yes; not only the tarsi, but also the toes.
Q. Where do the ptarmigan inhabit ?
A. The summits of the most elevated and lonely
mountains. They are met with only in Scotland,
though it is said that they were formerly met with in
the north of England.
Q. Do they resemble the red grouse ?
A. In their form and habits they do, but not in
their colour; and they are rather smaller.
70
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are their colours?
A. Snow-white, in winter; and white, dull yellow,
and black in summer.
Q. Are they as much esteemed as grouse ?
A. They are a greater rarity, but they are inferior
in flavour.
Q. What are the characters of the black cock?
A. It is black, with the under tail-coverts and tips
of the wings white; and the black on the upper part
is glossed with purple reflections.
Q. Are these birds widely diffused?
A. They are found in wild and shrubby places in
most parts of the island.
Q. Are they large birds?
A. Rather more than twice the size of grouse: a
full-grown male will weigh about three pounds.
Q. Which are the naked-legged species?
A. The partridge, which remains all the year round,
and the quail, which is a summer visitant.
Q. Where do the partridges inhabit ?
A. Cultivated countries chiefly.
Q. And the quails?
A. They come about May, and go away in October.
They are not so numerous in Britain as formerly.
Q. What are the domesticated gallinæ ?
A. 1. The common fowl, of which there are many
varieties; but none of them live in a wild state.
They are all originally from Asia.
2. The peacock, esteemed for its plumage, but of lit-
tle value as food; also from Asia.
3. The pheasant (from Asia), several varieties.
4. The guinea hen, from Africa.
5. The turkey, from America, the largest of the tribe.
BIRDS.
71
KERANA
Some weigh as much as thirty pounds; but these
are when wild in their native region.
Q. Is there any species extinct?
A. Yes, the cock of the wood was formerly met
with in the wild forests of Scotland, but it has not
been seen for the last seventy years.
Q. What other orders contain interesting birds?
A. All birds are interesting; but there are some
peculiarly various ones among the gralla, or waders.
Q. Which are some of them?
A. Those which are called coultrirostres, that is,
that have long, straight, and pointed coulter-shaped
bills.
Q. Which are these?
A. The genus Ardea, which contains the heron and
the bittern.
Q. What are the characters of the heron?
A. It is all legs, wings, neck, and bill; measuring
more than three feet and a half in length, and nearly
six feet in the expanse of the wings, and yet not weigh-
ing more than three pounds.
**
Q. What is the length of the bill?
A. Not less than six inches, toothed, and the gape
opening as far as the eyes.
Q. On what does it live?
A. On fish, which it strikes with great rapidity and
unerring certainty. It is very destructive to fish-ponds.
Q. Where does it breed?
A. Numbers of them usually collect in the breeding
time at the same trees, where they congregate like
rooks, although not in equal numbers. Those places
are called heronries.
Q. What is the colour?
72
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Blueish grey, striped, and barred with black,
paler below.
Q. Where does the bittern inhabit ?
A. In lonely marshes; but it is by no means com-
mon.
Q. Is it as large as the heron?
A. No, it is at least a foot shorter; but it has a
most formidable bill, with which it charges like a bayo-
net; so that hardly any animal will venture to attack
it in front.
Q. What is its colour?
A. Yellowish red, with black bars and spots, and
the cheeks and crown black. It is coloured very like
the withered reeds and rushes, in which it makes its
nest.
Q. Is it a retiring bird?
A. Yes, it is a twilight bird; and as the country
gets more peopled and cultivated it leaves its haunts,
and its numbers decrease.
Q. Does not the bittern make a singular noise?
A. It does, and a very loud one, in the evenings
about the beginning of summer.
Q. What position does it hold as it makes that
noise?
A. It flies upward in a spiral to a great height, the
revolutions getting larger and larger as it ascends.
THE END.
LONDON:
HENRY BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
73
STURGEON
UNIL
BICH
OF
SHARK
H.
LAMPRE
RA
VALMON
ANOTHER ELECTRO
TORPEDO
Engraved by C. Marr.
TILERISH
GLOBE
ROMAN CHAMERI
JOHN DOREE
FISH
200
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART III.
ICHTHYOLOGY, OR FISHES.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Q. WHAT is meant by Ichthyology?
A. That part of natural history which explains the
appearances, habits, habitations, and uses of fishes.+
Q. Does a fish mean an animal that lives in water?
A. All fishes do live in water, but there are many
living inhabitants of the water that are not fishes. A
fish is an animal which has a spine or back-bone made
up of joints, or vertebræ, and breathes water.
Q. Has a fish lungs composed of cells?
A. The breathing organs of all fishes, though some
* Ichthyology, from the Greek Ixus a fish, and λoyos
an explanation, "the description or explanation of fishes.”
+ "Fish" and "fishes" are both used as plurals; but
"fish" may be all of the same kind, "fishes" of different
kinds.
B
Journa
2
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
of them are contained in cells, are always composed
of fringe-like fibres, which are called gills.
Q. Are these peculiar to fishes?
A. Through life they are in all animals that have
back-bones, but some reptiles have them when
young.
Q. Is ichthyology an extensive department of na-
tural history?
A. It is. The water, including the sea, lakes, and
rivers, occupies fully three-fourths of the surface of the
globe, and the average depth is guessed at about two
miles, so that the whole range of space fit for the
habitations of fish is not much short of three hundred
millions of miles, which is ample room for an almost
incredible number of inhabitants.
Q. Why should the depth be taken into the ac-
count?
A. Because fish, by their power of swimming, can
live in all parts of the water from the very bottom to
the surface; and as they live upon substances that
float on the water, they may be ranged in hundreds
or even thousands of strata over each other?
Q. Are the species many?
A. The known species are numerous, and we know
not how many more may lie in those depths of the
ocean which no line can fathom.
Q. Are the individuals numerous ?
A. They are remarkably so; and their powers of
increase are truly astonishing.
See Catechism of Zoology, Part 4, Reptiles, order
Batrachia.
FISHES.
3
Parque de
Styrpm ma
Q. Can you mention an instance?
A. Nearly four millions of eggs have been counted
in the roe of one cod-fish, and as fishes seem to be
exempted from many of the causes of decay in land
animals, the same fish may produce hundreds of fami-
lies all equally numerous.
Q. Then how are the numbers kept down?
A. The larger ones prey upon the smaller, even
their own offspring?
Q. Then the water is improperly termed a waste?
A. It is; for it contains in itself the whole means
of support of more living creatures than are probably
to be met with any where else.
Q. Why do you say their whole means of support?
A. Because fishes find their breath, as well as the
principal part of their food in the water.
Q. And do not the beasts of the field and the fowls
of the air find also their whole nourishment in these?
A. No. The animals that live upon land breathe
air, and the birds find their food upon or from the
earth.
Q. Then fishes are an important class of animals?
A. They are highly important, and in sea-coast
countries and islands perhaps more important than
any others.
Q. What are some of the uses of them?
A. They are numerous, but the following are a
few.
1. They form an excellent article of food, which
costs nothing but the catching.
2. Some parts of them form isinglass, which is
B 2
4
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
when seasoned, a very light and pleasant food, and
also very valuable for fining liquors and as a glue.
3. Other parts of them yield oils, which are very
useful in the arts, and even are better for many pur-
poses than the oils obtained from land animals.
4. The refuse of them is an excellent manure for
land.
5. The skins of some of them form a beautiful
covering for boxes and other articles, and parts of
those of others answer as files for polishing.
6. Many of the parts that are thrown away in
dressing fish for food might become very valuable as
jellies or glues.
Q. Is there any marked distinction between useful
fish and other useful animals?
A. There is this remarkable distinction, that, un-
less man wishes to have fish in places where they
would not naturally be found, fish require no food
and no care at the hand of man. No meadow is re-
quired for the salmon and the turbot, and numerous
as are the shoals of cod, herrings, mackerel, and pil-
chards, they find their way to our shores at those
times when they are in the best condition for food
without any guidance of a herdsman.
Q. Are they more valuable in those respects than
the wild land animals?
A. They are; for those species that are accounted
game in England destroy much more of the produce
of the fields than their own worth; but except in so
far as they prey upon each other, and that is amply
compensated by their powers of increase, fish diminish
nothing that can be useful to man.
FISHES.
5
Q. Do any countries derive more benefit from fish
than others?
A. Islands, and places near the sea, afford of course
the most ready and abundant supplies; and as the sea
contains no desart places like the land, wherever it is
accessible food may always be found in it.
Q. Are any uses made of the bones of fishes?
A. Their bones are in general too soft for being
used as substitutes for common bone or ivory, but
they are tough, and savage nations sometimes make
fishing-hooks of them. In some parts of the northern
countries cows are sometimes fed upon fish-bones,
and in places still farther to the north they are dried
and ground for meal, and made into a sort of bread.
Q. Is the study of ichthyology attended with any
peculiar difficulties?
A. It is. From the nature of the element in which
fishes live their habits cannot be known; and as the
rarer kinds are seldom seen, and then chiefly by igno-
rant fishermen, and as they change soon after they
are out of the water, they are often very inaccurately
described.
Q. What are the consequences?
A. That there is more incorrectness in the common
books that profess to treat of the natural history of
fishes, than in those upon any other class of natural
bodies.
Q. What is the most general division of ichthy-
ology?
A. One division may be the structure, functions,
and habits of fishes, and another their arrangement
B 3
6
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
into a system, and both of these may admit of farther
subdivision.
PAKT I. STRUCTURE OF FISHES.*
Q. Is there any general observation to be made
respecting the organization of fishes?
A. Yes. As they all live in water the whole of
their organization is, of course, adapted to that ele-
ment, and not, generally speaking, to any other.
SECTION I.-BONES OF FISHES.
Q. Are the bones of fishes all of the same texture?
A. No. Though none of them be so hard as the
bones of land animals, or have the cellular structure
that is exhibited in the larger bones of the mammalia,
yet some contain so little earthy salt as to resemble
cartilage or gristle, while others are of a texture in-
termediate between gristle and bone.
Q. Are any conclusions drawn from this texture
of the bones?
A. Yes, two; first the bones continue to increase
in size while the fish lives, and thus a fish appears to
have no old age, or state of natural decay, which with-
out disease would terminate in death; and secondly,
the fishes that have cartilage, and those that have
harder bones, all agree in each class, and differ in the
*As the space to which these pages are limited sets all
system at defiance, the functions are hinted at along with
the structures by which they are performed.
FISHES.
7
two classes in so many important particulars, that
cartilaginous fishes, and osseous or bony fishes, form
two very natural, and therefore useful sub-classes in
the arrangement of fishes.
Q. Of what parts is the skeleton or bony struc-
ture of fishes made up?
A. Of a cranium, or skull-bone; a spine, or back-
bone;
ribs (in most of the species), and various smaller
bones.
Q. What is the general character of the cranium?
A. It varies a great deal both in shape and size, but
it is in general large both for the size of the fish and
for that of the brain which it contains.
Q. What is the general character of the spine?
A. It is formed of a great number of vertebræ, or
pieces, the ends of which are funnel-shaped, and they
have no perforation for spinal marrow like the verte-
bræ of land animals.
Q. Have they no spinal cord then?
A. Yes they have; but that is contained in divi-
sions of the spinous processes, with which the spine is
pectinated, or formed like a comb.
Q. How are the junctions of the vertebræ formed?
A. The edges of the opening funnels are fastened
by gelatinous or cartilaginous matter, and in the car-
tilaginous fishes, of which all the bones are flexible,
the joints are hardly to be distinguished.
Q. Are the hollow ends of the bones empty?
A. No; they are filled with cartilaginous matter,
which is formed in concentric rings, and some have
pretended that the number of these rings denotes the
8
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
years that the fish is old, but the opinion is un-
founded, or at any rate unproved and improbable ?*
Q. Are the spines on the back-bone of a fish not
the ribs ?
A. No; they are only branches, or projections of
the back-bone, which for that reason is called the
spine.
Q. What is the arrangement of these processes?
A. In fishes that have necks the spines are short;
in these they are generally in three rows, one above
and one at each side; and in the tail there are two
rows, one above and the other below.
Q. How much of a fish is reckoned tail?
A. From the opening of the belly to the tail-fin.
Q. How are the ribs situated?
A. Cartilaginous fishes have, in general, no ribs.
But those fishes that have ribs, have them articulated
to the lateral processes of the spine.
Q. How are the bones of fishes articulated to-
gether?
A. Generally by cartilage, so that the joints re-
semble hinges of Indian rubber or leather, in their
motions, though not in their substance.
Q. Does any advantage result from that?
* This foolish notion is founded on the analogy of trees
and the horns of sheep and cattle, in which a ring of hard
matter is formed every year, from the outside in the tree,
and the inside of the horn; but these are hard matters, and
the old ones lose their irritability, which is not the case
with the cartilages in the spines of fishes.
FISHES.
9
A. Yes; such articulations bend freely in all direc-
tions, which the joints of the mammalia do not, as a
knee cannot be bent outwards to the back, or an ancle
to the front.
Q. Are any of the characters of the bones of use
in distinguishing fishes?
A. Yes; especially the number of vertebræ, and
the number of ribs.
SECTION II.- COVERINGS OF FISHES.
Q. What are the coverings of fishes?
A. They have no hair, wool, or feathers, but skin,
scales, and spines or tubercles.
Q. What are the characters of the skin?
A. It consists of a cutis, or true skin, which adheres
much more closely to the parts beneath than in the
other back-boned animals; of a mucous layer, in
which the colours reside, and a scarf-skin or cuticle.
The cuticle is periodically cast.
Q. Of what is the skin chiefly composed?
A Of gelatine; and therefore it makes nutritious
food, and also glue or jelly.
Q. How does the skin vary?
A. In those fishes that have the scales small it is
usually very thick, and in those that have the scales
large it is thin.
Q. What is the arrangement of the scales?
A. They are generally imbricated, or placed over
each other like tiles, with the hinder edges free of
the skin.
Q. Does that answer any purpose?
10
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. It prevents the motion of the fish backwards,
and thus increases its progress forwards. When the
body is bent to one side by the motion of the tail,
the back edges of the scales on the other, or convex
side, lay hold of the water like so many little oars.
Q. What is the form of the free edge of the
scales?
A. It is generally rounded; sometimes it is smooth,
and sometimes it has a little fringe.
Q. Are the scales of fishes like those of reptiles?
A. No; they are quite different. The scales of
reptiles are horn, like the claws or nails of animals,
and those of fishes more nearly resemble bone, or
rather, those shells that are called pearl, or mother of
pearl.
Q. But scales may be bent?
A. They may. They consist of thin layers of a
flexible membrane, often very curiously arranged, and
containing phosphate of lime between them.
Q. And is the brilliant colour of the scales of fishes
owing to this composition?
A. The play of colours is; and, for the same reason,
hollow balls of glass, coated inside with a paste of
ground shells, resemble pearls, while balls made of
the same in a paste with isinglass, can hardly be distin-
guished from real pearls.
Q. Are the scales placed on the cuticle?
A. They are rather inclosed in it, and they are re-
produced again when rubbed off.
Q. What are the other hard coverings of fishes?
A. In some they are large, detached, bony plates,
as if the fish were stuck over with limpet-shells; in
FISHES.
11
others they are round, hard tubercles; and in others
again they resemble teeth.
Q. Are there any other hard coverings?
A. Some fishes have horny spines on different parts
of their bodies, and others have a hard covering so
general and connected, as almost to deserve the name
of a shell.
Q. Is there any thing further worthy of notice in
the coverings of fishes?
A. Their skins often secrete a sort of mucus* or
slime, by which they are kept soft, and probably de-
fended from the action of the water.
SECTION III.-SENSATION OF FISHES.
Q. What are the general organs of sensation in
fishes?
A. A brain, spinal cord, and nerves, as in the other
vertebrated animals.
Q. What is the character of the brain?
A. It is softer, smaller, rather more subdivided, and
fills the cavity of the skull less completely than that of
warm-blooded animals.
Q. Has it any more protection than the brain of
land animals?
A. It floats in a salt liquid, by which it is no doubt
better defended against the resistance of the water,
when the fish moves rapidly, and against the varying
pressure when it is at different depths.
Q. Have we any instance of a similar provision in
land animals ?
* The word mucus is not used here in a strictly chemical
sense.
12
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. We have, against general concussion, in the
joints of the limbs of many animals, and in the pad
upon the camel's foot.
Q. What are the characters of the spinal cord and
nerves?
A. Their size depends more on that of the body of
the fish than the brain: they are softer than the nerves
of warm-blooded animals, and they are not so mi-
nutely ramified.
Q. Have fishes the same five senses as land ani-
mals?
A. It is probable that they have, to some extent or
other, though both the organs and the functions are
much modified by the element in which they live,
and the subject is altogether very obscure and diffi-
cult.
SMELL.
Q. Have fishes organs of smell?
A. They have nostrils, and olfactory or smelling
nerves; but as the nostrils are in general small, and
there is no provision by which water can be drawn
in and out of them, as there is in those of land ani-
mals, their sense of smell can be of very little use to
them.
Q. Has not the contrary been said ?
A. It sometimes has; but trout and salmon, that
were supposed to have the most acute scent, were all
the while unable to distinguish between a fly and an
iron hook dressed with feathers, or between a piece of
painted wood and a minnow. Land animals that
FISHES.
13
follow their prey by the scent, never make those mis-
takes.
Q But sharks are said to follow ships in which
there are sick persons, by the smell?
A. Sharks do follow ships whether they have sick
on board or not; and if any thing is thrown over-
board, they make a plunge at it, even if it is a cask or
a bottle. The common by-word of " throwing a tub to
the whale," (and the whale, as a warm-blooded animal,
has far more sensation than fishes,) has more of philo-
sophy in it than those statements.
TASTE.
Q. Have fishes organs of taste?
A. They have tongues and palates; but these are
covered with the same kind of cuticle that lines the
rest of them internally, and have none of those pa-
pilla which are characteristic of taste in land animals.
Q. Have they, then, no means of rejecting poison-
ous substances?
A. Taste is not a sure preventive of poison even in
those animals in which it is the most perfect; and it is
probable that fishes are poisoned in the gills, and not
in the stomach.
Q. Then do none of the characters of fishes depend
on their differences of taste?
A. None from which any useful conclusion can be
drawn.
TOUCH.
Q. Have fishes any sense of touch?
A. Some of them-the common trout, for instance,
C
14
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
appear to feel a pleasure in being tickled; but fishes
in general have not the papillar surface of the skin
which is understood to be more immediately the organ
of touch.
Q. Have they keen feelings of pain?
A. In their bodies, generally, they appear to have
very little they bite almost immediately after they
have been torn by a hook, unless that hook happens
to lascerate the gills, or any part of the machinery by
which these are worked; but when that is the case,
their feeling of pain seems to be very acute.
HEARING.
Q. Have fishes any voice?
A. No animal but those that respire air by the
mouth have any thing that can properly be consi-
dered as voice; and no sound of the voices of its mil-
lions of gilled inhabitants, ever comes to the surface of
the waters; and when a shoal of cod is so numerous
and thick that the sea is whitened by them for miles,
not a sound comes from the vast assemblage, except
when they rise to the surface, and splash there, the
sound of which is of course no more voice than the
splash made by a stone when it is thrown into the
water.
Q. Do they not utter sounds of any kind?
A. Some fishes, when taken out of the water, force
the air out of their gills with a sort of noise; and
others, when depositing their eggs or spawn, produce
sounds also; but with what part of their bodies, or for
what purpose, is not known.
Q. Do they not hear sounds?
FISHES.
15
A. They do; though the precise way in which
they do it is not very well known.
Q. Have they organs of hearing?
A. As far as observation has gone, all have internal
organs of hearing; but those only that have not free
gills, and a current of water passing by the mouth
through these, in the act of breathing, have external
organs.
Q. What are the external organs in those that have
fixed gills?
A. They are apertures in the hinder part of the
head; but so very minute that they are not easily de-
tected. These little apertures lead to the internal
organs, and are, no doubt, the passages through which
sound is conveyed.
Q. What are the organs of hearing in other fishes?
A. They are tissues of nerves, which terminate in
little bodies, more or less hard, that are adapted for
vibrating.
Q. What is the medium of sound in fishes?
A. The water, of course, in all cases; but how the
sense of sound, as different from that of the mere mo-
tion of the water, is conveyed, we have no means of
knowing. The sense of hearing, is however so little
developed in fishes, that it is not of much use in their
natural history.
Sight.
Q. Have all fishes organs of sight?
A. The sight appears to be the sense that is most
perfect in fishes, and the chief one on which they
have to depend for the supply of their wants. The
C 2
16
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
eyes of fishes are very large in proportion to those
of land animals: the eye of a moderately sized cod is
as large as that of a bullock.
Q. What number of eyes have fishes?
A. No red-blooded animal has more or less than
two eyes; but those of fishes are very differently
placed in the different species.
Q. How are they placed?
A. In some species of flounder, as in the halibut and
the sole, they are both on the right side of the head;
while in others, as in the turbot, they are both on the
left side. In a few they are placed almost on the
crown; but generally they are one on each side.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the external co-
vering of the eyes of fishes?
A. Yes: in general, they have neither eyebrows
nor eyelids, and they are covered over with the same
cuticle as the body.
Q. What is the general form of a fish's eye?
A. The general form of all the parts is that of a
hemisphere with the flat side outwards.
Q. Is that form better adapted to the element in
which the animal lives, than an eye convex outwards?
A. Yes; it admits of more direct light into the
body of the eye.
Q. Is there any thing further?
A. The external coat of the eye is much firmer
than in land animals: in some instances it approxi-
mates to the texture of bone.
Q. Is not the iris, or part surrounding the pupil or
sight of the eye, very beautifully coloured.
A. No. It is transparent; but the golden, silvery,
FISHES.
17
or pearly surface of the choroid coat of the eye shines
brilliantly through it.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the crystalline lens,
or magnifying part of the eye?
A. It has much more magnifying power; that is, it is
much thicker in the middle than the same organ in
land animals, and it is more dense; so that that fur-
thur increases its powers. This lens being composed
chiefly of albumen, coagulates when a fish is boiled,
and has some resemblance to a pea.
Q. As fishes have no eyelids, have they no means
of closing their eyes?
A. In many species there is a sort of internal cur-
tain that partially closes the pupil; and in one or
two there is one which wholly does it. The changes
of light to which the eyes of fishes are exposed, are
not, however, so great as those that land animals must
bear; and as the cuticle passes clean over the eye,
there is no need of eyelids to moisten its surface.
Q. How are the eyes placed?
A. In the bony fishes, they are placed in cups or
cavities, imbedded in gelatinous matter, to prevent
them from being injured by shocks; but in many of
the cartilaginous fishes, they are placed on stalks of
cartilage.
Q. What advantage is gained by that mode of
placing the eye?
A. It can be moved more rapidly and over a greater
circumference, which is necessary, as those fishes have
little or no power of turning the head by means of the
neck.
C 3
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Then the eyes of fishes are of great use to
them?
A. They are the organs upon which they chiefly if
not wholly depend, both for obtaining their food and
escaping from their enemies. The necessity that the
fly-fisher is under of having his fly of the proper form
and colour, and the fact of these being always enough
to make the fish rise to it, are proofs that they judge
from the sight alone.
SECTION IV.-MOTIONS OF FISHES.
Q. Has the general shape of a fish much to do with
its motions?
A. The shapes of fishes are so very varied, that any
one particular shape must have much less influence
than those who found their notions upon the common
principles of mechanical constructions suppose. We
can, for instance, draw no conclusion regarding the
motions of a living fish, as connected with its shape,
from the shape of a piece of dead matter of a given
size and weight, that can be most easily drawn or driven
through the water.
Q. Why not?
A. Because in the case of a living animal, a great deal
more depends on the energy of the moving powers,
and the way in which these are arranged, than upon
the mere shape of that which they move.*
* Well-meaning, but weak persons, when they expatiate
upon the beauty of creation, sometimes, absurdly enough,
represent God as the imitator of man, as constructing
fishes upon the same principle that men construct boats;
FISHES.
19
*
Q. What are the organs of motion in fishes?
A. The organs of motion are fins, and the powers
by which these are moved are muscles, the same as in
other animals.
Q. What is the general structure of a fin?
A. It in general consists of a number of rays, with
joints, and divided towards their extremities, which
are covered on both sides and united together by the
skin. In some fins, however, there are rays without
joints, which are termed spines. Some fins are wholly
without rays, and thence called fleshy.
Q. Have all fishes the same number of fins, as all
birds have the same number of wings?
A. No: both the number and distribution of the
fins of fishes vary much in the different species; and
as these are variations that are easily seen, and cor-
respond with other qualities of the species, they are of
much use in the classification of fishes: their names
and situations should therefore be familiar to the stu-
dent.
Q. What are the names and situations of the dif
ferent fins?
A. 1. Caudal, or tail-fin. It is always articulated
to the last vertebræ of the tail, consists of a number
of rays, and has the extremity forked, or straight, or
rounded.
Q. What is the position of the caudal fin?
A. It is always perpendicular in fishes, while it is
whereas the imitation, so far as it goes, is quite the other way,
and the moving power, "instinct with life," is altogether
inimitable.
20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
horizontal in the cetacea; so that a true fish is in-
stantly known by the tail.
Q. What are the other fins?
A. 2. Dorsal, or back-fins. They vary very much,
both in form and in number.
3. Pectoral, or breast-fins, generally one on each
side, immediately behind the gill openings.
4. Anal, vent-fins, placed between the tail-fin and
the vent, and varying in form and number.
5. Ventral, belly-fins, placed between the vent and
the throat. They are never more than two; but
they are differently placed, though always parallel to
each other.
Q. Do the ventral fins get different names from
their position?
A. Yes; when before the pectoral fins, they are
called jugular, or throat-fins; when immediately un-
der the pectoral, they are thoracic, or chest-fins; and
when behind the pectoral, they are abdominal, or sto-
mach-fins.
Q. To what are the bony or cartilaginous rays of
the fins articulated?
A. The caudal always to the last vertebræ of the
tail.
The dorsal to little bones that are attached by liga-
ments to the spinous processes of the back bone.
The pectoral fins are differently articulated. In the
bony fishes, they are articulated to a bony girdle that
surrounds the body immediately behind the head, and
bears some resemblance to the scapulæ, or shoulder-
bones in the mammalia. In the cartilaginous fishes,
there are no such bones, and the pectoral fins are
FISHES.
21
articulated to the spine by means of flexible carti-
lage.
Q. Does the pectoral girdle of bones answer any
other purpose in the economy of the osseous fishes?
A. It forms a permanent edge from which the gill-
lid may be opened, or against which it may be shut,
which would not be the case were the part soft and
destitute of bone.
Q. And that is not required in cartilaginous
fishes?
A. Of course not, as they have no gill-lids that
open and shut.
Q. To what are the ventral fins articulated?
A. To a set of bones that have some resemblance
to the basin of the mammalia; but they are neither
articulated to the spine, nor form a girdle round the
body.
Q. How are these bones connected then?
A. When the fins are jugular or thoracic, the bones
that support them are articulated to the pectoral
girdle; and when the fins are abdominal, the bones
are merely imbedded in the muscles.
Q. Are there any other prominent organs on the
bodies of fishes besides their fins and skins?
A. Yes; some fishes have thread like members
near the mouth, or on the head, which are sometimes
quite soft, and have at others a single jointed ray of
bone or cartilage. The uses of these parts are not
known: they are not in themselves organs of touch.
Q. What is the general distribution of the muscles
or moving powers in fishes?
A. As the tail fin is the principal organ by which
22
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
...
fishes are moved forward through the water, and as
the propelling motions of that are produced by different
flexions or bendings of the spine, the chief arrange-
ment of the muscles is along both sides of the spine,
supported by the spinous processes.
Q. Does the motion resemble any artificial one?
A. It bears some resemblance to the skulling forward
a boat by one oar placed over the stern, and worked
from side to side; but it differs in this, that there is
only one joint in skulling the boat, and the whole im-
pulse is given at the point of the oar; whereas in the
fish there are many joints, and the impulse is given
along the whole line.
Q. What is the effect of this distribution of the
impulse ?
A. The different flexions may so compensate each
other, that the fish can move forward in a straight
line.
Q. What are the uses of the other fins?
A. The dorsal-fins keep the body upright; and the
other fins chiefly correct the irregular or wriggling mo-
tion that it otherwise would have. When these fins are
cut off from fishes that have them naturally, those
fishes reel in all directions; but other fishes that never
have them, can move with perfect regularity; so that
if one part of the swimming apparatus be deficient,
other parts can be so formed as to make up for it.
Q. Are the motions of fishes rapid?
A. In those that have the full number of fins, and
the body of moderate length, as in the trout and sal-
mon, the motion is often so rapid that the eye cannot
follow it, and the fish darts as if shot from an engine:
FISHES.
23
but these rapid motions are not long continued. Other
fishes will, however, swim at the rate of not less than
eight or ten miles an hour for a succession of days, or
even weeks.
Q. Is there any characteristic difference of fishes in
this respect.
A. The fishes that breathe by the mouth and gills
appear in general to move fastest for a short time,
but to be most easily exhausted; while those that have
the gills fixed, can continue much longer.
Q. Why should the former be sooner exhausted?
A. As they breathe by the mouth, it is probable
that their exhaustion is similar to what is called, “los-
ing wind" in land animals.
Q. Have we any parallel case in land animals?
A. Birds, whose respiration is not confined altoge-
ther to the bill and nostrils, but which receive air into
other cavities of their bodies, do not lose wind, as is
the case with the mammalia. Their fatigue seems ge-
nerally to be muscular exhaustion; and that seems
also to be the case with the cartilaginous fishes.
Q. Have fishes any other motion than swimming?
A. Many species can leap, some of them, as the
salmon, to a considerable height, which they accom-
plish by bending the body, with the tail nearly flat on
the water, and suddenly jerking straight; and some
mud-fishes, found in New Holland, can leap by the
action of their ventral fins, which are long and elastic.
Others, by spreading a membranous fin on each side,
can fly; and there is one species in the Indian seas,
that can climb, chiefly by means of spines on its body.
Q. Have fishes any means of resisting the motion of
24
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
the water in which they are, so as to be at rest, with-
out exerting their fins to keep them so.
A. Yes; some fishes are furnished with suckers, by
means of which they can attach themselves to stones,
to the bodies of other fishes, or to any solid sub-
stance.
SECTION V.-RESPIRATION OF FISHES.
Q. You said that a fish breathes water, did you
mean that that substance is decomposed by its breath-
ing in the same way as atmospheric air is by the
breathing of land animals ?
A. Not exactly so; fishes cannot live in water from
which the air is wholly excluded; they cannot
breathe air but through the medium of water; and a
fish is suffocated in air just as certainly as a land ani-
mal is in water,
Q. Are not there some differences in the rapidity
with which this takes place?
A. Yes; cartilaginous fishes can live for some time
out of the water just as reptiles can live some time in
it; and osseous fishes die soon in the air, just as the
mammalia and birds do when put under water.
Q. What are the organs of respiration in fishes?
A. In those that may be considered the more per-
fect* fishes, they are four in number. Gills, gill-
openings, gill covers, and gill-flaps; but in many
species the covers and the flaps are wanting.
*
When the word "perfect" is applied to any produc-
tion of nature, it simply means, more perfectly adapted to
certain circumstances.
FISHES.
25
Q. What are the gills?
A. They are bodies formed of a great number of
fleshy threads, or fringes, among which the water
passes when the animal breathes.
Q. How many of these organs are there in a fish?
A. There are generally four on each side, but in
some species there are one or two half-formed ones
on each side additional.
Q. Of what parts do the gills consist?
A. Of a curved support of bone or cartilage, arti-
culated at the one extremity to the bones of the cra-
nium, and at the other to the bones of the tongue.
The inner or concave sides of these bony supports
are of a white colour and smooth, the gill-fringes or
vessels are attached to the convex or outer sides, and
are, when the fishes are in health, of a red colour.
Q. What are the immediate consequences of this
structure?
A. The bones or cartilages defend the delicate
structure of the vessels from the current of water, the
quantity of which can also be regulated by those
bony portions being moved nearer or farther apart.
Q. What are the gill openings?
A. They are openings behind the gills, out of
which the water in general passes after it has supplied
the blood in the gills with the requisite oxygen, and
which also carry off the carbonic acid that is formed
during the process.
Q. Where are those openings situated?
A. In the osseous fishes they are immediately in
front of the thoracic bones, and below they approach
very near to each other. In the fishes that have no
D
26
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
gill lids, they are of smaller size and differ both in
number and in situation. Thus there are seven on
each side in the lamprey, and in the ling there is only
one on each side.
Q. What is the form of the gill lid?
A. The gill lid is a covering of a firm but rather
flexible nature, articulated to the bones of the head;
forming a cover and support to the gills, and opening
or closing them for the purposes of breathing: some
have the surface of it smooth, others have it rough,
and in some it is beset with spines. If the gill lids are
kept closed for some time, so that the carbonic acid
that is formed cannot escape, or if the water be made
to pass in rapidly at the gill openings and out at the
mouth, the circulation stops and the fish dies.
Q. What is the gill-flap?
A. An appendage resembling a fin, attached to the
posterior edge of the gill lid.
Q. Of what use is it?
A. It appears to assist in producing a current
through the gills, and it may allow the water to come
in gently by the gill opening when the mouth is shut.
SECTION VI.-CIRCULATION OF FISHES.
Q. The blood of fishes is red, is it not?
A. Yes, it is red and cold, but it is not so abundant
in quantity or so generally distributed as in land
animals. The muscular structures of a fish may
be wounded without bleeding.
Q. What is the system of circulation?
A. There is a heart with single openings con-
tained in a cavity behind the gills. The auricle of
FISHES.
27
this heart receives the blood as it returns from the
system, transfers it to the ventricle, from which it
proceeds by an artery to the gills, is diffused over their
surface in very minute ramifications, is purified there;
and from that it again is sent over the system by the
systematic arteries.
Q. Then the gills partially serve the purpose of a
heart?
A. They do. It is from the gills that the blood of
a fish is made to circulate over the system, in the
same way that that of a warm blooded animal is sent
by the systematic ventricle of the heart. On that
account, a wound in the gills of a fish, if it be of any
great extent, is as fatal by bleeding to death, as a
wound in the heart of a warm blooded animal.
Q. Is the surface which the gills of a fish presents to
the action of the water and the air which the water
contains, considerable?
A. Much more than one would suppose.
Dr.
Monro found the whole surface of the gills of a large
skate, equal to that of a full grown human body; and
the gills in skate are not so large in proportion, as
in many other species.
Q. Then the pressure upon those delicate organs
must be considerable?
A. Yes, supposing a skate of the same dimensions
as that upon which Dr. Monro made his experi-
ment, to be at the depth of a thousand feet
below the surface of the sea, the whole external
pressure of the water upon its gills, would be
little short of five hundred tons, and as the resistance
made must be the same, the delicate coats of the gills
D 2
28
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
would be exposed to a total pressure of about a thou-
sand tons.
SECTION VII.-FOOD OF FISHES.
Q. You mentioned that fishes appear to be rather
deficient in the sense of taste, has that any influence
in the choice of their food?
A. Of course, it leaves them a greater range than
if their palate had the power of accepting and reject-
ing.
Q. Are their organs of digestion simple?
A. They are rather so; the food is in general dis-
solved in the stomach by a gastric juice; but in
some instances where the food is shell-fish and the
mouth not adapted for breaking the shells, the sto-
mach is thick and capable of grinding them.
Q. What is the position of the mouth?
A. It is always across the body; sometimes in the
front of the muzzle, as in the herring, sometimes
under it, as in the shark, and sometimes twisted as in
the flounder.
Q. What are the characters of the teeth of fishes?
A. They are very various, but they may in general
be said to resemble the teeth of reptiles, much more
than those of the mammalia; they are formed for
seizing, but not for chewing; there are often many
rows of them, on the palate as well as the jaws, to
aid in the process of swallowing.
Q. Have none of them chewing teeth?
A. Not properly so called; but the species which
feed upon the harder shell-fish, have teeth adapted
for breaking the shells.
FISHES.
29
Q. Has any fish teeth out of the mouth?
A. The saw-fish has them on each side of an elon-
gated snout.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the teeth of the
shark tribe?
A. Yes; that tribe of fishes have the teeth fas-
tened to the jaw bones by cartilages, so that they are
moveable, and as they are in many instances toothed
like saws, the fish can hold its prey with one part of
the teeth, while it cuts and tears with the others.
SECTION VIII-THE AIR-VESSEL of FISHES.
Q. As fishes when they are of different depths in
the water, are subjected to very different degrees of
pressure, have they any means of sustaining them-
selves at those depths, other than their muscular
power?
A. Yes, many have, but not all ; there is against the
spine, in the anterior part of the abdominal cavity,
a vessel called the air-bag, or in common language,
the sound. In some provincial places, especially
those inhabited by fishermen originally from Ger-
many, it gets the more appropriate name of the sowm
or swim.
Q. Is it an important organ?
A. In the arts it is, and there is little doubt that
it also is so in the economy of fishes, but its uses
there are not so well understood, as one cannot fol-
low fishes into the depths of the ocean, and study
their economy there.
Q. What are its uses in the arts?
D 3
30
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. When the external pellicle is removed, the re-
mainder is more pure animal gelatine than is found
in any other organ ;
organ; and thus it makes either a very
palatable and nutritious article of food, or a fine
transparent glue.
Q. From what fishes is it taken as an article of
food?
A. Chiefly from cod and ling, whence it is called
and known in commerce, by the name of
"cod
sounds.'
99
Q. From which species is it taken for glue?
A. Chiefly from the sturgeon, but from any fish it
would do. The vessels are cut open lengthwise, scraped,
steeped in lime water to separate the oil, washed
clean and dried, in which state they are the isinglass
of commerce.
Q. And the uses of it in the natural economy of
fishes is not known?
A. Our knowledge of them is very imperfect. We
know that fishes that have an air-bag, cannot rise
in the water if it be perforated; but all fishes that
are found near the surface have not an air bag, and
all fishes that have one do not rise habitually to the
surface.
Q. Can you mention any instance?
A. The eel which generally remains at the bottom
has an air-bag, and the mackerel, which swims rapidly
near the surface, has none.
Q. Is it wanting in any natural sub-class of fishes?
A. Yes, in all them that have the gills fixed, and have
neither gill-lid nor gill-flap; but no conclusion with
FISHES.
31
regard to its use can be drawn from that, as some of
these, such as the skate, keep near the bottom, while
others, such as the sharks, swim near the surface.
Q. What is the action of the air-bag?
A. It or its contents has a power of expanding and
contracting; when a fish is at a great depth, the bag
is contracted to a fraction of the size that it would
have had at the surface; and when the fish is ra-
pidly drawn from a great depth, (as is the case in the
deep-sea fishing for cod), the air-bag bursts, the
contents escape into the abdomen and force the gul-
let and even the stomach inverted out of the throat.
Q. Is there any opposite effect?
A. Yes, when a fish has been long near the surface
in hot weather, the air-bag loses its contractile force,
and the fish cannot get down again.
Q. With what is the bag filled?
A. With air; but the composition of that air in
the bags of fishes taken from different depths, is so
different, that where the air comes from, and what
purpose it serves, become curious questions.
Q. What are the differences in composition at dif-
ferent depths.
A. In a mullet taken at the surface, the contents
of the air-bag was almost pure nitrogen, but the ad-
mixture of oxygen increased with the depth, till in
that of a gurnard taken at deep water, the nitrogen
had diminished to little more than a tenth of the
whole, the rest being oxygen.
Q. What is the inference drawn from that?
A. That the air contained in the bag is not taken
in by the mouth, or separated from the water by the
32
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
gills, but that it is separated from the blood by the
bag itself, and answers some purpose in the economy
of the fish which is unknown, but which requires
nitrogen at the surface, and more and more oxygen as
the depth is increased.
SECTION IX.-REPRODUCTION OF FISHES.
Q. Are all fishes produced from eggs?
A. They are; but there are some very singular
facts connected with the reproduction of fishes.
Q. What are some of them?
A. In the greater number of fishes, the production
is by the union of melts and roes, which are deposited
together in shallow water, near the sand; but in some
the eggs are hatched within the mother, and the young
break the membranous shells as they are born: in
others there is only one sex.
Q. Which are those that deposit melts and roes?
A. Salmon, herrings, cod, and a great variety of
others, some of which pass far up the rivers for that
purpose.
Q. Which are some of those that bring forth their
young alive?
A. Sharks, skate, and other cartilaginous fishes,
and also some of the osseous ones.
Q. Which are only of one sex?
A. Lampreys, and probably also carp and whitings,
with some others; but the subject is exceedingly diffi-
cult and not much known.
SECTION X.-ELECTRICITY OF FISHES.
Q. What is meant by the electricity of fishes?
FISHES.
33
A. Certain powers that fishes have of communi-
cating to those who touch them, a shock, something
resembling that produced by an electric machine or
jar.
Q. By what part of the fish is that produced?
A. There are always peculiar organs for it, which
are quite different in their structure from any other
organs, and have no use, that has yet been discovered,
other than the producing of this sensation,
Q. What may probably be the use of that power,
to fishes in their natural state?
A. It may enable them to benumb and stupify
those smaller fishes on which they prey.
Q. Are there many fishes that have this property?
A. Not many; the torpedo or cramp fish, is the
only one that is met with in the European seas, and
it very rarely occurs on the shores of Britain. The
gymnotus, something in the form of an eel, is met
with in the fresh waters of America, and three other
species that are found in Africa, and in the Indian
seas, are the only electric fishes at present known.
Q. Of what structure are the electric organs ?
A. They consist of a number of pipes placed in
close connection with each other, divided by numer-
ous thin partitions and filled with a fluid.
Q. Does this electricity resemble that which is
produced by artificial means?
A. It is communicated by the same conductors,
and stopped by the same non-conductors.
Q. Is it voluntary on the part of the fish?
A. It must be so to a certain extent, for it is
attended by a muscular effort; but the fish may be
34
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
provoked to exert it so often as to become exhausted
and die.
Q. Do the young fish have it as well as the full
grown ones?
A. Spallanzani found that torpedos which had not
left the egg, could give a small shock.
Q. Is it formidable to any other animal?
A. There are instances mentioned of bullocks and
other animals, being numbed in the legs, and falling
down and being drowned in the marshy rivers of
America, from shocks given by the gymnotus.
SECTION XI.-DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF FISHES.
Q. What is the general distribution of fishes?
A. In the warmer waters the species are more
abundant and the colours in general more brilliant ;
but the absolute quantity and the value to man, are
perhaps as great in the cold latitudes.
Q. What are the prevailing colours of fishes in the
warmer regions?
A. They are of all colours, some gold coloured and
scarlet; and the scales are in many of the species
larger than in the fishes of colder places.
Q. What are the prevailing colours in the cold
seas ?
A. Black and white with intermediate shades of
blue and grey. Their scales are in general smaller, and
their skins thicker, and more mucilaginous.
Q. What is the principal distinction of fishes as
to their habitations?
A. Those that live in the salt water, and those that
live in fresh.
FISHES.
35
Q. Which are the more numerous ?
A. The salt water ones are, from the greater range
of their habitations, mostly more numerous, and they
are to the same extent more valuable.
Q. Is there any thing in the form that would
enable one to distinguish between a salt-water fish
and a fresh-water one?
A. There is nothing, though when the same kind
of fish inhabits salt and fresh water by turns, one may
tell from which it has been taken.
Q. Is there any difference in the flavour?
A. Yes. Salt water fish may in general be consi-
dered as richer in flavour than fresh water ones.
Q. Does salt water communicate a salt taste to
fish?
A. No. Fish from the sea have no more taste of
salt than those from the most limpid streams.
Q. Is it not singular that the salt sea should pro-
duce fresh fish?
A. Not more so than that a white lily should grow
out of brown earth, or a black hen lay white eggs.
Q. To what place of the sea do fishes generally
resort?
A. The chief places of their resort are currents, or
rather the banks that are deposited where currents
meet.
Q. Why should they prefer those places?
A. Because the currents bring a supply of food
which they deposit there along with the other matter
that form the bank.
Q. Are fishes distinguished from the part of the
sea in which they are found?
36
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY,
A. Those that are found in the open ocean, and
those only, are called pelagic, or " deep sea” fish, and
those that are found near the land are called littoral,
or "shore" fish.
Q. Are fishes also adapted to the various depths
and bottoms of the sea?
A. No doubt they are, but the peculiarities of their
adaptation are not very well known; and they may
vary because fishes eat almost any thing.
Q. Does their form afford any guide to their habi-
tation?
A. What one might term handsome fishes, that is,
those with regular elongated oval bodies, are general
or occasional inhabitants of the deep water; and those
that are flat or have their bodies of angular and irre-
gular shapes, are inhabitants of more shallow or muddy
water, or of the groves of sea-weeds, and inequalities
of the rocks under water.
Q. Is there any difference in the qualities of fish
taken from different depths, or off different bottoms?
A. In the same kind of fish, that from deep and
clear water is always the finest flavoured and the most
wholesome; and perhaps the deep water fish and the
shallow water, and the clear water, and the muddy
water, vary in the same way.
Q. Does there appear any reason for that?
A. The water which fishes breathe must have some
effect upon their health in the same manner as the
air has upon the health of land animals; and those
which wallow in the mud must be fouler feeders than
those that sport in the pure flood; the former may
eat putrid substances, and substances that are tainted
FISHES.
57
by metals, the latter can eat only substances that are
alive, or at any rate that are purely animal or vegeta-
ble.
Q. Is there any other reason why fishes taken from
deep water near rocks, should be in better condition
than those taken from shallow water near sand or
mud?
A. Yes, they are subjected to less fatigue; as the
rocks find them shelter in storms, while the inhabit-
ants of shallow waters are often so completely ex-
hausted by their struggles against the motion of the
waters in storm and tide, that they are sent lifeless
on the shore.
Q. What degree of heat can fishes endure?
A. Species of gilthead has been found in springs
where the temperature was as high as 100"; and some
parts of the tropical seas that are shallow and have
a white bottom, no doubt have the same degree of
heat.
Q Do not fishes migrate periodically from place to
place?
A. They all of course frequent those places where
they can get food; and those that live at other times
in the deep water resort to the shallows in order to
deposit their spawn.
Q. But it is said that many species of fishes, herrings
for instance, make periodical journeys to different
latitudes; as from the regions of the poles south-
ward?
E
AN
A. These stories are not true.
Q. But herrings do visit the shores, only at parti-
cular periods?
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. They do so, but they do it to deposit their
spawn, and when that is done they return to their
proper element, the deep water-the nearest deep
water; and all fishes that deposit their spawn in the
sand or mud, and leave it to be hatched by the action
of the sun and atmosphere, follow nearly the same
course.
Q. Then may some judgment be formed of the
nature and depth of the sea outwards from the kind
of fish that are found on the shores?
A. Yes. If herrings or pilchards come to the offing
in fine condition, they are immediately from deep
water; if cod and haddocks, they are from sea-banks;
if soles and turbot, they are from banks nearer the
land; and if flounders, they are from low and muddy
shores.
Q. Then is it probable that those fishes that are
found upon the shores only at particular seasons,
would be met with in the deep sea at other seasons?
A. There is not the least doubt of it; only in their
habits they are not so well known; the fishermen do
not know so well how to catch them there; besides
their boats and tackle are fitted only for short trips
and small depths.
Q. Do the same individual fishes resort to the
shores every year?
A. The fact has not been very well ascertained; but
it is probable that they do not.
PART II.-CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES.
Q. What are the principal characters to adopt in
classifying fishes?
FISHES.
39
A. The most general is the texture of the skeleton,
from which we have the two sub-orders of CARTI-
LAGINOUS fishes, and OSSEOUS fishes.
Q. Which character is next in importance ?
A. That of the gills, which nearly but not altogether
corresponds with that of the skeletons.
Q What is the difference?
:
A. All fishes that have an osseous or bony skeleton
have the gills free or moveable by far the greater
number have a gill-lid and gill-flap, but there are a
few with the lid without the flap, a few with the flap
without the lid, and a few without both.
Q. And what are the distinctions with regard to
the cartilaginous fishes?
A. Some have the gills fixed, and neither gill lid
nor gill flap; others have the gills free, some with
both lid and flap, some with one but without the
other, and some without both.
Q. Then there will be eight divisions?
A. Precisely so: four in each sub-order.
Q. Is there any other general distinction ?
A. Yes, the absence or presence of ventral fins and
their situation when present, which, though appa-
rently a trivial circumstance, forms orders that have
other peculiar natural qualities in common.
Q. What are the names of the orders?
A. 1. Apodal, footless, when there are no ventral
fins.
2. Jugular, when those fins are at the throat.
3. Thoracic, when they are on the breast.
4. Abdominal, when they are on the belly.
Q. Repeat the great lines of the system.
E 2
40
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
ONE CLASS.
TWO SUB-
CLASSES.
Fishes, cold red blood, breathe water
by gills.
FOUR ORDERS.
1. Cartilaginous, with gristly bones.
2. Osseous, with hard bones.
1. With gill-lid and gill-flap.
FOUR DIVISIONS 2. With gill-lid and not gill-flap.
3. With gill-flap and not gill-lid.
in each sub-
class.
4. Without both-gills fixed, or gills
free.
1. Apodal, without belly fins.
2. Jugular, with these fins on the
throat.
3. Thoracic, on the breast.
4. Abdominal, on the belly.
Q. Then there are thirty-two orders?
A. There are in the system, but there are not so
many in nature, as some of the subdivisions have not
all the varieties in the ventral fins.
Q. What is the next subdivision?
A. Into genera, of which there are about two
hundred and twenty-five.
Q. Are these uniformly divided over the orders?
A. Very far from it, the thoracic and abdominal,
hard boned fishes, with gill-lids and gill-flaps comprise
three-fourths of all the known genera, that is, 169 out
of 225.
Q. Are there many species?
A. Nearly fifteen hundred are known; and disco-
very is now and then finding out others."
*The utter impossibility of enumerating even the genera
in such a way as that young persons would read it, need
hardly be noticed.
FISHES.
41
SUB-CLASS I.-CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.
Q. What are the leading characters of these?
A. Their skeletons are never harder than gristle,
and generally speaking they are more tenacious of
life than other fishes; but they are very different in
their characters and habits.
DIVISION I.
The gills fixed, and neither lid nor flap.
ORDER I.-APODAL.
Q. How many genera, having fixed gills without
lid or flap, have no belly fins?
A. Three genera.
1. Lamprey,* Petromyzon, (stone-sucker,) with teeth
within the sucker.
2. Pride, Ammocætes, without teeth.
3. Hag, Gastrobronchus, one large tooth on the
palate, body glutinous.
