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 ZOOLOGICAL DIAGRAMS. 
 
 Ten Coloured Zoological Diagrams have been prepared 
 by ROBERT PATTERSON, Esq., M.R.I.A., for the Depart- 
 ment of Science and Art. The Size of each Diagram is 
 40 5 inches by 29 inches, and the number of Figures 
 contained in the series is 116, illustrative of the principal 
 groups in the Animal Kingdom, according to the classifica- 
 tion adopted in the "Zoology for Schools." The drawings 
 have been executed by London artists of the first eminence 
 they are published by Messrs. DAY & SON, Lithographers 
 to the Queen, Gate Street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and may 
 be had of all Booksellers. 
 
 Price of the Set of Ten, fully Coloured, 2. 15s. 
 
 Single Sheets, 6s. each. 
 Prospectuses will be forwarded post fr* on
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 SIMMS & MINTYRE, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-KOW, LONDON; ANO DONEGALL-STKEET, BELFAST. 
 
 Doisy's (Adelbert) French Grammar, 
 
 Geography, autn Jidition, i^mo 
 Euclid, 8th Edit. Part 1, J2mo, cloth 3 
 
 Part 2, 12mo, cloth 2 6 
 
 Complete 5 
 
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 Proper Names, 8vo, cloth 4
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ZOOLOGY, 
 
 USE OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 BY KOBEKT PATTEESON, M.R.I.A., 
 
 EX-PRESIDENT OF TUB NATURAL BISTORT AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF 
 BELFAST, ETC. 
 
 WITH UPWARDS OF 330 ILLUSTRATIONS, AND 
 A GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SIMMS AND M'INTYRE, 
 
 13 PATEKXOSTKU How ; AND 26 DONEGALL STKKET, BELFAST. 
 
 1857.
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 I HAVE for years been anxious that NATURAL HISTORY should be made 
 a regular Branch of Education, because it exercises both the observant 
 and the reflective powers; furnishes enjoyment pure and exhaustless; 
 and tends to make devotional feelings habitual. The present little Work 
 has been undertaken in the hope that it might conduce to such a result. 
 
 In its preparation, I have aimed at conveying correct ideas of the 
 peculiarities of structure by which the principal divisions of the animal 
 kingdom are distinguished; and of the habits, economy, and uses of one 
 or more of the most common native species belonging to each of these 
 groups. Foreign species are occasionally mentioned in connexion with 
 their respective classes, but the "home produce" forms the "staple com- 
 modity." 
 
 The exercise of memory involved in the repetition of scientific names, 
 or in the recital of anecdotes respecting the animals of the arctic or 
 tropical regions, is, comparatively, of little importance. The great 
 object should be to bring natural-history knowledge home to the personal 
 experience of the pupil. To teach him to observe, to classify his obser- 
 vations, and to reason upon them, and thus to invest with interest the 
 COMMON OBJECTS which he sees around him. Small collections of 
 natural objects, made by the pupils themselves, would, under the guidance 
 of a judicious teacher, be of great value in this species of mental culture, 
 and would form the much-prized ornaments of the school-room. 
 
 The present volume has been prepared amid the scanty leisure inci- 
 dental to the life of a man of business. It will, therefore, I hope, be 
 regarded with indulgence, both by the Naturalist and by him who is prac- 
 tically engaged in the important duties of the school-room. 
 
 E. PATTERSON. 
 Belfast, 3, College Square North, 
 September 5th, 1846. 
 
 NOTE. The illustrations, for the most part, are those employ ^d in the " Court 
 Flfmentaire de Zoologie" of M. Milne Edwards ; a work adopted by the 
 Council of Public Instruction in France. 
 
 a
 
 PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. 
 
 As Zoological science is progressive, we must expect that, 
 with an increased knowledge of the structure of different 
 groups of animals, there will arise from time to time a 
 necessity for corresponding changes in classification and 
 nomenclature. During the last few years this has, in an 
 especial degree, been the case with regard to the invertebrate 
 animals Erroneous views respecting some of its groups 
 have been corrected ; much that was doubtful has been made 
 clear ; and affinities, previously unsuspected, have been 
 revealed. 
 
 In the present edition some of these conclusions have been 
 indicated, so far as the space available for foot-notes would 
 permit, without disturbance of the pages. Others are omitted 
 as not being suitable for an elementary work; and some 
 because they are as yet undecided, and demand further 
 observation and research. In the text itself scarcely any 
 alterations have been made. 
 