Q. What are some of their characters?
A. Some lampreys live in the sea, others in rivers,
in form they resemble eels, have always seven gills on
each side the neck, can adhere to substances by the
mouth. The pride lives in the mud of rivers, and is
not very common. The hag lives in the sea, is about
eight inches long, and has no eyes. It enters the
mouths of fish when on the fishermen's lines, and sucks
their substance.
Q. Are there any jugular or thoracic fishes in this
division?
* That lamprey is not the murena of the Romans.
E 3
42
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. No. The remaining ones belong to
ORDER IV.--ABDOMINAL.
Q. How many genera are in that order?
A. Five genera. They agree in many of their charac-
ters and they all are ovoviviparous, or bring forth their
eggs with the young alive in them, and ready to burst
the shell; so that they do not need to frequent the
shallows to spawn.
Q. What are the genera?
A. They arc.
1. Raia, rays or skates, of which there are many
species. Some of them grow very large, they are
good food, but the spines on some of them are
thought to be poisonous. They have the mouth
under the snout; and one of these furnishes the
skin with osseous tubercles which is called shagreen.
2. Torpedo, cramp fish. Have the mouth below and
are without a snout. Have the power of giving
shocks. There are four or five species.
3. Squalus, sharks of various kinds. They have the
mouth under the snout, are long fish, very strong,
fast swimmers, and very voracious. Sometimes eaten,
but not very delicate. The liver yields good oil,
the skin answers for a file, or is strong leather.
Savages point their darts and arrows with the
teeth.
3. Pristes, saw-fish, has teeth on each side the
snout, with which it tears and lacerates other fish,
and even the whales.
4. Squatina, angel-fish, has the body flat, and the
mouth at the end of the snout. Some suppose that
FISHES.
43
it has been the cause of the mermaid stories, but
that is doubtful.
5. Aodon (toothless) has no English name, has been
seen in the Red Sea and Mediterranean.
Q. Are there any fishes of the fifth order of this
division?
A. No; there is no fish with gristly bones and gill-
flap, without gill-lid, that has not ventral fins.
DIVISION II.
Gills have a flap, but no lid.
ORDER VI.-JUGULAR.
Q. How many genera are in this order?
A. One; Lophius, the angler. Clumsy shape, with
horns over the eyes. Lies in the mud, and entices
small fish to catch the horns, then springs at them,
and eats them.
ORDER VII. -THORACIC.
Q. How many genera of that?
A. One; Balistes, file-fish. Long, compressed,
found in the warm seas; often beautifully coloured,
but poisonous if eaten.
ORDER VIII.-ABDOMINAL.
Q. How many genera?
A. Only one, Chimera, sea monster, or rabbit-fish.
Shape irregular, osseous plates on some parts of the
44
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
body, tail-fin ending in a long thread, found occasion-
ally in the British seas.
DIVISION III.
Gills free, with a lid, but no flap.
Q. Are the four orders in this division complete?
A. No; the apodal, jugular, and thoracic are want-
ing, and the only one is
ORDER XII.-ABDOMINAL.
Q. What are the most important genera of that
order?
A. It contains but two, Polyodon, of which hardly
any thing is known, and
Accipenser, sturgeon, of which there are several
species, highly valued for food; for their roes, which
form a dish called caviar, and for their air-bags, which
are the best isinglass.
Q. What are their habits.
A. They generally reside in the sea, but ascend
rivers in great numbers to spawn. They are covered
with osseous plates, the mouth is under the snout,
and bearded in part, but without teeth.
DIVISION IV.
Cartilaginous, with free gill-lids and flaps.
Q. Is that division complete?
A. It wants the second order, the fourteenth in the
system.
FISHES.
45
ORDER XIII.--APODAL.
Q. What are the characters of that order?
A. The fishes are of singular appearance, the
greater part oval, or nearly globular, only one genus
being much elongated. The greater part of them are
natives of the warm seas.
Q. What are the genera?
A. 1. Ostracion, found in the Indian seas, has a sort of
shell upon it, can be familiarized, and is much re-
lished as food.
2. Tetrodon, saw-fish. These have the body round but
wholly covered with spines in some of the species,
and have the power of inflating the belly to a great
size. One of them is electrical.
3. Ovoides, resembles the former in many points, but is
little known.
4. Diodon, globe-fish, resemble the saw-fish, but have
each bony jaw with only one point, instead of two,
as in these. They are very spiny, and the species
often have a fine colour. Poisonous: the gall of
some, in very small quantity, producing instant
death; but, clear of that and the other intestines,
the fish may be eaten. Air-bag makes excellent
isinglass.
5. Spheroides, resembles the former, but has no teeth;
found in the Atlantic, but rare.
6. Syngnathus, pipe-fish, has the head long, the mouth
small, without teeth, and with a lid. The body
covered with osseous plates. The species are not
well distinguished. Some of them are found in the
British seas. Oviviparous.
46
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
ORDER XV.-THORACIC.
Q. What are the distinctions of this order?
A. The bodies are soft and oily, and have suckers
on the under part. They are found in the sea, and
sometimes in the mouths of rivers.
Q. What are the genera ?
A. 1. Cyclopterus, the sucker, has sharp teeth in the
mouth, and one adhesive sucker on the belly. Some
of them melt in a few hours after death.
2. Lepadogaster, organs of adhe ion double; four fila-
ments before the eyes; found in the Mediterra-
nean.
3. Centriscus, trumpet-fish; long snout, and jaws with-
out teeth.
ORDER XVI.—ABDOMINAL.
Q. What are the abdominal genera?
A. 1. Machrorinchus, found in the Chinese sea.
2. Pegasus, found in most warm climates; very small,
can use the pectoral fins as wings.
SUB CLASS II.- OSSEOUS FISHES.
Q. What are the general characters of them?
A. Their bones are hard, their gills are free, and
they are in general produced from eggs, that are
hatched without any care from the parent.
Q Are they arranged into the same divisions as
the former sub-order?
A. They are, though by far the greater part of them
belong to
FISHES.
47
DIVISION I.
Bony, with gills, gill-lid, and gill-flap.
Q. Are all the four orders perfect in this division?
A. They are; but the greater number belong to the
last two.
ORDER XVII.-APODAL.
Q. How many genera are in that order?
A. There are twenty-one.
Q. Which are the first three?
A. 1. Cæcilia, the blind-eel, has no fins, and an opaque
skin over the eyes: resembles the hag, and perhaps
should be classed with it.
2. Monopterus (single-fin), has a fin only on the tail,
and the gill opening between the eyes: found in the
Indian seas.
3. Leptocephalus (slender head), long and slender, with
dorsal and anal, but no caudal or pectoral fins: met
with in the South sea.
Q. What are the next three?
A. They are
4. Gymnotus, has dorsal and caudal fins, but no anal or
pectoral fins; resembles an eel. There are several
species, one of which, G. Electricus, gives shocks.
5. Trichecus, blade-fish, inhabits the warm latitudes.
The common name expresses the shape. The sea
species is electric, the fresh-water one not.
6. Notopterus, a native of the Indian seas, differs from
the Gymnoti, in having a dorsal fin, and being very
short.
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Which are three more?
A. 7. Ophisurus (serpent tail), form and habits of a
snake. Abounds in the Mediterranean.
8. Triurus, bears some resemblance to a herring, but
has the mouth drawn out into a tube. It is often
found in the stomach of the tunny.
9. Apteronotus, has, instead of a fin, a filament on the
back in the form of an arch, strung with twelve
smaller ones, like a harp.
Q. Mention three more.
A. 10. Regalecus, king of herrings. Found in the north
seas, body and tail very long, somewhat serpent-like,
but has a fin on the tail.
11. Odontaganthus, the sardine, found on the north
coast of South America, has a plate on each side
of the under jaw. Is eaten.
12. Muræna, the eel. Many species, and very com-
mon; some produced alive, others not. Young often
migratory in shoals. Much used as food, but not
very digestible.
Q. What are three other species?
A. 15. Ammodytes, the lance, a very delicate fish, about
four inches long, buries itself in the sand, and found
by digging at low water, very common.
14. Ophidium, long and compressed, with large scales
on the head, and a beard in some of the species, fins
above, under, and on the tail, all united.
15. Macrognathus, fins not united; found in the Indian
seas; eatable.
Q. What are the characters of the next three?
A. Some of them are more formidable than those
of the order that have been named. They are
FISHES.
49
15. Xiphias, the sword-fish, in which the upper jaw
has the form of a blade, and grows to the length of
one-third the body. The body is sometimes nearly
twenty feet long, so that the animal and its weapon
are equally formidable.
17. Makaira, two lance-shaped shields on each side of
the tail. Little known.
18. Anarchicas, wolf-fish, or cat-fish; head very short,
teeth strong; lives on hard shell-fish, very common
on the east coast, esteemed as food in the northern
parts.
Q. Which are the last three of the order?
A. 19. Comephorus, great head and mouth, and fila-
ments on the dorsal fin. Found only in Lake Baikal,
in Siberia.
20. Stromateus, found in the Mediterranean and Indian
seas. Body oval and compressed; colours beau-
tiful; delicate eating.
21. Rhombus. The sides have that four-sided figure;
body short. Found on the American shores.
ORDER XVIII.-JUGULAR.
Q. How many species are in that order?
A. Only eleven; but some of them are very curi-
ous, others very valuable.
Q. Which are the first four?
A. 1. Murænoides, resembling an eel, but with fius of
one ray on the throat.
2. Callionymus, dragonet. Head larger than the body,
eyes very brilliantly coloured, rays on the back
F
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
have a fancied resemblance to a lynx. Sexes in
some of the species very dissimilar.
3. Calliomorus, an Indian genus, something like the
former.
4. Uranoscopus, star-gazer. Head flat, and eyes on
the crown, lies in the mud, and tempts small fishes
with its filaments. Found in the Mediterranean.
Q. Which are the next three?
A. 5. Trachinus, weaver. A small mud fish, with spires
on the head, and gill covers, and on the dorsal fin,
the last considered venomous. Not numerous on
the coast of England.
6. Gadus, cod. One of the most important of
fishes.
Q. Are there more than one species?
A. There are many, and some of them are exceed-
ingly numerous, and excellent food.
Q. Mention a few of the leading ones?
A. A few of the principal ones are,
Morhua, the common cod.
Eglifinus, the haddock.
Molva, the ling.
Brosme, the tusk.
Merluccius, the hake.
There are, however, very many species, all of them
wholesome. The haddock and whiting are the best
fresh; the cod and ling when salted.
Q. What are the remaining genera?
A. 7. Batrachoides, with flat head, large mouth, and
a beard.
8. Blennius, blenny. A soft mucous fish, some of
them are oviviparous.
FISHES.
51
9. Oligopodus. A fin along the whole back.
dian.
10. Kurtus. Body flattened, keeled. Indian. Lives on
shell-fish.
11. Chrysostomus (golden streaked). Little known.
In-
ORDER XIX. -THORACIC.
Q. You remember what Thoracic means?
A. That the fins below are on the chest; that is,
just under the pectoral fins.
Q. And could you tell the order from the number?
A. Yes; when I took four from the number as of-
ten as I could, if there remained one, it would be
apodal; if two, jugular; if three, thoracic; and if 0
abdominal.
Q. Repeat the numbers of the orders, with their
characters from the fins?
A. Apodal, 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29.
Jugular, 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30.
Thoracic, 5, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, 31.
Abdominal, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32.
Q. Are there many genera in the nineteenth order?
A. There are ninety-eight, but the species in some
of them are but little known?
Q. Which are some of the more interesting genera?
A. Scomber, Echeneis, Coryphaena, Macrourus, Spa-
rus, Perca, Mullus, Zeus, and Pleuronectes, are some
of the most celebrated; but the whole order is inter-
esting.
Q. What is scomber?
A. Scomber is the mackerel genus, one species of
which, with its thin and beautifully mottled skin, is so
F 2
52
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
well known, so abundant, and often so cheap in the
summer. Though they frequent the shores at some
seasons, they are pelagic fishes, and some of the spe-
cies are very useful to sailors in long voyages. They
feed at the surface, and are very voracious and easily
caught. The tunny, one of the genus, weighs as
much as six hundred pounds.
Q. What is Echeneis?
A. The name means "sticker to ships," which the
fish can do by a sucker on the head, and that is the
most remarkable thing about it. It is the ancient
remora.
(C
Q. What is coryphæna?
A. The coryphene, or
dolphin" of the ancients.
It is about three feet long, with an obtuse head and
one immense dorsal fin. Its colours are very beauti-
ful, but they vary and fade as it expires. It is a
pelagic fish, lively, voracious, easily caught, and de-
licious eating. It is found in all the great oceans.
-
Q. What is macrourus?
A. It is the rock salmon of the northern nations,
a very valuable fish in Greenland and Iceland.
Q. What is sparus ?
A. The gilt-head, a very numerous genus, some of
which have a remarkable power of giving light. There
is one species not uncommon on the coasts of Brazil,
three or four of which, swimming together, would
give as much light as would enable one to read in a
dark night.
Q. What is perca?
A. The perch; a well-known, beautiful, and use-
ful inhabitant of ponds and lakes, and also of the sea.
FISHES.
53
It is a very light and wholesome food, and good isin-
glass may be made from it.
Q. What is mullus?
A. The sur-mullet, of which there are many species.
The colours of the red sur-mullet are very brilliant,
and the changes which they undergo while the fish is
dying is most singular. The Romans used to exhibit
to their guests the splendid dying agonies of the sun-
mullet as a zest to the appetite with which they ate it
afterwards?
Q. What is zeus?
A. The doree, of which there are three species, all
rather singular in their shape, and of which the com-
mon doree, or " John Dory" is esteemed by epicures.
Q. What are the others?
A. They are both Indians. One has long filaments
to the dorsal and anal fins, which it is said to coil
round the stems of aquatic plants, and by jerking
them suddenly, shake flies and other insects, on which
it feeds, into the water.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar about the other
one?
A. Yes. Its mouth is lengthened and tubular, and
it is said to use it in shooting flies with drops of water.
Q. Are not there some other species that shoot
flies in this manner?
A. Yes; the chatodon rostratus of the West
Indies?
Q. What sort of fish are the chætodons?
A. They are a numerous genus, beautiful in their
colours, singular in their forms, and many of them
F 3
54
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
excellent food. Their teeth are long and flexible
like bristles, whence they get their names.
Q. What is pleuronectes?
A. The flounder tribe, which have the mouth
crooked, and both eyes on one side of the head, some
on the left and others on the right.
Q. Are they very numerous?
A. They are both numerous and abundant, and
many of them are very excellent eating.
Q What places do they inhabit ?
A They are all littoral fishes, and some are found
in fresh water. They prefer a sandy bottom, and are
the most numerous in the cold latitudes.
ORDER XX. ABDOMINAL,
Q. Are there many genera with gill-lids and gill-
flaps that have the ventral fins behind the pectoral?
A. There are sixty-four genera, some of which con-
tain a great number of species, and many of them are
highly useful.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in this order as
contrasted with the one immediately preceding?
A. There is. The preceding order contains the
fishes residing wholly in the sea that are most valuable
as food, and this one contains the most valuable that
reside wholly or occasionally in fresh water.
Q. Which are some of the more important genera?
A. Many more are important, but the following
are some of the most celebrated: silurus, salmo, esox,
mugil, exocatus, polynemus, clupea, clupanodon, and
cyprinus.
FISHES.
55
Q. What is silurus?
A. The silure a large fish found in the great rivers
of Europe, Africa, and Asia. They have filaments at
the mouth, and wallow in the mud.
Q. Are there more than one species ?
A. There are several.
Q. What size do the largest ones attain?
A. Fifteen feet in length, and they weigh as much
as three hundred pounds.
Q. Are they good food?
A. They are white, fat, and taste something like
cels, but like those they are not very easily digested.
Q. Are they good for any other purpose?
A. The air-bags make good isinglass.
Q. Are any of them to be found in England?
A. Not in any part of the British islands, but they
might be imported, and no doubt would thrive.
Q. What is salmo?
A. The salmon, one of the most important of all
the genera.
Q. Are there many species?
A. Very many, perhaps not less than forty, but
they are not very clearly defined.
Q. Which is the most important species?
A. Salmo salar, the common salmon, which is
found in all the rivers of the cold and temperate lati-
tudes, into which it migrates to spawn, and it is al-
ways in the better condition the nearer the sea it is
taken.
Q. What is the external appearance of the genus?
A. They are the handsomest in their form of any
fish, and their motions are very rapid and graceful.
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is esox?
A. The pike, of which the common pike or jack,
that is found in all the lakes and slow-running
waters of Europe is the best known.
Q. What is the character of the pike?
A. It is any thing but a mild one: armed with
strength and formidable teeth the pike preys indis-
criminately upon fishes, reptiles, and the young of
birds, and instances have been mentioned of its kill-
ing ducks and geese.
Q. Is it esculent ?
A. It is eaten, but it is dry and not very good, and
the caviare made of the roe is said not to be whole-
some.
Q. Are there more species than one?
A. There are some sea species, one of which, the
gar-fish, comes to the shores to spawn just before the
appearance of mackerel. The flesh of it is good for
nothing, and the bones boil green.
Q. Is there any other sea species?
A. Yes, there is, esox gladius, which is good
food and easily caught, but it is not found on the
European shores.
Q. What is mugil?
A. The mullet, which is found in most seas, and
enters rivers to spawn like the salmon; there are
several species, most of which are excellent eating.
Q. What is exocætus?
A. The flying-fish of which there are several species
which have the power of flying by their fins. They
have the air-bag very large. One species found in the
Atlantic and Mediterranean, resembles a herring and
FISHES.
57
is delicate eating. The spawn of some of them is said
to be caustic.
Q. What is polynemus ?
A. A fish of the warm latitudes that has spines
near the ventral fins. The most celebrated species
found in the Ganges, and called the mango fish.
Q. What is clupea?
A. The herring, which, from its wholesomeness and
the numbers that are caught, is one of the most valuable
of fish.
Q. Are there any other genera than the common
herring?
A. The sprat and the shad. The fry of the latter
is "white bait," more celebrated than valuable.
Q. What is clupanodon?
A. The pilchard, which resembles the herrring, but
differs from it in having no teeth, and in some other
particulars. In the British seas it is found farther to
the south.
Q. What is cyprinus?
A. Carp, of which there are many species much
esteemed in river and pond-fish. They are easily
tamed. The scales of some of them are used in imi-
tating pearls.
DIVISION II.
Gills free, and gill-flaps, but no gill-lid.
Q. Are all the orders complete in this division?
A. No, there is only one species.
ORDER XXI.-APODAL.
Sternaptyx, with a compressed body, transparent
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
on the under part, and one dorsal fin. Native of
Jamaica.
DIVISION III.
With gill-lid, but no gill flap.
Q. Are the orders perfect there?
A. No, there are only two orders, and one species
in each.
ORDER XXVII.—APODAL.
Q. What is the genus?
A. Styliphenos, with only three gills on each side, a
fold in the neck, the body long, spines on the tail fin.
ORDER XXVIII.-ABDOMINAL.
Q. What are the genera in that order?
A. Only one genus, Marmyrus, of which there are
nine species, inhabitants of the Nile.
DIVISION IV.
Without gill-lid or gill-flap.
Q. How many orders are in that division?
A. Only one.
ORDER XXIX.-APODAL.
In which there are five genera.
Q. Which are the genera?
A. They are these.
FISHES.
59
1. Murænaphis, the murena of the Romans, which
Vedius Pallio fed with his condemned slaves; lives
in the sea, or in fresh water; easily tamed; resembles
an eel except in the gills.
2. Gymnomuræna, without pectoral, dorsal or anal
fins.
3. Muræna-Heuna, no fins, cylindrical, glutinous; from
the Strait of Magellan.
4. Shap branchers, without fins or scales, cylindrical,
the snout pointed. A native of the East Indies.
5. Unibronchopertera, one gill-opening; serpent-
shaped, but with a fin round the tail. Native of
the fresh waters in Surinam.
APPENDIX.
LIST OF BRITISH FISHES.
Q. ARE the British species of fishes numerous?
A. They are in all about 190 species, of which 48,
or about a fourth, of the whole, are cartilaginous, and
the rest bony.
Q. Are they equally distributed on all the coasts?
A. Of course not; the fishes of the warm countries
are more common visitors of the southern coasts of
England; and those of the polar seas of the north of
Scotland.
Q. Are there any other circumstances that modify
the distribution?
A. The pelagic fishes are of course most abundant
on the bold shores where the water is deep, and the
shore fishes in the bays and on the shallow shores.
Q. Which are some of the best frequented places ?
A. The mud banks at the mouth of the Thames are
very favourable for various kinds of flat-fish; the great
banks that lie between the east coast and the opposite
shores of Holland and Germany, are frequented by
large shoals of the cod tribes; herrings are met with
on the deep shores and in the deep estuaries; pilchards
on the south coasts; salmon in the estuaries of the
rivers; and mackerel in the clear water.
I. CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.
Q. ARE there many genera of these?
A. There are twenty-four.
LIST OF BRITISH FISHES.
61
Q. Which are the British fishes of the first order ?*
A. The lamprey and the hag.
Q. Are there more than one species of the lam-
prey?
A. There are three.
1. The lamprey, in all the great rivers.
2. The lesser lamprey, in many of the small rivers and
brooks.
3. The pride, or lampern, in a few of the rivers of
England, especially those of Oxfordshire.
Q. Where is the hag found?
A. It is not very common on any part of the British
coast; but it is most frequent on the east.
Q. Are there many of the fourth order?
A. The ray, the torpedo, the shark, the angel-fish,
and the sea-snake.
Q. Where are the rays found?
A. They are found on all parts of the coast; and
there are fifteen species of them.
Q. Which are the most common?
A. The common or grey skate, the white skate, and
the thornback. The sting-ray is common on the
south shores, but very rare on the north.
Q. Is the ray that furnishes shagreen common?
A. No; but it has been met with on the coast of
Yorkshire, and also on that of Devon.
Q. Is the torpedo common?
* This brief list of British fishes may be made a useful
exercise on the classification, by making the pupil repeat
the characters of the orders.
G
62
APPENDIX.
A. No, it is very rare, and met with only on the
south coasts of England and Ireland.
Q. Are the sharks abundant?
A. The great white shark is occasionally met with
on all parts of the coast; and smaller ones, called dog-
fish, beagle-fish, fox-fish, and other local names, are
much more common.
Q. Is the angel-fish common?
A. It is found in many places, but not in consider-
able numbers. From its shape it is sometimes called
the fiddle-fish.
Q. Is the sea-snake numerous?
A. Only one specimen has been seen, a very large
one, which was cast ashore in Orkney, in a mutilated
state, in 1808.
Q. Are there many British fishes of the sixth order?
A. The common angler, or fishing frog, is abundant
on all parts of the coast; and there are one or two
species occasionally met with on the south-west.
Q. Which is the next order?
A. The eighth, of which the northern sea-monster
is sometimes met with on the Scottish coasts, but not
on those of England.
Q. What are the British fishes of the twelfth order?
A. Only the sturgeon, which is occasionally taken
in the salmon nets in the great rivers.
Q. Which are the genera of the thirteenth order?
A. The sun-fish and the pipe-fish; of the first of
which there are three species, and six species of the
last.
Q. Which are the sun-fish?
LIST OF BRITISH FISHES.
63
trakcenty of gatende oma tenfor Norge 13 Te
CAMERA NAA - Meet yhde
A. The common sun-fish, the oblong and the globe;
the second of which weighs sometimes 500lbs.
Q. Which are the pipe-fish?
A. The shout and the needle, very common in sea-
weeds; the deep-water, found among the shoals of
sprats; the long and the snake, the last of which
brings forth its young alive.
Q. Are there any of the sixteenth order?
A. There are three-the sucker, the small sucker,
and the trumpet-fish; and there are several species of
the sucker, but with the exception of the common
lump sucker are rather rare.
Q. Which are the most valuable of the cartilaginous
British fishes?
A. The rays, which are very abundant and very
wholesome; the sharks, or those which are called dog-
fish, are probably the next in value. Sturgeons are
not so abundant as to form an article of separate
fishery.
II. OSSEOUS FISHES.
Q. You said that the British species of these were
the most numerous ?
A. Yes; they are about three times as many.
Q. And are they valuable in an equal proportion?
A. They are much more so.
Q. Which is the first order of Osseous Fishes?
A. The seventeenth order in the system.
Q. Are there many British genera of that?
A. The blade-fish, the eel, the launce or sand-eel,
the sword-fish, and the wolf-fish or cat-fish, with some
other reputed ones of very rare occurrence.
G 2
64
APPENDIX.
Q. Are any of those that you have mentioned
rare?
A. The blade-fish is very rare; only one specimen
is mentioned. The sword-fish is also very rare; but
specimens, fifteen feet long, have been met with.
Q. Are eels numerous?
A. They are, both the common or fresh-water eel,
and the conger or salt-water one.
Q. Are the common eels always stationary in fresh-
water?
A. No: in some rivers they migrate to the sea in
autumn, and return again in the spring.
Q. When are they supposed to be in the best con-
dition ?
A. When they are leaving the fresh-water; which
is contrary to the habits of salmon, and most other
migratory fish.
Q. Is the wolf-fish rare?
A. It is plentiful in the northern parts of the is-
land.
Q. Are there many genera of the eighteenth order?
A. Not a great many; but some of them are very
abundant and valuable.
Q. Which are the genera?
A. The weever, the dragonet, the blenny, and the
cod.
Q. Where is the weever found?
A. On the English coasts; it is not very often
brought to market.
Q. Is the dragonet equally pare?
A. No. Both it and the blenny are more nume-
rous; but they are of little value.
LIST OF BRITISH FISHES.
65
NWMne go baden 40
Q. Are there many species of cod?
A. There are many, and, besides the species, they
are formed into five sub-genera.
Q. Which are the distinctions of these?
A. Some have only one dorsal fin, some have two,
and some three; and some are bearded-that is, have
fleshy appendages to the mouth-and others not.
Q. Which have but one dorsal fin?
A. Only one species, the tusk, which is very plen-
tiful about the Shetland isles, but rarely found further
to the south.
Q. Which have two dorsal fins, and the chin beard-
less ?
A. Only the hake, which is confined to the west
coast of England, and the south-east of Ireland. It is
a coarse and insipid fish.
Q. Are the bearded ones with the two dorsal fins
more abundant ?
A. They are more generally diffused, and also more
valuable.
Q. Which are some of them?
A 1. The ling, of which great numbers are salted
in the northern parts of the country. The body is
longer, and also thicker in the flesh, than that of
the common cod.
2. Burbot, which is a fresh-water fish of very deli-
cious quality, but confined to a few of the rivers of
England.
3. Five-bearded cod; an English species, found on the
shores, but not very abundant.
4. Three-bearded cod; found on the rocky coasts.
G 3
66
APPENDIX.
5. Silvery cod; found on the west of England, and
bearing a considerable resemblance to the former.
Q. Which are the beardless species with three dorsal
fins ?
A. There are four of them-
1. The whiting; found on most parts of the coast.
Rather soft and insipid. Best in the spring.
2. The cole-fish; found mostly in the north.
A very
coarse fish, except when small.
3. The pollock; on the English coast, and west of
Scotland.
4. Green-cod; in the northern parts. Not very com-
mon.
Q. Are there many bearded ones with three fins on
the back?
A. There are seven species; but five of them are
not very common, or much sought after.
Q. Which are these?
A. The common cod, the haddock, the speckled
cod, the poor, the dorse, the bib, and the pout.
Q. Which are the more abundant species?
A. The common cod and haddock.
Q. Where are the common cod found?
A. They are very generally diffused, and exceedingly
numerous. The Scottish coasts, especially the banks
between the western isles, are the best British stations
for them. A great number of people are employed in
the capture of them; and as they are found every sea-
son, they form a certain, as well as a profitable em-
ployment.
Q. In how many ways are they sent to market?
LIST OF BRITISH FISHES.
67
A. They are sent fresh for local supply to places
near which they are caught; they are salted wet, and
also dry, in which last state they bear to be carried
to a great distance.
Q. Is haddock equal to cod?
A. When very fresh, and in the best condition, it is
much superior; but it is not so generally diffused, or
certain in its appearance, and does not bear to be
salted, so that it is not so valuable for general pur-
poses?
Q. Is it never prepared with salt?
A. Sometimes; but it is inferior to cod when smoke-
dried; when fresh, it is very delicate, but loses its flavor
when carried to a distance.
Q. Are there many of the nineteenth order?
A. They are numerous; and though none of them
are so valuable as the cod, some are still of consider-
able importance.
Q. On what coasts are the greater number of that
genus found?
A. On the coasts of England.
Q. Enumerate the principal ones that are so found?
A. 1. The scale-foot; 2, the red-band fish, on the
coasts of Devon. Rare.
3. Bullhead, in clear streams in England.
4. The red gurnard; 5, the piper gurnard; 6, the
sapphire gurnard; 7, the lineated gurnard; 8, the
smooth gurnard: on the west and south of England.
9. The banded gurnard, on the east.
10. Striped sur-mullet; seven or eight species of
wrassee; four species of gilt-head, and the doree,
on the coasts of England.
68
APPENDIX.
Q. And are these to be considered as rare?
A. In general they are
Q. Are there any of the order found in Scotland,
and not in England?
A. One species of gilt-head, the opah, and perhaps
a few others.
Q. Which are common to the two countries?
A. The perch, though not found in the northern
parts of Scotland; the mackerel, and some others.
Q. Are there not some flat fish belonging to the
order?
A. Yes, the numerous genus of flounders, some
of which are found in fresh water, and others in the
sea; but generally speaking in shallow water.
Q Is there any general distinction of the flounders ?
A. Yes, some have both eyes on the left side of the
head, and some both on the right side.
Q. Which are those of the former class?
A. There are five of them
1. Turbot. Very generally diffused, and much ad-
mired.
2. Brill. Not so common on the Scottish coast as the
English.
3. Whiff. On the English shores.
4. Spotted flounder. On the coast of Shetland.
5. Cyclops flounder. In the Irish sea.
Q. Which have the eyes on the right side?
A. There are about nine species, besides some
varieties arising from colour.
Q. What are the species.
A. 1. Holibut, which is very common.
LIST OF BRITISH FISHES.
69
2. Sole, which is also common, although neglected in
the north.
3. Dab, or salt-water flounder.
4. Common flounder, very common, and many va-
rieties.
5. Plaise, very common.
6. Smear dab; 7, smooth dab; 8, variegated sole; and
9, lantern-fish, not so common.
Q. Are there many British genera of the twentieth
order.
A. Yes, they are numerous, and some of them are
very important.
Q. How many genera are there?
A. There are fourteen, and they contain 42 species.
Q. Which are the first two?
A. They are- ཁ་ག་མ་མ་མ
1. Loche, two species: common loche, found in
rivers all over the country, armed loche, only in
England. Rare.
2. Salmo, eight species.
Q. What are these?
A. 1. The river trout; common in most streams, but
varies much in colour, size, and quality.
2. Salmon-trout; sea-trout or bull-trout; migrates be-
tween the rivers and the sea.
3 Grey trout; in streams, not so generally as the
common trout.
4. Red belly; in mountain lakes.
5. Char; in large lakes on the central and southern
parts of the island.
6. White; in some of the Cumberland rivers.
7. Sewin; in fresh water in Wales.
70
APPENDIX.
8. Salmon, the most valuable of them all; migrates
between the rivers and sea.
Sometimes weighs 50
or 60 pounds.
Q. Which is the third genus?
A. The smelt, found in estuaries.
Q. The fourth?
A. Coregonus. Of which there are at least two
species.
1. The grayling; in some English rivers, also in Orkney.
2. The guiniad; in lakes. The fresh water herring of
Loch Lomond, and the juvangis of Lochmabin sup-
posed to be the same.
Q. Which is the fifth genus?
A. The pike, of which there are two species, the
pike in fresh water, and the gar-pike in salt.
Q. The sixth genus.
A. The gar-fish; on the south coast of England;
rare in Scotland.
16
Q. Which is the seventh?
A. The saury; on the coasts, rather rare; called the
Egyptian herring.
Q. The eighth genus ?
A. The argentine; found on various parts of the
coast, but not common.
Q. The ninth ?
A. The atherine; on the shores and in estuaries.
Very delicate. The tenth is the common mullet; in
estuaries. The eleventh, the flying-fish, has been seen
on the Welch coast, but very rarely.
Q. Which is the twelfth genus?
A. The herring, containing four species.
1. The common herring.
LIST OF BRITISH FISHES.
71
2. The sprat.
3. The shad, when young, white-bait.
4. The anchovy; on the south and west coasts, rare.
Q. Which is the thirteenth?
A. The pilchard, met with on most coasts, but in
numbers only on the south-west.
Q. Which is the last genus?
A. Cyprinces, the carp, of which there are two
divisions, one bearded, and the other not.
Q. Which are the bearded ones?
A. They are-
1. Carp, an excellent fish, but a native of warm
countries, and will not breed in Scotland.
2. Barbel; in the deep parts of English rivers.
3. Gudgeon; abundant in English lakes and rivers.
Doubtful if found in Scotland.
Q. Which are the beardless ones?
A. They are-
1. Minnow, common in gravelly streams.
2. Dace, in English rivers only.
3. Roach, in England and the west of Scotland.
4. Crucian, in ponds in the south of England.
5. Rudd, in the English lakes.
6. Chub, in deep parts of English rivers. Very rare in
Scotland.
7. Red-eye, in English lakes.
8. Bream. Lakes and deep pools in England and Ire-
land; in some lakes in the south of Scotland.
9. Bleak, in English rivers, not found in Scotland.
10. Gold-fish, in some places of England, will not
breed in Scotland.
72
APPENDIX,
Q. What sorts of fishes are chiefly used in ponds?
A. Fresh-water fish, if the ponds are fresh-water.
Q. What sorts are best?
A. Those that do not naturally live in running
water. Such as pike and perch, and the lake varie-
ties of trout.
Q. Are not salmon bred in ponds?
A. No. Salmon migrate to the sea, and do not
breed if prevented from going there.
Q. Are there no salt-water ponds artificially
formed?
A. A few in some parts of the country, and more
might be made with advantage.
Q. What fishes have been kept in those ponds
A. Most of the cod tribe, salmon trout, and various
sorts of flounders.
Q. Do they find their own food in the ponds?
A. No; they are generally fed with sand-eels and
shell-fish.
THE END.
LONDON:
HENRY BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
CHELONTA
#
SAURIA
el
OPHIDIA
ATRACHIA
NOTE.
In this little work, instead of repeating the mere
marvels of the Science, such as the rapacity of the
crocodile and the alligator, the crushing powers of
the boa, or the deadly poison of the cobra and the
rattlesnake, it has been thought more useful to ex-
plain the general characters of the class; and to
describe particularly those members of it that are
natives of Britain, respecting some of which there are
vulgar errors, which often fill young minds with very
groundless terrors and antipathies, matters that should
be especially guarded against in the instruction of
youth.
The great outlines of the system that have been
adopted, are those of Dumeril, the pupil and assistant
of the illustrious Cuvier; but some of the details are
from other authorities.
B
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART IV.
HERPETOLOGY, OR REPTILES.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Q. What is the meaning of Herpetology ?*
A. That branch of natural history which describes
the appearances and habits, and explains the nature
of that class of animals to which the name of reptiles
is given.
Q What are the general characters of that class of
animals?
A. The most distinguishing characters that belong
to the whole class, and which mark them from all
other animals are these: they have vertebræ, or back-
bones; they breathe or respire by means of lungs;
their blood is cold; they are destitute of the external
Herpetology, from the Greek TETOS, or reptiles, (from
ἔμπε,
"I crawl, or creep,") and λoyos, an explanation-the
explanation of crawling or creeping animals.
"/
REPTILES.
3
נא
Metales
magan ekan kemaman ang conten
*
coverings of hair or feathers; and the females have
no teats for suckling their young.
Q. What are some of their general habits?
A. They can exist much longer without breathing
or without food than the warm-blooded animals;
they suffer much less from wounds and other injuries,
having the faculty of reproducing a whole member, as
a limb or an eye, when it is taken off, which is not
the case with the warm-blooded animals; they are
slow of growth, but live to a very great age; and they
appear to have the principle of life in a state in which
it can accommodate itself much better to circum-
stances than in the warm-blooded animals. They are
said to be lower in the scale of animated beings, inas-
much as they can obey the laws of inorganic matter
with less injury to themselves.
Q. How does that appear?
A. In many instances; but one of the most re-
markable is that of heat. A quadruped or a bird
acquires heat for itself by its breathing and the rapi-
dity of the circulation of its blood, the heat always
being greater in proportion to the rapidity and
effort with which those functions are exercised. Thus
a warm-blooded animal can preserve its heat when the
temperature is so low that it freezes water, and would
congeal the fluids of the animal were it not for this
power of generating heat. Reptiles, being destitute
of this power, are more affected by the temperature.
Long before that sinks so low as the freezing point of
water they become dormant, and if the cold were
much greater than that, they would be frozen.
Q. Has that much effect upon their distribution?
B 2
4
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Of course it has. It confines them chiefly to
the warmer parts of the globe. Those that inhabit the
water can exist through the winter in higher lati-
tudes; but those that live wholly on land bury them-
selves when the weather begins to get cold, and do not
make their appearance again until the season is
Wh
warmer.
Q. Then some of them are inhabitants of the land
and others of the water?
A. They are; but those that live chiefly in the
water and find their food there, do not breathe in the
water, that is, they do not separate the air which they
require from the water, they rise to the surface and
breathe it as air; though from the length of time that
they can exist without breathing, they can remain so
long under the water as that those who are not ac-
quainted with their structure and habits might sup-
pose that they perform all the functions of life there.
Q. Do the animals of this class ever get any other
name?
A. They are also called amphibia;* but the name
is not descriptive of their true character.
* Amphibia, from the Greek Aµpißios, living in both,
animals that can live equally well in the air and the water.
There are not, strictly speaking, any such animals in
nature. There is one set of apparatus, lungs, by which
animals are fitted for breathing "free air," that is air in
its dry state; and other animals fitted with gills, by which
they can breathe air as mixed with or decomposed from
water, but the two are not interchangeable. There are
many forms of lungs and also of gills; but still the whole
REPTILES.
5
177
Q. Is the name reptiles descriptive of the class?
A. Not perfectly so, though it does not, like am-
phibia, include that which is not true in every case.
Many of the reptiles creep, but others can swim,
others again leap, as the frog, some can dart them-
selves to a considerable distance, and some can fly.
Q. Is there any common resemblance among the
members of the class?
A. Scarcely any; their appearances are very
varied.
Q. Are they a handsome looking class of animals?
A. They are generally considered as quite the re-
verse, but some of them are graceful in their forms
and have beautiful colours.
Q Are they dangerous animals?
A. Some of them are, from their strength, and
others from the poison with which they are armed.
The crocodiles have most formidable jaws. Some of
the larger serpents can coil themselves round even
large animals, and crush their bones, while others of
the serpent tribe have poisonous fangs, with which
they kill their prey.
Q. Then they live upon animal substances?
A. In general they do, though some live upon
vegetables. The largest ones generally live upon
small quadrupeds and birds, and the smallest upon
insects.
that merit such appellation form a distinct class. In cer-
tain ones (as in that of the reptiles in water) the animal
can live a long time in that which is not its element, but in
no case do lungs breathe water or gills dry air.
B 5
6
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Which are the principal families or orders in
the class of reptiles?
A. They are divided by the most eminent natu-
ralists into five orders, Chelonians, Saurians, Ophidians,
and Batracians.
Q. What is the popular name of the chelonians?
A. Tortoises, and the name of the order is from the
Greek xw, tortoise.
Q. Are any of that order natives of England?
A. None of the land ones are natives, but a spe-
cimen is here and there domesticated. The sea ones
sometimes come on the shores, but very rarely.
Q. What are the principal characters of the chelo-
nians or chelonia?
A. They will be more particularly mentioned after-
wards, but the leading ones are a round or ova! body,
arched above, and covered with a shell, four feet, and
the mouth destitute of teeth.
Q. Are any of this order hurtful or dangerous to
man?
A. Many of them are highly useful, but not one is
possessed of any means of doing the slightest injury.
Q. What is the common name of the saurians or
sauria?
A. Sauria is the Greek name of a lizard (Σaugos)
which means an animal with a tail, or a long tail.
Q. What are the principal characters ?
A. The body is generally more elongated than
in the tortoises, and destitute of shell; the toes have
claws, and the jaws are armed with teeth.
Q. Are any lizards natives of Britain ?
REPTILES.
7
A There is one, of which varieties are mentioned,
but somewhat obscurely.
Q. Are any of the order dangerous ?
A. Some of the larger ones are on account of their
bite, but none of them are poisonous.
Q. What is the common name of the ophidians or
ophidia?
A. It is the Greek name for serpents, or animals
without feet.
Q. What are their general characters ?
A. Their bodies are very long, and without feet,
and the jaws are furnished with teeth.
Q. Are there any other animals that resemble ser-
pents in form?
A. Eels have some external resemblance to ser-
pents, but eels are fishes, they have fins for swimming,
and they breathe in the water.
Q. Are any of them dangerous to men?
A. Some might perhaps be from their size and
strength, and others are from their poison; but by far
the greater number are perfectly harmless.
Q. Are any serpents natives of Britain ?
A. A few species, but with one exception these are
are quite harmless, and that one is not very for-
midable.
Q. What is the common name of the batracians or
batrachia?
A. It is named from (Bargaxos) the Greek name for
a frog.
Q. What are the general characters of the order?
A. The general characters are-the body naked
8
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
without any shell or scales, and the feet without claws;
but in many of their other characters they vary very
much.
Q. Are any of them dangerous to man?
A. Some of them are disliked on account of their
uncouth appearance, but none of them are in any de-
gree dangerous, and a few are useful.
CHAPTER II.
PHYSIOLOGY OF REPTILES.
Q. What is the meaning of the physiology of any
class of animals?
A. An explanation of the way in which the living
principle is modified in them as compared with other
animals.
SECTION I.-MOTION AND ITS ORGANS.
Q. What are the organs of motion in reptiles?
A. They are bones and muscles the same as in qua-
drupeds. In the large ones the bones are firm as in
quadrupeds; but in the smaller ones, as in the frog,
they are cartilaginous or flexible.
Q. What are the general characters of the skele-
ton?
A. The skull is always very small; the jaws are
often very large; the number of vertebræ, or divisions
in the back-bone, varies very much; and the other
parts of the skeleton vary with the habits of the
species.
REPTILES.
Q. What are the particular organs of motion in the
tortoises ?
A. The legs and feet, in the same manner as in quad-
rupeds; the head and tail also move; but the shell ad-
mits of very little motion in the back-bone and ribs. The
sea-tortoises, or turtles, which find their food chiefly
in the water, swim well, but can hardly be said to
walk, but rather shuffle along like seals; while the
land-tortoises walk with ease, though very slowly.
The paws of the sea-turtles, although they consist of a
number of bones, are united each in one general
covering.
Q. What are the characters of the divided paws?
A. The number of toes of which they consist,
varies from two to five; and the particular way in
which they are armed, is, as in the case of the warm-
blooded animals, adapted to the different functions it
has to perform, such as walking, climbing, or seizing
prey.
Q. What are the organs of motion among the sau-
rians?
A. They resemble those of quadrupeds, only, in
general, the legs are smaller in proportion to the
body, and they are not so well set on them. In some
the tail is prehensile, and assists the animal in climb-
ing trees; and others can leap to a considerable dis-
tance.
Q. As the serpents have no feet, what are their
means of motion ?
A In serpents, the scales and ribs answer nearly the
same purposes as feet do in other animals; and these,
with the great power which they have of bending and
10
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
stretching the back-bone, are their means of mo-
tion.
Q. How do these produce motion?
A. The scales are imbricated, or tiled over each
other, with all the exposed edges turned towards the
tail of the animal; and there is machinery connected
with them, by means of which the edges may be raised
or laid flat, or the scales brought nearer each other, or
moved further asunder. The animal has also the
power of raising its flexible body into one or more
arches. Each arch is formed by the scales towards
the fore part taking hold of the ground, in which those
that are attached to the ribs are moved by these, as
feet are by legs. The raising up to form the arch,
draws forward the rest of the body. The scales at
the hinder part of the arch are then elevated, and take
hold of the ground, while the arch is flattened, by
which means the fore part of the body is advanced;
and the moving forces are so many, that the motion is
constantly going on in some part of the animal, so that
it has the appearance of gliding.
Q. Then the motions of the back-bone and the
scales answer the same purposes as those of feet?
A. They do, and very effectual and active feet too.
The back-bone twists in every direction, so that they
can glide over unequal surfaces, climb trees, swim, and
perform almost any sort of motion.
Q. Can they leap?
A. Many of them can: by shortening the body,
laying hold with the scales near the tail, and suddenly
stretching it, they are projected like an arrow.
Q. Have not some of the order peculiar contrivances
REPTILES.
11
on the feet, by means of which they can climb walls
and rocks?
A. Yes; some of the lizards have suckers on their
feet, by means of which they can run, not up walls
merely, but with their backs undermost, in the same
manner that flies do along the ceiling of a room.
Q. How does the sucker act?
A. Upon the very same principle that a stone can
be lifted by pressing against it a moistened piece of
leather, with a string fastened to the centre of it. The
sucker is pressed air-tight, and then, as the leg pulls
by the centre, just as the string pulls the centre of
the leather, the pressure of the air keeps the sucker
firm.
Q. And how is it detached?
A. The middle is pressed down by the animal, and
the sides raised, by which means the air gets below it.
Q. Are those operations performed every time that
the lizard or the fly lifts a foot?
A. They are; and they are done so rapidly, that
they do not appear to occupy any time. The motions.
of some of these creatures are far more curious than
those of the quadrupeds, more especially the serpents,
which, though apparently destitute of feet, are, by
means of their scales, made feet all over.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the ribs of ser-
pents, which enable them to act as feet or legs?
A. There is. They are articulated to the back-bone
by ball-and-socket joints, having more resemblance to
the articulations of limbs than to those of the ribs of
the mammalia; and the lower ends are fastened, each
singly, to a scale, and not to a breast-bone.
12
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the skeletons of
frogs ?
A. Yes, they are without ribs, and thus they can di-
late their sides the whole length.
Q. Any thing peculiar in their motions ?
A. They are bad walkers; but they jump-the mo-
tion best fitted for enabling them to catch flies and
other insects.
SECTION II.-SENSES OF REPTILES.
Q. What particular part of the animal structure is
the seat of sensation?
A. The brain, and its continuation in the spinal
cord and the nerves.
Q. Are these abundant in reptiles?
A. They are much less so than in the warm-blooded
animals. In some of them, as in the turtle, the brain
is very small; in others, as the frog, it is much larger.
Q. Have they the five senses, the same as the warm-
blooded animals?
A. So it is understood; but some of them are sup-
posed to be much more acute than the others.
Q. What is the organ of taste?
A. A tongue, as in man and quadrupeds; but it
varies very much. In turtles and crocodiles it is
small and hardly moveable, while in some lizards it
can be darted rapidly to a considerable extent beyond
the mouth.
Q. What are the organs of smelling?
A. Nostrils, the same as in the mammalia; but
these are so small and imperfect, that there is every
REPTILES.
15
..
reason to believe that they are nearly insensible to
smell.
Q. What are the organs of hearing?
#
A. With the exception of the crocodiles, (and they
have but merely rudiments,) there are no external
cars among reptiles; but they have the internal or-
gans, though varied in the different species. It is pro-
bable that, in some of them at least, the opening for
hearing is that of the mouth, and that the sense is not
very acute.
Q. Are their eyes perfect?
A. In general they are remarkably so.
Sight ap-
pears to be the important sense with them; and many
of them have peculiar contrivances for the eyes.
Q. What are the forms of the eyes?
A. The pupils or openings are in some, as in the
crocodile, elongated vertically, as in the cat; in frogs,
and in some lizards, it is four-cornered; and in tor-
toises, common lizards, and some others, it is round.
In many reptiles the lens of the eyes resembles that of
fishes in being nearly spherical.
Q. What are the additional apparatus in the eyes of
reptiles ?
A. Many of them have a third eyelid, as in birds,
which can be brought rapidly over the eye, while the
common eyelids are not moved; and many lizards
have one eyelid that draws over the eye like a purse,
or expands and contracts all round.
SECTION III.-NOURISHMENT OF REPTILES.
Q. Is there any difference between the mode of
C
14
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
supplying nourishment in reptiles and in quadru-
peds?
A. There is. No reptile has any cheek-teeth, or
any other apparatus for chewing or masticating its
food.
Q. What, then, are the different divisions in their
nourishment.
A. Seizing their food, swallowing it, and digest-
ing it.
Q. What are the means of seizing their food?
A. Jaws, which have frequently more varied and
powerful motions than those of the mammalia, and
which are sometimes armed with teeth, and some-
times not.
Q. What are the peculiarities of motion?
A. Both jaws are moveable. This is peculiarly the
case with the crocodiles, in which the lower jaw has a
motion, and the upper a motion on the under, so that
the gape opens both ways, and approaches to a straight
line, while the jaws close with twice the rapidity, and
bite with twice the force that they would if only one
of them moved.*
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the mouth of the
tortoises ?
A. Their jaws are armed with horny mandibles,
something after the manner of hoofs. These are in
some species notched, so as to have some resemblance
to teeth, though no tortoise has teeth.
Q. What motion have these?
A. Only the lower jaw moves. The mandibles close
* M. Geoffrey, Annals du Museum, ii. p. 39.
REPTILES.
15
Jahve ve sebep (glu ve belt redko at umesto
over each other, like a box; and the force with which
they shut is so great that a turtle can tear asunder a
thick rope. Its jaws once closed, cannot be opened;
and the muscles continue in action for hours after the
head is cut off.
Q. Have all the saurians teeth?
A. They have all teeth in both jaws, and some also
on the palate. Those teeth are pointed, and gene-
rally turned backward. They are adapted for holding,
and those upon the palate also assist in the operation
of swallowing.
Q. What are the characters of the mouths of the
batracians?
A. The salamanders have teeth in both jaws; the
frogs have none in the under jaw, and the toads have
none in either; but they all have teeth on the palate.
Their jaws also consist of a number of bones, and are
adapted for closing with great rapidity.
Q. What means have the serpents for seizing their
prey?
A. The larger ones watch in trees and other places,
where they drop or spring upon their prey, and crush
it in the folds or coils of their bodies. The smaller
ones seize it with their teeth.
Q. How many kinds of teeth have they?
A. They have two kinds: common teeth, of which
they have usually one row in the under jaw and two
rows above, the innermost being on the palate. All these
are pointed toward the throat. They have also poi-
son-teeth or fangs, which are sometimes, though im-
properly, called stings.
Q. What are these like?
C 2
16
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. They are moveable teeth, placed one on each
side of the upper jaw, and each has a tube or hollow
in the middle, which opens near the point. This tube
is connected with a bag that contains the poison; and
when the animal bites, the fangs are erected, and the
poison passes through the opening into the wound.
Q. If those teeth are destroyed without destroying
the apparatus, would the serpent be capable of inflict-
ing a poisonous bite afterwards?
A. That is not exactly known. Reptiles have the
power of reproducing many parts of their bodies; and
there are the rudiments of tubes or grooves in other
teeth of poisonous serpents besides the fangs, but
whether there be any means by which these could
connect themselves with the poison has not been
ascertained.
Q. What sort of substance is the poison?
A. It resembles gum, and retains its noxious quali-
ties after it has been dried. The deadly nature of the
poison depends upon the species of serpent, the state
of vigour that it is in, the size and condition of the
animal bitten, and the part into which the poison is
introduced. If any considerable portion of the most
virulent poison be inserted into a large blood-vessel,
death very speedily ensues.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the swallowing
power of reptiles?
A. The most remarkable one is the extent to which
their throats expand?
Q. Which are the most remarkable in that re-
spect?
A. The serpents, some of which can swallow an
REPTILES.
17
animal two or three times the usual thickness of them-
selves.
Q. How can they accomplish that?
A. By the particular way in which the bones of the
jaws are united. There is a joint at the middle of
the lower jaw, and it is connected with the bones of
the head through the medium of other two bones.
The connection of the upper jaw with the head is
also loose, so that the whole circumference of the
mouth, dilated at the joinings, can be brought nearly
to one circular opening. The gullet is also con-
structed of a substance that admits of an almost un-
limited quantity of stretching.
Q. Is there the same power of swallowing in the
others?
A. No; but all the class have greater powers in
that way, than animals which divide or masticate their
food.
Q. What are the characters of the digestive powers
of reptiles?
A. As they do not masticate, or in any way pre-
pare the food in the mouth, the gastric juice, or
digestive fluid in the stomach must be very powerful.
The forms of the stomachs vary a good deal; but the
intestines are in general short.
Q. Do they all live upon animal food?
A. The greater part do; but the land chelonia live,
partly at least upon vegetables; and the sea ones, on
turtles, and partly upon sea-weeds, which they browse
by culling them with their horny jaws. The weeds
on which they live are called " turtle-grass.”
Q. Is the digestive process rapid?
C 3
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. In some instances it is not. Live animals that
have been swallowed by reptiles, have been found not
merely undissolved, but alive in their stomachs two or
three days after being swallowed.
Q. Are they voracious?
A. Some of them are very voracious; but they
have wonderful powers of living without food. Turtles
and tortoises have been known to live from ten to
eighteen months without eating any thing, even when
not torpid. Toads have lived for years without any;
and there have been instances of reptiles returning to
vitality after having been for long periods inclosed
in ice.
Q. Is there any other peculiarity in their abstinence
than its length of time?
A. Yes. When they are without food there is a
gradual diminution of their vitality. All their animal
powers diminish; but there is no corresponding waste
of substance. When a turtle is long kept in a fasting
state, it approaches torpidity, but the consistency of
the flesh is but little altered.
SECTION IV.-CIRCULATION OF REPTILES.
Q. Is there the same uniformity in the circulation
of the reptiles as the mammalia?
A. No. In the chelonia, the sauria, and the
ophidia, the heart is a sort of double, though the cir-
culation is not so completely divided into two systems
as in the warm-blooded animals, but in the batrachia,
the heart is single and very simple.
Q. Are there any differences between the blood of
REPTILES.
19
reptiles, and that of the mammalia and birds, besides
the former being cold and the latter warm?
A. Yes. The quantity of blood in reptiles is much
less in proportion; and though there be differences in
that respect in the different orders, the arterial blood
differs much less from that in the veins. In conse-
quence of the smaller quantity of blood, the muscles
or fleshy fibres of reptiles are much whiter than those
of the mammalia.
Q. What are the most remarkable consequences of
the slower circulation?
A. Unquestionably the most remarkable are the
reproduction of parts that have been wholly destroyed;
and tenacity of life.
Q. Which are some of the instances in which mem-
bers are reproduced?
A. In some of the lizards the tails are so slender
and brittle that they break off on being handled; and
in these cases a new tail, and in some instances two
new tails, are speedily produced from the stump. In
the common lizard of this country, or the water newt,
if a limb is cut off, the wound first bleeds, for a few
minutes; then the wound heals; then the rudiments
of a new limb make their appearance; and the limb
is perfected in a period varying from some months to
more than a year. In an experiment by Blumenbach,
in which the ball of the eye of a water newt had been
extracted, leaving only the optic nerve and part of the
membranes, the eyelids first closed, but in about a
year an eye perfect in all its parts was reproduced.
Q. You mentioned another result of the peculiar
circulation of reptiles?
20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Yes. Their tenacity of life under circumstances,
such as changes of heat and cold, by which the warm-
blooded animals would be destroyed.
Q. Is it true that any reptile, such as the salamander
of the vulgar, can live in fire?
A. That certainly is not true, but lizards and alli-
gators can live in hot springs, the temperature of
which is much higher than that of the air in the very
hottest countries, while frogs and newts after they
have become torpid, can endure cold more severe than
that which freezes water. Some reptiles too, have
been found to live for hours in spirits of wine, and
others in vessels wholly exhausted of air. Reptiles
too have borne some very cruel experiments: they
have lived after the brain has been taken out; and a
turtle has moved its limbs thirteen days after the head
has been cut off.
SECTION V.-BREATHING OF REPTILES.
Q. Then if reptiles have these powers of life so
much stronger than the warm-blooded animals, do
they breathe more in proportion?
A. No, they breathe less, and their lungs or organs
of respiration are much more simple.
Q. How do they differ from those of the warm-
blooded animals?
A. Instead of consisting of a vast number of cells
as those do, they rather resemble bags divided into
more or fewer parts by partitions according to the
order. These are much complicated, or consist of
the greatest number of parts in the tortoises, and are
REPTILES.
21
Tom prign Dega mesta
AS A GREEK E contender pakkanen 2 The AT
but ten in the frogs, but in all they are very simple, and
the parts into which they are divided are much larger
than those in the warm-blooded animals.
Q. Have they ever gills like fishes?
A. They never have gills like fishes; for they are
not like them furnished with peculiar bones, flaps,
and covers, which have proper motions, so that a
current of water passes only one way through them.
They hang loose on each side the neck, and though
the water passes probably only one way through
the fringes of the gills, it passes and repasses by the
mouth, and they do not respire it by the same regular
motions as fishes.
Q. Which of the reptiles have gills?
A. Young frogs have them while they are in the
tadpole state, live entirely in the water, and have no
feet; but as soon as the feet are formed the gills and
the finny tails are absorbed; the lungs are produced,
and the nature of the creature is changed from a
breather of water to a breather of air.
Q. Have any other reptiles gills, but the batracians
in their young or larvæ* state ?
A. They have been found also in the Siren and the
Proteus, two animals that will be mentioned in another
place; but of which the natural history is a little
obscure.
Q. How do those that have lungs breathe?
A. They take in air chiefly by the mouth in the act
of swallowing, they take it in very large portions at a
time, so that the operation is slow.
* See Catechism of Entomology.
22
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Can they suspend their breathing?
A. Reptiles have very wonderful powers of suspend-
ing all their faculties without losing the ultimate use
of them; and the suspension of one important func-
tion is always attended by the diminution if not the
suspension of the rest. But when the breathing is
suspended the blood may still circulate in part, as
there are direct communications between the cavities
of the heart, by means of which the blood can circu-
late without passing through the lungs, which is not
the case in the warm-blooded animals.
Q. Are there any instances in which reptiles have
lived for a considerable time without respiration ?
A. Turtles have lived for a month with their
mouths closely tied up, and their nostrils stopped
with wax, so that they could not breathe; and there
are well authenticated instances of live toads being
found imbedded in the trunks of trees, and in blocks
of stone, where they must have existed without
breathing for many years.
Q. What changes do reptiles produce on the air
which they breathe?
A. The very same in nature, though not in degree,
as the warm-blooded animals: the oxygen of the air
is consumed, and given out again, united with char-
coal, in the form of carbonic acid.
Q. Then reptiles cannot live in air that does not
contain oxygen
?
A. They cannot live very long in such air: but
they can do so much longer than the warm-blooded
animals, because they can suspend their respiration.
Q. As reptiles thus evidently breathe for the same
REPTILES.
23
purpose as the warm-blooded animals, do they not,
like them, generate, or produce heat?
A. They do; but in very trifling quantity. The
body of a live frog is but very little warmer than the
air, even on a moderately cold day.
Q. Have reptiles any voice?
A. It is probable that all animals that have lungs
and breathe by the throat, have voice of some kind or
other. Every body is familiar with the voice of
frogs; serpents hiss; some of the saurians whistle;
others, such as the crocodile, roar like thunder, tur-
tles moan and sigh, and also hiss. Indeed there are,
at most, only one or two species, that have not been
heard to make some peculiar sound.
Q. What is to be inferred from that?
A. That though they have little internal appear-
ance of ears, their sense of hearing is, perhaps, more
acute than might be supposed.
SECTION VI.-COVERINGS OF REPTILES.
Q. Are there any peculiarities in the coverings of
reptiles?
A. There are many. In some instances they are
covered with skin, resembling that of other animals;
in others they have scales; and in others, again, they
have large plates, generally made up of smaller ones,
to which the name of shell is given.
Q. Of what are the scales and crusts, or shells of
reptiles composed?
A. Of a substance resembling horn, and not con-
taining any salts of lime, like the shells properly so
24
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
called, so that it is a very tough substance, and diffi-
cult to break.
Q. Which are most remarkable for this horny co-
vering?
A. The chelonians, which all have two plates, more
or less horny, and united to each other in the diffe-
rent species; the one covering the upper part, and
called the shield, or carapace; the other, covering the
lower part, called the breast-plate, or plastron; and
answering the same purpose as the sternum or breast-
bone in the mammalia.
Q. Do these plates serve in place of skin?
A. No. The animals have a skin under them, and
they themselves are covered by an epidermis, or cu-
ticle.
Q. When the skin is not covered by shields of this
description, has it any defence?
A. In the batracians, it is generally naked, and
moist, or clammy; but in the saurians and the ophi-
dians, there are generally scales, of different forms and
sizes, and in different arrangements in the several
species.
Q. Do they ever change their skins ?
A. The chelonians do not; but the saurians and
batracians sometimes do, more especially when they
are young, and just after they have come out of their
winter interments. They lose the old cuticle gradu-
ally, however.
Q. What is the case with the ophidians?
A. They cast their skins regularly, and the whole
is renewed at once.
Q. Do they cast the entire skin?
REPTILES.
25
A. They do not. The corium, or leathery part of
the skin, is more intimately connected with the numc-
rous muscles under it, than in any other animal; and
as the moving forces of the animals (those muscles)
are under the skin, and the instruments of motion or
scales without it, the skin is never cast, it is only the
cuticle or external membrane; and the necessity for
its removal appears to be its becoming too dry and
stiff for the numerous and rapid movements of the
parts under it.
Q. Do the skins of reptiles secrete, or give out any
offensive substances?
A. The crocodiles have apparatus on the lower
jaw, which give out a substance that smells like musk.
Some of the batracians, as salamanders and toads,
when irritated, become covered with an acrid, but not
a poisonous fluid; and some of the saurians, as the
geckos, secrete a venomous liquor between the toes,
SECTION VII.-HYBERNATION OF REFtiles.
Q. You mentioned that reptiles became torpid
during the cold?
A. They do. It was mentioned that, in them, the
principle of life is much more passive than in the
warm-blooded animals; and that they are, therefore,
more under the influence of the common laws of mat-
ter. The heat, which fatigues and exhausts the warm-
blooded animals, gives peculiar vigour and activity to
reptiles; and as the heat diminishes by the approach
of winter, they become inactive, and all their func-
tions are nearly suspended, which state of repose is
called hybernation or wintering.
D
26
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q In what places do they take up their winter
quarters ?
A. Turtles and water tortoises bury themselves in
the sand and mud at the bottom of water; land ones
dig down into the earth, and cover themselves to a
greater or less depth; crocodiles hide themselves in
the sand banks; other saurians bury themselves in
natural holes, or holes made by themselves; while
the batracians creep into all sorts of caverns and cran-
nies, about rocks, walls, and other places of shelter,
and some of them burrow in the walls, and under and
near the hearths of mud-cottages, and other places
where they can enjoy artificial heat.
Q. Do these hybernations proceed entirely from
cold?
L
A. It does not appear that they do altogether; for
it takes place even in the warmest climates, where the
temperature is always warm, and land-tortoises have
been found to hybernate for some weeks, even when
kept in rooms where constant fires were burning.
When they are exposed to warmth, the period of
hybernation is not so long, however, as when they
are exposed to cold.
Q. What are the appearances that precede the
hybernation ?
A. The circulation and breathing of the animals are
suspended, they cease to eat, and become colder than
when they are in a state of activity.
Q. What state are they in during the hybernation ?
A. It must be considered as a state of profound
sleep, but it is a sleep that is death-like, as they are
utterly insensible, and cannot be roused from it by
REPTILES.
27
any treatment.
They may be cut, torn, or even
broken in pieces, without making the least motion, or
giving the slightest evidence that they are pained by
the treatment, or have any feeling whatever of it.
Q. Does it differ from the hybernation of bears,
marmots, and other mammalia that are subject to
periods of torpor ?
A. It does. During the hyhernation of the mam-
malia, there is a waste of substance-a decay of the
fat which they acquire previous to passing into the
torpid state, and also a waste and softening of the
muscles; but in reptiles there seems a total suspension
of action, both involuntary and voluntary, and when
they return again to the living world, they are very
little diminished in weight.
SECTION VIII.-REPRODUCTION OF REPTILES.
Q. Are all the species of reptiles in two sexes, male
and female ?
A. So far as observation has gone, they are.
Q. How are the young produced?
A. They are all produced from eggs, and therefore
they all belong to what may be called oviparous, or
egg-producing animals; but some of them hatch their
eggs internally, and the young are brought forth alive,
and then are called oviviparous, or live-egg producing.
Q. How are these eggs hatched?
A. In general by the heat of the atmosphere, as-
sisted by that of the sand or other substance in
which they are buried by the parent. The eggs of
frogs bear a considerable resemblance to the spawn of
D 2
28
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
fishes, and are deposited in the water, in which the
young ones are to live, during the first period of their
existence. Those eggs can bear to be frozen without
having their vitality destroyed.
Q. Are the eggs of all the batracians of this des-
cription?
A. No. Those of the salamanders are brought
forth entire, but all the batracians pass through seve-
ral forms of existence, between the egg and the per-
fect, or mature animal.
Q. Are the eggs generally in masses, like those of
frogs?
A. No; that is the case only with frogs and toads.
The eggs of the others are detached, generally round,
covered with a shell of salts of lime, like the eggs of
birds, or with a membrane not unlike that which
lines the shell of a pullet's egg, but generally of a
firmer texture. The internal parts of the more per-
fect eggs, are not unlike those in the eggs of birds, but
the albumen or white, does not coagulate or become
firm by heat.
Q. Are the eggs eatable?
A. Those of the chelonians are, even in those
species where the flesh of the animal occasions
diseases: and it is reported that those of the croco-
dile are equally wholesome.
REPTILES.
29
CHAPTER III.
CHELONIAN REPTILES.
Q. You mentioned already, that the chief distinc-
tion of this order is the shell, from which the head,
tail, and limbs project, and the absence of teeth, the
place of which is supplied by horny jaws. Have you
any
further observations to make?
A. The form of the pieces of which the shield or
back-plate is composed, their texture, and the manner
in which they are joined, are all external characters,
by which the different species are distinguished.
Q. What are the different parts of the shield?
A. They are the disc, or middle, which generally
consists of thirteen plates or pieces, and the verte-
bral plates at the sides, which vary from twenty-one to
twenty-five.
Q. What are the particulars in the form of the
plates ?
A. If the individual plates be raised in the middle,
they are said to be carinated, or keeled; if they be
the reverse, or hollowed in the middle, they are said
to be furrowed; if their edges lie upon each other, as
those of the tiles do on the roof of a house, they are
said to be imbricated, and if they be toothed at the
edges, they are called cerrated. If the breast-plate
has a sort of joint in the middle, and can shut against
both ends of the shield, the animal being wholly with-
in, they are called box-tortoises; and if the shell, or
part of it, be flexible, like leather (corium), they are
called coriaccous, or soft.
D 3
30
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the divisions of the chelonians?
A. They are divided into two genera, Chelonia, or
turtles, and Testudo or tortoises.
I. TURTLES.
Q. What are the characters of the turtles ?
A. They have the feet flattened like oars, the toes
united, and flat nails in the margin; they are the
largest of the order-some of them weigh 700 or 800
pounds; they all inhabit the sea, and feed upon sea-
weeds and the small animals that are found among
them; they come on shore to deposit their eggs,
but they walk very slowly and with difficulty.
Q. How many species of turtles are there?
A. There are at least six, that have been ascer-
tained, and there are probably one or two more,
though different describers have given different names
to the same species; the species are-
1. C. Mydas, the green turtle.
2. C. Rugosa, the furrowed or wrinkled turtle,
which have the body of the shield chestnut, and the
edges yellow, and each plate marked with three trans-
verse black furrows.
3. C. Caretta, the hawks-bill turtle.
4. C. Cepediana, the cepedian turtle, which has the
feet
very thin and only one nail on each.
5. C. Caouauna, the Mediterranean or logger-head
turtle.
6. C. Coriacea, the leather-coated turtle.
Q. Of what seas are these inhabitants?
A. Of the tropical seas generally, but the Caou-
REPTILES.
31
auna is often found in the Mediterranean, and some-
times in the seas farther to the north.
Q. Is there any particular quality for which the
green turtle is recommended?
A. Yes, it is the one the flesh and fat of which are
are so much esteemed as articles of luxury in Europe,
and which are so valuable as articles of common food
in the tropical parts of all the oceans-the Atlantic,
the Indian, and the Pacific.
Q. Can you describe it?
A. A full grown green turtle is about six or seven
feet long, from the nose to the tail, from three to four
feet in breadth, and nearly the same in thickness at
the middle part of the body. The body is of an oval
figure. There are thirty plates in the shields, which
are neither carinated nor imbricated: they are thin
and united by cartilage. The centre of the back is
rather flat, so that when laid on its back on land, the
animal cannot turn itself; the head is rather large,
the tail short and thick, the feet long and furnished
with two claws upon each, but they are better fitted
for swimming than for motion upon land. One of
the size mentioned, will weigh altogether about 800
pounds.
Q. Why is it called the green turtle-is that its
colour?
A. No, the colour, when healthy and in the water,
is a bright brown with yellow spots, though it deepens
*The head, neck, feet, and tail, are covered with scales.
32
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
as it dries. It is called the green turtle from the co-
lour of the fat.
Q. What are its localities and its habits?
A. It is found in great abundance on the shores,
and in the mouths of the great rivers, in the East and
West Indies, and on the shores especially of the
northern part of New Scotland. It swims very rapidly
with the head and part of the shell above water, but
can dive to the bottom when danger threatens it
though as it is very nearly the same weight as water
it goes rather slowly to the bottom. It sometimes
leaves the water and goes into the moist and shady
woods in unfrequented places.
;
Q. On what does it feed?
A. Upon different species of sea-weed, and also
upon the mollusca and insects that are abundant in
the tropical seas. The latter it swallows entire, but
it bites off the former with its horny jaws.
Q. Is it a solitary or a social animal ?
A. It is not, strictly speaking, either one or the
other. Reptiles have few of those attachments which
we find among the warmer blooded animals; and
though turtles are generally found in numbers at the
same place, they do not appear to heed each other
very much, if at all.
Q. Is there any time when turtles frequent the
shores ?
A. Yes, they come to the shore in numbers to
deposit their eggs in the sand; the time of their doing
that varies with the latitude, but the average time is
about the month of April.
REPTILES.
55
Q. Do they always deposit their eggs on land?
A. Invariably, and in places where they can find
dry sand to cover them; but they are never far from
the high-water mark.
Q. What sort of nest does the turtle form for her
young?
A. She scrapes a hole in the sand about two feet
in depth, into which she deposits about one hundred
eggs, and then covers them with sand.
Q. Does one female lay as many as one hundred
eggs in one season?
A. She lays several hundreds, but there are only
about one hundred in one hatch. The hatches are
laid by the same female at the distance of about two
weeks, so that the laying season lasts for about two
months, and after it is over the turtles retire, first to
the deep water and then to their winter quarters.
Q. How long do the eggs require to hatch?
A. About three weeks, when the weather is mode-
rately warm.
Q. What are the young like when they first make
their appearance?
A. They have the shape of turtles, but a soft cover-
ing instead of a shell.
Q. What do they eat at first?
A. Some of the soft productions of the sea; for
they make directly for the water, the instant that they
are out of the shell.
Q. Then as the number of eggs laid by a single
female is so great, the green turtle must be very nu-
merous?
A. There are considerable numbers of them, but it
34
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
is part of the economy of nature, that where any
thing, either animal or vegetable, is produced in
great abundance, the means of destroying keep pace
with it.
Q. What are the particular means of destruction in
the case of the young turtle?
A. Their greatest destroyers are cormorants and
other large birds, which watch the beaches during the
whole season from May till September. These de-
stroy a very great number of young turtles, and the
alligators and other predatory inhabitants of the
waters, destroy a good many more.
Q. Does man capture many?
A. Not in that young state. The eggs, which are
round, about the size of a billiard ball and covered
with a skin like parchment, are very much sought after,
as when they are new they have a good deal of the
musky flavour of turtle in high condition, and are
particularly wholesome and nutritious.
Q. Are the large ones often captured ?
A. Yes, the places which they frequent, are resorted
to as regular fishing-grounds; and there are two
modes of catching them, on the shore and in the
water.
Q. What is the usual mode on shore?
A. The usual way is to turn them on their backs,
which often requires the assistance of several men;
when so turned they cannot escape; and thus when
as many as are wanted or can be procured, are turned,
ropes are fastened to them and they are dragged
away, their own shields serving as sledges.
Q. And the quantity thus found is considerable?
REPTILES.
55
A. It is; the flesh of turtles is sold cheaper in most
of the West India markets, than that of land animals.
Q. What is the mode of capturing them in the
water?
A. The usual mode is what is called "pegging,"
and it is worthy of remark, that it is practised nearly
in the same manner by civilized nations and by
savages, the chief difference being that the former
use iron weapons and the latter not.
Q. What is the form of the weapon?
A. A spike or peg, barbed, that it may retain its
hold, is fastened loosely to a pole; and either the
pole or some other piece of light wood, is fastened
to the peg by a string or otherwise. The peg is struck
into the turtle, and disengages from the pole; but the
float remains and at once impedes the progress of the
turtle and prevents it from sinking.
Q. Is any part of the green turtle of value, except
the flesh ?
A. No, the shell is of little use; though Ælian
mentions that the nations of the east, in former times,
made canoes of the shields of turtles.
Q. Was turtle known in ancient times?
A. Yes, turtle as an article of luxury for the tables
of the great, is mentioned as part of the ancient com-
merce of India.
Q. Is any other species of turtle of importance, as
an article of commerce?
A. Yes, the hawksbill turtle is even more largely an
article of commerce than the green turtle. The
plates of the shields of it, form the well-known and
beautiful substance-" tortoise-shell."
36
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the characters of that species?
A. It is smaller than the green turtle, more elon-
gated, the head smaller, the upper mandible project-
ing forward over the other, and covered, so that the
snout and gape have altogether some resemblance to
the beak of a hawk, whence the common English
name. The feet, especially the fore ones, are larger
than in the green turtle: and it is altogether a more
active and formidable animal. It defends itself when
attacked, and bites with great force.
Q. Is it captured in the same manner as the other?
A. No, it cannot be made sure of by turning, be-
cause the greater roundness of the back, length of the
legs, and its activity, enables it to recover its position;
and its proneness to bite is such, that it is not quite
safe to go near it while alive.
Q. What is the weight of the hawksbill turtle?
A. Very seldom more than 300 pounds, and not
often so much.
Q. What is the form of the shield?
A. It is a little heart-shaped, being rather pointed
behind, and having a sort of notch at the neck. The
disc or valuable part consists of thirteen plates, which
are imbricated, curvated, and partially carinated; they
are of firm texture, beautifully clouded, take a fine
polish, and do not warp with heat, or split as readily
as bone.
Q. What quantity of shell may be in one specimen ?
A. Six or eight pounds is an average quantity.
Q. And the animal is killed for that?
A. In general it is; but the Malays of the islands
in the Indian seas, who have long been tortoise-shell
REPTILES.
57
merchants, are said to have a method of detaching
the plates from the animal while alive, and returning
it again into the sea, where they are speedily repro-
duced.
Q. Of what seas is it a native?
A. Of the same seas as the green turtle; indeed,
it is more widely diffused and more plentiful. Hawks-
bill turtle are got in great numbers near the Bri-
tish settlement of Belise in Honduras; but the most
beautifully coloured is said to come from the In-
dian Seas.
Q. Has tortoise-shell been long used?
A. The Romans had it from the east in large quan-
tities, and it was known there long before their time.
Q. Is the shell-turtle used for food?
A. The eggs are very good, as indeed those of all
the turtles are, but the flesh is rank-tasted and not
wholesome.
Q. What are the peculiarities of the loggerhead
turtle ?
A. It is a large animal, larger even than the green ;
the head is large, the mandibles hard and strong, the
bite very powerful, and the disposition very fierce.
Q. Of what seas is it a native?
A. Its range is wider than that of any of the other
turtles, as it is by no means unfrequent in the Medi-
terranean, especially on the coasts of Sicily and
Sardinia. It is more abundant however in the tropi-
cal seas, and has been met with sleeping on the sur-
face in the middle of the Atlantic.
Q. On what does it feed?
A. It feeds a good deal upon shell-fish, the shells of
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
which it can easily break with its mandibles, and it
also feeds upon young crocodiles.
Q. Has it a strong shell?
A. It is tough and not easily torn, but too thin for
being of much use in the arts, although it has some-
times been used in cabinet work.
Q. Is the flesh eatable?
A. It has not the same tendency to produce disease
as that of the hawksbill turtle, but it is harsh and dis-
agreeable, and eaten only by the poorer classes of the
people. When in good condition it affords a consi-
derable quantity of oil.
2. TORTOISES.
Q. Are the tortoises more numerous than the
turtles?
A. They are; and they vary much more in their
sizes, their localities, and their habits.
Q. What are the general characters of the tor-
toises?
A. The tortoises are in general much smaller; they
are better walkers, and they have a claw upon each
toe, whether the toes be enveloped in one covering or
separate.
Q. How many species are there?
A. There are upwards of fifty.
Q. Do they inhabit the land or the water?
A They can exist in either, but the greater number
live chiefly in the water. There are about thirty-four
water species, and half the number of land ones.
Q. Do the water tortoises inhabit the sea?
A. No; they are inhabitants of fresh water.
¿
39
REPTILES.
Q. Have they all horny shells?
A. The majority have, but there are some that
have leathery coverings resembling those of the cori-
aceous turtle ?
Q. How then are they distinguished from that?
A. The tortoises are not found in the sea; they are
smaller than the coriaceous turtle, and they have
sharp claws, while the feet of that are formed like fins.
The body of the coriaceous turtle is covered with a
sh ll, over which it has the leathery envelope: that
of the tortoise has the shield hard in the middle and
soft and pliable like leather towards the sides.
Q. Which tortoise is it that has a covering resem-
bling that of the leathery turtle?
A. The fierce tortoise, testudino ferox, which gets
its name from the boldness with which it seizes its
prey.
Q. Where is it found?
A. Only in America, and there chiefly in the rivers
and fresh water lakes of Carolina and Florida, where
it lurks in the mud or among the aquatic plants. It
catches its prey, which consists of young aligators and
small animals, by darting out its long neck with great
rapidity, and when it is assailed, it rises on its hind
feet and darts forward, and if it takes hold, it does not
quit till after the head is cut off.
Q. Is it of any use?
A. Yes; its flesh is not inferior either in flavour or
wholesomeness to that of the green turtle.
Q. Does it grow to any considerable size?
A. Not nearly to the same size as the turtles. It is
E 2
40
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
seldom, if ever, found weighing more than seventy
pounds.
Q Are any fresh-water tortoises natives of Europe?
A. There are at least two, the yellow tortoise, tes-
tudo Alava, and the mud tortoise, testudo lutaria.
Q. What is the appearance of the yellow tortoise?
A. It is rather small, often not exceeding eight
inches in length. It is oval, rather flattened, and of a
brown colour, with yellow dots and lines radiated on
each plate of the shield.
Q. In what parts of Europe is it found?
A. Chiefly in the eastern parts of the continent,
from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the
Baltic. In France it is very rare, and it is not found
at all in Britain. It lives in water that is muddy, and
feeds upon insects, larvæ, and fishes.
Q. It it used for food?
A. It is sometimes met with in the German mar-
kets, and the eggs, which are about the size of those of
a pigeon, may be eaten.
Q. What are the characters of the mud tortoise?
A. It is smaller than the yellow tortoise, of a black-
ish brown colour, the tail is half the length of the
shield, and as the animal carries it straight out when
it walks, the ancients sometimes called it the water
rat.
Q. In which parts of Europe is it most abundant?
A. In the southern parts, where it is very plentiful
in muddy waters. It feeds on worms, snails, and fish,
and is often very destructive in fish-ponds, not only
for what it actually kills, but for what it bites and
mangles.
REPTILES.
41
Q. Does it ever visit the land?
A. Very seldom, except for the purpose of deposit-
ing its eggs, though it can walk much better on land
than some others of the genus.
Q. Could the mud tortoise be made of any use?
A. It might keep gardens clear of snails and other
vermin, as it may be tamed, or at any rate familiarized
without much difficulty; but it could not be kept in
any place in which there was not a pond of water.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the young of the
mud tortoise ?
A. When they first appear they are very small, not
exceeding an inch in dimensions, and they have three.
prominent ridges on the back, which are obliterated
when they come to maturity.
Q. Are any of the land tortoises natives of Europe?
A. Yes; testudina Græca, the Greek tortoise, or
common land tortoise.
Q. Is it a large species ?
A. No. It seldom exceeds ten inches in length.
It is oval; the shield is very convex, and it is broader
behind than before. It is a native of the warmer parts
of Europe, and also of more torrid climates; but it
hybernates both in its warmer localities and in its
colder; it begins its annual sepulture in October, and
digs its winter habitation to the depth of about two
feet. In doing so its motions are very slow, but they
are very incessant; and after it has gone to some
depth the earth is thrown upon its back, so that it
sinks the better part in absolute concealment. It
makes its appearance again in April.
Q. What are its favourite haunts?
E 3
42
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Dry places, but shady, such as woods.
Q When are the young produced.
A. The eggs are deposited in the ground, about the
end of June; they seldom exceed four or five; and
the young make their appearance in September, at
which time they are not larger than walnut-shells.
CHAPTER. IV.
SAURIAN REPTILES.
Q. ARE the saurian reptiles very numerous ?
A. They are very numerous, and they differ more
in their sizes, appearances, and habits, than any other
order of living creatures.
Q What are their common characters?
A. They have the same heart, circulation, and
breathing as the chelonians; they have generally four
feet; their jaws are armed with seizing teeth, their
toes generally have claws; they have tails more or less
elongated: they are covered with horny scales, though
sometime these are so small that they resemble mere
points. They all lay eggs, and the young, when they
come out of the eggs, have the same form that they
are to retain for life. Generally speaking, they are
more rapid in their motions than the chelonia, and
they are understood to be shorter lived.
Q. Of what parts of the world are they natives ?
A. The greater number are found only in the warm
countries, but there are a few small species that are
met with in cold, or at least, in temperate regions.
Q. Do they inhabit the land or the water?
REPTILES.
43
*****DWAWAD plantsfaadud.
anithat the path to
A. Some inhabit waters, generally fresh water,
others are met with only in dry and sunny places, and
some again live mostly in trees.
Q. Into how many genera are they divided?
A. Into about sixteen genera, but these contain
very many species, and some of them may be divided
into sub-genera.
Q. Which is the first genus ?
A. That which includes the most formidable ani-
mals, is the genus CROCODILUS, which contains all the
animals to which the name of crocodile is given in
common language.
Q. What are the generic characters ?
A. The head is very broad and flat, the gape wide,
and the teeth formidable, but the tongue is small, and
adheres to the under jaw; the back and belly are co-
vered with large horny plates, the tail is much com-
pressed, or flattened, and armed on the upper part
with two rows of scales, which stand up like the teeth
of saws, but gradually approach each other, so as to
form only one at the tip of the tail. They all have
four strong feet, of which the hinder ones are more cr
less webbed, and have claws only upon three of the
toes. They live chiefly in the water, but they can also
live and walk readily upon land. The stiff articula-
tion of the back-bone, especially the neck part, renders
it difficult for them to turn.
Q. What are their dimensions?
A. These vary with the species, and yet more with
the age of the individuals. The length is from four or
five inches in the young, to as much as thirty feet in
the old.
Q. How are they produced?
44
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. From eggs that have hard shells, and are about
the size of those of a goose. The female crocodiles
do not, as is the case with many of the reptiles, wholly
abandon their young: they watch, at least partially, the
places where the eggs are during the hatching, and
also tend the young ones for a little time after they
have taken to the water.
Q. What are the sub-divisions, or sub-genera of
crocodiles ?
A. They are crocodiles, properly so called; gavials,
or long-muzzled crocodiles, and caimans, or blunt-
nosed.
Q. What are the characters of the crocodile pro-
perly so called?
A. The muzzle is long and flat, one tooth on each
side of the under jaw locks into a groove in the upper
one, so that when it once seizes hold, it does not quit;
there are six keeled plates on the neck, and the ani-
mal is more voracious and more indiscriminate in its
feeding, than any other of the genus. The eggs are
larger than those of any of the others, and probably
the animal itself grows to a larger size.
Q. Where is it found?
A. In the Nile, and the other great rivers of Africa,
and probably also in India, but there are varieties, if
not different species. It lies in wait for animals when
they come to drink, drags them under the water, and
drowns them, but is understood not to eat them till
they have began to putrify.
Q. Are all the stories that are told about crocodiles
worthy of belief?
A. The crocodile is a very formidable creature, cer-
REPTILES.
45
tainly, but there are fables told of all the more pow-
erful and voracious animals.
Q. In what do the gavials differ from the croco-
diles?
A. The chief difference is in the muzzle, which is
longer, more slender, and nearly cylindrical.
Q. Where is the gavial found?
A. The best known species is found in the large
and muddy rivers of India, chiefly in the Ganges. It
feeds chiefly upon fish, and is not so dangerous to
land animals, or to man, as the crocodile. There is
some confusion about the sub-genera of crocodiles, as
that which is called a crocodile by one naturalist, is
called a gavial, or a caiman, by others.
Q. What are the characters of the caimans?
A. The caimans, which are also called alligators,
have the snout broad and flat, and the fourth tooth
on each side of the lower jaw, fits into a hole or
cavity in the upper; the carinated plates on the neck
are more numerous, but smaller, and the eggs also are
much smaller.
Q. Of what countries is the caiman a native ?
A. Chiefly of the rivers in the warm parts of Ame-
rica?
Q. What is the second genus?
A. Dracena, the dragon, of which there is only one
species, a land animal, found only in South America,
and there chiefly in Guiana. The body has something
of the shape of the crocodile, but it is much more
flexible, and the length never exceeds six feet; the
toes are long, detached from each other, and have
46
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
claws equally well adapted for climbing and burrow-
ing. The flesh of the dragon is eaten.
Q. Has the dragon any of those formidable qua-
lities of which we read in books?
A. It has not any of them; but is rather a timid
animal.
Q. On what does it feed?
A. On the insects which are abundant on the banks
of the rivers and sides of the marshes in South Ame-
rica
Q. Which is its most formidable enemy?
A. The caiman, the animal that it most nearly
resembles in form.
Q. By what means does it escape from that for-
midable enemy?
A By climbing the nearest tree.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar about the teeth of
the dragon?
A. They are rather peculiar for the class to which
it belongs; the back teeth having some resemblance
to the grinding teeth of quadrupeds.
Q. What is the third genus ?
A. Basiliscus, the basilisk, which is a very harmless
creature, a native of the woods both of Asia and Ame-
rica. A curious wing like ridge upon the back and
tail enables it to leap to a considerable distance from
branch to branch. In this it is probably assisted by
the inflation of the throat, and the erection of a crest
upon the head.
Q. Then the basilisk of naturalists is not the ba-
silisk of the poets, which is represented as being so
terrible?
KEFTILES.
47
A. Certainly not. The poets of antiquity are very
unsafe guides in matters of natural history.
Q. What is the fourth genus?
A. Tupinambis, tupinambes, which are very active
creatures, found in various parts of the world. They
are long and slender. Some live on land, others oc-
casionally in the water. They live upon small ani-
mals, and sometimes fruits, and destroy a number of
the eggs of crocodiles and caimans.
Q. Of what particular countries are the tupinambes
natives?
A. They are abundant in South America, in Egypt,
and in the East Indies.
Q. Do they help to lessen the numbers of any more
formidable reptiles?
A. They destroy the eggs of the crocodiles, gavials,
and caimans, and are in turn preyed upon by even
the young of these animals.
Q. What appears to be the use of the great num-
bers of saurian reptiles in the warm climates?
A. To destroy the great numbers of insects with
which those countries abound, as those in turn do
those putrid substances that would otherwise poison
the air.
Q Is there any regular progress in this destruc-
tion ?
A. There is; the insect is devoured by the small
reptile, and the large reptile takes the small one into
the water and devours it there, so that the putrid
substance is wholly removed from the land.
Q. What is the fifth genus?
48
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Iguana, guanas. These are, after the croce-
diles and dragons, the largest of the saurians. Their
form is far from handsome. Along the back, and
great part of the tail, there is a ridge of prominent
scales, which turn backwards, like teeth, and the san e
under the throat, which the animal can swell out to a
very great size. The form of the legs is very clumsy,
and the toes are of great length. The scales with
which the body is covered are very smooth, and have
a fine play of colours, the prevailing one being a warm
brownish green. Its bite is very sharp, but it is a very
harmless, and even valuable animal. It can be easily
domesticated, and its flesh is esteemed a great luxury,
and in some parts of tropical America, it is a staple
article of food.
Q. How many species are there?
A. There are three, and they are found in the
eastern continent, as well as in the western. Their
principal food is insects.
Q What is the sixth genus?
A. Draco, the flying dragon, of which there are
three species; one beautifully marked with blue, grey,
and white; another green, and a third brown.
Q. Have they any of the formidable characters of
the dragons of which we read?
A None whatever. They are very harmless, and
in colour, at least, beautiful little creatures, seldom
more than eight inches long, that can stretch a mem-
brane like a fan on each side of their body, and thus
project themselves to the distance of from twenty to
thirty yards. They are found in all the warm parts
REPTILES.
49
of the world, especially in the Asiatic isles. They live
upon insects, and their other habits very much resem-
ble those of the flying squirrels.
Q. But are not formidable dragons sometimes ex-
hibited ?
A. Yes, but they are always dead. Impostors often
manufacture dragons, in the same way as they ma-
nufacture mermaids, by uniting parts of different ani-
mals.
Q. What is the seventh genus ?
A. Agama, agamas, of which there are at least
twenty-five species. They are of various forms and
colours, and found in all the hot countries. They are
generally covered with small four cornered scales.
Some of them have the tails prehensile.
Q. Are the agamas numerous?
A. They are, twenty-five distinct species are known,
and there are five distinct sub-divisions.
Q. What are these?
A. They are agamas proper, lizard agamas, pre-
hensile agamas, flat-tailed agamas, and orbicular
agamas.
?
Q. What are the characters of the agamas proper
A. They have the tails cylindrical, and the power
of swelling their throats to a very great extent. Their
prevailing colours are green, blue, and red; they are
more slender in the body than the others, and they
are without tubercles.
Q. What are the characters of the lizard agamas?
A. They have plates on the head, and pores under
the thighs. Only one species is known, a native of
Surinam, beautifully marbled of a variety of colours.
F
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q What are the characters of the prehensile
agamas?
A. The most remarkable one is, the power of laying
hold with their tails. There is but one species, and
in it the tail is not nearly so long as some of the tails
that are not capable of laying hold.
Q. How does a prehensile tail lay hold ?
A. It coils round like the tendril of a pea or a
grape-vine, only the animal can coil and uncoil it at
pleasure.
Q. What is the character of the flat-tailed agamas?
A. The flat tail is their only peculiar character.
Some of them are jet black.
Q. What is the character of the orbicular ones?
A. They have the body roundish and flat, and
spotted with tubercles.
Q. What is the eighth genus ?
A. Stellio, stellios, of which there are several species,
found only in the very hottest parts of Africa and
America. They have some resemblance to toads.
During the day they hide themselves in the chinks of
old buildings, and under stones. They feed upon in-
sects.
Q. What is the ninth genus?
A. It is a very singular one, Chameleo, the cameleon.
Q. What is there singular in the cameleon?
A. Its form is singular; it can look two ways at
once; the insects upon which it feeds are so minute,
and the motion of its tongue in drawing them into its
mouth is so rapid, that it has been supposed to live
upon air.
3
REPTILES.
51
Q. Is there not also something singular in its co-
lours?
A. Yes its colours change, but that is not wholly
confined to the cameleon, though more conspicuous in
it than in any other animal. In all the saurians that
have the power of dilating the skin of the belly very
much when they breathe, that changes their colour.
Q. What are the colours of the cameleon?
A. Various shades of green and yellow, which
vary from a tint that seems nearly blue or black,
to one which appears almost, but never altogether
white.
Q. By what substances are the changing colours of
the cameleons produced?
A. The common way of explaining it, is from the
colour of the blood, the colour of the skin, and the
alternate thickening and thinning of the latter.
Q. What are the colours?
A. The colour of the blood is violet blue, and that
of the skin bright yellow, but so thin and approaching
to transparency, that the colour of the blood is seen
through it, and combining with the yellow of the
skin forms a green, which is the deeper the more the
skin is stretched, and fades into yellow, whitish, and
even brown, when the skin shrinks.
Q. Then is the colour deepest when the animal is
most vigorous?
A. Of course it is; for when the animal is languid
and the blood drawn inward from the surface, nothing
is seen but the yellow skin, to which the parts beneath
give a whitish or brownish tint.
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52
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. But does not the cameleon become of the same
colour as the object on which it is laid?
A. As the natural colour is continually shifting
from shade to shade, of green and yellow, as it
breathes and its blood circulates, some shade of it has
a very great chance of resembling that of any green
or yellow substance on which the creature may be
placed; but nothing could change it to white or
scarlet.
Q. Where are cameleons found?
A. Principally in Africa. They are small and feeble
creatures, the body of the largest is not more than a
foot long, and the tail, which is prehensile, about as
much.
Q. What is the tenth genus?
A. Gecko, geckos. There are a good many species
of geckos, and they are found in colder latitudes than
most of the order, some of them being found in the
south of Europe.
Q. What is the appearance of the geckos ?
A. They are not so unhandsome in their appear-
ance as some of the others, but they are offensive in
their habits.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in their feet?
A. They frequent houses, and by means of the
suckers upon their feet, they can run with their backs
undermost.
QIs there any thing offensive about them?
A. An acrid liquor is secreted from their feet,
which injures any substance over which they may
pass, and stings the skin like nettles.
RLPTILES.
53
Q. What is the eleventh genus
A. Anolis, anoles, which are found in the dry and
warm parts of America. In their general appearance
they resemble the geckos, but their feet are not con-
structed in the same manner. They are small, but
active, and the males often fight with great boldness.
Q. What is the twelfth genus?
A. Lacerta, lizards; which are the most numerous,
the most handsome in their forms, and the most widely
diffused of the order. The upper part of the body is
covered with small round, or six-sided scales, the
under with small square plates, the tongue is forked
and projectile, the tail is quite cylindrical, and has no
crest on the upper side, and all the feet have five toes,
armed with small crooked claws.
Q. What are their habits?
A. They are all perfectly innocent and lively.
Their food is insects, and also vegetable substances ;
some live in ponds and marshes, some in woods, among
grass, and others about houses.
Q. Are they subdivided into many sections?
A. There are seven sub genera.
1. American lizards, which have no collar of scales
about the neck. Their prevailing colours are black,
blue, and white.
2. Green lizards, which have a scaly collar, and are
mostly green.
3. Ribbon lizards, which have longitudinal white lines
on the body.
4. Spotted, 5. grey, 6, dragon lizards, and 7 striated
lizards, which have scaly folds in the neck.
Q. Are the American lizards numerous ?
F 3
54
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. There are six species.
Q How many are there of the green lizards?
A. There are eight species: they are found in many
parts of the world.
Q. How many are there of the ribbon lizards?
A. Seven species.
Q. And of the spotted ?
A. Two species; the one found in the south of
France, and the other in Spain.
Q. How many are there of the grey?
A. Seven species.
Q. What is the distinguishing character of the
dragon lizards?
A. They have scaly folds on the neck. There are
three species of them.
Q. Are there many of the striated ?
A. There is only one species, it is grey and brown,
with the scales on the back keeled.
Q. Which is the thirteenth genus?
A. Tachydromus, swift runners. They have the
body, the tail, and especially the neck, much more
slender in proportion to the length than the lizards.
They are found in dry places, and run very fast.
Q. Which is the fourteenth genus?
A. Scincus, scinks, of which there are many spe-
cies, natives of the hot countries, where they lie in
numbers, basking in the sun. The ruins and rocks in
the eastern desarts are quite covered by them, and
when disturbed, they bury themselves in the sand in
an instant.
Q. What is the fifteenth genus?
A. Chalcides, which differ from the efts chiefly in the
REPTILES.
55
arrangement of their scales, which are placed in rings,
and not imbricated like the scales of the efts.
BRITIS: SAURIA.
Q. Are there many reptiles of this order natives of
Britain ?
A. Only one species has been perfectly ascertained,
the nimble lizard (Lacerta agilis); it grows to the
length of about six inches, has the tongue forked, and
teeth in both jaws and palate. There are black bands
on the back, and the tail has sharp scales formed into
rings; the tail is brittle, but grows again if broken off.
The skin is often cast, and as the colours vary with
the age of the skin, that may be one reason why the
animal has been described as a different species. It is
found only in warm sandy places; it hybernates, and
generally lays eggs, though sometimes the young are
brought forth alive. It feeds upon live insects and
worms, is a perfectly harmless creature, and may be
tamed.
The naturalists mention some of the British lizards,
especially the green one, but the statements have not
been verified by very recent observations.
CHAPTER V.
OPHIDIAN REPTILES.
Q. What is the most general character of this
order?
A. Being without feet, or having mere rudiments of
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
them under the cuticle, hardly developed, and quite
unfit for walking.
Q. Are they very numerous?
A. In the warmer parts of the world, they are, and
some of them are very formidable from their size and
strength, and others from their venom or poison.
Q. What is the most general division of serpents?
A. Into those which have the scales of the back
and belly similar, and those that have them dif
ferent.
Q. What further division is there of them that have
the scales similar above and below?
A. Those which have a third eyelid, and those
which have not; and they farther make about seven
distinct genera.
Q. Are there any further differences among those
that have a third eyelid ?
A. There are. Some of them have partially the
skeleton of quadrupeds, and others have not.
Q. What portion of that skeleton have they?
A. They have rudiments of shoulder-bones, collar-
bones, breast-bones, and haunch bones,
Q. How many genera have these characters ?
A. Two: ophisaurus, the lizard-snake; and anguis,
the snake.
Q. What are the characters of the ophisaurus?
A. The tail is longer than the body; there are
teeth in the jaws and also in the palate; and the ani-
mal is so brittle, that it is cometimes called the glass-
snake.
Q. Is it venomous?
REPTILES.
57
A. No snake that has the scales on the back and
belly the same, is venomous.
Q. In what country is it found?
A. In the southern provinces of North America.
It is of a greenish brown, marked with black on the
back, and is quite inoffensive.
Q. What are the characters of the genus anguis?
A. They are without teeth on the palate, and are
quite harmless. They live in holes near woods, and
among rubbish, and subsist upon mice, frogs, and
beetles. The most common is the blind-worm, anguis
fragilis, which, like the former, is brittle.
Q. Is there any species with a third eyelid, which
is destitute of the resemblance in the skeleton to that
of quadrupeds?
A. There is an Indian genus, acoutas, the skin of
one species of which is mottled like that of a Guinea-
fowl. It is sometimes called the javelin-snake. It is
quite harmless.
Q. What are the genera that have the scales the
same on the back and belly, but want the third eye-
lid?
A. There are reckoned four of them, three of
which are covered with scales, and one with furrowed
tubercles. They are, with scales—
1. Amphisbæna. The one which originally got the
name, is found in India: it has the scales imbricated,
and moves with either end first. There are Ameri-
can species which differ a little.
2. Typhlops, blind snake, has the scales small, the tongue
long and forked, the body long, and the tail rather
short. Native of the West Indies and America.
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
3. Tortrix, has three large scales on the head, and the
scales on the belly a little enlarged.
Native of
America.
With tubercles-
1. Acrochordus, has the whole body covered by
scaly knobs. It is found in Java. It brings forth its
young alive.
Q. What did you mention as the second grand di-
vision of serpents?
A. Those which have the scales on the belly differ-
ent from those on the upper part of the body.
Q. Does this admit of any subdivision?
A. Yes, it admits of the very important sub-division
of those which have no poison-fangs, and those which
have.
Q. How many genera are without poison-fangs?
A. They are variously divided; but they may, per-
haps, be all reduced to these four :-
1. Erpeton, which have two soft prominences on
the snout covered with scales; large plates on the
head, and those on the under part of the tail ra-
ther small.
2. Boa, which are without the prominences on the
snout, and have a hook on each side of the vent.
Some of them grow to a very large size.
3. Coluber, or Python, with two rows of plates on the
under side of the tail, and hooks like the boa.
Sometimes larger than even the boa.
4. Natrix, without the hooks, but with the two rows
of plates.
Q. And none of these are poisonous ?
A. No; but many of them are sufficiently danger-
REPTILES.
59
ous, without poison, from their formidable teeth, of
which they have several rows; the vast extent of
their gape and swallow, which can take in an animal
many times thicker than themselves; and the vast
muscular power of their folds.
Q. Which are the most formidable ?
A. The boa is the genus of which the most numer-
ous tales are told; but it is probable that the larger
colubers and it, may have sometimes been mistaken for
each other.
Q. What is the size of the boa?
A. It has been actually seen upwards of twenty
feet in length, and mentioned as of double those dimen-
sions; and it is able to crush in its folds the bones of
a buffalo or a tiger. It also swims with great celerity,
and is as formidable in the water as on the land.