 BELFAST, 6 College Square North.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART i -INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 
 
 Page 
 
 MEANING of the Term Zoology 1 
 
 Structure, the Basis of Correct Classification 2 
 
 Animals arranged in four primary Groups 3 
 
 RADIATA, OR RAYED ANIMALS. 
 
 Meaning of the Term 3 
 
 Group divided into four Classes 4 
 
 Note respecting two additional Classes 4 
 
 CLASS I. INFUSORIA, OR INFUSORY ANIMALCULES. 
 
 Their Size and Distribution 5 
 
 Arrangement in two Divisions Advantage of Scientific Terms 
 
 Polygastrica, or Many-Stomached 6 
 
 Experiments of Ehrenberg Cilia 7 
 
 Rotifera, or Wheel-bearing Their Tenacity of Life Difierent Modes 
 
 of Reproduction among the Infusoria 8 
 
 Physical Changes eifected through their Agency 10 
 
 CLASS II. ENTOZOA, OR INTESTINAL WORMS. 
 
 Their Abodes Variety of Structure The Tape-worm 12 
 
 Multitude of Ova in another Species These Creatures not produced 
 by Equivocal Generation Perfection of their Structure 13 
 
 CLASS III ZOOPHTTA, OR POLYPES. 
 
 Meaning of these Terms 14 
 
 The Class subdivided into four Orders 15 
 
 ORDER I. HYDROIDA, OR THOSE RESEMBLING THE HYDRA 15 
 
 The Fresh-water Hydra 15 
 
 A ppearance, Habits, and Modes of Reproduction 16 
 
 Titbiilaria, its living Flowers and diffusion of the young Germs 17 
 
 Sertttlariadte, or those which resemble miniature Flowers .... 18 
 
 Structure 18 
 
 Food, Ova, Numbers, Luminosity 19
 
 iT CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 ORDER II ASTEROIDA, on STAR-SHAPED POLYPES 20 
 
 Sea-pens 20 
 
 Sea-fans; their Flexibility 21 
 
 Different Structures of the Isis and of the Red Coral 22 
 
 OunER III. HKLIANTHOIDA, OR THOSE LIKE THE SUN-FLOWER... 22 
 
 Sea-anemones 22 
 
 Food, Longevity, Use as Barometers 23 
 
 Power of enduring Injuries. Coral-building Polypes 24 
 
 Coral Reefs. Their Extent and Structure 25 
 
 ORDER IV. ASCIDIOIDA, OR ASCIDIAN POLYPES 27 
 
 Their Appearance and higher Organization 27 
 
 Sea-mats Their numerous Polypes Affinity to the Mollusca 28 
 
 CLASS IV. RADIAKIA, OR HAYED ANIMALS. 
 
 How characterised their Division into two Orders 29 
 
 OKDER I. ACALEPH^E, OR SEA-NKTTLES 30 
 
 Their gelatinous Structure 30 
 
 Distribution Diphya Portuguese Man-of-war 31 
 
 Velellu its mimic Fleets 32 
 
 Serocs, or Ciliogrades 33 
 
 Their Movements, Habits, and Food 34 
 
 Luminosity and Transparency 35 
 
 Medvsfe, or Pulmonigrades Their Dimensions, Colours, Food 36 
 
 Development 37 
 
 Large proportion of Fluids in their Bodies 39 
 
 Phosphorescence 40 
 
 Numbers in the Arctic Sea 41 
 
 Utility 42 
 
 ORDER II. ECHINODERMATA, OR STAR-FISHES 42 
 
 Their Integument, Transformations 43 
 
 Ova and their Development Variety of Form 44 
 
 Stone-lilies, Crinoidece Their Beauty and former abundance 45 
 Supposed to be extinct in Europe Discovery of a living species 46 
 
 Sand Star, Ophiura Structure Diversity 47 
 
 "Five-fingers," Asteriadce Their Suckers and their Uses... 48 
 
 Fragility of Luidia 49 
 
 Sea-Urchin, Echinus 50 
 
 Mode of Progression Structure of Shell Respiration 52 
 
 Jaws- Boring power of one Species 53 
 
 Sea-cucumber, Holothuria Sipuncular Worms 55 
 
 ARTICULATA, OR ARTICULATED ANIMALS. 
 