When in a state of want and excitement, it is too
formidable, and too rapid in its motions, to be at-
tacked; but when gorged by swallowing a large ani-
mal, it is inactive, and can be killed without much
difficulty.
Q. Are the poisonous serpents very numerous ?
A. There are nearly twenty genera furnished with
poison fangs, and more or less dangerous in their
bite; but the most deadly are chiefly confined to
warm countries; and it does not appear that they
attack man, or the larger quadrupeds, unless they are
irritated. Indeed, as none of them are very large, it
is not to be supposed that they would instinctively at-
tack any animal too large for being swallowed.
Q. Which are some of the most formidable?
A. The caudisona, or rattle-snake, of which there
60
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
are two species that differ from each other chiefly in
the markings, and which, when full-grown, attain the
length of six feet; they are the most formidable of the
American ones. They live on birds and small
quadrupeds; but when they are irritated, they bite
human beings, and their bite is often fatal in a few mi-
nutes.
Q. Why are they called caudisona, or rattle-snake?
A. From an apparatus on the tail, consisting of a
number of horny cups loosely joined together, by
shaking which they make a rattling noise.
Q. Are both the species natives of North Ame-
rica ?
A. No: the horrida, which has dark coloured bands
across, is a native of North America, and the durissa,
which has four-cornered spots of the same colour,
is a native of the northern parts of South America.
Q. Are there any other poisonous serpents in Ame-
rica ?
A. The Trigonocephali, or triangular-headed ser-
pents, are nearly as poisonous as those that have been
mentioned. One is the brown viper of Carolina ;
another the yellow, and a third the lozenged ser-
pent of the West India Islands. They attain the
length of six or seven feet, and their venom is very
deadly. They frequent the sugar-plantations, and live
upon the small quadrupeds that infest these; but when
they are disturbed, their bite is often fatal to the la-
bourers.
Q. Are there any venomous serpents in the East
Indies?
A. No very hot country is without poisonous ser-
REPTILES.
61
ܢ
pents. The genus Naia, which have the power of
erecting a crest, when irritated, by inflating the cuticle
of the head, are probably the most venomous; and the
cobra di capella, or spectacle-snake, which has a
dark marking on the inflated head something like a
pair of spectacles, is probably the most deadly of the
genus.
Q. Are there any poisonous serpents natives of
Europe?
A. The most poisonous of the European species
are usually called vipers; and they are, generally
speaking, dangerous only in the warmer countries; but
there is one, the aspic of Sweden, the bite of which
is said to be often fatal even in that cold country. It
is a small reddish species.
BRITISH OPHIDIA.
Q. Are there many serpents natives of Britain ?
A. Only three or four species, though there appear
to be some varieties.
Q. To what genera do they belong?
A. One to the genus anguis; one, or probably two,
to the genus natrix; and one, of which there seem to
be some varieties, to the genus vipera.
Q. Which is the anguis?
A. The common blind-worm, which has no fangs,
and no teeth on the palate, and the eyes very small,
whence the common name. It does not exceed a foot
in length, of which the tail occupies one half. The
upper part of the body is greyish, with two dark brown
lines along the back, and one from each eye, and the
G
62
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
general colour below is brown. The tail is blunt, and
the body nearly of the same thickness throughout.
It is by no means uncommon in holes among trees, and
under hedges and rubbish. It lives upon worms, frogs,
and mice, brings forth its young alive, becomes torpid
in the winter, and is perfectly harmless, though in
some parts of England it has got a bad name, pro-
bably from the viper having been mistaken for it.
The blind-worm is so brittle that it may be divided
by the stroke of a switch.
Q. Which is the species of natrix?
A. The common ringed snake, natrix torquata. It
is common in the south part of the island, but com-
paratively rare in the north.
Q. What sort of places does it inhabit?
A. Marshy places, and it occasionally takes the
water, so that in some parts of the country it is called
the water-snake.
Q. What is it like?
A. It grows to the length of three or four feet, is of
dusky brown above, with two lines of black spots run-
ning the whole length, and erased by others of the
same colour. The belly is mottled with black, blueish,
and white, and there is a spot of yellow, and another
triangular one of black upon each side of the neck.
Its food is the same as that of the blind-worm; it
hybernates, and is oviparous, the number of eggs
being about 18 or 20. It is gentle in its manners, and
easily tamed.
One is mentioned as having been met with in the
south of Scotland, of a much paler colour, and with
the scales much more smooth and simple on the back.
REPTILES.
65
It was only about five inches long, but the species is
not known, if it be not a variety of the common one.
Q. Which is the species of vipera?
A. The common viper, (vipera communis,) which
has no plates on the head like the harmless snake,
and is destitute of common teeth, but has poison fangs.
Q. What are the appearances of the viper?
A. The colour is not much to be depended on, as
they are mentioned as yellow, black, blue-bellied, and
red, all most probably varieties of our species. The
want of teeth in the jaws, the smallness of the neck
and gape, the greater number of scales on the belly,
and the smaller number on the tail, with the absence
of the horny plates on the head, easily distinguish the
viper.
Q. What is the most common colour of the viper?
A Above it is of a dirty yellow, with a row of four-
sided spots running into each other down the back, and
a row of three-cornered ones on each side; these are
black; and the portion between the eyes, and two
spots on the crown are also black. The belly is dusky
with a blueish tinge.
The black viper has the black more abundant above;
the blue has more brown above, and more blue on the
belly; and it is possible that the red, which is met
with only in the south of England, may be the aspic
of Sweden.
The great varieties of colour and marking that take
place among the comparatively few species of serpents
that are found in Britain, render some caution neces-
sary in admitting many of the foreign species that have
been founded upon single specimens.
G 2
64
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
CHAPTER VI.
BATRACHIAN REPTILES.
Q WHAT are the distinguishing characters of that
order?
A. Their skins are naked, or only covered with
tubercles; their bones are soft; they have all tails in
some stage of their existence, though many have none
in their full grown state. All of them can swim, and
some leap, while others crawl.
Q. What is the most general division of the order?
A Into those that have tails in their full-grown
state, and those that have none.
Q. How many genera have no tails?
A. Three, hylæ, tree frogs; rana, frogs; and bufo,
toads.
Q. How many genera are there with tails?
A. Four. Salamandra, salamanders; triton, or efts,
proteus, and siren; the last two rather obscurely
known.
Q. What are the principal characters of the tree-
frogs?
A. As their name imports, they live during the
summer in trees; but they hybernate in the midst of
lakes and rivers; and their eggs or spawn are depo-
sited in water in the spring.
Q. What is their appearance?
A. Their colours are various, and sometimes very
bright; but the body is compressed and long; there
are four toes on each of the fore feet, and five on each
of the hinder. The toes are without claws: but they
gale
REPTILES.
65
have tubercles, by means of which substances may be
laid hold of.
Q. Are there many species?
A. There are about thirty. The greater number of
which are natives of America; but some of them are
common in France and Italy. They make a loud
croaking in the trees.
Q. Upon what do they feed?
A. Chiefly upon insects, which they capture in the
trees.
Q. Do they all pass through the tadpole state ?
A. All of which the habits have been observed
do, and there is little doubt as to the others.
Q. Are the common frogs as numerous as the tree
frogs?
A. In individuals they are more generally distri-
buted; but there are not so many species.
Q. What are their general characters ?
A. The body is thick; the hind feet always larger
than the body, and webbed between the toes; they
cannot walk or climb; but they can leap and swim.
They inhabit moist and marshy places, where they de-
posit their eggs; and when the young, or tadpoles, first
make their appearance, they have oval bodies and
finny tails; but when their legs begin to grow, the tails
are gradually absorbed.
Q. Do not they migrate from one place to another?
A. They often do in great flocks; and as they gene-
rally march when the ground is moist after rain, that
gave rise to the old fable of frogs dropping from the
clouds.
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66
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is the term of their lives?
A. Thy are understood to live five years before
they come to maturity, and live ten or fifteen after-
wards.
Q. Can they be tamed?
A. Yes; they can be made so familiar as to eat out
of the hand.
Q. Is not one species of frog used as food?
A. Yes; one that is green, with black spots, whitish
below, and with three yellow lines down the back.
Q. Is there not one species remarkable for the loud-
ness of its croaking?
A. Yes; the bull-frog, a large green species, which
is very plentiful in the marshes and rivers of North
America.
Q. Is there not a curious species in South America?
A. Yes; the Surinam frog, or Jackie (rana para-
dorica). The tadpole is of great size, as much as
eight inches in length, and has much the appearance
of a fish; but in the course of about six weeks it di
minishes to half the size and becomes a frog.
Q. Do the common frogs become less when they
change from tadpoles?
A. They do; but the difference is not so remark-
able as in the case of the Surinam frog.
Q. What are the characters of the toads?
A. They have the body thick, short, and broad; the
head of the same character; the legs better adapted
for walking than for leaping; and the toes pointed
and without nails.
Q. What is the appearance of their skins?
REPTILES.
67
A. They are warty, and capable of being inflated.
Q. What sort of eyes have they ?
A. Large eyes, with the pupil opening vertically.
Q. Do toads spit venom?
A. They do not; but when they are irritated or in
danger, their skins become covered with a corrosive
liquor.
Q. On what do toads feed?
A. On worms and insects; and large birds and
snakes feed on them.
Q. Are they eatable ?
A. Some of the species are said to be as much so
as frogs.
Q. Are the toads numerous?
A. There about thirty-two species.
Q. Are any of them handsome?
A. None of them are handsome in shape; but some
are beautifully coloured.
Q. You mentioned the salamander as one of the
tailed batrachia: is that the animal that lives in the
fire ?
A. There is no animal that lives in the fire. The old
story of the salamander is a fable; and the animal to
which naturalists give that name, is fonder of water,
though it lives on the banks.
Q. What is the form of the salamanders?
A. They are long both in the body and the tail, and
thus have some external resemblance to the sauria;
but their internal structure ranges them with the
frogs.
Q. Are there many of them ?
68
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. About fourteen species, six, at least, of which
are natives of the south of Europe.
Q. What are the characters of the triton or eft?
A. In shape they bear some resemblance to the
lizards, and have been classed with them; but they
have more natural relation to the batrachia.
Q. What is proteus?
A. A very singular animal, found in some of the
rivers on the continent. It is about a foot long and
an inch broad, of a red colour, has four feet, and the
tail ending in a sort of fin.
Q. Why is it called proteus?
A. Because when put in spirits of wine, it changes
to a white colour.
Q. Are there more species than one?
A. There is a water animal in Mexico that seems
nearly allied to the proteus of the European rivers.
Q. What is siren ?
A. An cel-shaped animal found in the waters of
America, which has some of the appearances of a fish,
but really belongs to the batrachia.
Q. Has it four feet?
A. No, it has only two.
three feet, or more.
It grows to the length of
BRITISH BATRACHIA.
Q. Are there many batrachia found in Britain ?
A. There are two species of frog, two species of
toad, and three species of eft.
Q. Which are the frogs?
REPTILES.
69
fo
A. There are two of them :-
1. The common frog, found in all places, and—
2. The edible frog, rather rare.
Q. Are they both harmless ?
A. Both perfectly so.
Q. Which are the toads?
A. 1. The common toad, which every body knows.
2. The yellow toad, or natter-jack, which is rare. It
is met with on Putney-heath.
A. Are they harmless?
A. Perfectly so. The common toad is one of the
most useful little animals about a garden, in clearing
it of vermin, and it hurts nobody and nothing.
Q. Are there any instances of toads being tamed?
A. There have been several instances in which they
have come at the call of persons, and played some
tricks.
Q. Have they not sometimes been found shut up in
solid substances?
A. They have been found in wood, and in holes of
stones, where they must not only have lived for some
time, but even grown considerably, as the opening by
which they had found admission had become too
small for allowing them to escape.
Q. But how could they obtain food in those
places ?
A. That is not so easily explained. But, as the
quantity of food that animals need depends upon the
waste of their bodies by breathing, by the circulation
of the blood, and by action, and as those operations in
the toad, are slow at any rate, and nearly suspended
for half the year, it is not unlikely that, in the places
70
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
that have been mentioned, very little food would be
necessary.
Q. Are they long-lived animals then?
A. They are very long-lived. Indeed, it is supposed
that all the reptiles are much longer lived than the
warm-blooded animals.
Q. Is there any truth in the common story of there
being a precious stone in the head of the toad ?
A. Not the least. There is no precious stone
found in the head of any animal.
Q. Why, then, are such stories invented?
A. It is not easy to say. The habits of toads ren-
der it not very easy to be acquainted with their natu-
ral history; their appearance is ugly in the opinion of
most people; and taking these two circumstances,
together with the reputed poisonous nature of the
toad, superstition has contrived to tell many things
of it which are not true.
Q. Why should the toad have been accounted
venomous?
wh
Q. Probably from the simple fact of its being able
to blow up or dilate its skin, as one means of defence
against its enemies.
Q. With what is the skin dilated?
A. With air, and not with any fluid which is hurtful,
though in some species the dilatation of the skin forces
an acrid liquor from the pores.
Q. Which are the efts?
A. The warty eft and the water eft, which are both
inhabitants of the water; and the brown or common
eft, which is an inhabitant of the land.
Q. What is the size of the warty eft
REPTILES.
71
A. About six or seven inches in length. It is brown-
ish black on the back, and orange below, and covered
with warts.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. Ponds and marshes; but it is sometimes found
out of the water.
Q. What is the water-eft like?
A. It is not much more than half the length of
the other; has the back greenish brown, and the skin
soft and smooth.
Q. Are these common?
A. They are both very common. The warty one
in fens and marshes, and the smooth one in stagnant
ponds.
Q. Are they harmless?
A. There are no accounts of harm done by either
of them.
Q. Where is the common eft found?
A. Among rubbish, sometimes in cellars.
Q. Has it not been found in the winter?
A. It has not; and therefore it should probably be
classed with the lizards: but, although it be very
common, its natural history is very imperfectly known.
It is said to be ovoviviparous, and to undergo no change
or metamorphosis. If that be the case, it should
clearly be classed with the sauria.
Q. Do not these animals get another name besides
that of efts?
A. Yes, they are as frequently called newts; and
the common eft or newt is sometimes called the brown
lizard.
Q. Is it harmless?
72
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Even that is doubtful. There are some accounts
of ill conditioned sores upon the fingers after handling
an eft; but it is not proved that the eft was the cause.
Q. Then how many British reptiles are really poi-
sonous ?
A. The only one that is distinctly ascertained to be
so is the viper.
Q. Is there any truth in the tales which are some-
times told of insects creeping into the mouths of per-
sons when asleep, in places which they frequent?
A. There is no truth whatever in them; and if
there were, the animals could not live there. In no
reptile is there any danger, except from the bite, or
the discharge of an acrid liquor from the skin.
Q. Is there, then, any caution necessary in the na-
tural history of British reptiles?
A. The greatest; for the subject is very little
known, and has been very much misrepresented.
最
​THE END.
LONDON:
HENRY BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
YLAPS MELE
BORA LANTERNAT
UNIL
OF
MICH
ULIDO
ISCUS
GRYTI
HINY ATROPO
RHUS BOVAND
FARWIO
Engraved by C Marr
PULEX
HR
YGANEA
FORMICA
LEONE
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART V.
ENTOMOLOGY, OR INSECTS.
INTRODUCTION.
Q. WHAT is meant by Entomology ?*
A. The Natural History of Insects.
Q. What do you mean by insects?
A. That class of annulose animals, that, in their
perfect state, have air tubes for breathing, six legs, the
head and thorax distinct, and two antennæ, or feclers.
Q. What do you mean by annulose animals?
A. Those animals that have their bodies marked
or divided into segments crosswise, as if they were
made up of rings of greater or smaller thickness, all
united together.
Q. Are there more classes than one of the animals
* ENTOMOLOGY, from the Greek Eropa, "an insect,"
and λογος. Evrope and insectum, though the one is
derived from the other, have precisely the same meaning-
that which is cut into, or notched; and therefore, Entomo-
logy, literally, means the knowledge of that which is
notched, or partially divided into segments.
B
2
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
&
that have their bodies thus divided or marked into
rings or segments?
A. Yes, there are five classes; but the more modern
and accurate naturalists restrict the term insects to
one of these classes, as the members of which it is
composed are sufficiently numerous, curious, and
marked in their characters, for requiring a particular
history.
Q. Mention the names of the other classes, and
point out in what they differ from insects properly so
called.
A. They are:
1. Crustacea, which have gills for respiration, and legs
for motion either in the water or out of it, but
never any wings. They are covered with crusts,
which vary in their texture, from a flexible mem-
brane to a hardness approaching to shell, and get-
ting that name in common language.
2. Arachnides (spider tribe). They have air tubes, not
gills, for breathing; they have six legs, or eight, they
have the head and thorax united, and they have no
antennæ or feelers on the head.
3. Myriapoda (many feet), having some of the charac-
ters of the crustacea, but differing from them in
not having gills. They have always more than
eight legs.
4. Vermes (worms). They are destitute of feet and an-
tennæ, and breathe by air tubes.
Q. Are insects considered, in this limited view of
them, a numerous race of animals?
A. Their numbers, both in species and in indivi-
duals, are very great, all parts of the world teem with
INSECTS.
3
10
them. They are probably more numerous than any
other class of animated beings; and as they are,
generally speaking, endowed with great activity and
strength in proportion to their size, it is by no means
improbable that they perform the greatest portion of
animal labour.
Q That which they perform individually is not
very great?
A. It is not, considered in itself, but when we com-
pare that which many insects can do, with their own
bulk, we find that it is far. greater in proportion,
than what is done by horses, elephants, or lions.
While the flight of the swallow or the eagle is nothing
in comparison with that of some of them.
Q. Are there many inducements to the study of
insects besides their great numbers?
A. It is not possible even for imagination to pic-
ture or invent a wish that may be not gratified
merely, but altogether surpassed, in the study of in-
sects. Their forms are the most varied, and at the
same time the most curious, that can be imagined;
their colours are the most splendid; their actions are
the most lively, and many of their performances are
the most ingenious and absolutely surprising that man
can meet with the very perfection of his art, after
all the science by which it is directed, is nothing to
many of the instinctive performances of insects-to
those performances which they accomplish even in
the dark, and with neither an instructor to direct, or a
tool to assist them.
Q. What then prevents insects from being so much
B 2
4
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
studied and admired as some other classes of animated
beings?
A. One cause is, no doubt, their diminutive size.
With the rude and uncultivated, mere magnitude is a
source of wonder and admiration, and in that respect
insects fall far behind many other animals that they
far outstrip in elegance of form and beauty of colours,
activity in movements, and ingenuity in action.
Q. And has this prejudice in favour of mere bulk
many pernicious effects ?
A. There is nothing that has more mischievous in-
fluence than mere size. When the very illiterate
speak of any thing of which they do not know the
origin, the parties to whom they are most apt to attri-
bute it are giants, men of more than ordinary size,
without any reference to their superior skill or know-
ledge.
Q. Is there any further intellectual advantage in
the study of the small things of the creation?
A. There is. When we find equal or superior me-
chanism to that which we find not only in the most
ingenious structures which man can fabricate, but to
that which we meet with in what we are accustomed
to call the larger and more perfect animals, in a little
thing whose whole volume is but as a fraction of a
grain of sand, we cannot fail in being struck with ad-
miration, not of the degree merely, but of the kind of
that wisdom and power which are developed in the
works of creation, which, in the emphatic language of
Holy Writ, hath as it were, " chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are strong."
INSECTS.
5
Q. Are there any uses of the study of insects?
A. It is not possible to study any part of nature
without finding many useful things in it, and in a por-
tion which is so large, and so generally diffused as in-
sects, the uses must be corresponding.
Q. And are the insects themselves of much use?
A. Their uses in the economy of nature are, of
course, in proportion to their numbers, and we are in-
debted to them for some of the finest and most valu-
able substances used in the arts.
Q. Can you mention any of their natural uses?
A. Insects are the grand scavengers of nature-the
principal agents in keeping the world clean.
Q. How does that appear?
A. Whenever any substance begins to putrify, and
would, by the vapours that it gives out, render the air
tainted and unwholesome for the larger animals, in-
sects crowd to it in vast numbers, and either consume
it themselves, or deposit their eggs in it, which are
speedily hatched, and it is soon consumed by the
young ones.
Q. Do they answer any other purpose in this way,
than the mere consuming of that which is disagree-
able?
A. The subject has not been studied with that at-
tention which it deserves, but we have every reason
to conclude that insects contribute not a little to the
fertility of the soil, and thus to the growth of plants,
the nourishment of the larger animals, and the wealth
and comfort of man.
Q. How can that be?
A. There is nothing more clear and simple. Every
B 3
6
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
one who is in the least acquainted with agriculture or
gardening, knows that animal and vegetable sub-
stances in a putrifying state, if they are not directly the
food of plants, are the means by which plants grow,
and land, which in its natural state produces nothing
that is useful, or even nothing at all, is made to pas-
ture herds and yield crops.
Q. That is all very true, but what have the insects
to do with it?
A. They perform two very important operations:
they hasten the process of decomposition, and they
prevent those parts which, from their active nature,
are the most valuable, from being scattered to the
winds.
Q. How do they hasten the decomposition?
A. They, or the produce of the eggs which they
deposit, drill the substance into holes, or reduce it
to powder, and thus they not only decompose it
themselves, but expose it more freely to the action
of the air and the water.
Q. And how do they prevent it from being wasted?
A. The juices are the parts on which they live, and
if they were not consumed by them, they would be
converted into gases or airs, and scattered through
the atmosphere. Wherever there is fertile ground
there are insects, and where no insects are, the ground
is invariably barren, without plant or animal.
Q. But are not insects often very destructive, the
locusts in many countries, and various sorts of cater-
pillars in all countries, destroy the labours of the hus-
bandman, and even the entire verdure and herbage
of the country?
INSECTS.
My
A. Locusts do occasionally commit terrible ravages
in some countries, but even there it is doubtful
whether they appear more in the character of de-
stroyers or of benefactors. The locusts are whole-
some and nourishing food to the people, and that
which they consume is not, or only partially so.
Q. And do the people eat locusts?
A. They do, and have done so in some countries
from the earliest records of history. The ancients
mention the Acridophagi,* or locust eaters, as a par-
ticular nation, who had their distinguishing name from
that very circumstance.
Q. Is that not one of the fables of ancient history?
A. The fable is all the other way. The name of
the locust has been associated with famine and pesti-
lence by poetic writers. All the accounts and the
popular feeling respecting it, are revolting in the ex-
treme, but there are still many places of the world
where the locust establishes its claim to that benedic-
tion which the Almighty pronounced on all that he
had made.
Q Are there any modern nations that live upon
these insects?
A. The inhabitants of Syria and Arabia, and of
many of the regions bordering upon the great African
desart, not only occasionally live upon locusts, but
find them their most savoury and delicious viands.
They are publicly sold in the markets, and upon some
occasions made into bread.
Acridophagi-from the Greek Axpid, a locust, and
Taya, I eat. See Diodorus Siculus, lib. xxiv, cap. 3. Has-
selwist's Travels, passim.
8
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. How do they taste?
A. The taste of them is very similar to that of
shell fish, and there is no doubt that many of the in-
sects that are found in other countries would prove
wholesome and excellent food, were it not that
people have prejudices against them.
Q. What reason have we for thinking so?
A. The quadrumana that do not in general live
upon animal food, are fond of insects, and eat them
in preference to any thing else. Many small quadru-
peds, very many of the reptiles, many birds and fishes
live upon insects, and not a few have their feeding ap-
paratus so constructed as that they can live upon
nothing else.
Q. Then insects are an essential part of the crea-
tion?
A. They are so essential a part, that without them
it does not appear that the general economy of Na-
ture could be carried on.
Q But the insects that eat the leaves and buds of
our flowers and fruit-trees, cannot be useful?
A. They whose plants and trees they injure, natu-
rally enough suppose that they are not, just in the
same manner that a traveller does not easily see the
use of the rain which drenches him to the skin; but
the feelings of the human beings that may happen to
be interested, have nothing to do with general useful.
ness in nature, and very often not much with parti-
cular usefulness to themselves.
Q. What usefulness can there possibly be in eating
the leaves and blossoms of fruit-trees?
A. Though we cannot point out the uses, we are
INSECTS.
9
not warranted in concluding that they do not exist.
Gardeners find that the whole crop upon their trees
is not only better in quality, but more abundant, when
they thin both the leaves and the blossoms, and that
is at least a reasonable ground for supposing that the
thinnings effected by insects may have similar and
even more extended uses.
Q. What conclusion might be drawn from that?
A. A most important one, were we wise enough to
attend to it—namely, that in every pursuit and occu-
pation of life in which we can engage, the knowledge
of nature, not in partial portions, or in those that
strike the fancy and arrest the attention, but in all the
varied forms that exist, and in all their modes of exis-
tence and their connection, is so absolutely necessary,
that if we have it not, the harm that we may do, even
with the very best intentions, may greatly excced the
good.
Q. But are there any direct uses of insects?
A. Yes. We are indebted to an insect for the very
ink with which we write, and without the labour of
that insect we could obtain no substance that, at so
small cost, and with so little labour on our part,
would answer the purpose.
Q. Is not that somewhat singular.
A. Not more singular than true. Ink, and indeed
many black dyes, are formed of iron precipitated by
gallic acid and tannin; and this acid and tannin are
* See Catechism of Chemistry.
10
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
no where found in so convenient a quantity or propor-
tion, as in certain preparations by insects.
Q. What are those preparations called?
A. They are called galls, and as they are formed on
oak-trees they are called oak-galls.
Q. By what are they formed?
A. They are formed by different species of cynips,
which are small flies very much divided at the middle,
and all deposit their eggs in substances that are fitted
for the support of their young when they are hatched.
This fly has a crooked instrument with which she
can puncture the leaves and other parts of plants, and
lodge her eggs under the epidermis.
Q. Where, of course, they remain till they are
hatched?
A. In general they do; but that is not the most
remarkable part of the matter. Small as the fly is,
and minute as is the puncture which she makes, and
the egg which she deposits, the puncture and the egg
have the effect of causing a ball of matter of the size
of a nut or larger, to grow upon the place. This ball
of matter is what is called the gall. It gets that name
from its bitter and astringent taste, and it contains
more of the principle that combines with the oxides
of metals, and forms a blacker dye than could be ob-
tained from a much larger quantity of oak leaves, or
oak-timber.
Q. And are those galls found in large quantities?
A. In quantities so large that they form an impor-
tant article of commerce, and are used in dying, ink-
making, medicine, and for many other purposes.
INSECTS.
11
Q. Are they produced in England?
A. Galls are produced in England, upon oaks, wil-
lows, and other trees, but those which are of the
greatest value, and chiefly used in the arts, are
brought from the countries immediately to the east
and north-east of the Mediterranean.
Q. Are there any other uses of insects?
A. They also furnish the finest red dyes, which are
the insects themselves in substance, and not any gall
or excrescence which they form upon plants.
Q. Do not the insects which furnish these colours
inhabit plants?
A. They do. One of them inhabits the twigs of a
kind of oak which grows on the shores of the Medi-
terranean, and the other the cactus, a prickly, leafless
plant which grows in the temperate parts of America.
The former is called kermes, the latter cochineal. The
insects that form both are small, and belong to the
same genus as the "lady-birds" that are so common in
this country.
Q And a e there any uses of insects besides food
and dyes?
A. To insects we are wholly indebted for silk, at
once the strongest, lightest, and most beautiful article
that is used in clothing, the preparation of which
gives employment to many thousands of people, and
the machinery by which it is prepared is among the
finest specimens of mechanical invention.
Q. You mean silk, I presume?
A. Yes. All the silk that is used, and the quantity
is very great, is first spun by the caterpillar of a moth,
12
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
called the silk-worm, as a temporary clothing for
itself.
Q. Are there any further uses?
A. There are many still behind. The honey of the
bee is well known to every body, and to those cot-
tagers that have sense enough to attend to their culti-
vation, bees are a source of great profit. Bees are also
the grand collectors of wax, which is used for so
many purposes in the arts.
Q. You do not mean sealing-wax?
A. That is not the wax to which I alluded, but for
the best qualities of the best sort of sealing-wax, we
are also indebted to insects.
Q. To what insect?
A. To the coccus lacca, which inhabits trees in India
and some of the adjoining countries, and builds little
combs or cells for its eggs and young, of the substance
which is called lac, and which forms the basis of seal-
ing-wax, and is an ingredient in some of the best and
most durable varnishes.
Q. Considering the great number of insects that
there are, are not these but few uses?
A. The uses to which human skill and industry
have applied insects, are certainly but few, as com-
pared with the number and variety of the animals;
but the fault appears to be in man, and not in the in-
sects. The uses that have been found out are much
more important than, from the smallness of the ani-
mals, one would have been led to suppose; and there
is little doubt that observation will lead to further
useful applications.
INSECTS.
13
Q. What is there to be studied in the natural his-
tory of insects?
A. First, their general structure and habits, and then
the classification, as in the case of every other descrip-
tion of animals.
PART I.-FORMATION AND HABITS OF INSECTS.
SECT. I.-STRUCTURE OF INSECTS.
Q. Is there any remarkable difference between the
structure of insects, and that of vertebrated animals?
A. They differ from these in having no bones inter-
nally, but being supported wholly by the skin.
Q. Of what is the skin of insects formed?
A. Of a substance resembling horn in its composi-
tion, but which is thick or thin, hard or soft, accord-
ing to the species.
Q. Is it never hard, like bone?
A. It is in many instances harder than any bone, if
perhaps we except the enamel of teeth; but it is con-
sidered as being, even in these cases, wholly made up
of animal matter, and not containing any salts of
lime.
Q. With what appendages is the covering of insects
furnished?
A. With various appendages, from spines that are
so large and hard as to be capable of inflicting severe
wounds, to hairs of so much minuteness as not to be
visible without the aid of glasses. The spines, bristles,
and hairs of insects do not merely grow in the skin, as
is the case in the mammalia-they are parts of the
skin itself, and therefore not liable to be rubbed off.
C
ï
!
1
I
14
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are not parts of the coverings of some insects
very easily rubbed off, or destroyed?
A. Yes; but the parts which are so delicate are
scales, or, sometimes, from their form, they might be
called feathers. In the wings of moths, these are very
beautiful when magnified, though to the naked eye they
appear to be only a very fine powder.
Q. You mentioned that insects derive their name
from being "cut into, or notched"-is that very ap-
parent?
A. Yes; the body is always made up of four pieces,
or rings; but the distinction between the second
and the third is not always so conspicuous as the
others.
Q. What names are given to these rings or divi-
sions ?
A. The first one is the head; the second, the tho-
rax; and the third, the breast; and the fourth, the
abdomen. The thorax and breast form the trunk ;
and sometimes the one, sometimes the other, is
largest.
Q. And the external covering of these rings
or divisions forms, as it were, the skeleton of the in-
sect?
A. It does. All the muscles by which the different
parts are moved, are inserted at their extremities,
immediately in the skin, and without any tendons.
Q. And how are the different rings united to-
gether?
A. When they are hard, the skin at the points of
union is softer, and allows of various degrees of mo-
tion, in which state it is called ligament. These liga-
INSECTS.
15
mentous junctions are often, as may be seen in ants,
and especially in wasps, very slender as compared with
the rings which they unite.
Q. What does the head present externally?
A. The organs of the senses, and the mouth with its
accompanying organs.
Q. What part does the thorax occupy?
A. Immediately behind the head, and has the fore-
legs, or first pair of legs, united to it on the under
side. It often has a horny keeled sternum between
those legs, and also a horny shield on the upper sur-
face.
Q. What is the situation of the breast?
A. Immediately behind the thorax, to which it is
joined, and the joint has often less motion than any of
the others.
Q. What are the appendages to the breast?
A. The second and third pairs of legs on the under
side, and the wings on the upper; and it has fre-
quently a horny process on the upper part, which is
called the scutellum, or little shield, and sometimes a
pectoral sternum on the under side, which covers the
first joints of the hind legs, and also a part of the ab-
domen.
Q. Where is the abdomen situated?
A. Immediately behind the breast, and connected
with it, sometimes sessile, or close, so as to admit of
very little motion, and sometimes with a slender
stalk.
Q. Of what is the surface of the abdomen made
up?
* c 2
16
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. It is made up of rings, the number of which, and
also the mode of their junction, varies much.
Q. Are any of the members, or organs of motion,
articulated to the abdomen?
A. None, in any case; but the abdomen is often
beset with bristles; and when the animal has a
sting, the extremity of the abdomen is armed with
that.
Q. How are the muscles that move these rings in-
serted and arranged?
A. The thorax contains the muscles for moving the
head and fore-legs, and the breast those for moving the
back two pairs of legs, the wings, and the abdomen.
It has also some cross-muscles, by the action of which
the upper and under sides can be brought nearer to
each other. There are also small muscles in the
abdomen that give slight motion to the rings of
that.
Q. How is the muscle inserted in the two adjoining
pieces ?
A. If the muscle is to pull any part in a particular
direction, it is inserted on the opposite side of that
part, and crosses through the junction to the opposing
side of the other part. Thus a muscle for pulling the
head downward, passes from the upper part of the
head to the lower part of the thorax.
Q. How far does the action of one muscle ex-
tend?
A. As there are no tendons, only to a single joint;
the muscles in the trunk, for instance, move only the
first joints of the legs; those in the first joints move
the second joints, and so on.
INSECTS.
17
Q. What are the members of insects?
A. They are feet and wings.
Q Which of these are most simple and uniform in
their character ?
A. The feet which are always six in number,
and made up of the same number of parts, though
they differ considerably in their form and appen-
dages.
Q. What are the parts ?
A. They are the hip (cora), the thigh (femur), the
leg (tibia), the toe (tarsus), and the claw (unguis), which
regularly follow each other from the insertion of the
coxa to the trunk, to the extremity of the unguis,
which terminates the number.
Q. What is the character of the coxa?
A. It is generally short and thick, often lying in a
groove in the trunk, and sometimes the coxæ of the
hind legs are united into one solid piece with the
sternum of the breast; but sometimes it fits into a cup-
shaped cavity, and has considerable motion.
Q. What is the character of the femur?
A. It is longer than the coxa, and usually articulated
to that, so as to have motion only backwards and for-
wards.
Q. What is the character of the tibia?
A. It generally moves only in the same plane with
the femur.
Q. What is the character of the tarsus?
A. It is a much more curious structure than any of
the others, consisting of a number of pieces loosely
jointed together, and admitting of motion in all direc-
tions.
C 3
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are there more appendages to this part of the
foot?
A. There often are, besides bristles, spines, and
hairs of various sorts, very curious ones in the form
of cushions, suckers, and other contrivances of the
most ingenious description.*
Q. What are the uses of these?
A. The cushions, by their elasticity, break the fall
of the animal when it alights forcibly on a hard or
rough surface, and the suckers enable it to fasten its
feet to smooth surfaces, or to walk with its back un-
dermost.
Q. What are the characters of the unguis or claw?
A. They are various. Sometimes there is but a
single claw which acts against a process or knob, that
answers for a thumb; sometimes there are two claws
acting in the same direction, and also against each
other, and sometimes the claw is broad and toothed.
Q. Are any general characters of insects formed
from the appearances of the feet?
A. There are. Where the femur is slender and of
uniform thickness, the whole foot is fitted only for
walking; when it swells out in the middle to give
room for the bellying or contraction of the muscles
that move the leg, the animal can leap, and the dis-
tance to which it can leap is in proportion to the
bellying of the former and the length of the leg.
Q. Are there any particular characters in the tibia?
A. If the insect is to inhabit only the surface of the
* See Philosophical Transactions for 1818.
INSECTS.
19
پگلی
earth, the tibia is plain, or has only bristles; if it is to
dig in the ground, the tibia has a strong toothed edge;
and if it is to swim in water, the tibia is flattened like
an oar.
Q. Are there many differences in the wings of in-
sects ?
A. There are a great many, in the number, the
form, the texture, and the arrangement; and as these
are very obvious differences, they are of much use in
forming the greater divisions in the classification of
insects.
Q. What are the principal differences in the wings?
A. Some insects are without wings altogether; and
these are called aptera,* or apterous insects.
Q. When they have wings what are the charac-
ters ?
A. Some have only two wings, and they are called
diptera, or dipterous insects, from the Greek name for
having two wings. Others have four wings.
Q. Are there any distinctions among those that
have four wings?
A. There are. In some the wings are composed
of a simple membrane stretched out upon a frame-
work of ribs of a horny matter, which are, though
very improperly, called nerves; and the insects that
have such wings only are called neuroptera, or neurop-
terous insects, that is, insects with nerved wings.†
Aptera, from the Greek, & wanting, and πтɛçɑ a wing,
literally "wingless."
+ The dragon flies have this character.
20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are there any other distinctions?
A. Yes. Some insects have the upper pair of
wings not at all adapted for flying, but consisting of
hard cases of the consistence of horn, which completely
close upon and shield or protect the other and mem-
branous pair that are adapted for flying; and these
are called coleoptera, or coleopterous, that is sheath-
winged insects, the sheaths themselves being called
elytra, or coverings.
Q. What is the common name given to the coleop-
terous insects?
A. They are usually called beetles; and their elytra
shut so neatly together over the wings, that the latter
are wholly concealed, and the wings sustain no injury,
even when the beetle burrows in the earth, or dives
under the water.
Q. Are there other distinctions of the wings?
A. Yes. Some insects have the upper wings of a
leathery consistence, or intermediate between mem-
brane and crust; and these are called hemiptera, or
half winged. The bug and the locust are specimens
of this kind.
Q. Are there still other distinctions?
A. Yes. Insects which have four wings of mem-
brane, but without the reticulations or nerves which
characterise the neuroptera are called hymenoptera, or
membranous winged insects.
Q. Which are some examples of these?
A. The bee, the wasp, and many others.
Q. Is there still any other distinction in the wings?
A. Yes. Some insects have the wings covered with
delicate and often very beautiful scales; and these are
INSECTS.
21
called lepidoptera, or scaly-winged insects.
moths and butterflies are examples.
Q. Are those differences in the wings of any use in
the classification of insects?
A. They are. They were the foundation of the
seven orders, into which insects were divided by Lin-
næus; and though later naturalists have separated
from his wingless class, some animals, such as crabs
and spiders, which are not properly insects, and made
some further arrangements, the Linnæan classification
is still the most simple and convenient for beginners.
Q. Why so?
A. Because though the peculiar character of the
wings does not always afford a guide to the character
and habits of the insects, it is so simple that it cannot
be mistaken.
The
Q. Repeat the names and characters of the wings in
the seven Linnæan Orders?
A. They are these.
Order I. COLEOPTERA, wings with horny covers.
Order II. HEMIPTERA, upper wings leather-like.
Order III. LEPIDOPTERA, four wings powdered
with scales.
Order IV. NEUROPTERA, four naked wings, stretched
on a net-work of fibres.
Order V. HYMENOPTERA, four naked wings with
the fibres less conspicuous.
Order VI. DIPTERA, with only two wings.
Order VII. APTERA, having no wings.
Q Are not there some additional appendages to the
wings of insects?
A. Yes. In the diptera there is generally behind
22
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
each wing a little stalk with a knob at the end. These
are called halteres or poisers; and between the poisers
and the basis of the wings there are generally little
spoon-shaped scales, but these are not constant in the
diptera, and some of the coleoptera have them.
Q. Where are the muscles that move the wings of
insects situated?
A. Always in the breast, or second ray of the
trunk, and in some of the species their power of mo-
tion, both in rapidity and continuance, is almost in-
credible.
Q. Which are the slowest flyers?
A. The coleoptera, which may be considered rather
as inhabitants of the earth and the water, and only
passengers through the air from place to place.
SECTION II.-SENSATION OF INSECTS.
Q. What are the organs of sensation in insects?
A. A nervous system, as in the other animals; and
in the whole of the varied tribes of insects that system
is remarkably uniform as well as simple.
Q. Have insects a brain?
A. Yes. The brain consists of two lobes situated
in the head and on the upper side of the entrance of
the gullet, and giving out nerves to the eyes, and
generally also to the mouth.
Q. What are the other parts of the nervous struc-
ture ?
A. Two cords, which, however, are sometimes so
united as to appear only one, descend from the lobes
in the head, to the extremity of the body, and have
INSECTS.
23
**
some resemblance to a spinal marrow; but they are
supported rather by the gullet and intestines, than by
the hard parts.
Q. Is there any peculiar formation of this nervous
cord in the wings?
A. Yes. In each ring or segment of which the
the body is made up, the cords form a ganglion (a knob
or knot), from which all the nerves that are required
for that ring issue.
Q. Is each of these ganglions to be considered as a
separate brain ?
A. No. They are merely parts of a system, the
centre or most important part of which is the two
lobes in the head, for if these are injured the action of
all the others is destroyed. Every insect is thus one
animal, and though, in certain stages of their being,
many of them can reproduce some parts, there is no
instance in which the head can be reproduced.
Q. Have they the same organs of the senses, as in
the warm-blooded animals ?
A. The organs of vision and touch are local, and
very easily seen and examined; but the organs of the
other senses have not been traced, so that the posses-
sion of them is rather inferred from the habits of the
insect than known to exist.
nature.
Q. What are those two kinds of eyes?
A. They are simple and compound.
Q. What are the characters of the eyes?
A. Insects have often two kinds of eyes, and some
of these are among the most curious structures in
24
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is the form and structure of the simple
eyes?
A. They are usually round black dots, three in
number, and situated in the upper part of the head;
but in several species they are wanting.
Q. And the compound eyes?
A. They are always present, generally one on each
side of the head, but sometimes each is so divided by
the marginal band of the head that there appear two
on each side. Sometimes those eyes are raised on
pedestals, sometimes they are level with the head,
and sometimes they are embedded in cavities.
Q. What appears to be the uses of the two sets of
eyes?
A. The simple ones enable the animal to see up-
ward, the compound, laterally and below. When
Cuvier covered the compound eyes of a wasp, it flew
directly upwards; when he covered the simple ones
also, it did not attempt to fly at all.
Q. Of what do the compound eyes consist?
A. Externally they are made up of a vast number
(sometimes several hundreds) of little faces or discs,
all rising in the middle, and generally regular six-
sided figures, with grooves between them, which are
often very beautifully studded with minute hairs.
All these are united into one horny plate of very
transparent texture, but each of them appears to be
capable of vision, and has a nervous prism under it for
communicating the sensation.
Q. Are these compound eyes fixed or movable?
A. In insects they are generally fixed.
INSECTS.
25
Q. Can they see far?
A. That is a part of the subject on which informa-
tion is very much wanted. Bees go out to gather
honey and return to their hives with great certainty
from the distance of miles, and after more doublings
and beatings from place to place, and from blossom to
blossom, than would quite bewilder man; but if they
do that from sight they must have very little memory,
as the same bee may be observed to return again and
again to the same flower from which it has just before
drained the honey.
Q. What are the organs of touch?
A. It is by no means improbable that the toes,
where these are not of a horny consistency, and also
the tips of the wings in many insects, may have a
power of touch, but the principal organs of touch are
understood to be the antennæ, or feelers.
Q. What is their number and situation?
A. They are always two or more in number, situ-
ated on each side of the head, usually between the
eyes and mouth.
Q. What is the form of the antennæ?
A. They always consist of a number of pieces or
joints, which the insect has the power of moving.
Q. And how is it inferred that they are organs of
touch?
A. When they come to any body they may be seen
examining it with their antennæ in the same way that
a man would with his finger; and when those of the
same species meet they examine each other in the
same manner.
D
26
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Which of them appear to have the antennæ in
the greatest state of activity?
A. Those which live upon, and especially those
that live in the ground, or have to find their food
in the dark.
Q. Have they any organs of smelling?
A. That they have a sense of smelling can hardly
be doubted, as they are evidently attracted to many
substances where it is difficult to imagine that there
can be any other attraction than the sense of smell;
but where that sense resides, whether in the palpi
with which the mouth is furnished, or in some other
part of the body, has not hitherto been, and probably
never will be determined.
Q. Then they have no nostrils?
A. No; there is no passage of air by any opening
in the fore part of the head of insects, they breathe
by means of spiracles or holes in the sides of their
bodies; and it may be that the organs of those senses
which are not found anywhere else, may be connected
with these spiracles.
Q. Why may that be the case?
A. The air is the medium both of scent and sound,
the two senses for which they have no visible organs,
and as the organs (of scent especially) in those ani-
mals that have them clearly determined, have them in
the air passages, it is not unreasonable to think that
insects may also have them there.
Q. What reason is there to conclude that they
have organs of hearing?
A. Many of them emit voluntary sounds upon par-
INSECTS.
27
ticular occasions, which are answered by others; with-
out hearing, the sound would be useless, which is con-
trary to the whole economy of nature, in which there
is nothing useless, and besides an unheard sound
could not be answered.
Q. Have they voice?
A. No. As they do not respire by the mouth they
can have no voice, and thus the sounds which they
emit are always produced either by the motion of
some parts of their bodies in the air, as in the hum-
ming made by the wings of bees, or by rubbing one
part of their body against another, or against other
substances.
SECTION III-NOURISHMENT OF INSECTS.
Q. Are there many things to be noticed in the man-
ner in which insects are nourished?
A. Their mouths are generally composed of the
same number of parts, but these are so differently
formed as to admit of three distinct classes, from the
consistence in which they receive their food.
Q. What are these?
A. The simplest English names that can be given
to them are gnawers, lickers, and suckers, each of
which has, of course, a particular modification in
the parts of the mouth.
Q. Of what parts is the mouth generally speaking
made up?
A. Of four; but as there are no common English
names for them, they are expressed by the Latin ones
D 2
28
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
of labrum, mandibulæ, maxillæ, and labium,—the first
and last single, and the second and third in pairs?
Q. What is the labrum?
A. The labrum is joined to the fore part of the head,
and occupies the same place as the upper lip of the
mammalia, fishes, and reptiles. It is variously formed,
and constitutes one of the distinguishing characters of
the several species.
Q. What is the motion of the labrum?
A. It opens upwards and closes downwards, and
may be considered as the cover of the mouth from the
upper part.
Q. What is the arrangement of the mandibula?
A. They are articulated one on each side below the
labrum, and move horizontally or in a direction con-
trary to the jaws of the vertebrated animals, and the
mandibles of birds.
Q. Of what are they composed?
A. Generally of a horny substance, very variously
shaped in the different species, and often so hard and
strong as to cut the toughest, and knaw the hardest
of organic substances. They often cross each other
like the blades of scissars, and at other times they rc-
semble claws acting against each other.
Q. What is the arrangement of the maxillæ ?
A. They are articulated to the cheeks immediately
under the mandibulæ, and also act horizontally.
Q. Are they as simple in their structure?
A. In general they are not. Their inner margins
are generally beset with stiff hairs; and on their outer
sides, they support the palpi, which are appendages
consisting of two joints and sometimes more.
INSECTS.
29
Q. How many palpi are there?
A. Generally one on every maxilla, but rarely more
than one.
Q. What is the use of the palpi?
A. The uses of the palpi are but imperfectly known;
but it is probable, that like the antennæ, they are organs
of touch, and probably also of smell, though the latter
has not been ascertained.
Q. What is the place of the labium?
A. The labium is in the place of an under lip, clo-
sing the mouth, from the underside upwards. On
each side it has a palpus of two or three joints, and
at the middle there is a line, as if it were partially
divided into two; at the sides it is jointed to the
maxillæ, and at the back part to the head, through
the medium of a plate.
Q. And have those organs always the same arrange-
ment ?
A. There are in all classes rudiments of them all,
but they are perfect and capable of dividing hard sub-
stances, only in those insects which gnaw solid food,
or at least food that requires some force to divide it.
Q. What are their characters in those insects that
procure their food by licking?
A. In those, which are chiefly the hymenoptera, of
which the bee may be taken as a type, the labrum is
changed into a soft or fleshy plate, which can be
applied in licking in the same manner as the tongues
of quadrupeds, and capable of being rolled up inwards
when not in use.
Q. What is the form of the mouth in the suckers ?
A. There are two important modifications of the
D 3
30
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
parts in these. In the first of these the labrum is
nearly obliterated; the labrum produced, formed with
a groove on the upper side, and called the beak (ros-
trum) when hard, and the snout (proboscis) when
soft; and the mandibulæ and maxillæ are elongated
into plates, or rather hairs, and imbedded in the
grooves.
Q. In which classes of insects are those characters
chiefly found?
A. In the hymenoptera and diptera. If the labrum
forms a hard rostrum, the sucker is often, as in the case of
the tabane, employed in perforating the skins of animals
and sucking their blood; and when it is soft it is
chiefly used for sucking up moist substances, as in the
case of the common house-fly.
Q. What is the second form of the sucker?
A. In that the labrum is short, and the two maxillæ
are so applied to each other, that by means of a
groove in each, they form a sucking tube, which when
not in use is coiled up spirally.
Q. To which class does that chiefly belong?
A. To the lepidoptera; and it is not in any known
species of so hard a consistency as to penetrate a solid
substance.
Q. Then the Linnæan distinctions of the orders
by the wings, have some correspondence to the feed-
ing-apparatus, and on that account to the modes of
feeding?
5
A. The correspondence is not so general or so per-
fect, as to render the arrangement a natural one, but
there is a considerable resemblance in some of the
*particulars.
INSECTS.
31
Q. What is the general gradation?
A. The coleoptera have the mouth invariably fitted
for cutting and gnawing; many of the hemiptera
have the same character; the neuroptera follow, and
still have, in some of the species, the power of biting
or gnawing; then the hymenoptera and diptera, are
adapted for licking and sucking, and the lepidoptera
chiefly only for sucking fluids, so that in the perfect
insects those that have the most hard matter in the
wings, have also the mouth best adapted for gnawing
hard substances; and in proportion as the entire
wings become soft or scaly, the animal is in general
more restricted to liquid food.
Q. Are the digestive organs of insects as varied and
complicated as those of feeding?
A. They are not, the gullet is simple; and though
there is sometimes a tubercle in the under part of it,
which holds nearly the same position, it can hardly be
considered as a tongue.
Q. How are the heart and blood vessels arranged?
A. No heart or blood vessels, and no absorbent
system, by which the nutritive part of the food of
insects can be conveyed into the system, have been
discovered.
Q. How, then, are they nourished?
A. It would seem that the matter fit for circulation,
passes from the intestinal canal into the cavity of the
body, where it is acted upon by the air in the air-
tubes, that proceed from the spiracles or breathing-
holes in the sides, and are ramified all over the body:
and that probably a portion of it is converted into fat
n the dorsal vesscl.
32
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is the dorsal vessel?
A. A little one, seated within the body near the
back, surrounded with fatty matter, and containing a
liquor that appears to have a considerable resemblance
to gum.