 Characteristics of the Group 57 
 
 Its Division into five Classes 58 
 
 CLASS I. ANNELLATA LEECHES AND WORMS. 
 
 Medicinal Leeches Supply of them 60 
 
 Mouth, Stomach, Young 61 
 
 Earthworms Their Food, their Utility Reproduction in Worms... 62.
 
 CONTENTS. V 
 
 Pag 
 Lob-worm 64 
 
 Respiration in Serpulae. Habits of the Errantes 65 
 
 Sea Long-worm, Sea-mouse 66 
 
 Hair-worm, and traditionary Error. Luminosity of some Annelids 67 
 
 CLASS II CIRRIFEDA BARNACLES AND ACORN SHELLS. 
 
 Tradition respecting Barnacles 69 
 
 Young state of Barnacles and of Acorn-shells 70 
 
 Their Transformations. Formerly classed with Mollusca 71 
 
 Cheapness of the Pleasures of Natural History 72 
 
 CLASS III. CRUSTACEA CRABS. LOBSTERS, SHRIMPS, &c. 
 
 Name, Distribution, Form, Characteristics 73 
 
 Reproduction, Respiration 74 
 
 Vision, Eyes of Trilobites 77 
 
 Metamorphoses 78 
 
 Land-crabs 80 
 
 Classification. Limulus or King Crab 81 
 
 Spider-crabs 82 
 
 Edible Crabs 83 
 
 Pea Crabs Hermit Crabs 84 
 
 Lobster. Spiny Lobster 85 
 
 Cray-fish: its Food, Habits, Change of Shell 86 
 
 Shrimps. Prawn 88 
 
 Sand-hopper Cyclops 89 
 
 Daphnia. Limnoria 90 
 
 Lernsea Opossum Shrimp, as shown by the Microscope 91 
 
 CLASS IV. INSECTA INSECTS. 
 
 External Structure 93 
 
 Circulation and Respiration 94 
 
 Nervous System 96 
 
 Senses 97 
 
 Metamorphoses 100 
 
 Food, Digestive System 103 
 
 Mouth 104 
 
 Wings and Wing-c overs 105 
 
 Enumeration of the several Orders 106 
 
 ORDER I COLEOPTERA BEETLES 107 
 
 Great Water Beetle. Death-watch 107 
 
 Glow-worm. Dor-beetle 108 
 
 Sacred Beetle Tiger Beetle 109 
 
 Cockchafer. Nut Weevil ... 110 
 
 Burying Beetle Number of Coleoptera Ill 
 
 ORDEK II. ORTHOPTERA CRICKETS, LOCUSTS, ETC 112 
 
 Leaf Insects 112 
 
 Mantis 113 
 
 Crickets. Cockroach 114 
 
 Locust 115
 
 rfil CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Beak and Ink-bag. Belemnite. Its Carnivorous Habits 186 
 
 Argonaut, or Paper Nautilus 187 
 
 Poetic Descriptions of it. Its Nautical Powers fabulous. Its real 
 
 Movement", and the true Functions of the Supposed Sails 138 
 
 Octopus. Its Amu Suckers 189 
 
 Powers of Attack and Escape. Change of Colour. Ink of the 
 
 Cuttle-fish Its flesh used as Food 190 
 
 Value as Bait. Numbers Gigantic Cuttle-fish. Ova 191 
 
 Fossil Remains. Geological Importance of the Mollusca 192 
 
 Recent Investigations on the Microscopic Structure of Shell 193 
 
 Mollusca and Radiata of the ^Egean Sea. Regions of Depth 193 
 
 Philosophy of the Study 194
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 VKETEBRATE ANIMALS, how characterized 195 
 
 The Skeleton Composition of Bone ... 19G 
 
 Division of Vertebrate Animals into Four Classes 196 
 
 CLASS I. PISCES FISHES. 
 
 Definition, and Distinctive Characters 197 
 
 Distribution. Extremes of Temperature at which they live 197 
 
 Form its great variety Change by Inflation 198 
 
 Covering Scales Mucus Brilliancy of Colour 199 
 
 Bony plates of the Trunk-fish aud Pipe-fishes 200 
 
 Senses Cirri, Organs of Touch 200 
 
 Taste Smell Hearing Sight 201 
 
 Blind-fish Absence of Eyelids Colours of the Eyes 202 
 
 Locomotion Swim-bladder its Uses not universal 202 
 
 Caudal-fin other Fins how named 204 
 
 Variety of Movement observed in a Pipe-fish 205 
 
 Flying Fish 206 
 
 Eespiration Heart Gills What kills a Fish when out of Water 207 
 
 Food Some Fishes live on Vegetables, but most of them on Flesh 207 
 
 Beneficence of this Arrangement Voracity of Fishes 209 
 
 Teeth their Variety, Uses, and Numbers 210 
 
 Eeproduction 212 
 
 Preservation of Vitality in the Ova 212 
 
 Distribution, Geographical also according to Zones of Depth 212 
 
 Number of Ova Instances of Parental Care of the Spawn 213 
 
 Means of Escape, Defence, and Attack 214 
 
 Uniformity of Colour Flight Spines 215 
 
 Weapons of the Spined Dog-fish 215 
 
 Weapons of the Stickle-back, Saw -fish, and Sword-lish 216
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 Pagt 
 
 Electric Fishes Scene described by Humboldt 218 
 
 Powers of Vitality and its connexion with Structure and Habits ... 218 
 Errors and Traditions Mackerel Midge Eels Maigre Dory 
 
 Remora 219 
 
 Classification Table of Cuvier's Arrangement 221 
 
 CARTILAGINOUS PISHES. 
 
 ORDER CYCLOSTOMI LAMPREYS 223 
 
 The Lancelet Its Structure Carnivorous Habits 223 
 
 ORDER PLAGIOSTOMI SHARKS AND RAYS 224 
 
 Egg-bags of the Sharks and Rays 224 
 
 Native Dog-fishes Foreign Sharks 225 
 
 Basking Shark Examples of Beneficent Design 226 
 
 ORDER STURIONES STURGEONS 227 
 
 Form of the Tail A "Royal Fish" Its great Size 227 
 
 OSSEOUS FISHES. 
 ORDER PLECTOGNATHI GLOBE-FISHES 228 
 
 ORDER LOPHOBRANCHII PIPE-FISHES 228 
 
 Hippocampus Marsupial Pouch of the Male Pipe-fish 228 
 
 ORDER MALACOPTERYGII APODES EELS 229 
 
 Sand Eels Conger Eel 229 
 
 Fresh -water Eels Susceptibility to Cold 230 
 
 ORDKR MALACOFTERYGII SDB-BRACHIALES 231 
 
 Peculiarity of Structure in the Luinp-Sucker 231 
 
 The Plaice The Turbot 232 
 
 The Cod Newfoundland Fishery 233 
 
 OhDKB MALACOPTKRYGn AnDOiriNALES 233 
 
 The Whitebait Sprat Richard Herring 233 
 
 Migrations of the Herring Of the Pilchard 234 
 
 SalmonidcB. The Family of the Salmon 236 
 
 The Pollan of Lough Neagh Its Abundance 236
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Page 
 The Common and Great Lake Trout Varieties of the 
 
 Former 236 
 
 Migration of the Salmon Salmon Fishery near Coleraine 237 
 
 Growth of the Salmon Change in its Markings 238 
 
 The Pike its Voracity Value Longevity 239 
 
 The Carp " Gold and Silver Fishes " Bream 240 
 
 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYGII (Fins with Spiny Rays) 241 
 
 The Wrasse Fishing Frog Gobies and Blennies 241 
 
 The Mullet Grey Mullet of Belfast Bay 242 
 
 Riband-shaped Fishes Red-band Fish 242 
 
 Pilot Fish Tunny its High Temperature 243 
 
 Mackerel Gurnards 244 
 
 Perch its former Value its Habits 245 
 
 Lepidosiren Is it a Reptile or a Fish? its Habits 246 
 
 Fossil Fishes their Arrangement in Four Primary Groups 
 Singular Forms and Covering of the Fossil Fishes of 
 the Old Red Sandstone , 246 
 
 NOTE. On the Improvement of Fisheries and the Educa- 
 tion of Fishermen 247 
 
 CLASS II REPTILIA REPTILES. 
 