Q. May not this vessel be the heart?
A It does not resemble the heart of any other
animal, neither is it connected with any vessels for
circulation, though it is much connected with the air-
tubes, with nerves and with muscles.
Q. What are the lungs of insects ?
A. They are the air-tubes or vessels that have been
mentioned; they spread through the whole interior,
and open outwardly by the stigmata or breathing-holes
in the sides, which are formed of cartilage, and often
have little valves, by means of which they can be shut
or opened.
Q. Then the muscles, the nerves, the intestines,
and the air-vessels, are imbedded in a fluid, which
occupies the rest of the cavities?
A. Just so: and after this fluid has been freed
from its superfluous carbon, by the action of the air in
the tubes or tracheæ, the proper organs elaborate from
it the portions which are fitted for the different pur-
poses of the animal.
Q. Is that the invariable structure of insects?
A. In some stages of their existence, some of them
have other organs by which silk, gum, and other fluids,
or it may be the same fluid in different states, is pre-
pared.
Q. What constitutes the food of insects?
A. Almost every organic substance that can be
INSECTS.
33
imagined. The blood of large animals, the bodies of
other substances, all manner of vegetable matter, sub-
stances in a state of putrefaction; and indeed, with
the exception of stones and metals, almost every
substance that can be mentioned. Stones, indeed,
hardly form an exception: for although they do not
absolutely cut stones, they can gnaw or scrape them
to powder for some of their other purposes.
Q. Of what kind of substance are the bodies of in-
sects formed?
A They have not been analyzed with the requisite
degree of care, but the probability is, that they are
chiefly made up of albumen and gelatine, which may
be among the reasons why they are so eagerly sought
for as food, by so many animals, and why the few
that man has introduced into his systems of cookery,
are so nutritious.
Q. Are there no poisonous qualities in insects?
A. Some of them are so acrid that they are em-
ployed in medicine for blistering the skin; many of the
hymenoptera are furnished with strong acid or poison
apparatus; and some of the coleoptera also secrete
poisons or at any rate acrid juices.
Q. Are any of them endowed with electric powers?
A. There are some facts mentioned with regard to
species in the warm countries that lead to the suspicion
that there may be such a power, but these facts have
not yet been followed out. The fact is, that it has
been more the fashion, especially in England, to col-
lect insects for the beauty of their colours, than to
acquire a knowledge of their qualities and habits.
34
CATECHISM OF 200LOGY.
SECTION IV.-REPRODUCTION OF INSECTS.
Q. ARF all the species of insects in two sexes?
A. All that have been hitherto discovered are;
some indeed have neuters, and very many in certain
stages of their being, have no distinctions of sex.
Q. You have qualified other expressions besides
that with the words " in certain stages of their being,"
what do you mean by those words ?
A. In insects we meet with changes from one state of
being to another, which are very singular and would
alone be sufficient to lead any rational person that was
ever so slightly acquainted with them to study their
economy.
Q. Are these the changes of youth, maturity, and
decay, as in the mammalia; or of the egg and the
chicken, as in birds; or the spawn, the tadpole, and
the frog, as in the batracian reptiles ?*
A. They are much more curious than these. The
lamb differs from the sheep in little else than size and
strength; the chicken wants but to grow and to be
fledged; and even the tadpole has some points in com-
mon with the frog; but the changes which an insect
undergoes, are often so great, that if the facts were
not known, the identity of the insect would be alto-
gether incredible.
Q. Mention one of them?
A. Some of them live for seasons in the earth or
the water, in the state of loathsome grubs or cater-
* See Catechism of Herpetology.
INSECTS.
35
pillars; and then come to the light, winged creatures,
adorned with the most beautiful colours, capable only
of sucking the most delicate liquids, wanton for a very
brief space in the sunshine, and then die.
Q. How are insects produced ?
A. They are in all cases produced from eggs, and
generally those eggs are deposited by the mother,
which dies in the meantime, and leaves them to be
hatched by accidental causes; but there are some
species which, in the warm weather, are ovaviviparous,
or hatch their eggs before they are laid, though in the
cold weather the very same species connect their eggs
to those substances that are fit for receiving them, and
die.
Q. That is very singular?
A. But it is not the most singular part of the matter.
Of the aphides (little things not bigger than grains of
dust, that are met with upon the buds of roses, and the
leaves and young shoots of many plants, in such num-
bers as to be pests to the gardeners), there are many
in which there are no males till near the ninth or
tenth generation, and it does not appear that any
would be necessary to continue the race for ever, were
it not for the cold weather of autumn, by which the
whole living myriads are destined to be killed, and the
race must be preserved by eggs of a different kind
than those that answer in the summer months.
Q. Is there any parallel case in nature?
A. None in the animal kingdom, and of course
none exactly parallel any where. The nearest ap-
proximation is in those plants, which, like the potatoe,
can be reproduced by parting the roots.
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. And as the great mass of insects die, you say,
before their young are hatched, do they take no care
of them?
A. In most species their habits are so different,
that the parent could not only take no care of the
young, but could not exist for a moment in that ele-
ment to which alone it is adapted.
Q Can you mention any instance?
A. The gnats, which make the sunbeam gay with
their sportive thousands, and weary the night with
their ceaseless song, perish the instant that they drop
upon the water, but the next generation are at the
very same time alive and playful in that element, and
ever as the warmth of a new morning returns, a fresh
race cast off their finny garments, soar and sport, and
often commit their progeny to the water and expire
before they have even felt the beams of the sun.
Q. Then the care of the insects for their young is
all prospective?
A. Yes, but it is a preparation for that of which
they cannot possibly have any knowledge, and yet it
is more ingenious than the larger animals can do for
all their long life, or than man can do, although the
experience of six thousand years be written in the
volume of his book. It therefore puts wisdom and
knowledge, in our view of them, out of the question,
and when we study it aright, impresses us more
forcibly with the Almighty power of God, than when
we contemplate the revolutions of planets and the
motions of systems.
Q. What does the little insect do for that future
offspring which she is never to see?
INSECTS.
37
A. The enumeration of even half that she does in
the different species would fill volumes; but, though
it very seldom has any reference to her own habits or
mode of existence, she never fails to place her eggs in
the very situation which is the most favourable to
their preservation, their hatching and the food of the
young when they become alive.
Q. Mention one or two of the cases?
A. She builds houses of wax, of wood, or of stone,
cementing them with a mortar formed by her own
body; she glues her eggs round twigs in such a manner
as that they can hardly be torn off till the young are
hatched; she excavates mines in the earth, in timber,
and in stone; she drills holes in leaves, bark, and
wood, in the bodies of living animals, and even in the
eggs of other insects; she places her eggs upon the
hides of horses and other quadrupeds, and then tickles
the place so that they may lick them into their
stomachs where they are protected and hatched; she
builds boats and launches them upon the water; and
in fact there cannot be an operation named as practi-
cable by man, that is not out-done, both in the inge-
nuity of the present operation and the certainty of the
future result, by some of the insect tribes.
SECTION V. CHANGES OF INSECTS.
Q. What are the changes which an insect under-
goes ?
A. They are usually three besides the egg. 1. The
larva; 2. the pupa; and 3. the imago, or perfect
insect.
E
38
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is the meaning of larva?
A. The literal meaning is a mask, and the name is
applied because the future animal is concealed in the
larva as in a mask. Larvæ are in common language
called grubs and caterpillars, and sometimes worms.
Q. What is the meaning of pupa?
A. It literally means a flame, or the flame of a
funeral pile; and when the insect is dormant and
ceases to eat in that stage of its being, the case is
generally in the shape of a flame, and it is a kind of
temporary funeral. The pupa is also sometimes called
a chrysalis and an aurelia, from its yellow or golden
colour.
Q. Has it any common English name?
A. There is no common English name for a dor-
mant pupa inclosed in a case; and those insects which
are active in that stage of their being, usually get the
names of caterpillars and worms, the same as the
arvæ.
Q. What is the meaning of imago?
A The image, the proper representation of the
insect as a perfect being, which the larva and the
pupa are not.
Q. Do all insects undergo these changes or trans-
formations?
A. Some of the aptera or wingless insects, pass
through their states with little alteration in their form
and habits, and merely by repeated changes of their
skin; all of them are equally voracious in the larva
as in the imago state, and many of them are much
more so; and there are very considerable differences
in the pupa state to which names are given.
INSECTS
39
Q. What names?
A. When the pupas have the same form and habits
as the perfect insects they are called complete, pupæ
completœ; and when they are active, but have some
parts, as the wings, only partially formed, they are
called half-complete, pupa semicompleta.
Q. What is the state of the other pupa?
A. They do not eat or move, but subsist on the fat
that they have accumulated during the time they ate
voraciously as larvæ; they are distinguished into
three kinds.
Q. What is the first?
A. When they appear in a leathery pupa-case,
which has sheaths for all the members of the body of
the perfect insect which is to come out of it, they are
called incomplete, pupa incompleta.
Q. What is the second form?
A. When they are inclosed in a single sheath,
which has not parts answering to the members of the
perfect insect, they are called covered or veiled, pupœ
obtectæ.
Q. What is the third form?
A. When they are inclosed in a pupa case which
changes into the skin of the image, instead of being
cast off, they are said to be compressed, pupæ coarc-
tatæ.
Q. Is there any ingenuity displayed by the creatures
themselves in the performing of these changes?
A. The changes themselves are in a great measure
to be considered as the results of causes in which the
insect has no action, but the preparations for some
of those states display a great deal of ingenuity.
E 2
40
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. In which change is that most remarkable?
A. In the preparations for passing into the pupa or
chrysalis state.
Q. And among what insects is it more remarkable?
A. It is worthy of notice in many, but perhaps the
most remarkable takes place among the moths. The
coverings of their bodies are more delicate than those
of any of the other classes, and therefore they require
more protection from the elements and from external
injury when those coverings are in preparation.
Q. Of what substance do they form their protec-
tions?
A. Of various substances; but the one which they
themselves furnish, and with which they perform a
number of operations of different kinds, is gum or silk,
of which they either make themselves entire nests or
cases, which are called cocoons, or they form cases of
leaves and other matter, which they bind together
with the silk in threads, or glue them with it as a
sort of cement.
Q. Is this silk of use to the larvæ of insects at any
other time than when they are preparing to pass
their pupa state?
A. It is useful upon many occasions to those cater-
pillars that live upon vegetable substances in the
open air, as on the leaves of trees and plants.
Q. Which insects are those chiefly ?
A. The lepidopterous insects, that is, the nume-
rous families of butterflies and moths, which secure
themselves both against enemies and accidents by
fastening the end of a thread to the leaf or twig on
which they happen to be, and dropping themselves
INSECTS.
41
down to a greater or less distance till they feel per-
fectly safe.
Q. And can they ascend again?
A. They can, with a curious wriggling motion,
something like that of a sailor climbing a rope.
Q. How do they prepare their rope?
A. In order to understand that clearly it is neces-
sary to know something of the structure of a cater-
pillar.
Q. Well, mention some of the particulars ?
A. With the shape every body is familiar, but
every body may not have observed that though the
moth or butterfly has no mouth, but a sucker, the
caterpillar has mandibles adapted for cutting and
gnawing that on which it lives?
Q. What further?
A. That the first three rings from the head com-
prise what is to be the head and trunk of the perfect
insect, and that to these there are attached six legs,
each terminating in a claw, with which the caterpillar
can lay hold.
Q. What further?
A. That the remaining part of the body, which is
generally by far the larger part of it, answers to the
abdomen of the future animal, and to this part there
are attached protuberances which have not the pro-
per motions of legs, nor do they end in claws. They
are suckers, and the caterpillar can either make use
of them in drawing forward its body something in the
manner that sailors call "warping," or it can attach
itself to surfaces on which the claws could not take
hold. By this means it can walk with its back under-
E 3
42
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
most, or extend the greater part of its body forward
towards one object, while it adheres by the suckers, or
prolegs, to another.
Q. Why are they called prolegs?
A. Substitutes for legs. The name is both clumsy
and absurd, but it has been used, and to alter it
would be inconvenient.
Q. But as to the silk?
A. There are inside the caterpillar two bags or
vessels, often very much curved and convoluted, and
increasing in size as the habits of the insect may re-
quire a greater quantity of silk. These are fastened
to the intestines by two small tubes near the ex-
tremity of the insect, and expanding to a wider
diameter near the middle, they again contract as they
approach the head, and they unite in one orifice
under the labium?
Q. What do these vessels contain ?
A. They contain a fluid gum of a very viscid consis-
tency, which has the property of consolidating, yet
remaining very flexible when it is exposed in a small
quantity to the action of the air. When they press
the orifice against any surface it adheres, and when
they find that it does so, they let their bodies drop,
and the weight draws out a thread from the vessels
which consolidates in the air, and the body hangs
suspended until the danger be over, and then it can
ascend by the thread.
Q. That is a singular means of safety?
A. When one examines it narrowly it is a little
more singular than it even appears. The thread is
drawn out by the weight of the insect, but it must be
INSECTS.
43
also strong in proportion to that weight, and conse-
quently the regulating of the spinning orifice to the
staple which the weight of the body requires, is a
very nice problem in mechanics, and yet it is in-
stantly solved by these caterpillars.
Q. Do they make any other use of these silken
threads in their usual economy?
A. When they come to a surface which is so
smooth that they cannot easily climb it in the usual
manner, they can construct a sort of scaling ladders
by making cross threads fastened at both ends, on
which they raise themselves by their claws, and as they
hang by one of these threads they place another
higher up, and thus continue till they reach the top.
Q. Are caterpillars very voracious?
A. They are very much so, and considering the
difference of size their voracity bears some proportion
to the quantity of silk, not for the casualties to which
they may be exposed, but for their final abode ere
they come forth in the winged state.
Q. Do not they undergo several partial changes
even while in the state of caterpillars or larvæ ?
A. They do. They cast their skins three or four
times in the course of their growth, and as they be-
come partially inactive during these changes, they
naturally seek retreats where they fasten themselves
by their silken threads till they again revive.
Q. Which is the most remarkable British species
that spins silk?
A. Perhaps the emperor moth, (Phalana attacus,)
the caterpillar of which is smooth, and feeds upon the
44
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
leaves of wild apples, willows, and other trees, is
one of the most laborious British spinners.
Q. What is the form of its cocoon ?
A. Spread something in the shape of a fan, fastened
to bays in hedges and coppices, and having an open-
ing or chimney at the upper end.
Q. What is the consistence of its nest?
A. Something like paper, only more fibrous and
tough, and covered with a varnish which cannot easily
be wetted.
Q. But does not the wet find entrance at the chim-
ney in the upper part ?
A. To prevent that, the caterpillar, before it be-
comes dormant, constructs an inverted capsule inside
the opening, which completely prevents any rain that
may enter from touching it; and the fringy silk at
the aperture of the cocoon partly answers the same
purpose.
Q. Can the cocoon of the emperor moth be used
as silk ?
A. It is doubtful whether it could be unwound like
that of the silk-worm; but it might perhaps be carded
and spun, like the refuse of silk. The numbers in this
country are, however, too few for making the experi-
ment.
Q. Is the cocoon of the silk-worm spun in the
same manner ?
A. No. After the light covering of floss silk on
the outside, the great bulk of the cocoon is in one con-
tinuous thread, and therefore they do not need to be
spun, but merely twisted together.
INSECTS.
45
Q. What quantity of silk may there be in the co-
coon of one caterpillar?
A. Three hundred yards in length, of a double
thread, is about the average.
Q. What is the weight?
A. About two thousand cocoons to a pound.
Q. Then, how many silk-worms are required for
the annual supply of Britain?
A. At least two thousand millions.
Q. Could the supply be obtained in whole or in
part in this country?
A. It could not be profitably obtained.
Q. Is that because the mulberry leaves, on which
silk worms are fed, could not be obtained in sufficient
quantity?
A. No: silk-worms eat the leaves of lettuce and
several other plants; but the silk would not, in Britain,
pay the cost of labour.
Q. Is that much to be regretted, as silk is so valu-
able a commodity?
A. Certainly not. Silk is one of the most con-
venient substances to transport from place to place, as
its bulk and weight are so small in respect to its
value.
Q. Do all larvæ spin cocoons for themselves?
A. They do not. The caterpillars of the butterflies
suspend themselves by the tails, and their covering
changes into the pupa-case.
Q. Do the different changes or transformations of
insects take up nearly the same time?
A. The times are very various. Some take only a
46
CATECH19M OF ZOOLOGY.
few weeks, or even a few days, and others several
years.
Q. What are the situations of those that take up
the longest time?
A. They are generally in the ground or in the
water, though some of those that eat deep into dry
timber also continue there for a considerable time.
PART II.
CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS.
Q. INTO how many orders are insects divided?
A. It has been already mentioned that the Lin-
næan division was into seven orders; but later ento-
mologists have found it advisable to subdivide some of
these orders, so as to make altogether eleven.
Q. What are the names of these eleven orders ?
A. They are-
KAMER
1. Coleoptera.
2. Sterpseptera.
3. Dermoptera.
4. Orthoptera
5. Hemiptera.
6. Trichoptera.
7. Lepidoptera.
8. Neuroptera.
9. Hymenoptera.
10. Diptera.
11. Aptera.
ORDER I.-COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS.
Q. Will you repeat the character of the coleop-
tera ?
INSECTS.
47
A. The integuments of the body, and the elytra, or
covers of the wings, of a horny consistency, often
as hard as bone, and the hardness of the elytra in
general corresponding with that of the rest of the
covering.
Q. Are the elytra always of the same form?
A. They are always concave on the under, and con-
vex on the upper side. They are sometimes detached,
and sometimes soldered into one; sometimes, too,
they form a shield for the whole abdomen, and some-
times only for a part of it.
Q. What is the character of the wings?
A. The wings, or under-wings, as they are gene-
rally styled, are always membranous, fortified by cor-
neous ribs that form a sort of net-work. Sometimes
they are large, and support the animal during long
flights; and sometimes they are so imperfectly deve-
loped, that it cannot fly at all.
Q. How are the elytra disposed of, so as to be out
of the way of the flying wings?
A. They are erected, so as to stand nearly perpen-
dicular; so that the coleoptera make a more bulky
appearance when flying than when they are at rest;
and they fly with great difficulty either against or
across the wind.
Q. What are the characters of the eyes?
A. They have one simple eye, or ocelli, on the top
of the head, and one compound eye upon each side;
but these are sometimes so divided, that each has the
appearance of two.
Q. What is the character of their mouths?
A. Always fitted for cutting and gnawing; but as
!
48
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
some are carnivorous, and others not, there are con-
siderable differences in their digestive organs.
Q. What is their mode of reproduction?
A. They are all oviparous. The larvæ are found
in the ground, under stones, and among rubbish. They
are generally composed of twelve or thirteen rings,
have scaly heads, and the organs of mastication not
unlike those of the complete insect; but they are
often without eyes or antennæ.
Q. Are the larvae of the coleoptera very destructive?
A. Many of them are exceedingly so to the roots
of grasses and other vegetables, which they sometimes
entirely destroy.
Q. Do they remain long in the state of larvæ ?
A. Many of them for several years. When they
are to undergo their final change, they do not spin
cocoons, but generally are buried, when they are
changed into
pupa obtectæ.
Q. Are they long-lived in their perfect state?
A. They are longer lived than most other insects.
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. Very much so. There are about three hundred
and thirty-three genera, and in some of those there are
many species.
Q. And they are all popularly called beetles?
A. Yes, that is the common English name of the
whole race.
Q. Are there any characters by means of which so
numerous an order can be subdivided?
A. Yes, the number of joints in the tarsi,* the form
of the palpi, and also of the antennæ.
See M. Geoffroy's "Histoire abrégé des Insectes."
INSECTS.
49
Q. Are these always natural divisions; that is, do
they form an index to the general habits of the in-
sect?
A. Not always; but they do in many cases, and
they are obvious and simple.
Q. What are the divisions founded on the number
of joints in the tarsus?
A. There are five tribes founded upon this cha-
racter.
1. Pentamera, or those that have five joints to the
tarsi of all the legs; but to this there are some ex-
ceptions.
2. Heteromera, with five joints in the tarsi of the
fore and mid legs, and four in those of the hind
ones.
3. Tetramera, with four joints in the tarsi of all the
legs.
4. Trimera, with all the tarsi three-jointed.
5. Dimera, with the tarsi two-jointed.
Q. Do any of these admit of larger subdivisions
than into genera?
A. The pentamera admit of a division into six
families, and some of them can be further subdi-
vided.
Q. Which is the first family?
A. Carnivora, or, as the name implies, beetles of
prey; which are again divided into terrestria, or inha-
bitants of the land; and aquatica, or inhabitants of
the water.
Q. What are the general characters of the carni-
vora?
A. They have six palpi; two upon the labium, and
F
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
four upon the maxilla; and they are the only insects
that have them so. Their maxillæ are strongly hooked,
and beset on the insides with bristles or spines. Both
insects and larvæ are carnivorous, and the last consist
of trachæ ring, the head and tail-ray scaly.
Q. What are the characters of the land-beetles?
A. They have the feet formed for walking, strong
mandibles, oblong bodies, and prominent eyes: they
have also two vessicles on the hinder part of their
bodies, that secret an acrid liquor.
Q. What are the principle divisions of carnivorous
land coleoptera ?
A. There are two of them.
Cicendeliada, and
carabide.
Q. What are the distinguishing characters of the
cicendeliada?
A. Their mandibles are prominent and toothed ;
their maxillæ have each a toothed claw, and the length
and breadth of the thorax are nearly the same.
Q. Are they numerous?
A. There are only three genera, which are all very
active and voracious insects, and some of them very
beautiful in their colours.
Q. What places do they inhabit ?
A. Generally dry and sandy places, in which the
arvæ of some of the species make pit-falls, in which
they lie with their mandibles extended, ready to seize
any insect that may lose its balance on the sand which
they have loosened.
Q. Which is the most remarkable European spe-
cies ?
A. Perhaps the field species, (Cicindela Campestris,)
INSECTS.
51
which is about half an inch long, with the elytra
bright green, and the thorax, legs, and sides of the
head, of a rich bronze colour.
Q. What are the characters of the Carabida?
A. They are without moveable claws on the max-
illæ, and seldom have more than one tooth in each
mandible.
Q. Are they very numerous ?
A. Very much so, though more are found in the
warm regions than in the cold.
Q. What are the characters of the aquatic carni-
vorous beetles ?
A. They have the feet formed for swimming, and
the thorax very broad. They are divided into Dytis-
cidæ or plungers, and Gyrinidæ or circulators. The
former get their general name because they come to
the surface to breathe, and speedily plunge to the
bottom again; the latter, because they are constantly
wheeling in circles on the surface. One of the Dy-
tiscidæ, which is common enough in this country,
can inflict a severe bite.
Q. Which one is that ?
A. Dytiscus marginalis, which is sometimes as large
as the first joint of the thumb, and is black marginated
with rusty brown. The legs of some of the plunger
beetles have curious suckers.
Q. And do they live constantly in the water?
A. It is their general place of residence: and both
in their larvæ and full-grown state they are very vora-
cious, and prey upon a vast number of water insects.
The larvæ have most formidable mandibles.
Q Of what use are wings to water insects?
F 2
52
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. They use their wings in the air, through which
they fly, from one pool to another in the summer even-
ings.
Q. Then they have three kinds of motion ?
A. They have four. They burrow in the mud,
run on the bottom, swim in the water, and fly in the
air.
Q. What is the second division of the pentamera?
A. Microptera (small winged). They are long
and narrow, and the elytra do not half cover the ab-
domen. They live chiefly upon putrid substances,
and sometimes are called dung beetles. When en-
raged, they elevate both ends and look very fierce.
Q. Do they sting?
A. No coleopterous insects have stings, but many
of them prick and bite, and their bites are often, on
account of their toothed mandibles, very painful for
their size.
Q. What is the third division?
A. Serricornua (toothed antennæ). They are very
numerous, and some of them are soft and membran-
ous. Many of them are beautifully coloured, and
some are two inches and a half in length.
Q. Which is the fourth division?
A. Clavicornua (club-horned). They feed on mag-
gots and dead substances; and some of them are
very destructive of furs and prepared animals. Others,
when they find mice, moles, or other small animals
dead on the ground, dig under and bury them, and
then eat them at their leisure.
Q. What is the fifth division ?
A. Palpicornua (having the antennæ no larger than
INSECTS.
53
the palpi). Many of them have the legs adapted for
swimming, and inhabit running water.
Q. What is the last division of the family?
A. Lamellicornua (having the points of the club-
shaped antennæ divided into plates). The beetles
properly so called, belong to this division. One of
the best known of which is the common May-bug, or
cock-chaffer, Scarabæus Melalontha.
Q. Are there many genera of the second family,
heteromera?
A. There are, and they are very various in their
appearances and habits. Some are black, inhabit
dark places, and have an offensive smell. The meal
worm, Tenebrio Molitor, is one of these; many of them
are very acrid, of which the Cantharis or Spanish fly
(Vesicatoricus), which is of a beautiful golden green,
and used in powder for blistering the skin, is a speci-
men.
Q. In what situations is that beetle found?
A. On oak trees. It is found in England, but very
rarely.
Q. Is the family (Tetranera) with four joints in
all the tarsi, remarkable for any thing?
A. Some of them are very destructive to vegetable
substances, as the meuovil, Curculio Granareus, depo-
sits her eggs in the grains of corn, which the larvæ, when
they are hatched, completely destroy. Others destroy
the kernels of nuts and other fruits, and others again
mine under the bark of trees.
Q. Are any of them beautiful?
A. Yes, the diamond beetle, Curculio Imperialis, a
native of Brazil, has two rows of spots on the elytra,
F 3
54
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
which almost rival diamonds in the brilliancy of their
lustre.
All the genera of this family have elytra, but many
of them have no wings and are incapable of flight.
Q. Are any of those (Trimerida) that have three
joints in the tarsi of importance?
A. Yes, one (the seven spotted coccinella or lady-
bird), is very common in gardens, where it is very
active in clearing plants of aphides and other small
insects.
Q. Is there any thing particular in those that have
only two joints in the tarsi?
A. There are only two genera of them, and they
present nothing remarkable.
ORDER II.-STERPSEPTEROUS INSECTS.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. The body is horny, wings folding, leather-like,
and not covered by the elytra, which appear fixed to
the coxe of the hind legs; the mouth with mandibles,
but destitute of maxillæ, labrum and labium.
Q. Are there many genera of them?
A. There are not very many, and their habits are
not perfectly known. The absence of a regular
mouth without the substitution of a sucker, is a curi-
ous character; and from this they are understood to
be very short lived in their imago state.
ORDER III.-DERMAPTEROUS INSECTS.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. The elytra are much shorter than the abdomen,
but the wings when at rest, fold both in length and
INSECTS.
55
crosswise; they have toothed mandibles and a sort of
helmet upon the maxillæ. They all terminate back-
wards in a horny fork, or pair of forceps.
Q. Are there many genera?
A. The common earwig (Forficula), and a larger,
and also a smaller genus.
Q. Does the earwig creep into the ears of people?
A. Certainly not; though it takes up its habitation
in holes and sheltered places.
ORDER IV.-ORTHOPTEROUS INSECTS.
Q What are the characters of the orthoptera?
A. The name imports that they have straight wings,
that is, have the wings when expanded for flying at
right angles to the line of the body. The wings
fold and unfold like a fan, and the ribs are united by
cross fibres, which gives to the membranous parts the
same arrangement as that of bricks in a wall. Their
mouths resemble the coleoptera, only they have horny
shields upon the maxillæ.
Q. Is there any thing remarkable about this order?
A. It contains some of the most curious and some
of the most destructive insects in the whole class.
Q. Which are some of the most curious?
A. In shape the Mantides are. They are generally
of a green colour, and have got the name of “ walking
leaves." They have the wings so folded on the back
that they have something the appearance of the veins
of a leaf; while the thorax is so long and slender that
it resembles a leaf-stalk: some of them elevate the
head, thorax, and two fore-legs, in so singular a man-
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
ner that they are called "religiosa, canting or pray
ing insects.
Q. Are they peaceable insects?
A. They are so much the reverse that the Chinese,
and some other of the eastern nations, keep them in
boxes, and make them fight, betting upon the issue;
and the vanquished is instantly eaten by the victor.
Q. Which are some other remarkable species?
A. The locust (Gryllus), of which the migratory
kind occurs in such numbers as to convert a fertile
country instantly into a desart.
Q. Have they ever appeared in Britain ?
A. Very seldom in any numbers, and when that has
been the case, they have generally died before they
did much mischief.
Q. Which are some of the other singular genera?
A. The crickets and grasshoppers, which are so
remarkable for the chirping noise that they make by
rubbing the elytra against each other.
Q. Is there any thing remarkable in the structure of
the grasshopper?
A. The hinder legs are twice as long as the body,
and they are so constructed that the insect can jump
to a great distance without using the wings.
Q. Are they common in Britain ?
A. The green grasshopper (Locusta Viridissima) is
very common in all parts of the country.
Q. How many crickets are there?
A. There are three to which the name is given, of
which the house cricket takes up its residence near
fires, and keeps up a chirping noise in the evenings.
It produces its noise by rubbing the elytra together;
INSECTS.
57
and comes out in the night preying on provisions of
all sorts. The field cricket makes the same sort of
noise; but it is by no means common in Britain.
Q. Is not there one which is more curious than
any of these?
A. Yes, the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa), is one of the
most singular insects to be met with.
Q. What is it like ?
A. It is thick and strong, with a large shield on the
upper part of the thorax. The elytra are small; the
wings large, and beautifully reticulated. The most
singular parts however are the fore-feet, which are
very large toward the toes, and the claws are hooked,
strong, and have a lateral motion, by means of which
they may either be brought together or spread wide.
Q. How does it use those claws?
A. In digging; and where the ground is moderately
soft, it digs so fast that it may be said to walk through
the earth.
Q. Where are the mole crickets found?
A. Generally in meadows near rivers, where they
sometimes disfigure the surface like moles.
Q. Do they fly at all?
A. Sometimes during the night, but never in the
day. The females construct very neat subterraneous
chambers for their eggs; and they defend them with
great determination from the attacks of other insects,
though the mole is said sometimes to drive his more
extensive mines through the chambers and destroy the
whole.
Q. Is there any other insect nearly allied to this
order?
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. There is a genus, blatta, the cock-roach, which
resembles the house cricket in some of its habits.
Q. Do they belong to the orthopterous insects?
A. The more accurate entomologists form them
into a distinct order, dicteroptera, or net-winged, be-
cause the elytra are leather-like, and marked with a
network of nervures or ribs.
Q. Are there many genera?
A. There is only one genus, the species of which
are, like those of the locusts, very confused.
Q. Are any of them natives of Britain?
A. None originally; but there is one which has
been imported, and which infects many houses and
cellars under the name of the "black beetle.” They
come abroad at night in immense swarms; and when
they have once infected any place, they are very
diffi-
cult to be got rid of.
ORDER V. -HEMIPTEROUS INSECTS.
Q. What are their general characters: have they
only half-wings as the name imports?
A. They have great differences in the wings, some
have the elytra horny at the base and membranous at
the extremity; some have them all horny; others all
membranous; in some the males only have wings;
and there are some in which both sexes are without
wings.
Q. What are their other characters ?
A. They have ocelli or simple eyes; the elytra lap
across each other on the back, and the segment that
bears the feet is larger than the following one.
▸
INSECTS.
59
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. They are, and they require to be so much
divided and subdivided into families, tribes, and genera,
that their history is very difficult.
Q. Is there any general division?
A. There is a general division into heteroptera, or
those that have the elytra horny at the base, and
homoptera, or those that have them of the same tex-
ture throughout. Some of the former division live
on the land and others in the water, the last being
without ocelli.
Q. Where do the land ones inhabit?
A. Some of them, as bugs (cimices), of different
species inhabit houses; some of them hop in the
grass, or on the ground; but the greater number in-
habit trees, on the leaves of which some of the species
form galls.
Q. Are these the aphides or plant-lice?
A. No; the aphides are either homopterous, or
without wings. Their motions are in general but
slow, and they are very minute; but they swarm like
locusts, and like them do a great deal of mischief.
Q. Are there many species of aphides ?
A. Almost as many as there are plants. On some
plants, as the rose, they are green, on others, as the
cherry-tree, they are black.
Q. Do they produce any particular substance ?
A. Many of the species produce a viscid fluid that
tastes like honey, and is called "honey dew," from its
being often produced in such quantities as to stand
upon the leaves like drops of dew.
Q. Does it answer any purpose?
60
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. It is peculiarly injurious to the plants on which
it falls; but it is greedily eaten by ants, and all other
insects that are fond of honey.
Q. Is it never produced but by aphides?
A. All aphides do not produce it; but it is never
produced in any other way.
Q. Which are some of the water insects of this
order ?
A. The boat flies and the water scorpions, the
former are often found on the surface, where they
swim, with their legs extended like oars; the latter
live mostly at the bottom of stagnant waters and
catch small insects with their mandibles, the extremi-
ties of which are formed something like the claws of
crabs.
Q. Are there any curious insects in the order?
A. Some of them are remarkable for the light that
they emit. They do so of course only at night; but
in some of the warmer parts of the world they are so
numerous, and so brilliant, that when a tree is shaken
a shower of fire seems to fall from it.
Q. Which is the most remarkable one?
A. The Fulgora Lanternaria, which is found in the
damp and woody places of tropical America; and
emits so much light that one can see to read by it.
There is a smaller species in the east.
Q. Are there any in Europe?
A. There are insects that have all the other charac
ters of the genus, but they do not shine.
Q. Are there any valuable insects in this order?
A. There are. Some of the aphides furnish beau-
INSECTS.
61
tiful dyes; and it is probable that others of the order
might answer similar purposes.
Q. Which are these?
A. The cocci, one of which found upon the cactus
or nopal, a succulent plant growing in Mexico, yields
cochineal, the finest scarlet; and another coccus, that
inhabits a species of oak, which grows plentifully on
the shores of the Mediterranean, answers the same
purpose, and gets the name of kermes.
Q. Are there any others that might be useful?
A. It is probable that there are many, as the juices
of many of the bugs and aphides are coloured, and
there is no doubt, that if properly studied they would
be found useful.
ORDER VI.-TRICHOPTEROUS INSECTS.
Q. What are the characters of the trichoptera?
A. They have four membranous wings, of which the
under ones are usually smaller and of a lighter colour
than the upper. The ribs of the wings are longitudi-
nal and hairy, and the cross pieces are much finer in
the orthoptera. Their eyes are large, and they have
ocelli, and the maxillæ and labium are united, but do
not form a sucker.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar about the larvæ ?
A. Yes; the larvæ all inhabit the water, in which
they build houses.
Q. Build houses?
A. Yes, they do. They unite together bits of
leaves or stalks, bits of stone, or small shells with the
living animals in them, and thus make tubes or cases,
in which, while their own bodies are safe, they lie in
G
62
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
wait to catch other insects. They are on this account
called "case-worms," or
“caddis-worms." They
form excellent bait for trout.
Q. Do they shew much ingenuity in the manage-
ment of their houses?
A. A very great deal. If too heavy, they glue a
float to them; if too light, a sinker. They moor
them in streams, cut them adrift, and manage them
with a very great deal of ingenuity.
Q. What is the appearance of the larva ?
A. It has twelve rings. The three next the head
horny, and the extremity ending in claws, whilst the
part exposed is in armour. The pupa inhabits the
same case, and has the feet so free that it can move.
When it is to change to the fly state, it climbs up
some aquatic plant, escapes from both house and pupa-
skin, and becomes an inhabitant of the air.
Q. Where do the perfect insects inhabit?
A. Trees and plants by the banks of rivers, and
the air over streams, where every breeze shakes thou-
sands of them upon the water. They are eagerly
eaten by fish, and the artificial flies of anglers are ge-
nerally imitations of them.
ORDER VII.—LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS.
Q. What are the characters of that order?
A. The general characters are, four wings covered
with scales, and the proboscis thread-shaped; and
when not in use, coiled up in a spiral. They all change
into pupa oblectæ.
Q. Are they very numerous?
A. They are very much so; but Linnæus compre-
INSECTS.
63
hended them all in three genera :-Butterfly (papilio),
hawk-moth (sphinx), and moth (phalana).
Q. And are there more genera than three?
A. They are very numerous; but those divisions
answer to the times when they come abroad, and
therefore they form a sort of natural sections.
1. Butterflies, diurna, or day-insects.
2. Hawk-moths, crepuscularia, or twilight-moths.
3. Moths, nocturna, or night-insects.
Q. Which are some of the more remarkable British
diurna ?
A. 1. Papilio (machaon) swallow-tail. Caterpillar
green, with black bands and red spots. Imago bright
yellow, bordered with black, having bright blue and
yellow spots. Found in August; also in May.
2. Doritis, Apollo; white, with black spots on the
upper wings, and red on the under.
3. Pontia; very common; mostly dull white; very
destructive to cabbages and other cruciform plants.
4. Vanessa; many species, as painted-lady, peacock,
tortoise-shell, &c. Many of the larvæ feed on
nettles.
5. Apatura; emperor of Morocco.
6. Lycana; many species; some bronze colour, some
green, and many a beautiful blue.
Q. Are there not some butterflies that do not come
abroad till nearly evening?
A. Yes, there are two genera, Uranida and Hes-
perida, the latter termed skippers.
Q. Where do the crepuscularia chiefly inhabit?
A They are found on and under trees, the leaves
G 2
64
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
of which are eaten by the larvæ. Some of them re-
semble butterflies, others bees.
Q. Are any of them remarkable?
A. The sphinx atropes has a spot on the thorax
very faintly resembling a death's head, and it makes a
noise when caught, which have given it a sort of su-
perstitious celebrity to which it has no title.
Q. Where is it found?
A. The perfect insect is rare in Britain; but the
larva is not uncommon in potatoe fields.
Q. Are the nocturnal moths more numerous than
the twilight?
A. They are; and some are remarkable for their
beauty, while the larva of others are equally so for
their ingenuity in spinning.
Q. Which are some of the more remarkable British
species?
A. The mere names of them would fill a little vo-
lume; but the following are a few:
1. Cossus ligniperda (the goat-moth, from its scent).
The larva eats into willows and ashes, where it remains
for three years. It forms a strong case for the pupa
of gum and chips of wood. The larva is very
strong, and can push its way under a great weight.
2. Saturnia Pavonia minor." The colours are not bril-
liant, but beautifully arranged, with an eye on each
wing resembling those on the peacock's tail. The
larva is bright greenish yellow, and lives on fruit-
trees.
* The emperor moth.
INSECTS.
€5
3. Laria. Upper-wings completely cover the under.
There are more than twenty species, most of them
beautiful.
4. Tinea, of which the caterpillars are very destructive
to woollen stuffs.
Q. Of what insect are those caterpillars that some-
times strip the fruit-trees and hedges of all their leaves,
the larva?
A. Of moths of different kinds.
ORDER VIII.-NEUROPTEROUS Insects.
Q. What is the general character of these?
A. They have four wings, the membranous part of
which is generally so transparent that the net-work or
ribs only is visible. The under-wings are larger or
longer than the upper ones; the breast and thorax
are united. There are two large compound eyes, and
two or three ocillæ; and the parts of the mouth are
generally distinct, and adapted for cutting.
Q. What are the principal divisions?
A. Libellulida, or dragon flies; ephemerida, or
day-flies; myrmileonidæ, or ant-lions; termitida, or
white ants, with a number of others.
Q. What are the characters of the dragon-flies?
A. They are large; have the wings horizontal;
beat the bushes, where moths live, in the heat of the
day, and make prey of the moth.
Q. What are the characters of the ephemerides?
A. They are in general small; their lower wings are
least, and sometimes wanting, and the mouth is im-
perfectly formed.
Q. What are the characters of the ant-lions?
G 3
66
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The full-grown insect resembles the dragon-flies
in shape; and the larva construct traps in the sand in
the shape of little conical cups, in which they catch
ants and other insects.
Q. What are the general characters of the termi-
tidia?
A. They live in large societies; some species build
nests many feet in height; and others form their nests
on trees, and construct covered passages from tree to
tree, and up the trunks and branches of trees.
Q. Are they destructive?
A. Many of them are. In the warm countries they
consume everything but metal and hard stone. The
whole timber of a house is often reduced to powder
by them, without any external appearance of injury.
The habits of many of the species resemble those of
the social ants, and for that reason they are called
white ants.
Q. Are there any other singular genera in the
order?
A. One (Atropos), the death-watch, inhabits old
books, and timber that is dry and dusty, and often
makes a ticking noise with its mandibles, similar to the
beating of a watch.
ORDER IX.-HYMENOPTera.
Q. What are the general characters of that order?
A. They have two wings of a thin membrane, but
not transparent, and the ribs fewer and less conspicu-
ous than those in the last order. The labium and
mandibles are generally fitted for cutting, and the
INSECTS.
67
maxillæ and labium formed into a sucker. They all
have two large compound eyes, and three ocelli; and
the abdomen of the female is furnished with a piercer
or sting, of some kind or other. They may be ar-
ranged into two sub-orders.
Q. What are these?
A. Terebrantia, or those in which the females have
an elongated tube or instrument, calculated to pene-
trate the substances in which they deposit their eggs;
and aculeata, or those in which the female bas a sting.
Q. Are they very numerous ?
A. They are, and some of them are among the most
interesting of insects
Q. Which are some of the tenebrantia ?
A. The following are a very few of them:
1. Tenthredines (saw-flies) have the mandibles ending
in two strong teeth, and the ovipositor formed of
two toothed horny plates, by means of which hollows
to contain the eggs (which pass through a groove be-
tween the plates) may be cut in wood, and other
hard substances.
2. Urocerides. The ovipositor not toothed; some-
times folded into a sheath.
Both these have the trunk and abdomen close
together.
Q. Which are some of the other classes?
A. 1. Ichneumonidæ, which deposit their eggs in
the bodies, eggs, and larvæ of other insects.
2. Cynipsides, which deposit them in plants, and
are often very destructive.
These, with several other tribes, have the abdomen
united by a very slender junction. They are small
68
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
animals, but in general very strong and active for their
size.
Q What are the general characters of the acu-
leata?
A. The females have no ovipositors, but they have
stings. In many of the tribes there are neuters, as
well as males and females.
Q. Which are the tribes ?
20
A. Ants, wasps, bees, spheges, and others, the
genera and characters of which are exceedingly nu-
merous. Some of them live solitary, some in socie-
ties. Some build in wax, some in mud, and some in
chips of wood. Most of the females and the neuters,
in the social genera, have poisoned stings. The
spheges, in their winged state, live upon the nectar of
flowers; but they kill, or at least wound other insects
with their stings, and deposit their eggs in them, where
the larvæ are hatched, and live upon the body, which
is sometimes kept alive till almost all the juice of it be
eaten.
OзDER X.-DIPTEROUS INSects.
Q. What is their character?
A. They have only two wings, and in a few in-
stances none. The mouth in all is a sucker, and in
some it is also a piercer. Many of them suck blood.
Q. What is the principal division ?
A. Into those that have a proboscis, and those that
have not.
Q. What are the characters of these latter?
A. They vary, but the most remarkable character is
INSECTS.
69
that the eggs are deposited in the state of pupæ, and
in that state taken into the bodies of horses and other
animals, the heat of which appears to bring them for-
ward to the fly state.
Q. Which are the other tribes?
A. They are very numerous. One is the gnats
(tipularides) which suck blood, and the tabanides do
the same, but in larger quantity. A third, astrides,
deposit their eggs in the bodies of animals, and a
fourth is the common fly, which accompanies man
wherever he inhabits.
Q. Are the dipterous insects numerous ?
A. They are very numerous, and very many of them
are inhabitants of Europe.
Q. Are any of them furnished with stings?
A. No; none of them have stings, but some have
piercers at the mouth, with which they can inflict
painful wounds.
Q Are they formidable in that way in proportion
to their size?
A. They are not. The common blue-bottle, or
flesh-fly, which is one of the largest, is perfectly harm-
less; while the gnat, which is small, has a very irri-
tating bite.
Q. Where are gnats most abundant ?
A. In moist places where there are trees, and over
pools of stagnant water.
Q. Why should they abound most in such places?
A. They are produced in the water, live in it for
the greater part of their lives, deposit their progeny in
it, and very often perish in it.
Q. How do they deposit their progeny in the water?
70
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The female forms her eggs, which are shaped
like little sacks, into a boat, so neatly constructed that
it can bear being blown about by the wind without
upsetting or sinking.
Q. And where does she rest while forming her
boat?
A. Upon a floating leaf or bit of grass. She works
behind her, and consequently does not see the progress
of her work.
Q. Does not that make her commit blunders ?
A. No. The structure is always perfect; and it is
remarkable that all those insects which work in the
dark, do all their operations just as neatly as if they
were done in the light.
Q. And how are those eggs hatched?
A. They are hatched by the heat of the weather;
and when the little ones come out, they remain in the
water until they change to the imago or perfect state.
Q. Do they live long after they have changed to
that state?
A. Their lives are very short; and it is not ascer-
tained that they in general eat any food; they merely
play about.
Q. Do not they suck blood?
A. The females do; but for what purpose is not
very well ascertained.
Q. You mentioned the astrides-have they any
English name?
A. They are called "gad-flies," from the annoyance
that they give to domestic animals.
Q. Are there more than one species of gad-fly?
A. There are three.
INSECTS.
71
1. Estrus bovis, the ox gad-fly, which deposits its eggs
on the backs of oxen, where they occasion large
lumps or tumours.
2. Estrus ovis, which deposits its eggs in the nostrils
of sheep.
3. Estrus equi, which fixes its eggs upon the hair of
horses, and tickles them till they take the eggs into
their stomachs.
Q. Are those flies injurious?
A. They are troublesome rather.
ORDER XI.-APTEROUS INSECTS.
Q. What are their characters?
A. The one in which they all agree, is that of having
no wings.
Q. What are the leading divisions of them?
A. There are three. Suctaria, or those that have a
long proboscis; thrysanura, or those that have the
tails armed with bristles, and parasita, or those that live
wholly upon the bodies of other animals.
Q. Do these differ in any other particular from
other insects?
A. They do not undergo the same transformations.
Q. What is the common name of the suctaria?
A. Fleas. They are remarkable for their power of
hopping; and some of them, in the warm countries, de-
posit their eggs in the bodies of man and other ani-
mals.
Q. What are the thrysanura?
A. There are three families of them:
72
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
1. Lepismida, remarkably swift little creatures, of a
silvery colour, that run about among books, cloth,
&c., chiefly seen at night.
2. Forbicinida, which have the middle bristle of the
tail larger, and the back arched for hopping. Many
of them are found on the shores.
5. Podiocellida, with the tail turned in under the body.
Found under stones.
Q. Which are the parasitical ones?
A. They are Pediculida, which inhabit the bodies of
human beings, and Nirmide, which inhabit those of
other animals. They are in general known by the
name of lice; and the species are innumerable, as all
tribes of animals, down to insects, have them.
PERANANAGE" data
THE END.
LONDON:
HENRY BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
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CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART VI.
MOLLUSCA.
INTRODUCTION.
Q. To what class of animals is the term mollusca
applied?
A. The animals to which the term applies are very
numerous, and very varied, and thus they form seve-
ral classes and sub-classes.
Q. But have they no general characters by which
they may be known from other animals?
A. They have. They are all soft animals, having
no natural bony skeleton, like the mammalia, birds,
reptiles, and fishes; they are not divided into seg-
ments, like insects; they are not made up of rings,
like earth-worms and leeches, nor do they radiate from
centres, like star-fish, and some others.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A. All places. They are found on the earth, in
fresh waters, and in the sea.
Q. Are they equally abundant in all latitudes?
B
2
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. No. Animal life, in all its departments, is most
abundant and most varied in the warm latitudes.
Q. Has not a particular name been given to the
natural history of this division of animated beings?
A. One portion of their history has been called
CONCHOLOGY, that is, the knowledge of shells; but
that is not the description of the animals, but of the
houses which many of them have the power of mak-
ing for their habitation and defence.
Q. Then some of the mollusca inhabit shells?
A. Yes. All animals that are covered with shells,
properly so called, belong to the mollusca; but there
are also many molluscous animals that have no shells;
and there are some that have horny or bony plates,
and even shells, under the skin.
Q. Are all animals that have shelly coverings
mollusca ?
A. No. Many animals, as tortoises, crabs, and
lobsters, have crusts that are called shells; but the
mollusca have distinct shells.
1
Q. What do you mean by distinct shells?
A. Shells to which the inhabitant is only partially
fastened, and which do not support the muscles of
the animal, as is the case with crusts.
Q. Can the shelled mollusca leave their shells,
then?
A. Most of those that inhabit single shells, or, as
they are called, univalves,* have the power of leaving
* The term is by no means a correct one, as the ma-
jority of those shells are not valves, or things that open
and shut, in any sense of the word.
MOLLUSCA.
to
:
the shell, or retiring into it at their pleasure, only the
connection between the animal and the shell is never
broken; and when the animal moves, it carries its
house or shell on its back, or drags it after it.
Q. What are the principal divisions of the natural
history of the mollusca ?
A. They are two—the structure, habits, and uses
of the whole considered generally; and the classifi-
cation and description of the orders, genera, and
species.
?
PART I.
STRUCTURE, HABITS, AND USES OF THE MOLLUSCA.
SECTION I.-GENERAL FORM.
Q. What is the general form of the mollusca ?
A. They vary so much that that cannot be very well
defined.
Q. Which are some of the distinctions?
A. Some have no appearance either of head or foot,
40
but have the organs of the body inclosed in a bag, in
which there appear only some holes, through which
the feeding and breathing are carried on.
Q. They are not all in that form ?
A. No. There are many of them very simple in
their general shape, that have the covering of the
body stretched out into protuberances, or tentacula,
(vulgarly called horns,) and also a foot, for the pur-
poses of rest or motion.
Q. Only one foot for motion: what is it like?
B 2
4
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The foot of the mollusca differs very much from
that of those animals that have either an internal ske-
leton for supporting the muscles, or an external hard
crust, answering the same purpose. Having no joints,
it is not adapted for stepping.
Q. How then does it act?
A. It is a sort of sucker, or rather a number of
little suckers, the fore part of which keeps hold, while
the animal, by contracting the length of its body,
draws forward the hinder part, and then the hinder
part holds on while the animal extends its body, and
takes an advanced hold with the fore part of the
foot.
Q. Then the mollusca do not walk?
A. No; they creep or crawl, as may be seen in the
common slug or snail, the latter with his house on his
back.
Q. Have they any means of assisting themselves in
their motion upon this single foot?
A. Many of the land ones have the power of throw-
ing out a glutinous kind of slime, which assists them in
crawling; and in some that is so tough that they can
spin it into threads, and suspend themselves from
twigs or branches of trees.