 Characteristics of the Class Variety of Form and Structure 249 
 
 Number of Species Their Division into Four Orders 249 
 
 Geographical Distribution Why Reptiles are Cold-blooded 250 
 
 ORDER I. AMPHIBIA AMPHDJIOUS REPTILES 251 
 
 Consist of Two Groups The Axolotl 252 
 
 The Common Frog Its Metamorphoses Food 253 
 
 Tree Frogs Respiration Torpidity The Common Toad 254 
 Metamorphosis of the Newts Their Carnivorous Habits... 255 
 Errors respecting the Toad Footprints of Gigantic Batra- 
 
 cbian Reptiles 256 
 
 OUDER II. OPHIDIA SERPENTS 258 
 
 Their Flexibility Number of Species Distribution 259 
 
 Boa-Constrictor Jaws of the Snake Poison Fangs of 
 
 Rattle-snake 260 
 
 Egyptian Naja The Cobra-di-Capello Anecdote of one 261 
 Incubation observed in a Serpent Former Existence of 
 
 Pythons and Boa-Constrictors in England 262 
 
 English Adder and Common Snake Habits Movements 263 
 Supposed virtues of the flesh Blind Worm Altitude at. 
 
 which some are found 264 
 
 A2
 
 Xli CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 OKDKR III. SAURIA LIZARDS 265 
 
 Characteristics Numbers Use as Food Habits 265 
 
 Iguana Gecko Chameleon 266 
 
 Change of Colour in the Chameleon, how explained 267 
 
 British Lizards Anecdote of a Sardinian Species 268 
 
 Crocodile Its Utility Errors respecting it 269 
 
 Extinct Species of British Saurian Keptiles 271 
 
 OKDKR IV. TESTUDINATA TORTOISES 273 
 
 How distinguished Structure of the Shield or Covering ... 274 
 
 Number of Species Their Classification 275 
 
 Hawk-billed Turtle Ease and Celerity of its Movements 275 
 
 Habits of Different Species 276 
 
 Longevity Tortoises of the Galipagos Archipelago 277 
 
 Gigantic. Fossil Tortoise of India 278 
 
 Former abundance of Tortoises in the British Seas 279 
 
 A Tortoise in Love 280 
 
 CLASS III. AVES BIRDS. 
 
 Definition Power of Flight 281 
 
 Peculiarities observable in the Structure of the Skeleton 282 
 
 Circulation of the Blood, and its high Temperature 286 
 
 Covering Variety in the Plumage 287 
 
 Long-continued Power of Flight The Frigate Bird 289 
 
 Buoyancy of the Gannet Its great Abundance in some Localities 291 
 
 Impetus of its Descent Mechanism for this Purpose 292 
 
 Moulting Meaning of the Term Explanation of the Phenomenon 293 
 
 Digestive Organs The Bill Crop Gizzard 294 
 
 Sense of Sight ft. 297 
 
 Sense of Smell Turkey Buzzard Condor 298 
 
 Removal of decaying Animal Matter 300 
 
 Migration Power of the Migratory Instinct 301 
 
 Affection of Birds for their Young 303 
 
 Nests Examples of the Variety in their Structure 304 
 
 Organs of Voice 306 
 
 Geographical Distribution Classification 308 
 
 OIIDKR I. RAPTORES BIRDS OF PREY 311 
 
 VULTURES Griffon and Egyptian Vulture 312 
 
 The Condor its Size and Flight The Lammergeyer 313 
 
 FALCONS What birds are included in the family JFa/coufcz>314 
 
 Eagles The Spotted The Sea Eagle 315 
 
 The Golden Eagle its Habits 316 
 
 The true Falcons The Peregrine 319 
 
 Falconry Terms Employed Training of the Falcons 320 
 
 Their Former Value Flight Courage 321
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 The Gos- Hawk Sparrow-Hawk Kite Harriers 323 
 
 OWLS. Their Flight^Diflerence in Size 324 
 
 Habits of the White Owl The Eagle Owl 325 
 
 OlIDEK II. IXSESSORES PERCHING BlKDS 326 
 
 Meaning of the Term Mechanism by which Birds are 
 
 enabled to Perch 326 
 
 Division of the Order into Four Tribes 327 
 
 I. DENTTROSTRES TOOTH-BILLED BIRDS 328 
 
 Butcher Birds Water Ouzel Missel Thrush 328 
 
 Robin Red-breast Habits Nests in Strange Situations... 330 
 Nightingale Distribution Song Humming- Birds 331 
 
 TKIBF. II. CONIROSTRES CONICAL-BILLED BIRDS 3J 
 
 The Sky-Lark Buntings Sparrows Linnets Cross-bill 333 
 
 The Starling Its Migratory Habits Large Flocks 335 
 
 Birds of Paradise Fables respecting them 336 
 
 The Raven Hooded Crows Rooks Nest-building 337 
 
 Are Rooks Useful or Injurious to the Farmer? 339 
 
 Magpie Jackdaw Jay Horn-Bills 340 
 
 4 
 
 Tumi: III. SCANSORES CLIMBING BIRDS 341 
 
 Parrots Woodpecker Structure of the Tongue 341 
 
 The Cuckoo Its Habits Its Cheerful Note 342 
 
 'TltlEK IV. FlSSIRCSTRES GAPING-BILLED BlRDS 344 
 
 The King-fisher Fables respecting it 344 
 
 The Goatsucker The Swallow 345 
 
 House Martins Their Punishment of an Intruder Sand- 
 Martin Swift 346 
 
 URDKK III. RASORES SCRAPING-BIRDS 347 
 
 Meaning of the Term Native Species arranged in Four 
 
 Families 347 
 
 I DOVES Wood-Pigeon Its Large Flocks Food 347 
 
 Carrier- Pigeon Rapidity of its Flight Passenger-Pigeon 
 
 Its immense Flocks 348 
 
 II PHEASANTS. Common Pheasant 319 
 
 III THE GROUSE. Red Grouse Black Grouse 349 
 
 Ptarmigan Its Change of Colour Partridge Quails 
 
 Their Numbers The Capercaillie 350 
 
 IV. Bustards 351
 
 Page 
 
 OKOL.R IV. GRALLATORES WADING BIRDS 351 
 
 Meaning of the Scientific Term 351 
 
 The Apteryx The Plover 352 
 
 The Lapwing Crane Heron 353 
 
 The Bittern Its Booming Its Haunts 354 
 
 The Stork Ibis Woodcock 355 
 
 Land and Water Rails Water-hen Coot 356 
 
 ORDER V. NATATORES SWIMMING BIRDS 356 
 
 Flamingo Its Peculiarities 357 
 
 Division of the Order into Five Families 358 
 
 L Anatidce. The Family of the Duck 358 
 
 Wild Geese The Bernicles and Brent Goose 358 
 
 Wild Swans Mute Swan Black Swan Eider Duck 359 
 
 II. GolymbidtK. The Family of the Divers 360 
 
 III. Alcidte. The Family of the Puffins Penguins 361 
 
 IV. Pelecanida: The Family of the Pelicans 361 
 
 Solan Goose Cormorant 361 
 
 V. LaridtE The Family of the Gulls 362 
 
 Terns or Sea Swallows 362 
 
 Habits and Haunts of Sea-Gulls 363 
 
 Petrels The Stormy Petrel 364 
 
 Value of Petrels in some Localities 365 
 
 Vast Multitudes off the Coast of Patagonia 366 
 
 Birds now Extinct The Dodo - 366 
 
 Its Figure Unexpected Affinity to the Pigeons 357 
 
 Gigantic Wingless Birds of New Zealand Dinornis 357 
 
 Hypothesis suggested by their Size and Number 353 
 
 CLASS IV. MAMMALIA QUADRUPEDS, &c. 
 