Q. Is the foot common to the whole of the mol-
lusca?
A. It is not. Some have no organs of rest, or mo-
tion but in water, and others have long tentacula, or
arms, with suckers upon these.
Q. Have all the mollusca heads?
A. Some of them have, but many are without, and
where there is a head, that does not contain the brain
MOLLUSCA.
5
and organs of the senses, as in the animals that have
skeletons.
Q. How are the tentacula and other members of
the mollusca arranged?
A. Sometimes regularly in pairs, on the opposite
sides of the animal, and sometimes not. There is no
uniform mode of arrangement.
+
SECTION II.-COVERING OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. With what are the mollusca covered?
A. They are uniformly covered with skin, the outer
skin or cuticle being very distinct, and thick and strong
in those parts that are exposed, but very fine and de-
licate in those that are not.
Q. Has the skin any organs of motion?
A. It has, in many of the species, a very distinct
muscular web, by the action of which the progressive
motion, and also the changes of figure in the animal,
are very much assisted.
Q. Is the skin defended by any appendage, such as
the hair of the mammalia, or the feathers of birds?
A. Almost the only distributed appendage to the
ekin of the mollusca is hair, which is found both on
land and on water varieties, and sometimes those hairs
form a sort of continuous ridge of crust.
Q. Why do you say " distributed" appendage?
A. Because there are other appendages which,
though some of them permanently, and all of them at
times, cover the whole body of the animal, are not
appendages to the skin, but fastened to the internal
part of the animal by muscles.
B 3
6
CATECHISM OF 200LOGY.
Q. What are those appendages?
A. They are-
SHELLS.
Q. What do you mean by a shell ?
A. A hard animal substance, the strengthening part
of which is composed of carbonate of lime, the same
substance as marble, or limestone, but more free from
the admixture of other earths.
Q. How does shell differ from bone?
A. Bone is composed of phosphate of lime, and
shell of carbonate.
Q. Does a shell differ also from a crust-the shell
of an oyster or a limpet from the crust of a crab or
lobster ?
A. It does. The crust contains phosphate of lime,
as well as carbonate, and thus is intermediate between
shell and bone.
Q. Are there many kinds of shells?
A. There are many forms, sizes, and colours; but
there are two kinds that are distinct in their struc-
ture.
Q. What are these?
A. The one kind are usually called porcelain shells,
and the other pearl, or mother-of-pearl shells.
Q. Why are the first kind called porcelain shells?
A. Because in the fineness of their polish, the hard-
ness of their texture, and the appearance of their
fracture when broken, they have a considerable re-
semblance to porcelain or china-ware.
Q. Of what are they composed ?
MOLLUSCA.
A. Wholly of carbonate of lime, only that is ce-
mented together by a very small portion of animal
gelatine.
Q. What effect does the fire produce on a porce-
lain shell?
A. If carefully heated to redness, and continued at
that temperature for some time, it loses its gloss and
its colour, and becomes of a dull greyish white, but
the shape is not altered.
Q. How do you account for that?
A. The colours, depending on volatile substances,
are burnt off; the carbonate of lime is changed to
quick-lime, and the gelatine to charcoal, which latter
gives the greyish tinge. If continued in the fire till
the whole of the charcoal were burnt out, the shell
would be perfectly white.
Q. Is there any thing further particular about those
shells?
A. They are not generally, even in the living state,
covered by a scarf-skin or epidermis; and there is no
appearance of their being formed of successive plates
or layers of matter.
Q. What do you mean by the living state of a shell,
a shell does not feel?
A. Life and feeling are different matters. Hair,
nails, and all the other insensible appendages to ani-
mals, do not, in themselves, feel any more than a shell
does; but they have their living and dead states not-
withstanding.
Q. What are those states ?
A. So long as the shell is in connection with a living
animal, the shell is alive; that is, the animal has the
8
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
power of preserving and repairing it; but when it is
separated from the living animal, it is acted on by the
air or the water, and loses some of its freshness and
beauty.
Q. What kind of shells are most capable of resist-
ing this action?
A. The porcelain shells, because they have not the
protection of a cuticle or scarf-skin, when alive, and
because they have a uniform structure, and no layers
or plates, between which air or any other decomposing
substance can penetrate.
Q. What is the character of the pearl, or mother-
of-pearl shells?
A. Externally they have not the same fine gloss and
polish as the others. They often exhibit fine colours
when alive; but after they are dead, the outside must
be polished before the colours become visible.
Q. Is there not something peculiar in the colours?
A. Yes; the play of different colours which they
exhibit, and which is in many of them very bright and
beautiful, is the circumstance from which they get the
name of pearl-shells.
Q. To what is that play of colours owing?
A. To the structure of the shell, which is composed
of alternate thin plates of carbonate of lime and
animal matter, the latter chiefly coagulated albumen.
Q. Then the mother-of-pearl shells are different in
their composition from the porcelain shells?
A. They are. They contain much more animal
See Catechism of Optics.
MOLLUSCA.
9*
matter; so much so, that when the lime is all dissolved
by an acid, the albuminous matter retains the form of
the shell, just as the shape of a bone remains in the
albuminous cartilage, after the lime and gelatine have
been removed by acids.
Q. And is that not the case with the porcelain
shells?
A. No. When a porcelain shell is recent, it is
wholly soluble in acids, which shews that the animal
matter by which it is cemented together is not albu-
men but gelatine,* and it is in much smaller quan-
tity.
Q. Is there much difference between the external
and internal surfaces of a mother-of-pearl shell ?
A. Yes; the external surface is covered by an
epidermis, and often very rough, as in the case of
the common oyster, but the inside is always smooth,
and generally of a pearly lustre.
Q. How are the shells of the mollusca formed?
A. They are as much an original part of the animal
as any of the soft organs of its body. The animal has
the shell in its minutest state, even before it comes
out of the egg.
Q. How does the shell increase with the size of the
animal?
A. So far as is known, the shelly matter is secreted
by the corium, or skin of the inhabitant; and pearl
bivalves are in many instances enlarged by the addi-
tion of new plates of matter to the inside, which ex-
* See Catechism of Chemistry.
10
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
tend further at the fore margins than the former plates;
and thus as the animal gets larger, it makes the neces-
sary addition to its house.
Q. And how are the shells which are not bivalve
augmented?
A. By successive additions at the mouth or opening
of the shell, the junctions of which are in many in-
stances quite visible on the outside.
Q. How are the porcelain shells enlarged?
A. The mode in which that is done is not known,
as there is no trace of any addition to the shell, how-
ever large it may be, compared with others of the
same species; and therefore, though the fact has not
been proved by direct observation, it is by no means
improbable that the porcelain shells are repeatedly
thrown off, in order to make room for larger ones,
during the growth of the animal, just as is the case
with the crustacea."
Q. Then it is probable that after a certain period
the animals of the porcelain shells cease to increase in
size?
A. It is; but their habits are obscure, and most of
them are pelagic, or inhabit the depths of the sea, 80
that they are not very well known.
Q. Do shells derive any character from the situations
that they inhabit?
A. They do. Land shells are all univalve, and
they are of delicate structure, and soon decay,
and
lose their colours; fresh water shells are both univalve
* See Catechism of Zoology, Part VII.
MOLLUSCA.
11
and bivalve, and some of them are of more firm
consistence than land shells; but they have not
the strength, the beauty, or the variety of sea
shells.
Q. Are there any fresh water porcelain shells?
A. They may all be considered as telonging to the
mother-of-pearl shells.
Q. Is there any thing worthy of notice in the dis-
tribution of sea shells?
A. They may be classed into littoral, or those that
are found on the shores, without low-water mark, or
at all events in shallow water; and pelagic, or those
that inhabit the depths of the sea, and are never found
alive, or at all events in their native state, on the
shores, or in shallow water.
Q. What are the differences of these?
A. The pelagic are generally, though not always,
the strongest shells, and the porcelain shells chiefly
belong to that class.
Q. Is there any thing worthy of remark in the
forms of shells?
A. The univalves, consisting of one shell, and the
bivalves, consisting of two shells, are the most obvious
natural division; and they are attended with equally
striking differences in the inhabitants.
Q. What are those differences?
A. The inhabitants of the univalve shells always
have heads, and those of the bivalve have not.
Q. Is there any other difference?
A. The inhabitants of the univalve shells all have
organs of motion. Some of them move by tentacula
fixed to the head, and others, as the common garden
12
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
snail, by a foot, which extends to a greater or less
space on the belly.
Q. And have not the bivalve shells organs of mo-
tion ?
A. Some of them have none, and thus remain fixed
to the same spot during the whole period of their
existence; but others have a foot that they can pro-
trude between the two shells, and by means of that
foot they can move.
Q. What is the chief division of the univalves?
A. Into shells that are straight, such as the limpet,
and shells that are spiral, such as the periwinkle.
Q. Are there any distinctions of the spiral shells?
A. There are two, entire and canaliculated, and dex-
tral and sinistral.
Q. What is meant by an entire shell?
A. One of which the mouth, or external opening
has no groove in any part; and the canaliculated ones
have always a groove in the mouth of the shell.
Q. Is that difference in the shell accompanied by
any difference in the inhabitant ?
A. It is. The inhabitant of the canaliculated shell
has always a long breathing tube, which is contained
in, and protected by the groove; and the inhabitants of
shells that have no groove, never have a tube of that
description.
Q. What is meant by dextral and sinistral, as ap-
plied to spiral shells?
A. The turns or whorls of the spiral are in opposite
directions, and the organs of the inhabitants on the
opposite sides.
Q. Explain what you mean by a dextral shelb?
MOLLUSCA.
15
A. If the shell is placed on the mouth, with the
summit or point towards the observer, the mouth is
on the right-hand side of the pillar, or axis, round
which the whorls of the shell wind; and the whorls
may be traced in one continuous line, from the right
to the left, all the way from the mouth to the sum-
mit.
Q. And what is a sinistral shell?
A. One in which, when placed as above stated, the
mouth is on the left side of the pillar, and the direc-
tion of the whorls from left to right.
Q. What difference does that make on the organs
of the inhabitant ?
A. The openings are always on the side opposite to
the pillar, and the heart on the side next to it, so that
in the dextral shell the heart is on the left side, and
in the sinistral the heart is on the right.
Q. Which form is most abundant ?
A. By far the greater number are dextral.
Q. Are these characters of distinct genera?
A. They are. Shells which are either dextral or
sinistral are so throughout the whole genera, and no
instance occurs in which some of a genus are dextral
and others sinistral.
Q. Have animals that have only one shell no means
of closing the mouth of that shell, as a protection ?
A. Many of them have a horny lid to the shell,
which is fastened, not to the shell itself, but to the
head of the inhabitant: that lid is called an opercu-
lum, and the shells that have it are called opercu-
lated.
Q. Among what shells is the operculum found?
C
14
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Rarely among the land shells, more frequently
among the fresh water, and very generally among the
sea shells.
Q. Have the land shells no means of defending
themselves from external injury?
A. Those land shells that cease to feed during the
winter, and pass that season in holes, or under the
earth in a torpid state, prepare a temporary covering
to the mouths of their shells when they reach their
winter retreats, but that covering is not connected
with the animal, but merely with the shell, and it
disappears when the warm weather returns.
Q. Is there any other general distinction of shells?
A. Yes; they are either unilocular or multilocular.
Q. What is meant by an unilocular shell ?
A. One in which the whole shell, however it may
be convoluted, or formed into a spiral, is made up of
only one chamber, without any shelly partition or
division.
Q. What is a multilocular shell?
A. One that has the cavity divided into different
chambers by partitions, and sometimes those parti-
tions are entire, and wholly separate the chambers, at
other times they are perforated.
Q. What particular characters of the animals an-
swer to these differences of the shells?
A. So little is known of the inhabitants of the
multilocular shells, that it is not very easy to say.
Q. Is the shell to be considered as the external
covering of the animal?
A. Not in all cases. The pearl shells have in ge-
neral an epidermis covering them; and the shells of
MOLLUSCA.
15
many of the mollusca are concealed under the cloak
or thick skin on the back.
SECTION III.-MUSCLES OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. Is there any thing very peculiar in the muscles
of the mollusca ?
A. Nothing further than that they have no bones
upon which to act. In the naked ones they are
inserted in the skin, which is sometimes thickened for
their support, and some of them are fastened to the
shell, but in most instances the animal can shift those
fastenings to suit the different stages of its growth.
Q. What are the means of rest in the mollusca ?
A. Besides the mere cessation of motion, the mol-
lusca can remain at rest, fasten or anchor themselves,
as it were, by suction and by cementation.
Q. What is the nature of the organ by which suc-
tion is performed?
A. Sometimes it is the simple soft foot, as in the
case of the limpet; and at others, it is fortified on
the opposite side by hard plates, as in the arms of the
cuttle-fish.
Q. Is the power of adhesion by the sucker consi-
.derable?
A. Yes, very much so; as any one may find by try-
ing to detach a limpet from a rock.
Q. What is the nature of the cementation by which
the mollusca preserve themselves in a state of rest.
A. There are three kinds of it. Some species glue
themselves to other substances by a sort of glary
fluid; others cement themselves to the rock, and
C 2
16
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
sometimes to each other, by a preparation of lime,
which hardens and keeps them constantly in the same
place; and others again spin a byssus or thread, the
one end of which is fastened to the rock or the sand,
and the other to the animal, and by means of that
byssus, they ride like ships anchored by a cable.
Q. What are the motions of the mollusca ?
A. Opening and shutting the shells, and seizing their
food, are motions common to them all; their means
of locomotion are only two, creeping and swimming.
Q. How is the creeping performed?
A. By means of the foot; and it has some resem-
blance to the creeping of serpents, only it is much
slower.
Q. How is the swimming performed?
A. In more various ways than the creeping. Some
of them swim by an undulating motion of the body,
like the leeches; others by the motion of the tenta-
cula, and by other extended parts of the skin, which
serve as fins.
Q. Have those that swim any air-bladder, like
fishes?
A. Not exactly an air-bladder, but some species
have a cellular organ which they can fill with air, or
empty at their pleasure, and that answers all the pur-
poses of an air-bladder.
Q. Can none of the mollusca fly?
A. No; but some of the bivalves have a power of
leaping, or of darting down into the sand, which they
accomplish by closing the shells with a sudden jerk.
Q. Are all the muscular actions of the mollusca as
slow as their locomotion ?
*
MOLLUSCA.
17
A. No. When they are apprehensive of danger,
the motions of the tentacula, and some other parts of
the body, are very rapid.
SECTION IV.-SENSATION OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. Have the mollusca a brain and nerves as organs
of sensation?
A. They have a nervous system, and that system
has central or communicating organs; but those organs
are ganglia, or knots, rather than a brain.
Q. Is the ganglion, or knot, that answers to the
brain, situated in the head?
A. No. Very many of the mollusca have no head,
and in those that have, the ganglion is never situated
in it.
Q. Where is the ganglion which is considered as the
brain situated?
A. Over the gullet, just at the entrance into the
stomach, and this sends out nerves to the mouth, and
to the tentacula and eyes, in the genera that have
those organs. From this principal ganglion two canals
descend, one on each side the gullet, and they unite
and form a second ganglion, which sends nerves to
the other parts of the body In some there are small
secondary ganglia after that.
Q. What is the colour of the nerves?
A. In general they are white, and enclosed in coats
or tunics, and the ganglia are often of a granulated
texture.
Q. Are the senses of the mollusca well defined ?
A. On the contrary they are very obscure; and it
C 3
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
is doubtful if any of them have all the senses that be-
long to the mammalia.
Q. What sense is the most general?
A. The sense of touch, or probably " the muscular
sense," and it is probable that none of them are with-
out that.
Q. In what parts of their bodies is that sense the
most conspicuous ?
A. In the tentacula, and other elongations of the
cuticle; and the sensibility of these seems to be, in
many instances, the chief guide upon which the
animal has to depend.
Q. How do they stand with regard to the sense of
sight?
A. Very variably. A few have eyes constructed in
a manner something similar to the eyes of other ani-
mals; some have only black points, which are believed
to be eyes, rather than proved to be so; and very
many have no organ whatever that can be supposed
to be an eye.
Q. Which are without eyes?
A. Those that have bivalve shells generally, and
some of the others.
Q. What number of eyes have the mollusca ?
A. Those that have eyes have uniformly two.
Q. Where are they placed?
A. Sometimes on the points of the tentacula, and
sometimes at their bases; when in the former situa-
tion it is natural to suppose that the animal has a
greater range of vision.
Q. Is there any circumstance which would lead
to the supposition that the mollusca depend more
MOLLUSCA.
19
on some other means of sensation than on their
eyes?
A. The fact that the land ones feed chiefly during
the night would lead to some such conclusion.
Q. Do they depend on the sense of hearing?
A. Of their hearing little has been observed; and
the cuttle-fish are the only ones that have even the
rudiments of ears.
Q. Have they the sense of smell?
A. There is little doubt that many of them have
both the sense of smell and the sense of taste; but in
what particular organs these reside has not been
determined.
Q. What extent of knowledge, or perception of
the external world have the mollusca?
A. That cannot be known; but analogy leads us to
suppose that it must be very limited. The knowledge
of an oyster is, in all probability, confined to its shell,
and to the water which brings its food, and is the
element of its breathing.
Q. Then very little assistance can be obtained in
the natural history of the mollusca from their organs
of sensation.
A. Very little, if any, except from the absence or
presence of eyes, and their situation.
SECTION V.-FOOD AND DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF THE
MOLLUSCA.
Q. On what do the mollusca feed?
A. The greater part of those that live on the land
feed upon living vegetables, and many of them are
.20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
exceedingly destructive to the young leaves of culti-
vated vegetables, and to fruits; some feed upon in-
sects and worms, others upon putrid animal matters,
and the food of many of those that live in deep water
is but imperfectly known, or not known at all.
Q. What are their times of feeding?
A. The land ones feed only toward and during the
night, and of those that live in the water the feeding
time is not known, only those that inhabit without
low water mark do not feed when the tide ebbs away
from them.
Q. What are their means of procuring their food?
A. The land ones, and those of the aquatic, that
live upon portions of substances that are too large for
being swallowed, have mouths adapted for cutting,
though they are not capable of performing any ope-
ration analogous to that of chewing. Many have ten-
tacula for seizing their prey, and conveying it to the
mouth, and others have an extended lip, proboscis, or
tongue, which answers the same purpose.
Q. What is the structure of the stomach?
A. In some it is very simple and membranous, and
in others it bears a considerable resemblance to the
gizzard of a fowl.
Q. Are they voracious ?
A. Many of them are; but so far as observation
has gone they are capable of bearing hunger for a
great length of time. The common garden snail eats
nothing from the time that the cold drives it into its
winter retreat, till the heat of the next season calls it
out again.
Q. Are their organs of nutrition simple or not?
MOLLUSCA.
21
A. They are much more simple than those of the
higher animals. They want gall and various juices
that are understood to contribute to digestion in
them.
Q. What parts of the digestive system is it most
important to be acquainted with?
A. The mouth and stomach, because these lead best
to a knowledge of the food of the species.
SECTION VI.-CIRCULATION OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. Of what colour is the blood of the mollusca ?
A. It is white, with a slight bluish tint, and it is
cold; but its chemical composition has not been
examined in a satisfactory manner.
Q. Do the veins of the mollusca perform more
functions than those of some other classes of ani-
mals?
{
A. They do. They appear to take up the nourish-
ment from the intestines as lacteals, and they also
circulate and absorb the watery juices as lymphatics.
Q. Have all the mollusca the same kind of system
of circulation ?
A. No; their habits are so different that we should
not expect that in theory, and in practice there are
at least five different forms of circulation.
Q. What is the first form?
A. The blood which returns from all parts of the
body, together with the chyle, or nourishment from
the food, is taken into a large vein, from which it
proceeds in two branches to the lungs or gills, ac-
cording as the animal breathes air or water. There
22
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
6.
is an enlargement on each of the branches, which may
be considered as a ventricle, and the course thence
to the lungs or gills as arteries. From each lung or
gill there proceeds a branch to a single systematic
ventricle, by which the blood is sent in circulation over
the body, so that, in these, the heart has three ven-
tricles, two for aërating the blood, and one for send-
ing it over the system.
Q. What is the second form?
A. The blood is sent directly to the lungs or gills
without the aid of any thing like a heart; the blood
returns from the lungs to a ventricle, and thence to
an auricle, from which it is sent over the system. So
that the heart of these has only two cavities, and they
are both systematic. In some, however, the ventricle
consists of two lobes or portions, though these make
only one cavity.
Q. What is the third form?
A. It differs from the second only in having two
ventricles; but they both open into the same sys-
tematic auricle. The two lobes in the ventricle of
the former are an approximation to this form, and
there is also some similarity in the animals.
Q. What is the fourth form?
A. The heart wholly without ventricles of any
kind, but with two systematic auricles.
Q. What is the fifth form?
A. The heart consisting of a single cavity, which is
a systematic ventricle.
Q. Do those different organizations belong to
classes differently formed in other respects?
MOLLUSCA.
23
A. In general they do, but not always. So that no
absolute conclusion can be founded upon them.
SECTION VII.-RESPIRATION OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. Is the mode of respiration among the mollusca
uniform?
A. As some of them live on the earth, some in
shallow waters, and some in the depths of the sea,
and never come to the surface, their modes of respi-
ration are necessarily very different.
Q. But they all do respire in some mode or other?
A. They do. There is no animal, how simple
soever, or how little soever it may resemble those
that we are accustomed to call the higher or more
perfect animals, but which breathes in some manner
or other.
Q. What are the different modes of breathing
among the mollusca ?
A. Those that breathe free air, whether they in-
habit the land, or inhabit the water and come up to
the surface to breathe, have lungs like the land ani-
mals and the cetaceous mammalia; and those that
breathe under the water have gills like the fishes.
!
Q. Do you mean that the structure of those organs
is the same?
A. No. Only the general mode of using them,
and the elements in which they are used.
Q. Whether have the greatest number lungs or
gills?
A. By far the greatest number have gills.
Q. Are the lungs simple?
24
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
7
A. They are very much so, there is generally only
a single cavity with the pulmonary artery ramified
over the inner surface of it; and the animal can at
pleasure shut or open the entrance to that cavity.
Q. What are the forms of the gills of the mol-
lusca ?
A. They are very varied. In some cases there is
only a single cavity into which the water enters, and
which has the gills in ridges upon the walls of it; in
some there are two cavities, and in others four. In
some those gills are external, and in others they are
internal; some have the power of exposing them to
the action of the water, or withdrawing them from
that action at pleasure; and some have them con-
stantly exposed to it.
SECTION VIII.-PRODUCTION OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. How are the mollusca produced?
A. From eggs, which are in general hatched ex-
ternally. The land ones deposit their eggs in the
earth, or under stones and rotten wood; and those
that inhabit rivers often glue them to aquatic
plants.
Q. Is there not something curious in the mode in
which these creatures are produced?
A. Yes; it is one of the most curious subjects in
natural history. Some species are males and females,
and spawn like fishes; some are both male and female
in every individual, and have a double progeny, and
some produce from the single individual.
Q. Do these last produce their young by buds, like
MOLLUSCA.
25
the hyelia, or by the division of their bodies, like the
planaria ?*
A. No; they produce them as eggs, or separate
beings.
Q. And is there no confusion of races in those sin-
gular modes of production?
A. Not the least. The young of the oyster, that
are the sole production of one individual, are just as
perfect to the race as those of any of the warm blooded
animals.
SECTION IX. - USES OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. Are the mollusca of much use to man?
A. They are, both in his rude and in his cultivated
state.
Q. What are their uses in the rude state of man-
kind?
A. They are most important. The shelled mollusca,
whether they inhabit rivers or the sea, cannot escape
by flight, like fishes, or even the crustacea; and there-
fore they form a standard and certain article of food
to those wretched people who have not learned to
cultivate vegetables, or breed domestic animals.
Q. Are they still used by any people?
A. The shelled mollusca, both of the rivers and the
coasts, are very largely used by the natives of New
South Wales, and by those of very many other coun-
tries. At some seasons the people may be said to live
wholly upon them.
* See Catechism of Zoology, Part VII.
22
D
26
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Have they any other use to rude nations?
A. They stand in the place of the metals. Part of a
hard shell, ground to the desired shape on a stone,
becomes a knife, the head of a spear, or arrow, or a
fish-hook; the large bivalves serve for bowls and dishes,
and the large univalves for bottles. A savage deprived
of shells would be nearly in the same condition as a
civilized man deprived of iron.
Q. What are their uses to civilized men?
A. They are useful as food; the shells are collected
as ornaments; the coarser shells burn into very pure
lime, and some of the inhabitants secrete fluids that
form dyes or colours.
Q. Which of them are used as food?
A. A very considerable number of those that in-
habit the sea and its shores, and in years of scarcity
and famine they have often saved the lives of thou-
sands of the poor, who must otherwise have perished
for want of food.
Q. Which is the most esteemed?
A. The oyster; but it cannot be properly consi-
dered as poor man's food, as it has to be dredged out
of deep water, and thus is not got without considerable
expense.
Q. Is the oyster always wholesome food?
A. Always, when not itself diseased or too long
kept, which is known by its being livid and dis-
coloured.
Q. Which is next to it?
A. Perhaps the mussel, which is more generally
diffused on the British shores, and more accessible,
so that the children can gather it at low water.
MOLLUSCA.
27
Q. Is the mussel always wholesome?
A. In the early part of the season it is always
rather suspicious, partly because it has just then
spawned, and partly from feeding on the young of the
star-fish, which is not wholesome.
Q. And does food that will not poison the animal
that eats it, render its flesh unholesome?
A. It does. The wholesomeness and flavour of all
animals are very much affected by their food. Milk
from turnips is rank as compared with milk from hay;
and mutton from a dry down is much more wholesome
than from a marsh.
3
Q. Which is the next?
A. The cockle. It is found in the sand, and as it
has not the same chance of eating unwholesome food
as the mussel, there is less danger in it; and its
flavour in the months of March, April, and May,
when it is in season, is much more delicate.
Q. Are there any other eatable bivalves?
A. Yes; the razor-fish, or spout-fish (solen), some
of the gapers (myæ), and the scallop (pecten).
These are, however, used only in some parts of the
country, there being prejudices against them in others.
Q. Are there any univalves used as food?
A. Yes. The periwinkle and the welk (the names
are sometimes confounded). The former is by far the
most delicate, and also the most plentiful on the
British shores.
Q. Are any of the land mollusca used as food?
A. As they live upon fresh vegetable matter, the
very choicest that they can find, it is very probable
that with proper cooking, they would all make
D 2
28
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
wholesome food; and some of them have been eaten
in some countries ever since the days of the Romans.
Q. Are any of the animals of the shelled mollusca
used for any other purpose than as human food?
A. They are of great value to the fishermen, who
use them as baits in the white fishery.
Q. How are the shells of the mollusca useful as
ornaments?
A. The more handsome ones are highly prized for
their forms and their colours; many ornaments and
little useful things are made of the mother-of-pearl
shells; and when disease in the organs that fabricate
the shell, cause the shelly matter to collect into a
little ball within the animal, that ball is, according to
its size and beauty, valued as a pearl.
Q. What species furnish pearl?
A. Many species, and some different genera of
bivalves, but they will be more particularly mentioned
afterwards.
Q. What shells afford lime?
A. Any shells; but the oyster is the most conve-
nient.
Q. Are shells ever used as a manure for land?
A. They are. On many parts of the coasts, there
are extensive banks formed wholly of fragments of
shells that have been broken by the tides and cur-
rents of the ocean, and for some soils these form an
excellent manure.
Q. What are the fluids of the mollusca that are
used as colouring matters?
A. The black fluid which the cuttle-fish throws
out when alarmed, is understood to be one of the
MOLLUSCA.
29
ingredients in the best Indian ink; and there are
some of the univalves that yield fluids that have been
at times highly prized for dyeing purple.
Q. Are there more species than one that afford
those dyes?
:
A. There are three or four species, the liquids
from which have various shades of colour, and de-
grees of durability; but the quantity is too small,
and the process by which it is obtained too tedious
for modern use.
Q. Are there many persons employed in the cap-
ture of shell fish?
A. In the British islands there are more than ten
thousand employed in catching them for sale, and
carrying them to the different markets; and in the
remote isles they form an important part of the food
of a still greater number.
Q. Then the mollusca are not an unimportant part
of creation?
A. No part of creation is unimportant as an object
of study; and as objects of general usefulness, the
mollusca rank next after the mammalia, the birds,
and the fishes; while in some parts of their natural
history they are more singular and curious than
even these.
D 3
30
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART II.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE MOLLUSCA.
Q. Is the classification of this part of the animal
kingdom complete ?
A. Very far from it. There are various classifica-
tions, possessing different degrees of merit; but there
is none of them perfect, nor is it possible to form a
perfect one, in the present state of our knowledge.
Q. What is the reason?
A. There are several reasons: many shells are
known, of the inhabitants of which we have no know-
ledge;
and our knowledge of the nature and habits
of many of those that are known is very limited;
besides, the descriptions are often so imperfect, as not
only to leave the species, but even the genera, in
doubt.
Q. Which are the most natural great divisions?
A. Perhaps the following are as natural as any :-
ORDER I.-CEPHALOPODA.
Q. What is the meaning of cephalopoda?
A. That the feet are attached to the head, and not
to the belly or body of the animal.
Q. Which is the next order?
A. Order II.—PTEROPODA, or wing-footed.
Q. Which is the third order?
A. ORDER III.-GASTERopoda.
Q. What is the meaning of gasteropoda?
MOLLUSCA.
31
A. That the foot is attached to the belly of the
animal.
Q. Which is the fourth?
A. ORDER IV.-CONCHIFERA, or those that are en-
closed between two valves of shell.
Q. Which is the fifth?
A. Order V.—TUNICATA, or those that are covered
with a leathery cloak or tunic.
Q. Which is the sixth?
A. ORDER VI.-BRACHIOPODA, or those that have
two fringed feet, or arms, issuing from between the
lobes of the cloak, and capable of being extended be-
yond the shells, or rolled up spirally within them:
Q. Are the animals equally distributed in those
orders?
A. Very far from it. Some of those orders contain
but a few species, or even individuals; but they have
the advantage of being natural. Some of the orders
have, however, to be divided into sub-orders and sec-
tions, before we come to genera and species.
ORDER I.-CEPHALOPODA.
Q. You mentioned that the cephalopoda are animals
which have the feet attached to the head?
A. Yes; but those feet are rather tentacula or
arms, than feet properly so called.
Q. What is their common name ?
A. They are usually called cuttle-fish.
Q. What element do they inhabit ?
A. They are all inhabitants of the sea, and they are
swimmers.
92
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is the form of these animals?
A. They consit of a tunic or sac, which contains
the viscera, and of a head, surrounded by the arms,
or tentacula,
Q. Are there different kinds of them?
A. Yes. They differ so much that they may be
considered not merely as separate genera, but as sub-
orders.
Q. What are their general character, or those that
belong to the whole order?
A. Besides the form, which has a resemblance in
them all, they spawn like fishes; they have two gills
for breathing, one on each side; they have two eyes,
something resembling those of the vertebrated ani-
mals, and they have the rudiments of organs of hear
ing.
Q. Mention some more particulars of their form?
A. They have a flattened disc on the top, in the
middle of which is the mouth, which has a fold of
skin resembling lips, and within that two horny man-
dibles, bearing some resemblance to the beak of a
parrot; and the tongue, which is placed between the
horny mandibles, is armed with teeth.
Q. You mentioned the tentacula, or arms?
A. These are connected with a ring of muscles that
surrounds and strengthens the disc containing the
mouth; they have numerous suckers on their inner
surfaces, by means of which the animal can attach
itself firmly to substances; they are sometimes forti-
fied with fins of horn on the other side, and in some
of the species there are two much longer than the
rest, which are denominated feet.
MOLLUSCA.
33
Q. What is the use of the arms of the cephalo-
poda?
A. They serve many uses. The animal lays hold
with them, conveys its food to its mouth, and it uses
them as oars in swimming.
Q. Have they no other swimming appendages but
the arms?
A. Some of them have not, but others have fin-like
appendages to the sac which contains the viscera.
Q. What is the consistence of the sac?
A. In some it is wholly soft, and protected only
by a thick leathery cloak, or tunic, but in others it is
protected by shells.
Q. Of what forms are the shells of the cephalo-
poda?
A. Some are internal, and consist of spongy plates
of shelly matter, improperly called cuttle-fish "bones,"
while others are external, and of a spiral form.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the stomach of
the cephalopoda ?
A. It is worthy of remark that the stomach re-
sembles the gizzard of a fowl, at the same time that
the mandibles resemble a beak.
Q. Are these the animals that discharge the inky
fluid ?
A. They are. That fluid is a peculiar secretion,
the object of which appears to be to conceal the fish
from its enemies by darkening the water.
Q. Of what seas are the cephalopoda inhabitants ?
A. They are inhabitants of all seas from the equator
to the poles; but they are much more numerous,
both in individuals and in species, in the warm seas ;
34
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
and they attain a much larger size there, so much so
that they have been said to pull boats under the
water, and also to retain divers there till they were
drowned.
Q. Are there not some peculiarities in the eyes
of this division of the mollusca?
A. The eyes of the cuttle-fish, in particular, are
much larger and more perfect in their formation than
the eyes of many other animals; and though the
concave or fore part of the eye be flat, as is the case
with all animals that live in the water, the cuttle-fish
enjoys a considerable range of vision—can see a good
way about it.
Q. How is that effected?
A. The opening of the eye-lids is considerable, and
the crystalline lens, or magnifying organ of the eye,
stands out so that it can receive the rays of light
from a considerable portion of space.
Q. Then there is reason to believe that the animals
of this order depend more on vision than many of the
other mollusca ?
A. There is. Their habits are but obscurely known,
but as they are swimmers, and often near the surface
of the water, it is highly probable that they perceive.
their prey by the sight, which is not the case with the
night-feeders among the land mollusca, or with those
that inhabit the bottom of the sea and the holes of
the rocks.
Q. What is the form of the crystalline lens ?
A. It is spherical, and in its texture it resembles
that of the vertebrated animals.
Q. Is there no peculiarity in it?
MOLLUSCA.
55
?
A. There is a very remarkable one: the organ, in-
stead of being composed of one lens, is composed of
two, which are united transversely to the line of
vision by a partition of the retina and its coats.
Q. And does the lens occupy the greater part of
the eye?
A. It does not. The greater part
The greater part is filled by a
vitreous humour, which is not contained in cells like
that in most other animals, but flows out where the
coats of the eyes are punctured.
Q. Are there any sub-orders of the cephalopoda ?
A. There are two, Sepiacea, in which the sac is
supported by horny or shelly processes, or plates, and
Nautilacea, in which it is furnished with a shell.
SUB-ORDER I.-Sepiacea.
Q. How many genera are in that sub-order?
A. There are usually reckoned five.
1. Octopus.
2. Eledona.
3. Ocythie.
4. Sepia.
5. Loligo.
12
Q. What are the characters of Octopus?
A. As the name implies, they have eight arms or
feet, furnished with a double row of suckers, and all
of equal length. The Octopus vulgaris, which is found
in the British seas, may be taken as the type. The
body is short, the arms six times the length of the
body, and furnished with not less than two hundred
and forty suckers.
36
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the characters of Eledona?
A. In general like the former, only the arms have
but a single row of suckers. Some of them smell
like musk. They have not been met with in the
British seas.
Q. What are the characters of Ocythöe?
A. They are singular, and some of them have been
misrepresented.
Q. What are those that relate to the form of the
animal?
A. Two of the arms have a membranous expansion
like a sail; and the double rows of suckers upon the
others are placed upon short foot-stalks.
Q. Have they shells?
A. They have never been found excepting in shells ;
but the shells which they are found inhabiting are
not of their own construction, nor are they con-
nected with them in any way whatever, further than
by taking possession. They can leave the shell en-
entirely when they please, which is not the case with
any of the mollusca that manufactures its own shell.
Q. What shell is it of which the Ocythöe takes
possession?
A. The argonauta, vulgarly called the paper nau-
tilus.
Q. And is not the animal that makes the shell
known?
A. No. The shell has been often met with, the
animal never. It belongs by analogy to the second
sub-order of cephalopoda.
Q. And how does the Ocythöe manage its adopted
shell ?
MOLLUSCA.
57
A. With great adroitness. It rises to the surface,
rows with its suckers, spreads its membranous arms
as sails, and dives to the bottom when danger ap-
pears.
Q. What are the characters of the genus Sepia?
A. They have a narrow fin on each side of the sac;
the suckers are irregularly placed, and the back of
the sac is strengthened by a shelly plate, of a very
light and spongy texture.
Q. Is that plate the cuttle-fish bone of the shops?
A. It is; but it has no resemblance to bone, it is
chiefly carbonate of lime, and therefore a shell.
Q. Does that plate consist of uniform matter
through its whole substance?
A. No. There are tubercles on the upper part of
it as hard as porcelain shell, but they contain more
animal matter; within those there is a layer of tough
and flexible horn, and within that the successive
layers that make up the body of the plate are more
like pearl-shell, but they are very light, loose in their
texture, and without lustre.
Q. Was not the bone of the cuttle-fish once used
in medicine?
A. Yes; but it has no more medical qualities than
any other carbonate of lime.
Q. Have the sepia feet?
A. They have two of the arms much larger than the
rest, to which the name of feet is usually given.
Q. Where does the sepia inhabit?
A. It is not uncommon in the British seas, but as
it is a pelagic animal, it is not often taken alive, though
E
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
the shelly plate is frequently cast upon all the shores
from the south to the north of the island.
Q. What are the characters of Loligo?
A. The plate is horny, and imbedded in the sac,
the arms and legs are not so long in proportion as
those of the sepia, and the suckers are disposed in
double rows. There are several species found on the
shores both of Scotland and England.
Q. Are any of them used as food?
A. Formerly they were, and in some places they
are so still; but they are not used in Britain.
SUB-ORDER II.-Nautilacea.
Q. What is the distinguishing character between
these and the others?
A. They have shells, and the others have not.
Q. What are the principal genera?
A. There are principally two of them:
1. Spirula,
2. Nautilus;
but the nature of the animals is imperfectly known.
Both have spiral shells, which are multilocular, that
is, divided into a number of chambers or compart-
ments, by partitions, which are entire in some cases,
and in others perforated in the centre; but the shell
of the spirula is internal, and that of the nautilus ex-
ternal.
Q. Of what seas is the spirula a native?
A. It is found most abundantly in the West Indian
seas, where one species, the spirula vulgaris, is very
common.
MOLLUSCA.
39
Q. What are its characters?
A. It bears a considerable resemblance to the sepia;
and the spiral shell occupies nearly the same situation
as what is called the "bone" in that animal.
Q. What is the use of the shell?
A. That is not very well known; but as the spirula
inhabits deep water, it is by no means improbable that
the animal uses it as an air-trunk, by the management
of which it changes its specific gravity, and rises or
sinks in the water.
Q. What are the characters of the genus Nautilus?
A. They are very imperfectly known. The animal
of one species, the nautilus pompilius, has been des-
cribed by Rumphius, who mentions that the animal
resides in the last chamber of the shell, the one next
the mouth; and that a ligament descends through the
perforations in the partitions to all the other cham-
bers. The arms or tentacula that surround the mouth
of the nautilus have no suckers.
Q. What is the use of the shell?
A. The last chamber of the shell protects the ani-
mal; and it is probable that the other parts may act
in changing the specific gravity, in the same manner
as the internal shell of the spirula; but the general
economy of those very singular animals is but little
known; and, in natural history, conjectures are worse
than useless.
ORDER II.-PTEROPODA.
Q. What is the meaning of pteropoda?
A. Literally it means "wing footed;" but as all the
E 2
40
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
animals to which it is applied are inhabitants of the
sea, it really means "fin-footed."
Q. Are they naked animals, or have they shells?
A. Some are covered with a double tunic or cloak,
some have spiral univalve shells, some have two shells
soldered together at the place where the hinges are in
bivalves; and some have heads, while others are with-
out.
Q. What are the characters which are common to
them all?
A. They have no feet for crawling, no suckers for
adhering to substances, no arms for seizing their food,
and it is doubtful whether any of them have organs
of sight.
Q. What are their positive characters ?
A. They are all small in size; they swim by means
of two fins, one on each side of the anterior part of
the body; they are continually floating in the water,
and have the the power of altering their shape, size,
and specific gravity; and each individual is both male
and female.
Q. What seas do they inhabit?
A. They are rare in the temperate latitudes, and
have never been found on the British shores; but
some of them are very abundant in the warm lati-
tudes, and others swarm in the arctic seas, where
they form a considerable portion of the food of the
common whale.
Q. What are the genera?
A. They are--
1. Clio, with a membranous covering; found both in
MOLLUSCA.
41
the warm and cold seas (different species), and hav-
ing the fins and gills in the same organs.
2. Cleodora, of a pyramidal shape, and with two
membranous wings or fins.
3. Cymbulia, with the tunic cartilaginous, and in the
form of a trough. It has only one wing or fin, but
that is divided into three lobes.
4. Limacina, with the hinder part of the body en-
closed in a weak spiral shell of a turn and a half,
and the head and fins very like those of clio. It is
very abundant in the polar seas.
5. Pneumodermon (breathing by the skin, the gills be-
ing fin-like appendages on the neck). This genus
has a soft covering, and possibly the tentacula, from
their form, have suckers.
6. Hylea, destitute of a head, and having two valves
of shell soldered together. Found in the Mediter-
ranean.
ORDER III.-GASTEROPODA.
Q. Is that a numerous order?
A. Exceedingly numerous, and the genera which it
includes are very much diversified in their appearances
and habits.
Q. What are the general characters ?
A. The foot on the belly, from which the order is
named, is the most general one.
Q. What are the parts of the gasteropoda ?
A. Independently of the particular organs, which
vary with the habits of the animals, and the elements
in which they live, they may all be considered as
E 3
42
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
made up of the foot, the cloak, or tunic, and the
head.
Q. What is the foot?
A. It is a firm, muscular organ, covering a greater
or less part of the under side of the animal, according
to the species. The inner surface of it supports the
viscera, and the outer serves as a sucker and an organ
of motion; and, in those species that inhabit the
water, it answers also as a fin.
Q. What is the cloak?
A. A strong leathery covering, attached to the foot
at each side, and forming an arch over it, which pro-
tects the vital parts of the animal. Sometimes the
back of the tunic is supported by plates of shelly
matter, and sometimes by a conical, or spiral shell.
Q. How is the head situated?
A. It is united to the foot below, and to the cloak
on the sides and back. In general it is furnished with
tentacula.
Q. What is the system of circulation?
A. It is very simple. There is no ventricle or
auricle connected with the lungs. The heart is usually
in the left side of the body; but in those that have
spiral shells, the heart is always situated on the side
next the pillar, round which the whorls or spires of
the shell wind.
Q. What is the system of respiration?
A. There are two distinct systems: those that
breathe air by lungs (pulmonifera), and those that
breathe water by gills (bronchifera), and those form
two sub-orders, or sub-divisions of the order.
MOLLUSCA
43
SUB ORDER I.- GASTEROPODA PULMONIFERA.
Q. What is the general character of these?
A. They all breathe free air, and have one pulmo-
nary cavity, on the side opposite to the heart, the
opening to which they can shut and open at their
pleasure.
Q. How are they produced?
A. They are all produced from eggs, and they are
generally male and female in the same individual.
Q. Are all the gasteropoda that breath air with
lungs inhabitants of the land?
A. No. Some of them inhabit the land, and some
the water, so that they have to be arranged in two
sections.
SECTION 1.-TERRESTRIAL.
Q. Are there any distinctions of these?
A. Yes. There are two tribes, one that have the
shell, which is sometimes flat, sometimes sub-spiral,
and sometimes a flexible horny plate, imbedded in
the cloak, and those that have the shell conical or
spiral, and external, covered only with an epidermis,
and covering the body of the animal.
Tribe 1. The shell or shield in the cloak.
Q. What are the general characters of these?
A. They have four tentacula, which are capable of
44
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
being extended or withdrawn, the eyes are black points
on the tips of the upper pair.
Q. Are these animals perfect in their organiza-
tion?
A. The organization of all animals is the very best
adapted to their habits and the elements in which
they live, that it is possible to imagine; but if we
except vision, we have reason to conclude that the
senses of those animals are not very acute.
Q. Have they not the sense of taste in considerable
perfection?
A. They must, for we find that slugs and snails,
which belong to this subdivision, find out the most
delicate vegetables, such as young leaves and ripe
strawberries and other fruits, with great care and cer-
tainty; and that they are not guided by the sight is
plain, because their selections are generally made in
the dark, and they prefer dull weather to that which
is bright.
Q. Is there any part of their anatomical structure
from which we can form an estimate of the general
acuteness of their different senses?
A. Yes. In all organs that have been discovered
and examined as the seats of particular senses, it is
found to be a general law that that organ which is
the most abundantly supplied with nerves is the most
sentient.
Q. And how does that apply to the animals under
consideration?
A. The tentacula are much more abundantly sup-
plied with nerves than the eyes, whether the eyes be
seated on the tentacula, or at their bases; and there-
MOLLUSCA.
45
fore, as the tentacula are the organs of touch or
feeling, we are warranted in concluding that that
sense is much more acute-of much more essential
service to the animal than the sense of sight.
Q. How many genera are there?
A. There are three known genera:
1. Limax, the slug;
2. Parmacella, and,
3. Testacella.
The first genus is very common; there are many
species, and they are very destructive to young plants,
and to strawberries, and other esculent fruits.
Q. What are the characters of the slug?
A. The body is lengthened and pointed behind;
the cloak is furrowed, and contains towards the head
the shield, which is a flexible, horny plate. The
whole body is lubricated with a glutinous slime, and
the animal leaves a train of the same slime where it
passes along.
Q. Are those animals hardy?
A. They are much more so than the shelled tribe
of the same sub-order. Slugs come out of their winter
habitations much earlier in the season, and they are
found in those cold and upland parts of the country
where no shelled ones are to be met with.
Q. What is the character of their mouths?
A. They have horny jaws for cutting; but as they
feed upon succulent substances, their stomachs are
very simple.
Q. Do they live wholly upon vegetables?
A. Not altogether. Some of the larger species feed
upon earth-worms.
46
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the distinguishing characters of Par-
macella?
A. The chief one (as the name imports) is that the
shield is not toward the head, as in the slug, but at
nearly equal distances from both ends of the body.
There is only one known species, a native of Mesapo-
tamia.
Q. What are the characters of testacella ?
A. Besides the shield at the anterior part of the
cloak, there is an open sub-spiral plate of shell farther
backwards, and the foot extends on each side beyond
the body.
Q. What are its habits?
A. It lives, for the most part, under ground, where
it pursues and preys upon the common earth-worm.
Testacella-tribe 2. The shell external.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. The shells are spiral, more or less turbinated,
covered with a cuticle, and sometimes armed with
hairs.
Q. Are they very numerous ?
A. They are very much so.
Q. What is one of the most common genera?
A. The snail (Helix), of which there are at least
twenty-two species, natives of Britain.
Q. What are the characters of the animals?
A. They very much resemble those of the slug.
Snails form, during the spring, a great part of the
food of the thrush tribe; and the broken shells may
be found in great numbers under hedges, where the
MOLLUSCA.
47
birds dig the snails from their hiding-places, and thus
render a most important service to the gardener and
the farmer.
Q. What are their characters?
A. In Britain, though they are very abundant in
some districts, they are by no means so widely diffused
as the naked slugs.
Q. What is the difference in their localities?
A. The shelled snails are confined to the warmer
parts of the country, and are never found in the bleak
mountainous districts; they are fond of moist weather,
but they cannot live in so wet places as the naked
slugs, and they perish sooner in water.
Q. Is it not rather singular that an animal covered
only by a skin should be less affected by changes of
heat and cold than one which is protected by a shell?
A. Not at all, the hardness, the strength, or the
thickness of the covering is not that which protects
the inmate from changes of temperature.
Q. And may a mere skin be a better protection
against heat or cold than a hard substance?
A. It may. A flannel jacket may be, and would
be a much better protection against changes of tem-
perature than a casing of iron; and a moistened sheet
of blotting paper is a much better protection against
heat than the thickest garment. The moist and slimy
coat of the slug, with the internal plate or shield over
the vital parts of the body, is a much better protection
than the shell of the snail.
Q. What sort of retiring places do the snails prefer?
A. Holes in old walls, and other places that are
comparatively dry; they are very numerous in warm
48
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
dry fields, where they nestle and spend the winter
under the hedges, at a greater or less depth according
to the degree of cold.
Q. Which is another important division of the
tribe?
A. The pupacea, the shells of which have teeth, or
laminæ ; and at a certain age the mouth of the shell
thickens into a ring, after which the shell and the
inhabitant cease to grow in size
Q. Is there any further peculiarity about them?
A. Yes; some of the shells are dextral, and others
sinistral. The inhabitants of the dextral shells, have
all four tentacula; but some of those of the sinistral
have only two.
Q. Is there any other remarkable genus?
A. Yes. Vitrina, in which the shell only incloses
a small portion of the body of the animal, and has the
lobes of the cloak folded back over it.
Q. Any other?
A. Yes. Cyclostoma (round mouth), in which the
mouth of the shell is circular, the foot furnished with
an operculum, the eyes not on the tentacula, but on
little foot-stalks at their base, and the sexes distinct.
Q. Are there any British species ?
A. Yes, there are at least two, of which cyclostoma
elegans, found under moss and ferns, is the most
remarkable.
SECTION II.-AQUATIC.
Q. What are their general characters ?
A. They live in shallow fresh waters, and come to
MOLLUSCA.
· 49
the surface to breathe; they have generally two flat
tentacula, with the eyes at their bases.
Q. Are they male and female?
A. No, the sexes are united in the same individual.
Q. Where do they place their eggs?
A. They glue them to the stalks of aquatic plants,
with a glutinous substance that is not soluble in
water.
Q. On what do they feed?
A. On vegetable matter under the water.
Q. And how do they breathe?
A. As they breathe by lungs, they have to come to
the surface of the water for respiration.
Q. Have all this section shells?
A. No. Like the terrestrial ones they form two
tribes, one of which has no external shelly covering,
and the other has.
Tribe 1. Naked.
Q. What are the characters of the naked tribe?
A. Some of them are rather obscure, as few indivi-
duals have been examined. Those that have been so
have had the cloak of more than usual thickness, the
lungs near the hinder part of the animal, the mouth
without proboscis, or jaws, and retractile tentacula,
like those of the slug.
Q. Do they form many genera?
A. So far as has been observed they form only one
genus, Onchidium.
Q. Are there any British species ?
A. No. The only ones that have been met with
F
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
have been in Mauritius and India, and the Indian
species is not very clearly described.*
Tribe 2. With shells.
Q. Are these more numerous than the former?
A. They are much more so. There are at least
seven genera, and six of those are British species.
Q. What are the genera?
A. They are these:-
KAMA MAND
1. Lymnaeris.
2. Physa.
3. Aplexa.
4. Conovula.
5. Planorbis.
6. Segmentina, and
7. Ancylus.
Q. What are the characters of the first genus?
A. They have all dextral spiral shells, they inhabit
pools, lakes, and rivers, and form part of the food of
fishes and of water-fowl; they have two prominent
tentacula, have three jaws, and are of both sexes.
Some of them are much infected by very minute, para-
sitical leeches.
Q. Are there many British species?
A. There are six or seven, one of which grows to
the length of two inches. It is found in stagnant
waters.
Q. What are the characters of physa?
* Linn. Trans. V. p. 132.
MOLLUSCA.
51
A. The shell is sinistral, about half an inch in
length, glossy, and of the colour of horn. The cloak
is transparent and can be reflected over the margin of
the shell, as the animal moves along the surface of the
water.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. Shallow lakes and pools, and slow running
streams.
Q. What are the characters of Aplexa?
A. It is a small sinistral shell, the cloak of which
does not fold back over the shell.
Q. Where is it found?
A. In slow streams; but it is rare in Britain.
Q. What is the character of conovula?
A. The shells are conical, but the animal is not
known.
Q. What are the characters of planorbis?
A. The spires of the shell are nearly in the same
horizontal plane, or flat. When some of the species
are irritated, they give out a purple fluid from between
the cloak and the foot.
Q. Are there many British species?
A. There are at least nine, most of them very
minute; and all of them inhabitants of ditches and
shallow pools. The tentacula are in the form of
threads.
Q. What are the characters of segmentina?
A. The shell is divided into chambers which com-
municate with each other by triangular openings.
The British species is very minute, and the animal
resembles that of the planorbis.
Q. What is the character of ancylus?
F 2
52
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The shell is a flattened cone, on which account
it is sometimes styled the lake limpat; the tentacula
are short, and the foot oval.
Q. Are they of large size?
A. They are very small. One of the British species
is found on stones in brooks, and the other on plants
in ponds and ditches.
SUB-ORDER II.—GASTEROPODA BRANCHIFERA.
Branchifera.
Q. Are there many of these?
A. A great number, and they vary so much that
they admit of sub-divisions into six sections, which are
named from the form and arrangement of the gills.
Q. Which are the names of the sections?
A. They are these:-
1. Nudibranchia,
2. Cyclobranchia,
3. Tectibranchia,
4. Cerviabranchia,
5. Pectinibranchia, and
6. Scutibranchia.
SECTION I.-NUDIBRANCHIA.
Q. What are the characters of that section?
A. As the name imports, the gills are naked, and
consist of filaments arising from the cloak and sides of
the back. They have neither shield nor shell; they
have tentacula on the head, and each is both male and
female. They are inhabitants of the sea.
Q. What is the first genus ?
j
MOLLUSCA.
53
A. Doris, which has two superior tentacula; there
are many species, of which not a few are found in the
British seas.
Some of them are three inches in length.
The cloak is covered with papillæ, which are probably
organs of touch, as the animals can extend and with-
draw them at pleasure.
Q. What is the second genus ?
A. Polycera, which has a number of small tentacula
at the mouth, and jaws adapted for cutting.
Q. What is the third genus?
A. Triton, they have the gills disposed on each side
of the cloak. The tongue and jaws are adapted for
mastication.
Q. Are there many species?
A. A very considerable number, and not a few of
them are natives of the British seas.
Q What is the fourth genus?
A. Tergipes, in which a row of gills on each side
answer also as suckers, and enable the animal to crawl
on its back.
Q. What is the fourth?
A. Thethys, which has an oval body, and a large
winged expansion over the mouth that serves as a fin,
and probably also, by agitating the water, assists it in
finding its food.
Q. What is the fifth?
A. Scyllea, which has two tentacula, horny jaws,
and extended membranes on the back, that bear the
gills. It is chiefly found in the warm seas.
Q. Which is the sixth genus?
A. Glaucus, which has horizontal expansions, with
fringed margins on the sides.
F 5
54.
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
SECTION II.-CYCLOBRANCHIA.
Q. What is the general character of that?
A. The gills are distributed marginally between the
foot and the cloak, sometimes entirely round, and
sometimes with interruptions before and behind.
Q. What is the first genus?
A. Phyllida, with an oval body, the gills like horns,
the mouth without teeth, and the existence of eyes
is doubtful. They inhabit the warm seas.
Q. Which is the second?
A. Diphyllida, with the cloak pointed behind?
Q. What is the third?
A. Patella (the limpat) which differs from all the
others in having a strong conical shell. It adheres
firmly to the rocks, and is esculent.
Q. Which is the fourth?
A. Chiton, which has shelly plates on the back, im-
planted in the cloak, and no tentacula.
SECTION III.-TECTIBRANCHIA.
Q. What is their distinguishing character?
A. They have the gills under the cloak, as in last
section, but they are confined to a portion of each
side. They all inhabit the sea.
Q. Which is the first order?
A. Pleurobranchus, in which the cloak and foot in-
vest the body, and the middle of the former has a
sub-spiral shell.
Q. What is the second?
MOLLUSCA.
55
A. Aphysia, some of the species of which are six
inches long, and give out a purple fluid when caught.
Various superstitions used to be connected with it, but
of course they were all without foundation.
Q. What are its characters ?
A. Of an oval shape, with the cloak narrower than
the body; a horny plate on the cloak, horny jaws,´
tantacula, and eyes.
Q. What is its common name?
A. The "sea-hare," and the vulgar belief, which
is absurd, is, that the touch of it causes baldness.
Q. Which is the third genus?
A. Dolabella, like the last, but having a shelly
plate.
Q. The fourth ?
A. Natarchus, without a plate.
Q. Which is the fifth genus?
A. Bulla, in which the animals have no tentacula,
and the animal is furnished with a shell, and mem-
branous appendage to the head.
Q. Which is the sixth genus ?
A. Doridum, which has no shell or dorsal plate.
SECTION IV.-CERVICIBRANCHIA.
Q. Which is the general character of these?
A. The gills are in the form of a plume or feather,
and placed on the neck, and the animals have a spiral
shell and operculum. There are two species, natives
of Britain.
SECTION V.-PECTINIBRANCHIA.
Q. What is their general character?
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. The gills are contained in a sac, and the indivi-
dual portions are arranged in rows, something resem-
bling the teeth of a comb, from which circumstance
the name of the section is derived.
Q. Are they numerous?
A. Very much so. The section includes nearly the
whole of the univalve shelled mollusca that inhabit
the sea, as well as some that do not.
Q. Which are some of their general characters,
besides those of the gills?
A. The foot is, in many of the species, fortified
with a moveable horny operculum; the front part of
the cloak forms a thick arch, all the body behind
which is constantly contained in, and protected by
the shell; the head is between the foot and this arch,
upon a short neck; there are two tentacula, with the
eyes at their base, and the mouth is in the form of a
proboscis.
Q. Is the history of those animals perfect?
A. Very much the reverse; there are numbers of
them of which only the dead shells are known; and
thus the knowledge that we have, and it is far from
accurate or complete, is chiefly that of the shells.
Q. And is the knowledge of the shells not an index
to that of the animals?
A. Unfortunately not; among the species with
which we are best acquainted, we find shells that are
very much alike, inhabited by animals of very different
structures and habits; and animals very similar in
those respects, not only inhabiting different shells, but
one inhabiting a shell, and the other not.
MOLLUSCA.
57
Q. Are not the pectinibranchia divided into genera,
then ?
A. They are; but those genera are too often mere
classifications of shells, not distinctions of kindred
animals; and, besides, they are too numerous for a
mere outline.
Q. How, then, may they be more simply divided?
A. Into tribes and families.
Q. How many tribes are there?
A. Three.
TRIBE I.-APERTURE OF THE SHELL ENTIRE.
3
Q. Is that form of shell connected with any cha-
racter of the inhabitant ?
A. Yes it is.
Animals that have the mouth of the
shell entire, must in so far leave the shell before they
can breathe.
Q. What kind of shells have these?
A. They have spiral shells; and they have the cloak
entire.
Q. How many families are in this tribe?
A. There are three families, which may be called
turbo, trochus, and conchylum and nerita, though the
first and second of them are the names of genera.
Q. What are the leading characters of the first
family?
A. The mouth of the shell is nearly round, and it
is uniformly furnished with an operculum, attached to
the foot.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. They are all inhabitants of the sea, except one
genus (palmida).
Q. What is the most familiar type of the family?
A. The common periwinkle, or shore periwinkle
(turbo littoreus).
Q. What are the characters of the trochus family?
A. The spires of the shell are flattened, resembling
a wheel (hence the name trochus); the aperture of the
shell approaches to four cornered; they all have an
operculum, and they inhabit the sea.
Q. What are the characters of the conchylium
family?
A. They have the mouth crescent-shaped; some
have an operculum, and others none; one has a spongy
body instead, by means of which it rises or sinks in
the water, and it has the power of ejecting a purple
fluid.
Q. What are the characters of the nerita?
A. The pillar lip is nearly straight, and the mouth,
in consequence, nearly semicircular, and closed by an
operculum. Some of them inhabit the sea, and others
fresh waters.
TRIBE II.—MOUTH OF THE SHELL WITH A CANAL OR
CHANNEL.
Q. How is the channeled (canaliculated) mouth of
the shell connected with the habits of the animal?
A. It contains a tube or pipe, connected with the
lungs, through which the animal can breathe.
Q. Are there many distinct families in this tribe ?
MOLLUSCA.
59
A. A great many; and the shells are very varied in
form.
Q. Which is the first family?
A. The Conus of Linnæus, in which the shell is
convulated with a short spire, and the operculum too
small for closing the mouth of the shell, may be taken
as the type.
Q. Are the species numerous?
A. There are about two hundred of them, all inha-
bitants of the warmer latitudes.
Q. What is the second family?
A. Cypria (the cowry), of which there is at least
one small British species. The cloak can be reflected
back over the shell, and there is no operculum.
While the animal is growing the shell is cast repeat-
edly.
Q. What is the third family?
A. Ovula, from the oval form of the shell. No-
thing is known of the animal. The valva patula, a
rare British species, is supposed to belong to this
family.
Q. What is the fourth family?
A. Voluta, in which the spire is almost concealed,
and the mouth, the whole length of the shell, may be
considered as the type. That family has no opercu-
lum (?).
Q. What is the fifth family?
A. Buccinum. These have spiral shells, and the
animals have a retractile proboscis, with which some
of them perforate the shells of mussels and other
bivalves, and eat the inhabitants.
Q. What is the sixth family?
60
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Murex, in which the animal bears a conside-
rable resemblance to the last; but the shell is more
elongated.
Q. What is the seventh family?
A. Strombus, in which the shell is turreted, and the
aperture expands with age.
TRIBE III.-SHELL DISH-SHAPED.
Q. Are there many British species of that tribe?
A. There are two British species, sigaretus haliotoi-
dea, and tentaculatus They are found in deep water,
but are not common.
Q. What are the sizes of the pectinibranchia?
A. The murex brandaris, pupura lapillus, scalaria
clathrus, and planorbis corneus, afforded the purple
dye of the ancients; the periwinkle, and nerita littorus,
are used for food; and many of the species are used
by the fishermen, as baits.
SECTION VI.-SCUTIBRANCHIA.
Q. What is the meaning of that term?
A. That the gills are defended by a shield-gene.
rally of shell.
Q. Which is one of the most remarkable of the
genera?
A. HALYATIS.
Q. What are its characters?
A. The foot is large, and of an oval shape; and
there are simple or branched filaments round the
body. The shell occupies the back with the spiral
MOLLUSCA.
61
part behind; there is a row of holes on the left side of
the shell, through which the filaments pass; and the
shell often has a most beautiful play of prismatic
colours.
Q. What are the characters of the other genera?
A. They generally have flat conical shells on the
back, some of them perforated at the apex, and others
not; but the nature and habits of the animals are not
very well understood.
ORDER IV.-Conchifera.
Q. Were the animals of that order ever called by
any other name ?
A. From the fact of their having no heads, they
were once called Acephala; but the name was not
very well applied.
Q. What animals does it include?
A. Nearly all the bivalves, or those in which the
shell consists of two bases or valves that open and
shut.
Q. How is the hinge by which the shells open and
shut constructed?
A. The parts of the shells are adapted to move on
each other. At the back, or outside, there is an
elastic ligament, or tye, which is in a state of tension,
or stretched, when the shells are shut; and in the
inside there are muscles which are inserted in the
shells, and serve to pull them together.
Q. And how do the valves open?
A. The animal relaxes the muscles, and the tendon
G
A
62
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
contracts and pulls the fore parts of the shells
asunder.
Q. Then the muscles and the ligament are on op-
posite sides of that part of the valves which is the
axis or centre of motion ?
A. They are, and they act like two forces opposed
to each other, on the opposite ends of a lever.
Q. Are the actions of both voluntary?
A. The action of the muscles is, but that of the
tendon is not; the contraction of the muscles by which
the valves are shut, is an effort on the part of the
animal, but the opening is not.
Q. Is there any evidence of design in that arrange-
ment?
A. There is. The natural state of the animal-
that in which it feeds and breathes-is while the shell
is open; that is to it a state of rest or ease, and
it is called to make an exertion only when it is neces-
sary to close the shells for the securing of food, or
against an enemy.
Q. Have the animals of that order any covering
beside the valves?
A. They all have a cloak; sometimes open along
the front, and sometimes only with openings through
which it can feed and breathe.
Q. In those that have the cloak open along the
front, does it open and shut?
A. It does, at the same time with the valves and in
a similar manner.
Q. What is the form of the gills in this order?
A. They are in the form of leaves, situated two
and two, on each side of the body of the animal
#
MOLLUSCA.
63
within the cloak; and in those in which the cloak is
open all along the front, the water has at all times free
access to the gills.
Q. Have they the power of locomotion ?
A. Some of them have to a small extent, and others
are fastened to the same spot during the whole period
of their lives.
Q. What are their means of locomotion?
A. In some it is effected, by suddenly opening
and shutting the valves; in others there is a foot, and
some throw out a byssus of threads.
Q. Do they all live in the water?
A. They do; but some bury themselves in the
sand or mud, and others perforate holes, even in
rocks, and make them their habitations.
Q. Is it not said that they have a particular cor-
rosive liquor, with which they soften the rocks?
A. That has been said, but there is no truth in it,
for any liquor that would dissolve rocks would dis-
solve their own shells. Many animals have fluids by
means of which they can glue or cement substances
together, but there is probably none which possess
a dissolving liquor, other than the fluids by the help
of which it digests its food.
Q. How then do those animals contrive to perforate
hard substances?
A. By a rotatory motion of the valves of the shell.
Q. Is that habit so constant among those that have
it as to be a generic character?
A. No, the same genus is often found inhabiting
perforations made by itself, and the crannies among
the roots of sea-weed.
G 2
64
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Have the conchiferæ organs of sense?
A. Their nervous system is very simple, much more
so than that of many of the other mollusca; and the
only senses which they possess are feeling, and, pro-
bably, taste, and there is no tongue or any organ for
the latter.
Q. What are their organs of feeling?
A. They are tentacula at the mouth, and tentacula
or fringes on the margin of the cloak.
Q. How are they produced?
A. They are of only one sex, and produced from
eggs which are hatched inwardly in the gills.
Q. Are they noted for any peculiar production?
A. Yes, for the production of pearl, which, so far
as is known, is not produced by any animals except
the conchiferæ.
Q. Then have they all pearl shells?
A. They have, but they are different in colour
and lustre; only some of them produce pearls, and
then only, as is supposed, when they are in a state of
disease.
Q. How are the pearls formed?
A. The particular mode of their formation is not
very well known; but some form the pearl in the
coats of the cloak, and some adhering to the inside of
the shell.
Q. Are they widely distributed?
A. They are, but those that produce the finest
pearls are confined to the warm seas.
Q. What genera furnish pearls ?
A. Two species of Avicula, and one of Unio, they
MOLLUSCA.
65
are indiscriminately called pearl oysters, and pearl
mussels.
Q. And are they not oysters or mussels?
A. No, those that most nearly resemble the oyster,
have a muscle more for shutting the valves; and those
that more nearly resemble the mussel, have the cloak
closed in front while the mussel lays it open.
Q. Are they all inhabitants of the sea?
A. They are not. The unio, vulgarly called the
horse mussel, is found in most of the mountain rivers
of Britain.
Q. Does that yield the most valuable pearls ?
A. No, they have neither the colour nor the lustre
of those found in the sea.
Q. In what sea are pearls found most abundantly?
A. Probably in the shallow strait which separates
the island of Ceylon from the mainland of India.
Q. What species is found there?
A. Avicula Margaretifera.
Q. In shallow water?
A. No: at a considerable depth, and the fishers
dive for them.
Q. Are they found also in the American seas?
A. They are; and the largest pearl ever found
came from the bay of Panama in 1579.
Q. What was the size of it?
A. About as large as a pigeon's egg,
Q. Are there no other species that produce pearls?
A. Perhaps they may be sometimes produced by
all the conchifera, and are met with in the common
oyster and the pinna.
Q. Is the pinna remarkable for anything else?
G 5
66
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Yes, for the number, length, and fineness of the
threads which it spins, which threads are, on some
parts of the shore of the Mediterranean, spun like
silk.
Q. Is there are any other use of the conchiferæ ?
A. Some of them are collected for food in great
numbers, and they have a finer flavour, and are sup-
posed to be more wholesome than any other of the
mollusca.
Q. What is the classification of the order?
A. They are usually arranged into five sections
but the characters of some of these, and the manner
of all, are very imperfectly known.
SECTION I.
;
Q. What are the characters of the first section ?
A. The cloak is open, without the water comes
freely to the gills and the mouth; the foot is often
wanting, or while it does exist, it is not well adapted
for locomotion.
Q. What then is the use of it?
A. Chiefly in spinning or fastening the byssus, by
which the animal retains its place, but the mode in
which that is done, and the structure of the spinning
apparatus are not known.
Q. Is there any subdivision of the section, other
than that of genera?
A. The arrangements are not very satisfactory, but
two tribes are reckoned.
:
MOLLUSCA.
67
Tribe 1.
Q. What are the characters of that tribe?
A. There is but one muscle for shutting the shells
the valves are unequal; and the powers of moving are
always very limited, and sometimes do not exist.
Q. Which are some of the genera?
A. The oyster (Ostrea), and the scallop (Pecten),
are among the best known.
Q. Are not the animals of this tribe necessarily
exposed to many casualties?
A. Of course they are, as they are not capable of
getting out of harm's way; and hence there are more
extinct species of them found in the rocks than there
are of any other.
Tribe 2.
Q. What are the characters of the second tribe?
A. They have two muscles for closing the shells;
and the greater number of them spin a byssus; some
too have the means of crawling by the aid of a foot.
But their history is obscure, and very absurd stories
are written respecting some of them.
Q. Which are the most remarkable genera?
A. The avicula (pearl oyster) of the tropical seas,
and the pinna.
SECTION II.
Q. What are the characters of that section?
A. The cloak, open before and behind, and closed
68
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
a little way at the middle; two muscles for closing
the shells, and the shells equal. The common mussel
may be taken as the type.
Q What animals are included in this section?
A. The whole of those genera that are usually
called mussels, whether they be inhabitants of the sea,
or of fresh water.
Q. What are their means of rest and motion?
A. Most of them spin a byssus, and all of them
have a foot. They, as well as many of the other tribes
of the conchiferæ, are gregarious, or live in large
beds.
Q Do the mussels inhabit as deep water as the
oysters ?
A. They do not. The sea mussels are found most
abundantly on banks where the water is shallow;
oysters have always to be dredged from a considerable
depth.
Q. And the fresh water mussel (unio), which fur-
nishes the pearls?
A. It is generally found in the bottom of muddy
pools, where the water is not very deep. It stands
with the hinge end in the mud, and the shells open.
Q. How is it caught?
A. One has nothing to do but insert the end of a
stick between the shells; the animal grasps the stick
by closing them, and may be lifted out.
Q. Is it esculent?
A. No. It is unpleasant in scent, and understood
to be unwholesome.
MOLLUSCA.
69
SECTION III. ?
A. It is rather confined and obscure. The cloak
has three openings, there is only one muscle to the
shells, and the animals spin a byssus.
SECTION IV.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. They have, like the former, three openings in
the cloak; but they have two muscles for working the
shells. The chama (the largest of the shelled mol-
lusca), the cockle, and many others, belong to that
section.
Q. What are the characters of
SECTION V.?
A. The cloak is closed in front, and though the
shells are different, the animals are very much alike.
Q. Have they any peculiar character ?
A. They are fond of concealment. The teredo
bores into wood, the plolas into stone, and others,
such as the solen, or razor-fish, bury themselves in the
sand.
Q. Are any of them eaten?
A. The razor-fish, and some of the gapers (myæ).
ORDER V.-TUNICATA.
What is the general character of that order?
70
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY,
A. They are without heads; and as their name im-
ports, they are without shells.
Q. What are their other characters?
A. One division of them remains fixed to other
bodies, and the other moves freely in the water. They
are all inhabitants of the sea.
Q. Are there any natural divisions of this order ?
A. There are two; tethides and thallides, the former
the most numerous.
1.-Tethides.
Q. What is their distinguishing character?
A. The outer and inner tunics, or coats, do not
adhere to each other, except at the openings.
Q. Is that sub-order still divided?
A. Yes; there are two principal divisions; those
that attach themselves to other substances, and those
that move freely, and the former admit of more
minute divisions.
Q. To what substances do they adhere?
A. To rocks, to sea-plants, to shells, some of them
on peduncles, or stalks, and others not.
Q. Are they abundant?
A. They are found in all seas; all of them are of a
gelatinous nature, and some are used as food. Some
of them are not easily distinguished from the ra-
diata.
Q. What seas do they inhabit?
A. They are found in all seas, and one, synoicum
turgens, is found in the Polar sea.
MOLLUSCA.
71
2.-Thallides.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. The character which distinguishes them from
the former, is the adhesion of the two tunics for their
whole extent.
Q. What seas do they inhabit ?
A. Chiefly the warmer seas, in which they are
pretty numerous.
ORDER VI.-BRACHIOPODA.
Q. What are their characters?
A. They are without heads; the cloak is divided
into two parts, and they are protected by bivalve shells.
They can roll their arms up in a spiral form.
Q. Which are some of the genera ?
A. Lingula, terebratula and criopus ; but their habits
and history are not very well known.
Q. Of what does lingula consist?
A. Of a cartilaginous stalk or peduncle, which has
one end fastened to other bodies, and the other end
carrying the body of the animal with two valves of
shells.
Q. Are there many species?
A. There is only one species, lingula unguis.
Q. What is the character of terebratula?
A. The muscular peduncle passes through a hole
in the larger valve of the shell. They are chiefly found
in a fossil state.
1.
Q. What are the characters of criopus?
A. One of the valves is a membrane and not a shell,
and the other resembles in form the shell of a limpat.
72
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. How does it fasten itself?
A. The membranous nature of the shell adheres to
stones, so that the animal has been mistaken for a
species of limpat.
THE END.
LONDON:
HENRY BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
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CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
PART VII.
CRUSTACEA, ARACHNIDES, MYRIA-
PODA, VERMES, CIRRHIPEDES,
AND RADIATA.
NOTE.
In order that the Catechisms of Zoological subjects might
contain at least an approximation to a general view of ani-
mated nature, this one has been formed to embrace some
of the minor departments. Any one of these would have
required more space than can, in this little work, be devoted
to the whole; but the greatest care has been taken to
select those points which are the most general, and at the
same time the most interesting. Those who are acquainted
with the subject, do not need to be told, that it is one, in
the forming of an epitome of which there are great and
almost insurmountable difficulties.
PART I.-CRustacea.
Q. What is meant by Crustacea?
A. Crustacea, or crustaceous animals, are those
B
2
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
.
that have their bodies covered with a hard envelope,
(crustus) which forms the proper covering or integu-
ment of the body, and from which they cannot detach
themselves, în whole or in part, as the testaceous
mollusca, or shelled worms, can do from their shells.
Q. Does it differ from the horny covering of in
sects ?
-
A. It does. Crusts generally contain salts of lime,
both the carbonate and the phosphate, and thus they
partake a little of the nature both of shell and of
bone; but as they contain much more of the carbo-
nate than of the phosphate, they resemble shell more
than they resemble bone.
Q. Is that in accordance with the other characters
of the animals?
A. Yes, the crustacea in their general character and
economy, resemble the shelled mollusca more than
they do the animals that have hard bones.
Q. Is there any other peculiarity in the composi-
tion of crusts?
A. Yes. In the animal matter by which the salts
of lime are cemented together, they appear to differ
from bone, and shell, and horn, and to resemble the
shells of eggs more than any other hard substances.
Q. In what does the difference consist?
A. The animal cement of bone, shell, and horn, is
understood to be gelatine, while that of crusts is
albumen.
Q. What difference does that produce?
A. Crusts boil hard from the coagulation of the
albumen, and thus they become brittle rather than
flexible.
CRUSTACEA.
61.
Q. Is there any further peculiarity in the crus-
tacea ?
A. They differ from insects and the shelled mol-
lusca, in having internal bones in the members of some
of the species.
Q. Are those internal bones hard?
A. No, they are cartilaginous, as may be seen in
the central bones of the different joints or segments
of a crab's claw.
Q. What are the animals that are, properly speak-
ing, crustaceous ?
A. Those which are familiarly known by the names
of crabs, lobsters, shrimps, and prawns.
Q. Are not these fishes?
A. They are popularly called shell-fish, and the
ancients considered them as a sub-class of fishes, inter-
mediate between the fishes properly so called, and
the shelled mollusca.
Q. And are they not fishes?
A. Certainly not, they have nothing in common
with fishes except breathing by gills, and that alone
no more makes an aquatic animal a fish, than breath-
ing by lungs makes a land animal a bird. Gills are
the apparatus for breathing in the water, just as lungs
are for breathing in the air, and thus, though each of
them points out the element in which the animal
lives, neither of them determines the class to which it
belongs.
Q. Have they not been classed with insects?
A. They were so classed by Linnæus; but the clas-
sification is at variance with anatomy and physiology,
and even with external appearance. In some few
Б 2
4
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
particulars they agree with insects, but they differ from
them in many more.
Q. In what do they agree?
A. Almost the only points of agreement are, having
the muscles partly inserted, (the true insects have
them wholly,) in the crust, and in having jointed legs
and antennæ, and the muscles of each joint contained
in the joint itself.
Q. In what do they differ from insects?
A. They breathe by gills; they have generally four
antennæ or horns, while the insects have only two;
they have often six mandibules or jaws, while insects
have no mandibules properly so called.
Q. Are there any further differences?
A. Yes, there are, which render the crustacea a
more perfect class of animals, so to speak, than the
insects.
Q. What are these?
A. The crustacea have a heart, the insects have
not: they have a more regular and complete nervous
system; they undergo no transformations-the young
differing from the old only in size; and they produce
young more than once, whereas the true insects die
whenever they have once deposited their eggs, or
otherwise produced one brood.
Q. Do not the crustacea cast their crusts annually,
which is a sort of metamorphosis?
A. The vulgar opinion is, that they do cast them
every year, and while the animal is young this may
be true, but that it is not the case at more advanced
ages, is proved by the fact that substances have been
formed upon the crusts of crabs and lobsters, which
CRUSTACEA.
5
must have taken two or three years to grow, and
which yet must have grown upon the crusts.
Q. What are the internal or anatomical characters
of the crustacea ?
A. They have the blood white and cold; a single
heart; no vertebral bones; the spinal cord with many
ganglia or knots; they breathe by gills, and they have
muscles for moving the feet.
Q. What are the external characters?
A. They have naked jointed feet formed either
for swimming or for running, the covering varies
with the species, from a membranous to a very
hard crust. It is in the form of a shield, and some-
times bivalve; and the gills are always under the
crust.
CLASSIFICATION.
Q. How are the crustacea divided ?
A. Their classification is not entirely settled, but
the common division is into entomostraca and mala-
costraca.
ENTOMOSTRAca.
Q. What are the characters of these?
A. They vary very much in the species, but the fol-
lowing are some of them: they have the feet fringed, or
with leaf-like processes; covering leathery; sometimes
a shield, sometimes bivalve; the eyes generally fixed,
but sometimes on foot stalks or pedicles.
Q. What is the number of eyes?
?
A. Generally two; but they are sometimes so
united as to appear as only one.
B 5
6
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is the character of the mouth?
A. The mouth is sometimes furnished with jaws,
and sometimes with a proboscis; the mandibles are
without palpi, and generally obscure; there are four
maxilla with double palpi.
Q. What are some of their other characters ?
A. They have generally two feet formed for swim-
ming, and the tails are furnished with bristles or plates,
or sometimes with a sword-shaped process.
Q. Are there many of them?
A. There are at least twelve known genera, and
there may be very many more.
Q. Are they classed into families?
A. They are, into six families.
Q. Which is the first?
A. Xiphosura, so called from having the tail
lengthened, three sided, and horny, something in the
shape of a sword.
Q. Are there many genera of that family?
A. There are only two; the one luminous, and
not very well known, the other a very singular ani-
mal.
Q. What is it?
A. The "king crab," limulus polyphemus, an inha-
bitant of the Indian seas, where it attains the length
of four feet, or more. The shell is in two divisions,
with a keel on the back; the eyes very small and
placed far back on the sides; there are two legs, all
with a fixed thumb and moveable finger; spines on
the upper keel of the shell, and that of the tail
notched.
Q. Are there any more species ?
CRUSTACEA.
7
A. There are, all inhabitants of the Indian seas,
and chiefly differing in being without spines on the
shell, and divided claws on the fore-feet.
Q. Which is the second family?
A. Pneumonura (fringe-tailed). They are all small;
some of them inhabit fresh water, some salt, and they
are generally parasitical on fish. Mouth formed for
sucking.
Q. Which is the third?
A. Phyllapoda (leafy-foot). Very small; lives in
rivulets and ditches.
Q. What are the characters of the rest of the divi-
sion ?
A. With the exception of the limuli, they are all
very minute, some have two eyes, some only one;
the greater part are parasitical, and fasten them-
selves to other animals by the claws of the first pair of
legs. Sharks, cod, and other pelagic fishes, are often
very much infested by them, and when they fasten in
numbers upon the gills, the fish feels very uneasy.
One of those animals, known to the fisherman by the
name of the sea-louse, or salmon-louse, is supposed to
assist in driving the salmon out of the deep water into
the rivers; but the story may be a fable.
MALACOSTRACA.
Q. Are these more numerons than the former ?
A. They are, and they are also larger, not so apt
to be confounded with the larvæ of aquatic insects,
and therefore they are a little better understood,
though their history is far from perfect.
20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the divisious of them?
A. One general and very obvious division is in
those that have the eyes upon footstalks, and those
that have not. The former are the more numerous
and important, and they admit of a further subdivision
from the tails.
Q. What are these?
A. Those that have the tail short and simple, and
those which have it with appendages, and longer than
the body.
Q. Which are some of the families?
A. The first are Cancerides, or crabs, properly so
called. They have the shell in general without spines,
ten feet, and the front pair formed into pincers.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar about the feet of
those animals?
A. They have the power of reproducing them when
broken off, and some, when caught by a leg, give them-
selves a violent jirk, shake off the leg, and escape.
Q. Which are some of the useful ones?
A. Of the genus podopthalamus, or those that have
the eyes upon footstalks is so long, that they appear
like horns, Manas is a species very much eaten by
the poorer people.
Q. What are its habits?
A. It is found on most rocky shores, under sea-sand
and stones; it is green, mottled with black, has only
one tooth on the hands and a spine on the wrist.
Q. Is there not a very beautiful species of that
genus ?
A. Yes. Puber, which has the shell covered with
down, the claws beautifully mottled with blue and
CRUSTACEA.
9
black, and the eyes striped with scarlet and blue; its
swimming feet are very broad.
Q. Is it found in the British seas?
A. Yes, on the rocky shores, on the south-west of
England.
Q. Is there any other beautiful one of the genus?
A. Yes. Marmoreus, the marbled crab, which is
found in the same places as the other, and is beauti-
fully mottled red and white.
Q. Any other worthy of notice?
A. Yes. Depurator, which the sailors call the
flying crab, and suppose that it destroys oysters, by
putting its flat foot into the shell when opened; but
neither that nor the flying is true.
Q. Which is the most valuable genus ?
A. Cancer, of which cancer pagurus, the common
crab, is the most valuable species.
Q. What are some of the characters?
A. The shell is narrow behind; the hands are very
large, and longer in the male than in the female; there
are nine folds or plaits on each margin of the shell;
and the tips of the hands are black.
Q. When is it in season?
A. Twice in the year, from Christmas to Easter,
and in harvest.
Q. What are its habits?
A. It is exceedingly voracious, and feeds on all
manner of garbage, and probably on star-fish, and
other radiata. In the summer months it frequents the
rocky shores, where the water is of considerable depth;
but in winter it is not so frequently to be met with.
Q. What becomes of it then?
A. It is understood to bury itself in the sand; and
10
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
many are dug up on sandy shores adjoining rocky
ones; but whether they all bury themselves in that
manner is not known.
Q. What is the means of catching them?
A. There are various ways. In the regular fishery,
wicker baskets are used, constructed like a large
mouse-trap, and baited with the refuse of fish or any
other garbage; and sometimes strong nets baited in
the same manner. They are also taken with a hook
at the end of a pole, and sometimes with the hand,
but in the latter case the large claws or hands must be
avoided, as these pinch very severely.
Q. What are the places where crabs are chiefly
found?
A. They are largest and best in the north sea, on
the shores of Norway; the Orkney and Shetland isles,
and the rocky parts of the east coast of Britain, as far
south as the entrance of the Humber.
Q. Is there any part of their habits that renders
them more easily captured?
A. The male and female remain in the same hole
at low water; and if the males be all taken out at one
tide, others are certain to be found at the next, so that
two a day may be had from a hole of this kind for
some weeks.
Q. Is there not a genus remarkable for the rapidity
of its motions?
A. Yes, the genus Ocypode (nimble foot). They
are chiefly found in warm latitudes where they swarm
in muddy places. Their hands and feet are horny,
they burrow in the mud, and run with so much velo-
city that there is no catching them, unless their holes
are previously stopped.
CRUSTACEA.
11
Q. Is there not a species that lives on land?
A. There are several species in the West India
islands that make annual journeys from the mountains
to the sea and back again, keeping some sort of order
in their march, moving during the night, and hiding
themselves during the day; but their characters and
habits want examination.
Q. For what purpose do they visit the sea?
A. To deposit their eggs or spawn, it is supposed.
Q. And for what purpose do they visit the land?
A. That has not been ascertained.
Q. To what size do they grow?
A. The largest about six inches long in its shell,
Q. Are they eatable?
A. The light coloured ones are eaten; but the
black are said to be poisonous.
Q. Are not there some crabs that inhabit the shells
of other animals ?
A. Yes, the genus pinnatheres, and especially the
genus pagurus (not cancer pagurus), the members of
which are called soldier crabs, or hermit crabs, take
possession of the empty shells of mollusca, and shift
from shell to shell as they increase in size, and their
old dwelling gets too small for them. Humorous stories
are told about their running along on a beach where
there were empty shells till they found one that fitted.
Q. Are not there some crabs that are remarkable
for their uncouth appearance?
A. Yes, some species of the genus maia are re-
markable for their spiny shells, and hence have got
the specific name of horrida. Another species of the
same genus is, from its form, called the spider crab, or
12
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
harpy crab. The oyster dredgers dislike it very
much, and suppose that it is destructive of the oyster
beds.
Q. Which are the most remarkable animals of this
class with the tails longer than the bodies?
A. Those which are of most value as food, are the
different sorts of lobsters, cray-fish, prawns, and
shrimps.
Q. What are the lobsters?
A. There are several species that get the name of
lobsters, but those best known are the common lob-
ster, or sea lobster, astacus gammarus, and the river
lobster, or common cray-fish, astacus fluviatilis.
Q. Where does the sea lobster inhabit ?
A. It is found on the rocky shores of the east and
north of Britain, but is much more abundant on those
of Norway, from whence the London market is chiefly
supplied. Its favourite haunts is in clear deep water,
where the rocks overhang.
Q. Is it a prolific animal?
A. Remarkably so; more than twelve thousand
eggs have been found under the abdomen of one
female.
Q. Are they active?
A. Very much so in the warm weather, and when
alarmed they start backwards a great way to their
holes.
Q. What is their food?
A. They are very voracious, and eat all sort of
dead bodies, garbage, and probably sea weed.
Q. Where does the cray-fish inhabit?
A. European rivers, especially such as have a clayey
CRUSTACEA.
13
bottom
It makes holes in the banks for its retreat, in
which it continues for the most part during the day,
and comes abroad in the night to feed, which it does
both upon animal and vegetable matter. There is a
Norwegian species found in the sea, of which, when
alive, the flesh is red.
Cray-fish boil red as well as lobsters, but as their
natural colour is paler so is their colour after they are
boiled.
Q. What is the prawn?
A. Palomon squilla, of which there are several
varieties, the largest about five inches in length.
Q. Where are they found?
A. On the shallow shores of the ocean, or in pools
left by the tide. They are most abundant in the
latter, and are easily caught by a small hoop-net.
Q. What colour are they when alive?
A. Ash colour, beautifully banded with brown, but
they boil to a fine red.
Q. How do prawns differ from shrimps?
A. In general they are larger, and they have both
a finger and thumb to the hands, while the shrimp has
only a moveable thumb.
Q. What is the name of the shrimp?
A. Crangon vulgaris. It is found in the shallow
water on most sea-coasts in Europe.
Q. What is its colour when alive?
A. Ash colour nearly transparent, finely mottled
with brown. It boils to a sort of salmon colour.
Q. Is not there an animal resembling a shrimp in
which the female has a sort of pouch for carrying her
young?
C
14
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Yes, the genus procenus, which is found nearly
in the same places, and has much the same appearance
as the shrimp, only it wants the moveable thumb on
the hands.
Q. Is not there a race of crustacea called sand-hop-
pers, that are very numerous on the sea beeches?
A. Yes, the family of gammarini, which are ex-
ceedingly numerous, so that when one walks along
the sand just about the line of high-water-mark when
the tide has retreated a little, the whole place seems
alive with them.
Q. What appears to be their use in the economy
of nature?
A. They consume almost instantly those putrid
substances which the sea leaves behind at every tide,
and which are without the reach of the other crus-
tacea.
Q. Are there several genera of them?
A. Yes; the genus talitrus includes the sand-hop-
pers properly so called, and gammus, the rather
smaller animal, some species of which are found only
in fresh water and some only in salt. They are vul-
garly called sea fleas and sea locusts.
The shrimps that make their appearance in impure
water, when not the larvæ of insects, usually belong
to this family, and resort there to perform that sca-
venger's duty which man has neglected.
Q. Have the gammarini the eyes on peduncles like
the crabs and lobsters?
A. No, they have them close to the head.
Q. Are any of these small crustacea destructive?
A. Yes, limnoria terebrans, a small species that in-
ARACHNIDES.
15
habits the British ocean is very destructive to timber,
and the millipede, or carpenter, which is very com-
mon in rotten wood and old walls, helps the destruc-
tion of both.
Q Has not the last been celebrated in medicine?
A. Yes it has, without deserving it.
PART II.-ARACHNIDES.
Q. What is the meaning of Arachnides ?*
A. Animals which resemble spiders, including in
the class the spiders themselves.
Q. What are the internal or anatomical characters
of those animals?
A. They have no vertebræ, have the heart single,
breathe by lungs or air-pipes, and have muscles for
moving the feet.
Q. What are the external characters?
A. The feet are jointed, generally eight, but some-
times six; the external openings of the trachea or
wind-pipe visible; no wings, and rarely any other
change than that of casting the skin.
Q What is the arrangement of this class of ani-
mals?
A. They may be divided into two sub-classes-those
that have the mouth in front of the head, and those
that have it on the back.
Q Are there any of them that have the mouth in
the back?
A. There are; they are very minute and singularly
* Arachnides, from the Greek Açaxm, a spider, and dos,
resemblance, resembling spiders.
C 2
16
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
formed animals. Pythridium Hermanni is a specimen.
It has six legs, with two strong claws to each, acting
against a spoon-shaped process. It is found on the
bodies of the horse-shoe bats.
Q. What are the divisions of those that have the
mouth in front of the head?
A. They are divided into four orders:
1. Podosomata, the body apparently formed of the
thighs.
2. Polymerosomata, the body made up of many joints.
3. Duomerosomata, the body made up of two joints.
4. Monomerosomata, the body composed of a single
segment.
ORDER. I.
Q. What are the characters of the first order?
A. The body is four jointed, as if made up of the
thighs of the eight legs; there are four eyes; the
mouth is a sucker; and the female has apparatus for
carrying her eggs.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A. They all inhabit the sea, and are generally call-
ed sea-spiders. They have a strong claw at the end
of each leg, and some of them seem almost entirely
made up of legs.
Q. Which is one of the species ?
A. Nymphum gracile, which inhabits the north sea,
has forceps on its mandibles, and is supposed to perfo
rate the shells of mussels and suck their juices.
ORDER II.
Q. What are the characters of the second order?
ARACHNIDES.
17
A. The body is composed of a number of segments:
there are eight legs; the mouth is furnished with both
mandibles and maxillæ, and the eyes are two, four,
six or eight.
Q. Which are the most remarkable genera of this
order?
A. Scorpio and tarantula.
Q. What are the characters of scorpio?
A. Scorpio, the scorpion, is a singularly formed
animal, and in some of the warm parts of the world,
rather a formidable animal.
Q. What is the form ?
A. The body is cylindric, the thorax one ring, the
abdomen many, and the tail long, jointed, and ending
in a double scale; toothed, called the pecten, and
armed with a crooked poisoned sting. There are four
eyes, and eight legs, besides the front pair, which are
antennæ, and much larger than the others, and armed
with pincers.
Q. What is the colour?
A. Dull brown, with the tail inclining to yellow.
Q. What is the size?
A. In Europe, (and it is found only in the very
warmest parts,) it seldom is more than an inch in
length, exclusive of the tail, but in warm countries it
is sometimes five inches.
Q. Is the sting of the scorpion painful?
A. All venomous bites and stings are painful: but
that of the scorpion is not fatal to a healthy human
being in any country, though in the very warm coun-
tries it is said to be capable of killing a dog.
C 3
18
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Does the scorpion use its sting as a weapon of
defence?
A. It does. When an enemy appears, it bends for-
ward the tail till the point be farther in advance than
the head, and stands ready to strike with the sting.
Q. In what places do they live?
A. Under stones, and among rubbish; they are soli-
tary, and seldom come abroad till the evening, when
they catch insects with their pincers. They sometimes
find their way into houses, and even into beds.
Q. Are there any other animals that have some re-
semblance to scorpions?
A. Yes. Sico, Abiscum and Clilifer, have pincers,
and the same number of legs as the scorpion, but they
are without tails or stings.
Q. Are they found in Britain?
A. They are, but they are not very common. The
first is found among moss, the second under stones,
and the third below the bark of trees.
Q. Is the tarantula, which belongs to this order,
that of which the bite is said to be cured by music?
A. No; that tarantula is a spider. The tarantulidæ
with many joints are all natives of warm countries, and
none of them have stings or poison.
ORDER III.
Q. What are the characters of the third order?
A. The animals belonging to it have the body made
up of two segments, with the abdomen attached by a
slender peduncle; they have eight legs, six or eight
ARACHNIDES.
19
eyes, and the mouth furnished with mandibles and
maxillæ.
Q. What are the principal animals in that order?
A. The most interesting, and indeed the most curi-
ous of all the small animals, are the araneideæ, or spi-
ders, properly so called.
Q. Are not they very destructive creatures?
A. They consume a vast number of insects, and
their doing so is of very great advantage in the eco-
nomy of nature?
Q. Of what advantage is it?
A. The time when the spiders make their appear-
ance in the greatest numbers, is towards the autumn,
just before the flies deposit their eggs, ere they perish
for the season; and were it not for the numbers that
the spiders destroy before that operation is accom-
plished, every spring would bring a plague of flies that
would be absolutely intolerable.
Q. Would the houses be filled with them?
A. In that way they would be annoying enough:
but the more destructive flies, that deposit their eggs
on vegetables, would be far worse, and but for the
labours of the spiders there would neither be leaves
nor fruit.
Q. Do not some of the insects retaliate upon the
spider?
A. They do, the spher* especially, which impales
vast numbers of them as food for its young.
Q. What are the general characters of spiders?
A. The abdomen is generally large in proportion to
* See Catechism of Entomology.
20
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
the size of the animal, and it is united by a slender
peduncle. The other part of the body is sepile.
There are eight legs, generally armed with strong
toothed claws, one of which acts against a thumb, and
the two can be used either as a hand, or as scissors,
with which to cut the threads of the web when that is
necessary.
Q. How many eyes have they?
A. They have eight eyes, disposed in different
ways.
Q. That must enable them to see very well?
A. Not so well, as from the number one would
suppose; for the eyes are not moveable, and each of
them consists only of a single lens, so that for all their
eight eyes, they are rather deficient in power of
vision.
Q. Then what is the sense on which they chiefly
depend?
A. On the sense of touch, which is so delicate, that
while a spider hangs motionless in the centre of its
web, or even concealed in the nest which it sometimes
constructs for itself, it can not only feel when any
object touches only a thread of its web, but feel whe-
ther that object be dead or living, and whether it is to
be taken as a prize, or captured as an enemy.
Q. How is that ascertained?
A. Any one that pleases to observe, may see it, and
there is no spider better for the purpose, than the
large and beautiful spider (epeira diadema) which is
so common in gardens in the latter part of the season.
Q. What may be observed of that?
A. The spider generally reposes either on the mid-
ARACHNIDES.
21
dle of the web, where there is a thicker place for the
purpose, and threads from all parts of the web, or it
reposes on a leaf entirely out of sight.
Q. Well?
A. If a fly alights, the vibrations that it makes in its
attempts to escape, soon brings the spider, and the fly
is instantly shrouded in a mass of web, so that it may
be eaten at leisure.
Q. If a bit of leaf is brought on the web?
A. The spider comes, and, with no little skill, de-
taches it, so that it may not be again entangled in
pulling; and when the web is cleared, the spider
takes a rest, and then returns to repair the damage.
Q. And if another spider is put on the web?
A. That is another matter, and demands some con-
sideration. By trying the principal lines of the web
with its feet, the spider soon finds out the strength of
the visitant. If weaker, it hastens to make prize; and
if stronger, it makes its escape, or sometimes divides
one of the main-stays of the web, and drops web and
enemy to the ground.
Q. What is the usual means of escape?
A. Dropping down by a thread, which is spun in
the fall.
Q. What are the weapons of a spider?
A. They are a pair of claws or forceps, the last
joint of each of which is moveable, hooked, and very
sharp.
Q. Is not the bite of a spider venomous ?
A. There does not appear to be any thing venom-
ous about spiders. Some of their cutting claws have
a groove; but it is not connected with any poison
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
apparatus, being a mere mark in the claw. The bodies
are not poisonous, for many animals eat them with
great avidity; and the web is so free from being poi-
sonous, that it has been used in medicine, and is far
from the worst application to stop bleeding, and heal
a wound by the first intuition.
Q. Then a spider can do no harm?
A. No very serious harm, certainly, although its
biting apparatus are admirably constructed for their
size.
Q. Then what is the grand weapon of the spider?
A. The web, unquestionably. When away from
that, the spinning spider is a very helpless and timid
animal.
Q. How is the web produced?
A. From a spinner at the hinder part of the abdo-
men, which consists in general of fine little protuber-
ances or nipples. The animal presses these against
any substance, and draws out the thread either by
receding from the place, or by its legs.
Q. Are there as many threads as nipples?
A. There are a great many more.
A round thread
can be spun of various strengths, and when that is ne-
cessary, the thread can be drawn out broad like a rib-
bon. The first form is used in constructing the web
and providing for the safety of the animal; the second
in shrouding up the prey.
Q. Then they do not secure their prey by biting?
A. Many of them wrap it in a mass of web, more
especially if it be strong, as a wasp, a blue fly, or ano-
ther spider.
Q. How do they accomplish that ?
ARACHNIDES.
23
A. They first bind it round the wings, if winged,
then fasten a strong thread to it, push it clear of the
web, twirl it rapidly round with two of the feet, while
the other two dart the ribbon of web, first to the one
end of it, and then to the other, until the diagonal
layers form a complete case.
Q. And does that take a long time?
A. Not more than a minute; and the operation
is as neat as that of the patent machine for wind-
ing balls of cotton. The motions of the legs that re-
gulate the thread are so rapid, that unless carefully
watched, they cannot be seen.
Q. Do not some spiders sail on their webs in the
air?
A. They do; and though observers are not agreed,
it is possible that they draw out the threads for that
purpose in the same manner as they do those for
shrouding their prey.
Q. How do they contrive to extend their lines from
tree to tree?
A. It is not very easy to say. Sight cannot help them
much. The best way is to examine them, which any-
body may do.
Q. Could not the webs of spiders be used as
silk ?
A. None of the European species could be used,
though some of the larger ones in the warm countries
are said to afford a coarse-spun silk; but spiders could
not any where be cultivated like silk-worms, as the
large ones would instantly eat up the small.
Q. Are there many species of spiders?
A. There are many genera, and even a considerable
24
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
TRÁNKAATANJA
number of tribes, some of them with the feet adapted
for leaping, and some not.
Q. Which is the largest that is known?
A. The bird-spider of South America, mygale avicu-
laria.
Q. What are its dimensions?
A. The body is said to be sometimes as large as the
egg of a goose.
Q. What is its appearance ?
A. The body is covered with long and thick black
hair, the feet are broad and heavy.
Q. What are its habits?
A They are not very accurately known; but it is
said to snare birds as well as insects.
Q. Is that likely?
A. It is not at all unlikely, as some of the humming
birds in the same country are small enough for being
taken in a common garden spider's web.
Q. Which is supposed to be the most formidable of
the European species ?
A. Lycosa tarentula, which is supposed to have a
stupifying bite, from the effects of which the suffer-
ers recover when certain tunes are played.
Q. And is that not true?
A. At all events it is not very likely; and the poi-
soning apparatus, even in the large foreign species,
have not been observed.
Q. What is the appearance of the tarentula?
A. It is a brownish grey spider, found only in the
warmer parts of Europe.
Q. Which are some of those that can be most
easily observed in Britain ?
ARACHNIDES.
25
A. The field-spider, the house-spider, and the gar-
den-spider,
Q. Is there only one in each of those situations?
A. There are many; but those that have got these
names are the most common.
Q. Which is the field-spider ?
A. Aranea labyrinthica. It is reddish grey on the
body, with a black line on each side; the abdomen
black, with oblique white lines that meet at obtuse
angles in front.
Q. Where does it form its web?
A. On the ground; and it constructs a funnel-
shaped cavity for itself, which often reaches below the
surface.
Q. What is its prey?
A. Chiefly two-winged insects.
Q. What is the house-spider?
A. Another species of the same genus, aranea do-
mestica. It is livid grey, and the male wants the
black line on the thorax. The abdomen is not so
black, and wants the white lines.
Q. Where does it construct its web?
A. Generally in the corners of neglected apart-
ments. They are of a closer texture than those of
the former. It makes a cell for itself, and unites that
cell with the web by a bridge, which answers the
double purpose of announcing that there is a fly in the
web, and facilitating the progress to it.
Q. Do those spiders roll up their prey in the way
that you have mentioned?
A. No; their webs, which are nearly horizontal,
are not very well adapted for that purpose; so they
D
26
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
總
​either carry their prey to the cell, or eat it where it is
caught.
Q. What is the garden-spider?
A. Epeira diadema. It is reddish, often of large
size, and rather handsome. It is one of the most
amusing of the class, and one of the most easily ob-
served.
Q. Are there any spiders in fresh water?
A. There are. Argyroneta aquatica is one of them.
It is plushy brown, with the abdomen black and
velvety.
Q. Does it form a web under water?
A. It forms a nest, and contrives to fill it with air;
so that when the sun shines on it, it is very bril-
liant.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. It is met with in slow-flowing streams on the
continent; but in England it is exceedingly rare.
Q. Are there many spiders that catch their prey
without webs?
A. There are several, chiefly long-legged and com-
paratively small-bodied ones, that run very swiftly
among grass and stones.
Q. To what age do spiders live?
A. That is not exactly known.
Q. How are they produced?
A. Invariably from eggs, without any transforma-
tion; but in some of the species the female carries her
eggs about with her in a bag, and fights stoutly if an
attempt be made to deprive her of them.
Q. Do they begin to spin at an early stage of their
lives?
ARACHNIDES,
ST
ar za vas my rigganyat de
A. Yes; when the crust in which a nest of them
are hatched is broken, and they are so small as hardly
to be visible to the naked eye, the little things spin
threads that are absolutely invisible, and discovered
only by arresting their fall.
ORDER IV.
Q. What are the characters of the fourth order?
A. The animals belonging to it have the body
formed of a single piece or segment; the legs are
sometimes eight, and sometimes six; and the mouth
is sometimes a rostrum for sucking, and sometimes it
has mandibles and maxillæ.
Q. What is the general character of the animals of
this order?
A. Their characters are various; but in general
they are small animals; many of them are parasitical
on beetles and other insects.
Q. Which is one of the families?
A. The acaridea, or mites, one of which is well
known as the common mite that inhabits cheese,
flour, and other substances that have been long kept.
Other tribes attach themselves to the bodies of ani-
mals, and some are found in sores.
Q. Whether does the animal occasion the sore, or
the sore the animal ?
A. Neither of them originally produces the other.
The animal cannot be produced without an egg, small
though that egg be; and as it does not appear without
the sore, the sore must be there to hatch it.
D 2
28
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Are there not some very beautiful animals that
belong to this class?
A. Yes; one of the hydrachnedea is extremely beau-
tiful.
Q. Where is it found?
A. In gently-flowing streams, and is by no means
uncommon in some parts of Britain.
Q. What is it like?
A. Its body is globular, its mouth elongated into a
conical sucker, and its legs, of which there are eight
at equal distances, beautifully feathered with hairs.
Its colour is black, marked with streaks and spots of a
a very brilliant red, and most elegantly arrayed.
Q. Are those that have been mentioned the whole
of the arachnides ?
A. Not nearly. The numbers are so many, the
forms and colours are often so fine, and the habits
so singular, that these little creatures form one of the
most interesting departments in the empire of na-
ture.
PART III.
MYRIAPODA.
Q. From what are the myriapoda named?
A. As the name imports, from the great number of
feet.
Q. What is their internal structure?
A. They have a nervous ganglion in each ring, or
segment of the body; and these are united by a con-
tinuous bundle of nerves, which cannot, however, be
considered as a spinal cord.
MYRIAPODA.
29
Q. What are their external characters?
A. They have the head distinct from the body, and
furnished with two antennæ; they have simple man-
dibles, fitted for cutting; the segments of the body
have generally either two or four legs attached to
each.
Q. What is their general appearance ?
A. Their bodies are in general long in proportion
to their diameter; they are either cylindrical or com-
pressed; they are remarkable for their great number
of feet, and some of them terminate posteriorly in a
kind of forceps. Their history is, however, a little
obscure.
Q How are they divided?
A. They may be divided into two orders, each three
families.
Q. What are there in the first?
A. They are-
1. Glomeridea, with the eyes distinct, and the body
capable of being contracted into a ball.
2. Julidea, with the eyes distinct, but the body not
contractible into a ball.
with orange.
3. Polydermideæ, with the eyes obsolete.
Q. Mention a specimen of the first family.
A. Glomeris marginata, with the body a lengthened
oval, convex above, arched below, with sixteen pairs
of legs. Colour black, but the segments margined
Q. Where is it found?
A. Under stones, in France, Germany, and Britain,
but its habits are little known.
D 5
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Mention a specimen of the second family?
A. Julus sabulosus, with an immense number of
legs. Ash coloured and black, with two reddish lines
down the back; found under stones.
Q. Mention one of the third family?
A. Polydesmus complanatus. Body linear, segments
compressed; four legs in each; legs very many; eyes
not visible; found under stones.
Q. Which are the families of the second order?
A. There are three of them-
1. Carmatidea, with each of the segments having four
legs.
2. Scolopendridea, with each segment bearing two
legs; and the last pair longer than the others.
3. Geophilideæ, with each segment bearing two legs;
the legs very many, and the last pair not longer than
the others.
Q. Are any of the first family found in Europe?
A. No. Those that are known are natives of
Africa, where they are found in houses.
Q. Are any of the second family natives of Europe?
A. Two, at least; one of them in gardens in the
south of England. The scolopendra, properly so
called, are larger, and natives of warmer climates; but
their history is very obscure.
Q Any of the third family?
A. Yes. There is a yellow and scarlet one, found
in fruits in the south of England, and two others, found
in the earth, and under stones. Some of the species
are phosphorescent, and not only give out light, but
leave trains of light behind them.
VERMES.
31
Q. Of what use are the Myriopoda, in the economy
of nature?
A. Their habits have been so little studied, and are
in themselves so obscu e, that it is impossible to say.
The whole class form a department yet to be studied,
as neither their food, their mode of production, nor
their duration is known.
Q. If their history is so obscure, may they not be-
long to the class of insects or to that of reptiles?
A. No, they do not undergo those transforma-
tions that are characteristic of insects, and the total
absence of any thing that can be considered as a back-
bone, prevents them from being classed with reptiles.
They have a common and very peculiar character,
though that character has not been much studied.
Q. What may be the probable causes why their
history has been less attended to than that of the
other classes of animals?
A. One cause has no doubt been the classification
of them with the wingless insects; and others are
found in their retired habits?
Q. Are they a harmless race of creatures?
A. There is no reason to suppose that any of them
does the smallest injury to man, or to any of his
possessions.
Q. Are they of any use?
A. The uses of them are just as little known; some
of them have been used in medicine; but as many
substances which are not of the least benefit have been
employed in that art, it is probable that they had only
the merit of being harmless.
Q. Have they been used as food?
32
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Not by man, but as some animals eat them, they
might probably be used.
PART IV.-VERMES.
Q. What is meant by vermes?
A. The literal meaning of the name is worms;
but as that, in the popular sense, is rather a vague
term, the name is properly restricted to those annular
animals that have no distinct head, no antennæ, and
no legs of any description whatever.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A. Some of them inhabit the fresh waters, others
the sea; some inhabit damp places, and others live
entirely under the earth. They are a singular race of
animals, and their habits and classification are but
little understood.
Q. What are their means, or organs of motion,
seeing they have no legs?
A. Those necessarily vary a good deal with the
structure of the animal. Those that live in the water
make their way by swimming, which they accomplish
generally by throwing their bodies into curves, not
very unlike those of an eel. They can also make their
way by means of suckers, either along rocks and other
solid substances in the water, or along the land. Those
that inhabit the land, make their way partly by a
slimy fluid, by means of which they attach themselves,
and partly by means of little spines with which their
bodies are beset.
Q. What are the principal divisions of these ani-
mals?
VERMES.
33
A. They may be divided into two orders; those in
which the organs of respiration are concealed, and
those in which they are external or apparent.
Q. Are there many species in each of these?
A. There are a good many, but most of them are
imperfectly known, and therefore confused.
Q. What are the principal subdivisions of those that
have the organs of respiration concealed, or internal?
A. They are four ?
1. Those in which the body is rounded, and beset with
little spines.
2. Those in which the body is rounded or flattened,
and furnished with a sucker at each extremity.
3. Those in which the body is flat, naked and smooth,
and without any sucker.
4. Those which have the body flattened, and with
little bristles on the sides.
Q. Which is one of the first division?
A. Lumbricus, the common earth-worm, or dew.
worm.
Q. What are its characters ?
A. Its structure, internally, is very simple, consist-
ing of a single straight canal; it breathes by the extre-
mity, and performs its motion by the joint action
of the muscles of its rings, and the little spines or
bristles with which it is beset.
Q. Has it any organs of sensation ?
A. It has sensation, but the organs have not been
found, neither can we compare the sensation that it
has with the senses of the more perfect animals,´ It
has no eyes, and therefore we cannot attribute sight
to it, as little can we find a locality for smell, and
34
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
yet the creature seems to have very adequate means
of knowing what is going on, in so far as its own ex-
istence and comfort are concerned.
Q From what do we infer that?
A. We do not need to infer it, we see it. If it
were to come abroad in the hot sun, it would be
shrivelled and dried, so that it could not move but
with difficulty, and it would besides be exposed to
birds and other enemies, therefore it comes to the
surface chiefly during the night.
Q. But earth-worms are often found on the surface
in damp weather, or after a shower, whether it be
day or night?
A. They necessarily change their habitation with
the changes of moisture in the earth. Where the
ground is very dry and hard they cannot make their
way, and where it is full of water they cannot breathe
freely. In dry weather, therefore, they follow the
moisture in their subterraneous journeys, and when
rain comes they are found to make their escape by
the surface.
Q. Is there any other means of bringing them to
the surface?
A. Beating over the surface where they are, so as
to shake the ground, sends them upward.
Q. How is that explained?
A. The greatest enemy. that they have below
ground is the mole, and the agitation that is produced
by any motion on the surface has the same effect as
if the mole were mining in their neighbourhood.
Q Are any of the other animals aware of that
being the case?
VERMES.
35
A. When cattle go to a wet part of a meadow the
birds that feed upon earth-worms are in the habit of
resorting to the place, and alighting and pecking
about among the cattle much more than they do when
the cattle are on a dry place.
Q. What is the food of the earth-worm?
A. It is understood to eat the small fibres of roots
and also the cotyledon leaves of plants, and it comes
abroad regularly to graze during the night.
Q. Do they evince any degree of strength?
A. Very considerable. Their mere motion in the
earth, which is comparatively rapid, and the hold
which they take with their little spines, which when
they are partially in the ground is so great that they
can be pulled asunder more easily than pulled out,
shew that they have considerable muscular power.
The portion of their bodies too, which they can raise
entirely from the ground, the rapidity with which they
can twist them about, or lengthen and shorten them
at pleasure, are also proofs of the same.
Q. Have we any instances of their being able to
move substances?
A. We may often find leaves, rags, and bits of
sticks, which far exceed themselves in weight, drawn
into their holes, till even very stiff leaves be twisted
together, or a long piece of the stick stands upright.
The substances which they thus draw partially into
their holes often require a considerable pull to draw
them out again.
Q. Are they of any use?
A. They disfigure the surface of lawns and walks,
but it is probable that the perforations and burrow-
36
CATECHISM OF 20OLOGY.
ings which they make, admit manure to the roots of
plants which would otherwise run off the surface and
be lost. They are also the principal food of moles,
hedgehogs, and many birds, and the numbers of them
that are carried into the brooks and streams by every
shower and flood, contribute greatly to the support
of fish.
Q. How do they pass the winter?
A. As the cold increases they plunge deeper and
deeper into the earth, and probably remain torpid,
but when the weather becomes warm they are easily
roused again.
Q. How are they produced?
A. From eggs which are laid in the ground, and
every individual is both male and female.
Q. Have worms both ends the same, as they have no
regular head?
A. No. The mouth end is much more active than
the tail. It can turn more easily in different direc-
tions, and it can push out in length by contracting its
diameter, which the tail cannot so easily do. The
tail is also a little flattened.
Q. But they can move tail foremost?
A. They can, though not with so much ease in the
direction of the tail, and they cannot sink into the
ground tail foremost unless there be a hole previously
made.
Q. Are there many species of them?
A The species are not easily ascertained, as dif-
ference of pasture produces great changes in their ap-
pearance. Large red worms, taken from rich loam
and put into moss will diminish greatly in size and
VERMES.
37
become much firmer, and if they be kept in a place
inclining to marsh, they become of a yellowish and
greenish colour.
Q. Are there any aquatic worms analogous to the
dew-worm in their habits and general structure?
A. There is one; but the shape is conical, from the
slenderness of the head, and it has two little hooks on
the neck, probably to prevent it from being rolled
about by the action of the water in the shallow places
where it is found.
Q. What is the common name of those that have
suckers?
A. They are generally called leeches, and most, if
not all of them, suck the blood of animals.
Q. Where are they found?
A. They are lovers of moisture. Some are found
in the sea; others in fresh water, chiefly where it is
stagnant, and when the rains set in, the land in some
of the tropical countries is perfectly infested with
them.
Q. What are the characters of the sea leeches ?
A. Many of them, especially in the warm latitudes,
have not been observed, the one that is best known
is pontabdella spinulosa, which is often taken out of
the sea adhering to the bodies of skate, for which
reason the fishermen call it the "scate-sucker."
Q. What is its appearance?
A. The body is cylindrical, and contracted toward
both extremities, more especially toward the head;
and it is but slightly contractile. It is surrounded by
a number of prominent narrow hoops; and in the in-
E
38
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
tervals between them, there are spines which range
in regular rows in the length of the animals.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar about it?
A. Only that when bruised it discharges a dark
liquor which stains a very beautiful purple; and might
probably, if the proper attention were bestowed on it,
be valuable in a dye.
Q. Why should that be supposed?
A. The only fine red and purple dyes that have
been obtained either in ancient or in modern times,
have come from small animals.
Q. Which are the fresh water leeches ?
A. The horseleech is most common in this country,
but the one that is most celebrated, or at least most
valuable, is the bleeding leech.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. In slow running rivers and lakes, more abun-
dantly perhaps in the lakes of Sweden than in those
of any other country.
Q. What are its colours and size?
A. The colour is mottled, black, brown, and ash
colour; but the size is not easily stated, as the animal
can make itself of all shapes from a round ball to a
slender thread. When it is in what we may consider
a state of repose, it may be about two inches in
length.
Q. Has it a sucker at each extremity?
A. It has an adhesive sucker at each extremity, but
it sucks only with the mouth, and is understood to
have no perforation the other way.
Q. How does it suck?
A. It adheres firmly by the sucker of the mouth,
VERMES.
39
and makes a triangular perforation; but the manner
in which it sucks is not so easily explained.
Q. Is not its action like that of a pump?
A. Its effect is something the same, and its action
is said to be the same also, but that cannot very well
be the case.
Q. Why not?
A. The action of a pump is by sucking out air,
which is discharged into the atmosphere, and thus a
vacuum is produced; but while a leech is adhering by
the mouth we know of no part of its body by which
air could escape.
Q. How does it act then?
A. Probably wholly by its muscles. It enlarges the
cavity of its body, and by that means produces the
vacuum.
Q. And does it act against a considerable pressure
in that way?
A. The pressure against which it distends itself
cannot be less than forty or fifty pounds' weight.
Q. Is its digestion rapid in proportion to the quan-
tity that it sucks?
A. By no means. The leech is one of the most ab-
stemious of animals; it can live for almost an indefi-
nite period without food, and when it does suck,
the blood will remain for months unaltered in at least
some of the cells of its stomach. That stomach con-
sists of twenty-four cells, and the back appears to have
the power of so completely excluding the atmospheric
air from those cells, that blood, which easily changes
and putrifies, can remain long in them without altera-
tion.
E 2
40
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. How are the functions of life carried on in the
leech?
A. Little is known about them, only that they must
be very slow. Its organs of respiration have not been
detected.
Q. But it does respire?
A. It must, for it cannot live without air.
Q. If it have no posterior opening, how is the waste
part of its body removed?
A. It seems to be by a gradual casting of the skin
in the form of little flakes.
Q. How are these found?
A. They are found in the water in which leeches
are kept, or if one be kept some time in oil, it will
cast an entire skin when put in water, which shews
also that it does not respire by the skin.
Q. You mentioned that there are some countries in
which leeches are an annoyance?
A. They are so in India, and especially in Ceylon.
When the rainy season sets in, the whole surface of
the moist ground swarms with them; they move with
great rapidity; can stretch themselves out as slender
as hairs, so that they can penetrate every where.
They literally cover the bare legs of the people; and
their bites are always painful, and often, under that
hot climate, dangerous.
Q. Are they poisonous ?
A. No. But the heat is so great, that they are apt
to fester, mortify, and cause death.
Q. Are there any instances of danger from the
bites of leeches in this country?
A. None from the natural bites even of the horse-
VERMES.
41
leech, which though in general one of the most abste-
mious of creatures, has become the very type of
insatiable rapacity; but there have been instances of
children being bled to death by the unskilful applica-
tion of leeches to their temples.
Q. How are leeches produced?
A. They are said to be produced alive, and only
one in the season; but that cannot be true of those
species that multiply so fast.
Q. Which is the specimen of the flattened ones
without suckers?
A. Planaria. They inhabit fresh water, have the
mouth at the extremity, and two openings on the
under side. They are very numerous, and distin-
guished by their eyes which are many, or four, or
three, or two, or one, or none, according to the species.
They are found in ditches and other stagnant fresh
waters; and have the same resemblance to the mol-
luscous slugs in their manners and motions, only they
want the shield on the back, the foot on the under
side, and have not the same anatomical structure.
Q. Which is a specimen of those that have bristles
at the sides?
A. Nais proboscidia, which is flattened, and some-
thing in the shape of a boat. It is about an inch long,
of a reddish colour, and partially transparent. The
mouth is prolonged like a thread, and it is found
hanging by that to the stems of aquatic plants in sandy
and muddy rivers.
Q. Is there any thing curious about the mode of its
production?
E 3
42
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. Yes, that is the most curious particular about it.
The last ring of the body, without any apparent cause,
enlarges, and is soon detached as a perfect animal; so
that the creature absolutely grows like a plant.
Q. What are the characters of those annulose worms
that have the organs of respiration apparent or ex-
ternal ?
A. They vary in their characters so far as they are
known, and the knowledge of them is not very per-
fect; but they admit of subdivision into two sections.
Q. How are those sections distinguished from each
other?
A. First, those that have the body free, and se-
condly those that have it enclosed in a tube.
Q. Can you mention any of the former kind?
A. The curious genus Nereis.
Q. Why do you say the "curious" genus?
A. Because the nereides are really very singular
animals. They are something in the shape of sco-
lopendra, and therefore they are sometimes called sea
centipedes; but they are in many instances so trans-
parent that they are not observed in the water, till
they be separated by a filter.
Q. There is nothing remarkable in that, there are
many other transparent animals in the sea?
A. But these animals are as easily seen at night, as
they are difficult to be seen during the day. In fa-
vourable states of the weather they appear on the
tops of the waves like sparks, and dart from the oars
of a boat like streams of fire.
Q. Have they all that property?
VERMES.
43
A. They probably have not; and at any rate their
history is but imperfectly known, but many of them
have it.
Q. What are they like?
A. They are long and slender, made up of a great
many rings, with fin-like processes at the sides, and
terminating in two bristles in the rear. Their mouths
are furnished with jaws, and also appendages that may
act as suckers, which last are various in the different
species. In colours, the same species are often per-
fect cameleons, being sometimes pearly, at others
green, again purple, and sometimes bronze colour, or
black.
Q. Are there any of the same section without
jaws?
A. There are, without jaws, and with distinct palpi.
Q. Are there many genera?
A. There are, and some of them are not very well
defined; they are rather lengthened, with a coat of
bristly appendages at the sides, covered with scales
and sometimes with hair. One of the latter, aphro-
dita aculeata, is common in the British seas. It is
oval, brown on the upper side, and reddish on the
under, and known to the fishermen by the name of
the "sea mouse."
Q. Are there any that have neither jaws nor palpi?
A. There are several, the lumbricus marinus, the
lob worm, or lug worm, which the fishermen dig up
with avidity, for bait, in many of the sandy and
muddy shores, and which the older naturalists con-
sidered as a species of the common earth-worm,
44
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
belongs to this genus, and there is no doubt but the
larger sand and mud worms, found within flood mark,
that are eaten by the people of some countries, also
belong to the same.
Q. And the worms that inhabit tubes?
A. Those tubes are either natural, or are con-
structed by the animal.
Q. What animal builds houses for itself in the sea?
A. Many animals can do that; but the one under
consideration, (trochilla lapidaria of Linnæus,) con-
structs them with apparently fewer tools than most
building animals, for it is a mere worm with only a
bunch of tentaculæ round the mouth, and yet it con-
trives to make for itself a very strong and convenient
moveable case, formed of sand and bits of shells; but
by what means or what cement it unites them together,
is not known.
Q. Of what seas is it an inhabitant?
A. Of the Mediterranean.
Q. Are there any analogous animals found in the
British seas?
A. There is a genus analogous in some respects,
and which has been sometimes confounded with this,
which is met with on the south coasts of Devonshire.
Q. What animal is that?
A. Amphitrita volutacienis, of which the tentaculas
have the appearance of plumes of feathers, or the
heads of some curious plant.
Q. Are these the whole of the names?
A. They are only one or two out of a great num-
ber; but even they shew that it is difficult to find out
CIRRHIPEDES.
45
whether more ingenuity is displayed in those parts of
nature that are the most complicated, or in those
that are the most simple.
PART V.-CIRRHIPEDES.
Q. What sort of animals are these?
A. They are annulose animals, in which the body is
covered with a shell of many valves or plates. From
their form they are denominated acorn shells, and
they were all included by Linnæus in a genus lepas,
which means shells that stick to a rock.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A. They are found only in the sea, and they always
adhere to some other substance, as a rock, the bot-
tom of a ship, floating wood, floating sea-weed, the
shells of animals, and in short, any thing that will
support them.
Q. And do they grow from a support like plants?
A. No, not like plants, for they strike no roots into
that upon which they grow, and draw no nourish-
ment from it.
Q. What is the meaning of cirrhipedes?
A. The literal meaning is " curled feet."
Q. And is that the character of the animals?
A. It is. The legs have a great number of appen-
dages, and are often beset with hairs or bristles,
Q. How many legs have they?
A. The general number is twelve; of which the
five pairs towards the front are much larger and more
beset with appendages, than the others.
Q. Have they any head?
46
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. They have no head distinct from the body :
and none of them have any organs that can be con-
sidered as eyes.
Q. Have they mouths?
A. They have; and these bear some resemblance to
the mouths of some of the insects.
Q. Of what parts does it consist?
A. Of an upper lip, an under lip, formed by the
union of the two external maxillæ, two mandibles,
and two maxillæ, the latter having fleshy palpi.
Q. Does any other part of their structure resem-
ble that of insects?
A. Their nervous system consists of a number of
ganglions united by cords, as is the case with insects.
Q. Then are they less complete in their formation
than insects ?
A. In some particulars they are less, and in others
they are more; their organs of sensation and motion
are less perfect, but they have a heart and circulating
system, which insects have not.
Q. Do they bear a resemblance to any other class
of animals ?
A. They resemble the mollusca in many particu-
lars.*
Q. Which are those particulars?
A. They are of both sexes in the same individual,
and they are produced from eggs.
Q. What are their organs of respiration?
A. A sort of gills attached to the bases of the
legs.
* See Catechism of Mollusca.
CIRRHIPEDES.
47
Q. On what do they subsist?
A. Nothing is known respecting their food.
Q. How are they divided ?
A. Into two orders, Campylosomata, and Acamp-
tosomata.
Q. What do those names mean?
A. The first means that the legs issue from a notch
in the anterior part of the body, and thus are bent
or erected to one side; and the other means that they
issue from the extremity of the body, without any flex-
ure to the other side.
ORDER I.-CAMPYLOSOMATA.
Q. What are the general characters of that order?
A. The base of the body is of a tendinous texture,
and admits of being bent; the upper part is covered
with plates of shell; and the legs pass out by a slit.
Q. Are there many genera?
A. Five are usually reckoned.
Q. What is the name, and what are the leading
characters of the first genus ?
A. A number of the genera were included in the
genus lepas of Linnæus; but the name given to the
first genus by more modern naturalists, is Otion.
Q. What are the characters?
A. The body is produced into a tendinous tube,
composed of two coats; the inner one having mus-
cular fibres, and containing cellular matter. The
upper part of the body is composed of three coats, the
external one covered with plates of shell. It adheres
to rocks, to the bottoms of ships, and to other sub-
stances.
Q. How many species have been discovered?
48
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
✔
A. Only one or two species are known, and but
few specimens of them have been seen.
Q. Where have they been met with?
A. On the bottoms of ships that have landed on the
southern coasts of England, after voyages of consi-
derable length, but of which seas they are natives has
not been satisfactorily ascertained; the probability is,
that it is a native of the warmer seas.
Q. Which is the second genus?
A. Cineras, named from its colour. It has been
met with very rarely, in nearly the same circumstances
as the former.
Q. Is there any thing particular about these genera?
A. There are tubes of very singular form attached
to the head, especially in the first genus, but the use
of them is not known.
Q. Which is the third genus ?
A. Pentalasmis, which imports that there are five
scales, or plates of shell, on that which is considered
as the head of the animal. In these the plates of shell
completely cover the upper part; the lower shells
nearly concealing the others, and giving the whole the
shape of an acorn, and sometimes nearly that of the
beak of a bird.
Q. Are the peduncles, or cartilaginous parts of the
bodies of these long?
A. They are very long in some of the species, and
very short in others.
Q. Is any common name given to them?
A. They are, in general, termed "barnacles," they
often adhere in great numbers to the bottoms of
ships that have been long at sea, and greatly impede
their progress through the water; they also often
CIRRHIPEDES.
49
adhere to pieces of timber and other floating sub-
stances.
Q. Have not some ridiculous stories been told of
them ?
A. Yes, it has been said that one of them, the lepas
anatifera of Linnæus, the shells of which are very like
the beak of a bird, changes to the gannet or solan
goose, but of course the story is much too absurd for
being believed by any person of sense.
Q. Have they no resemblance to those geese into
which they were supposed to be changed?
A. Not the least, they are flexible tubes, generally
of an irrisdescent or mother of pearl colour, with
shelly points.
Q. What is the fourth genus?
A. Scalpellum, which has thirteen shelly scales on the
body, the hinder one lancet-shaped, they are generally
small.
Q. Where are they found?
A. In the Mediterranean, and also in the British
seas, they generally adhere to corallines, and the cases
of marine worms.
Q. What is the fifth genus?
A. Pollicipes, which has the upper part of the body
with five large scales, and a number of smaller scales
under them. The peduncle, although flexible, is co-
vered with scales.
Q. Where are they found?
A. One species (cornucopia) is found in the north
sea, and sometimes met with on the bottoms of ships
returning from Norway. Other species are found in
the Atlantic.
F
50
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Order II.-ACAMPTOSOMATA.
Q. How does that order differ from the former ?
A. In being without a cartilaginous peduncle or
stalk; in having the whole body inclosed in shells of
a greater or smaller number of pieces, and in having
the legs protruding from the centre of the operculum,*
which closes the upper orifice.
Q. Are there any general divisions of the order?
A. There are two: those that have the operculum
fleshy, and those that have it of shell.
Q. Are there many genera?
A. Nine have been observed: three with the fleshy
operculum, and six with the shelly or testaceous one.
Q. Where are those with the fleshy operculum
found?
A. Chiefly upon the bodies of whales and turtles.
Q. Do they feed upon those animals ?
A. Nothing is known of their manner of feeding;
and it is probable that they adhere to the bodies of ani-
mals only for support.
Q. What is the first genus?
A. Tubicinella, which is a very singular-looking
creature, not unlike a small bottle packed in a basket.
Q. What part resembles the basket?
A. The outside shell, which is nearly cylindrical,
but rather narrowest at the base. It is marked with
rings, and also with upright bands.
Q. How is it closed at top?
A. With four plates of shell, which surround and
support the operculum; and the opening of that
* For an explanation of operculum, see Catechism of
Mollusca.
CIRRHIPEDES.
51
rising above the shell, is not unlike the mouth of a
bottle.
Q. What is the second genus?
A. Coronula, which has the shell much wider at the
base than at the top, and the operculum and shelly
notches bearing some imaginary resemblance to a
little coronet or crown, whence its name.
Q. Which is the third genus?
A. Chelonobia, which has the shell much flattened,
and the operculum defended by four large scales
equally formed.
Q. Where does it inhabit?
A. Both it and the former genus are found on
turtles.
Q. Which is the first genus with the shelly opercu-
lum?
A. Pyrgoma. It is found on the harder species of
coral, with the base of the shell partly imbedded in
the substance of the coral. It is not unlike a very
small limpet, having the opening covered by other
two minute shells.
Q. Are there many species?
A. There are two or three, found only in the warm
seas where corals are abundant.
Q. Which is the second genus?
A. Creusia, which has the shell divided into four
parts. The upper parts of the shells are formed into
ribs, and have spines upon them. The genus, which
consists of very small animals, is found upon corals.
Q. Which is the third genus?
A. Acasta. It is a singular minute animal. The
bottom part of the shell is a little cup, to which four
F 2
52
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
longer and two shorter scales of shell are attached,
pointed at top, covered with spines, and bearing some
resemblance to the petals of a flower.
Q. Where are they found?
A. Chiefly upon sponges.
Q. Is there any common character in those genera
with shelly operculi which you have mentioned ?
A. Yes, the bases of them have a definite form, in-
dependently of the substances to which they are
attached; whereas in the remaining genera, the base
always takes its form from the substance on which it
happens to grow.
Q. Are there many of those genera ?
A. Three are established. They are the balani, or
acorn-shells of the elder authors.
Q. Which is the first genus?
A. Balanus. The shell is compressed and much
furrowed. It consists of six parts; and both valves of
the operculum are divided in the middle.
Q. Which is the second genus?
A. Conir, in which there are only four divisions in
the shell, the surface of which is honeycombed.
Q. Which is the third genus ?
A. Clisia, which has the shell in four parts, and the
valves of the operculum undivided.
Q. Why are these called acorn-shells?
A. The outer part of the shell bears some resem-
blance to the capsule on the bottom of the acorn, and
the scales of the valves some resemblance to the
nut.
Q. Are those animals abundant?
A. They are, especially the genus clisia. They are
CIRRHIPEdes.
53
found upon most marine substances; on stones, on
sea-weed, on the shells of the mollusca, and the
crusts of the crustacea. They grow even above high
water-mark on rocks which are much wetted by the
spray.
Q. When you speak of the legs and feet of those
animals, you do not mean that they are organs of
motion?
A. Certainly not. Their use is not known; but
it is probable that by agitating the water and pro-
ducing currents, they entangle and bring to the
mouth of the animal the minute substances on which it
feeds.
Q. Do the cirrhipedes multiply fast?
A. They do with amazing rapidity, more so, per-
haps, than any other class of animals with which we
are acquainted.
Q. What is the form of their eggs?
A. The individual eggs are very minute, and formed
into spongy masses, which float easily on the water,
and as easily attach themselves to other substances.
Cases have been mentioned in which two generations
have been produced upon a feather before that begun
to decay; and a very few months, in the seas where
they are abundant, suffices for covering the bottom of
a ship with them.
Q. Are they of any use
?
A. Some of the species have been used as food,
and in taste and other qualities they do not appear to
differ much from the shelled mollusca.
Q. Are those that are produced always separate
animals?
F 3
54
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
A. That part of the subject is not very well under
stood. Some of the pedunculated ones have the
peduncles branched, forming two or more separate
shelly heads from the same base; but whether all the
branches are formed at the same time, or the one
grows as a sprout from the other, has not been ascer-
tained.
PART VI.-RADIATA.
Q. What are the distinguishing characters of the
radiated animals?
A. They have the nervous system diffused through
the whole mass of their bodies, without any collar
round the gullet, or any longitudinal cord connect-
ing the ganglions, and their bodies are not divided
into rings.
Q. Are they without bones?
A. They are, in all the species.
Q. What is their general form?
A. They have always more or less of the form of a
star.
Q. Have they organs of sensation?
A. Neither eyes nor ears of any description have
been found in any of them.
Q. Where do they inhabit ?
A. The whole of them are inhabitants of the water,
some of them being fixed and others floating.
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. They are remarkably so.
Some seas are abso-
lutely filled with them; they are found more or less
in all seas, and are supposed to form the principal
RADIATA.
55
food of the balance, or whalebone whales, whose
mouths and throats are adapted only for food in
small portions.
Q. What are their common names?
A. They are called sea-eggs, star-fish, sea-blubber,
and sea-cucumbers, according to their form, but those
names do not serve as any indication of their nature.
Q. What is the classification of them?
A. As many of them reside at the bottom of the
sea in deep water, their history is far from perfect,
but there are four classes which are tolerably well
made out.
Q. What are these?
A. Echinodermata, Acephala, Zoophyta, and In-
fusoria.
I. ECHINODERMATA.
Q. What is the meaning of echinodermata?
A. Having the skin or covering beset with points
or spines resembling those on a hedge-hog.
Q. What are their characters ?
A. The covering is either a leather-like skin or a
crust; they have a distinct stomach or intestine, and
numerous vessels; but some of the characters are so
different that the class admits of division into two
orders, those that have the intestine open at both
extremities, and those that have it open only at the
mouth.
Q. Do these admit of any subdivision but those of
genera and species?
A. They do, into those that have organs of mo-
tion and those that have not.
56
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What are the organs of motion?
A. They are suckers of some form or other.
Q How many divisions have suckers?
A. There are two principal divisions, which contain
many species: those with a crustaceous covering, and
those with a leather-like skin.
Q. What is the name of the first of these?
A. Echinida, sea hedge-hogs, or sea-eggs.
Q. What is their general shape?
A. It is not unlike that of a turnip, it is covered
with a plate beset with spines or thorns, between
which there are holes having suckers with shelly
stalks attached to them. The spines are also move-
able by means of strong ligaments that attach them
to the crust, and probably they are organs of motion
as well as the suckers.
Q. Where is the mouth situated?
A. Generally in the under surface of the shell, and
it is in many of the species armed both with tentacula
and teeth.
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. They are.
More than a hundred species are
known. They are found in all the oceans and the
shells are often washed on the shores of the British
islands, especially those toward the Atlantic.
Q. Are they large?
A. They are often several inches in diameter.
Q. Are they ever used for food?
A. Some of the savage tribes on the southwest
coast of South America, and in other parts of the
world, are said to live entirely upon them at certain
seasons,
RADIATA.
57
Q. How are they obtained?
A. By diving under water.
Q. Which is the division which has the covering
leather-like?
A. It is chiefly made up of the Linnæan genus
Holothuria, or sea-slugs.
Q. What are their characters ?
A. The body is lengthened, and has a moveable
leathery covering, and the mouth is surrounded by
tentacula, and also by a circle of sharp plates that
answer all the purposes of teeth.
Q. Are there many species of them?
A. A good many are known. They are most
abundant in the warm seas, and in some places they
and the former division almost cover the bottom.
Q. Are they ever used as food?
A. One or two species found in great numbers on
the north coast of New Holland and among the ad-
joining isles, are extensively fished for by the Malays.
Q. To what use do those people apply them?
A. They spread them out and dry them, after
which they are sold to the Chinese by the name of
Trepang. They are said to make an excellent soup.
Q. Which are they that have only one opening to
the stomach and suckers for motion?
A. They are the stellerida, or star-shaped animals,
of which there are many species, some of them by
no means uncommon on the British shores. They
have the mouth on the under side; the stomach a
simple bag; some traces of a nervous system, but no
organs of the senses that have been discovered,
58
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Which are they that have no suckers for loco-
motion?
A. The Crinoidea, which have the rays of the star
lengthened out into long thread-like arms. Only one
living species, (Pentacrinus Caput Medusa,) is known.
It has, as the name imports, five arms; and those arms
curl round it, as the snakes are said in the fable to
have done round the head of Medusa. The body,
opposite to the mouth is lengthened into a jointed
stalk, by which the animal probably adheres to other
substances.
II. ACEPHALA.
Q. What is the meaning of Acephala?
A. It means without a head.
Q. What animals are comprehended in that order?
A. The Actinia of Linnæus, which from their form
are sometimes called animal flowers; and the Medusa
of the same naturalist, which, from their effects on the
skin, are sometimes called sea-nettles.
Q. What are the general characters of the Actinia?
A. They are very soft, adhering to other substances,
in the form of a little purse or bag which can be
shortened or lengthened at the pleasure of the animal.
The mouth is an opening in the top, surrounded with
tentacula, which when spread out as the animal
watches for its prey have something the appearance of
a flower, and they are often very beautifully coloured,
on which account they are called, sea-anemonies, sea-
tulips, and various other fanciful names.
Q. On what do they live?
RADIATA.
59
A. One part of their food is shelled mollusca; for
if a perriwinkle be laid on the centre of the tentacula,
these will come close upon it; it will be carried into
the cavity; and the operculum and empty shell soon
afterwards thrown out.
Q. Are they all fixed to the spot?
A. No. Two of the modern subdivisions of the
genus, the actinia properly so called, and the lucer-
naria, adhere by a sort of foot or sucker, and can
move; but another division, the Zoanthus, or animal
flower, properly so named, remains permanently on
the same spot.
Q. Are any of them found on the British shores ?
A. The actinia are very common on the rocky and
stony shores; there are at least eight species on the
different parts of the coast.
Q. Are there many British species of Lucernaria?
A. Only two have been observed; and these have
been found adhering to sea-weed.
Q. Are there any British species of Zoanthus ?
A. There is one, mammaria mamilla, white and
of a conical form, without tentacula at the mouth.
Q. Are the animals of this order of any use?
A. They are not attended to as they perhaps ought
to be; but some of them have been eaten, they are
wholesome and of very fine flavour.
Q. Do the Medusa resemble the actinia in any re-
spect?
A. They have but little resemblance. The Medusa
float on the water; and, along with the other soft
floating animals, are supposed to serve for food to the
whales.
60
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. What is their form?
A. They consist of a mass of jelly, often colourless,
to which a number of tentacula or arms are attached;
and they are sometimes of the most singular shapes.
Q. Do any of them shine in the dark?
A. Very many of those that are transparent and
colourless, and of course invisible during the day,
shine with considerable brightness during the night.
Q. Are they eaten by man?
A. When they are in their live state, there is
scarcely any thing to eat. The greater portion is of a
consistence more like drink. But no person would
choose them for that purpose.
Q. Is there any thing poisonous about them?
A. Nothing probably which is absolutely poisonous ;
but the juice of the larger ones especially is so acrid
that it excoriates, and in some cases blisters the skin.
Q. Are there many species of those animals in the
British seas?
A. There are a great many, but they are a little
confused, as the specimens soon change after they are
out of the water; and as some of them are very dif-
ferent in form when young from what they are when
full grown, it is by no means impossible that the same
species may have, at different stages of its growth,
been described as different species.
Q. Are there any remarkable differences of cha-
racter among the animals of this class?
A. There are. Some have neither mouth nor
cavity within, some have both of these without any
other opening, while some have the lateral openings
also, and others again those openings without the
RADIATA.
61
mouth. The mouth is sometimes close upon the mass
of the body; at other times it is drawn out into a
sort of proboscis which is sometimes plain at the ex-
tremity, and sometimes divided into tentacula fringes.
The body is also sometimes smooth, and at other
times marked with ridges, and those ridges are beset
with hairs that answer nearly the same purposes as
fins in swimming.
III. ZOOPHYTES.
Q. What is the meaning of Zoophytes?
A. The term literally means animal plants, or ani-
mated plants; and was probably given at first in all
cases where it appeared doubtful whether the object
named ought properly to be considered a plant or an
animal.
Q Have they any resemblance to the acephala?
A. They have; but still the two may be distin-
guished.
Q. What are the chief distinctions?
A. The zoophytes are distinguished from the first
order of acephala, by having only one set of tantacula
round the mouth, while these have two rows.
Q. Is not there a portion of the first order with
which some of the zoophyta are apt to be con-
founded?
A. Yes; with zoanthus, as that has no tentacula at
the mouth.
Q. How are they distinguished from the second
order of acephala ?
A. The second order of acephala have no tentacula,
G
62
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
which the zoophytes have; and the zoophytes have a
tendency to become compound, which the others have
not.
Q. Are the zoophytes made up of different parts to
which names can be given?
A. Yes, they are made up of two parts, which are
called the polypus and the coral.
Q. What is meant by the polypus?
A. That part of the compound structure which may
be considered as exhibiting the head and body of the
animal, with the mouth and tentacula.
Q. What is the coral?
A. The part which supports the polypus.
Q. Of what substances are these formed?
A. The polypus is always, in the greater part of
its texture, a fleshy substance; the coral is, in some
instances fleshy, in others it is made up of membranes ;
in some it is of the consistency of a crust, and in
others again it is of the consistency of the hardest
shell.
Q. Is the coral always an animal structure?
A. It is, even in the hardest of them, which are as
hard as most rocks, and more tough; the matter by
which the salts of lime and other parts of the com-
pound are held together, are always of an animal na-
ture.
Q. How may that be known?
A. When sponge or coral is burnt, it does not smell
like vegetable or earthy matter, but like bones or
shells.
Q. Has the polypus been seen in all cases as dis-
tinct from the coral ?
ZOOPHYTES.
63
A. Not in all cases; the polypus of the sponge has
not been observed; and the same may be said of many
of the coral lines.
Q. What are the divisions of the zoophytes?
A. They are divided into four orders.
Q. What are the characters of the first order?
A. The polypus is connected with a fleshy coral,
supported by a loose bony mass in part of the order,
and by a fleshy or fibrous mass in the other. The
animals have a stomach and mouth, with eight tenta-
cula. Some of them float freely on the water, and
others are fixed; the former being those that have the
coral supported by bone.
Q. Are there many genera of these?
A. There are a great many, and they are very diffe-
rent in their characters.
Q. What are the characters of the second order?
A. The polypi are much more simple in their struc-
ture, and they have more tentacula than eight, but the
number varies even in the same species.
Q. Are the different polypi in any of these con-
nected with each other?
A. In general they are not; the cells in which they
are contained being closed at the bottom.
Q. What are the characters of the third order?
A. They have a leather-like covering; the species
hitherto discovered are not numerous.
Q. What are the characters of the fourth order?
A. The animals have hairs at the mouth, which they
can put into rapid motion, and occasion currents in
the water. They are so small that they cannot be
studied without the aid of a microscope.
G 2
64
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
Q. Which are the particular divisions of zoophites?
A. There are at least four tribes, and most of these
contain many families, with a vast number of genera,
species and individuals.
Q. Which is the first tribe ?
A. Carnosa, in which the substance that connects
the polypi is fleshy.
Q. What are the principal families in that tribe?
A. Those which are free to move, and those that
are fixed.
Q. Are there any British ones?
A. Yes. Of those that are free, there are two, not
uncommon on the shores of Scotland.
Q. What are these?
A. The sea-pen and the sea-rush.
Q. What is the character of the sea-pen?
A, The stem of the coral is about five or six inches
long, and nearly round; the upper part is flat, and
consists of processes, which are arranged something
like the web of a feather. It is on that account that
it is called the sea-pen.
Q. What is its colour?
A. Purple.
Q. Is it one animal, or many animals?
A. It is many animals; and the cells which these
inhabit are at the extremities of the processes.
Q. Is the whole formed of soft matter?
A. No; there is a bone in the centre of the
stalk.
Q. What are the characters of the sea-rush?
A. It is longer and more slender than the pen ;
ZOOPHYTES.
65
and the lobes to which the cells with the polypi are
attached, have the form of a crest.
Q. Are the fixed ones more numerous than the
free ?
A. They are; and they are found in the fossile sub-
stances of many of the softer rocks.
Q. Which are the most remarkable British ones?
A. They are gorgons, corallines, and sponges.
Q. What is the principal British species of gor-
gon?
A. There is not any British species. The whole
are natives of the deep seas; and though some speci-
mens have been cast ashore, none has been found
growing in Britain.
Q. What are the forms of those that have been
cast ashore?
A. They are all more or less fan-shaped.
Q. Do the corallines also inhabit the depths of the
ocean?
A. No; the British species are mostly found in
shallow water.
Q. What is their shape?
A. They are plant-like, and contain animal matter
in the centre, and a crust or bark of lime. The
polypi of them are very obscure.
Q. Are they numerous?
A. They are found on most parts of the coast.
Q. Are the sponges numerous ?
A. They are very numerous, and are found in
fresh water as well as in the sea.
Q. What substance does the common sponge, which
G 5
66
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
is used for so many domestic purposes, most nearly re-
semble ?
A. Probably horn, though the horny particles are
very minute; but there are some that contain a consi-
derable portion of flint.
Q. How is it known that a sponge is alive?
A. By its giving out water by pores on the surface,
after that water has circulated through the tubes of
the mass.
Q. Do sponges change soon after death?
A. They do. The jelly which lines all the cavities
in them speedily dissolves in the water, and nothing
remains but the skeleton.
Q. What are the characters of the second tribe of
zoophytes?
A. The polypi are lodged in cells, consisting in
great part of lime, and hence they are called celluli-
fera, or cell-bearing.
Q. Are the British species numerous ?
A. They are. Some are stiff and hard, and others
are flexible. Some have a faint resemblance in their
appearance to sponges; some are bundles of little
pipes; and some are flat like leaves.
Q. What is the third tribe?
A. Thecata, or those that are contained in sheaths.
Q. Of what are the sheaths composed?
A. Some of them contain a small portion of lime,
and others are wholly soft matter.
Q. Are they numerous on the British shores?
A. They are; where they grow adhering to stones,
corallines, and other solid substances.
ZOOPHYTES,
67
Q. Which is the fourth tribe?
A. Nuda, or those that have the polypi naked, or
with sheaths so short that they are not easily distin·
guished.
Q. Are they fixed or free to move?
A. Some are fixed and some are free.
Q. Where do they inhabit?
A Some are inhabitants of the sea and others of
fresh water. They are soft in the consistency, and
bear a resemblance to some of the radiata.
Q. What are their dimensions?
A. Seldom more than half an inch in length, except
in one or two of the species.
Q. Is this part of the natural history of animals as
well defined as that of the more perfect classes, as
they are called?
A. By no means. As we approach the confines of
the animal kingdom, the organs of the senses and the
power of motion are both lost; and we infer rather
than perceive that the beings themselves are possessed
of sensation.
Q. And is it for t at reason that we call those less
perfect animals than the others?
A. The imperfection is not in the animals, but in
our knowledge of them. They are all equally perfect
in their kinds; and that an animal should find its food
and perform all its functions without any of those
organs which we find in other animals, is just as con-
vincing a proof of the power of the Creator, as any
that we can find in those portions which we are
accustomed to call the most perfect.
68
CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
IV. - INFUSORIA.
Q. What are the Infusoria?
A. They are the most simple of all animals, con-
sisting of little more than a skin.
Q. Is there any thing peculiar in the way in which
they are produced?
A. If there be a live animal, others appear to be
producible from it in almost every way, as by eggs, by
buds, and by the division of the animal itself into
parts.
Q. Are they large or small animals?
A. They are remarkably small, and very few of them
can be examined without a microscope.
Q. Are there any distinctions of organization among
them?
A. Yes; there are two orders, in the one of which
there are some appendages to the skin, such as hairs;
and in the other there is nothing but the skin itself.
Q. But still, notwithstanding all the complexity of
their forms, they may be considered as animals ?
A. There can be no doubt of that. Though an
animal be as simple as a mere bag of skin of so small
size as not to be seen, there is no danger of confound-
it with a vegetable.
Q. Is any other name given to the Infusoria ?
A. They are sometimes called animalcules.
Q. Why are they called animalcules?
A. It is the name for very small animals.
Q. Why are they called Infusoria ?
ZOOPHYTES.
69
A. Because they chiefly make their appearance in
infusions of animal and vegetable substances.
Q. Are they numerous ?
A. They are perhaps the most numerous of all
animals.
Q. From what are they produced?
A. The germs of them appear to be distributed
every where.
Q. Are those germs ever seen?
A. They are too minute for being observed sepa
rately.
Q. Since they are so very small, are they not in
danger of being destroyed?
A. They are far less easily injured than larger ani-
mals. They breed in infusions that have been boiled,
and the very small ones are produced in an infusion
that is boiling; so that from them, one is led to con-
clude, that the smaller any living creature is, it is the
less liable to destruction.
-
Q. At what time are they formed?
A. The infusion must have begun to putrify.
Q. Is it necessary that the infusion should be an
artificial one?
A. No; it is only necessary that it shall have
begun to putrify.
Q. Are they found in the juices of plants and ani-
mals ?
A. That the germs of them are, there is no doubt,
but it is probable that putrefaction or disease of some
kind or other, always must be begun, before they
quicken into life.
Q. Do they breathe ?
70
ZOOPHYTES.
A. There is every reason to suppose that they do.
Q. What are some of the reasons?
A. They appear most abundantly in infusions which
are freely exposed to the air, and when the air is
wholly excluded, they die.
Q. Do they always die when the infusion in which
they are contained is dried up?
A. They do not; they shrivel, become dry, and
dead; in which state they may be kept for years, at
the end of which they will revive if moistened.
Q. Is there any limit to their smallness?
A. There appears to be none, but the power of the
microscope by which they are discovered.
Q. Then there may be living creatures, dozens of
which would not equal a pin's head?
A. There may be those of which a flock of a mil-
lion, or a hundred millions, would not be visible.
Q. What is the conclusion?
A. That while we study NATURE, we should strive
to obey the laws of NATURE'S GOD.
END OF THE CATECHISM OF ZOOLOGY.
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