 Meaning of the term Mammalia Circulation Respiration 369 
 
 Covering Skeleton 371 
 
 Appendages of the Head Horns 373 
 
 Tusks Whalebone 375 
 
 Teeth Their Diversity in Number, Form, and Structure 376 
 
 Dependence of one part of the Animal Frame on another 378 
 
 Classification of Mammalia in Eleven Orders 379 
 
 ORDER I MARSUPIATA POUCHED ANIMALS 381 
 
 Meaning of the Term Animals included in the Order 381 
 
 Geographical Distribution Peculiarities connected with the 
 
 Young '.. 382 
 
 Number of Species Diversity of Size and Structure ...... 383 
 
 Ornithoryncus Kangaroos Opossums 384
 
 CONTEXTS. XV 
 
 Page 
 
 ORDER II. RODENTIA GNAWING ANIMALS 386 
 
 Characteristics Distribution 387 
 
 Molar Teeth Growth of the Incisor Teeth 388 
 
 Hybernation Utility 389 
 
 Squirrel Hare Beaver 391 
 
 ORDER III EDENTATA TOOTHLESS ANIMALS 392 
 
 Characteristics of the Order How divided 392 
 
 Armadillos Their IJange and Habits Sloths 393 
 
 Unau or Two-toed Sloth Its Mode of Progression 394 
 
 Megatherium Mylodon 395 
 
 OREER IV. RUMINANT: A RUMINATING ANIMALS 398 
 
 Characteristics Sub-division Distribution Utility 398 
 
 The Camel The Llama 401 
 
 The Musk Deer Native Deer 401 
 
 Giraffe or Camelopard 402 
 
 Antelopes Chamois Gazelle Goat 403 
 
 Sheep Elevation at which Species are found 404 
 
 Ox Buffalo Bison 404 
 
 Extinct Species of Oxen 404 
 
 ORDER V PACHYDERMATA THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS. 405 
 
 Hippopotamus Rhinoceros Swine Tapir Horse 406 
 
 Elephant Its Food Structure and Development of its 
 
 Teeth 407 
 
 Distinctive Characters exhibited by the Teeth 408 
 
 Evidence of the Former Existence of Elephants and other 
 
 Pachydermata in Britain..... 410 
 
 ORDER VI. CETACEA WHALES DOLPHINS PORPOISES 411 
 
 Characteristics Division into Groups 411 
 
 Dolphin Porpoise Bottle-head Whale 412 
 
 Cachalot or Spermaceti Whale 412 
 
 Commoner Baleen Whale 413 
 
 TaiL^Structure of " Blubber." Its uses to the animal 414 
 
 ORDER VII. CARNIVORA FLESH-EATING ANIMALS 416 
 
 Characteristics Number of Species 417 
 
 Seals Bears ' 418 
 
 Badger Otter Weasel Ferret Stoat 419 
 
 Dog Fox Wolf 419 
 
 Feline Animals "Great Cave Tiger," formerly in Eng- 
 land 420 
 
 Cave of Hyaenas in Yorkshire 420 
 
 Brevity of the Life, not of Individuals, but of Species 421 
 
 How came Elephants, Bears, Tigers, &c. into England? ... 421
 
 Xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 Pogt 
 
 ORDER VIII. INSECTIVORA INSECT-EATING ANIMALS... 422 
 
 Form of the Teeth "Shrew-mouse" Hedgehog 422 
 
 The Mole Its Structure Food Habits.... ... 423 
 
 ORDER IX CHEIROPTERA BATS 424 
 
 Structure of the Wing Its exquisite Sensibility 424 
 
 Leaf-like Organs of Smell Number of Species Vampire 426 
 
 ORDER X QUADRUMANA MONKEYS 427 
 
 Characteristics and Divisions of the Group 427 
 
 Lemurs Oustiti, and other American Species 428 
 
 Barbary Baboon Asiatic Monkeys 429 
 
 Distinguishing peculiarities of Baboons, Monkeys, and 
 
 Apes * 430 
 
 Chimpanzee Number of Species Fossil Remains 431 
 
 ORDER XL BIMANA MAN 432 
 
 His erect Gait Structure of the Hand 432 
 
 Position in the animal kingdom Intellectual faculties .... 434 
 Responsibility for the Eight Employment of his Powers ... 434 
 Advantages of Zoological Study Conclusion 434
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY, 
 
 FOB THE 
 
 USE OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 " These are thy glorious works, Parent of good 
 Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 
 Thus wondrous fair: Thyself how wondrous then, 
 Unspeakable! who sit'st above the heavens 
 To us invisible, or dimly seen 
 In these thy lowest works; yet these declare 
 Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.'' MILTOX 
 
 THE word " Zoology" is derived from two Greek words, and 
 signifies a knowledge of animals. The science which teaches 
 the structure, habits, and classification of animals is Zoology: 
 the person by whom such knowledge has been acquired is a 
 Zoologist. 
 
 When we regard man as the head of the animal creation, 
 and trace the various gradations of structure and intelligence 
 between him and some of the humblest organized tribes of 
 being; or when we think of the countless multitudes of 
 animals scattered over the earth, and diffused throughout its 
 waters, it might seem that any attempt to form them into 
 groups, to distinguish the several species, and bestow on them 
 appropriate names, would be altogether unavailing. 
 
 But what the labour of an individual would be insufficient 
 to effect, the combined exertions of many are, in the course of 
 time, able to accomplish; and as man possesses the power 
 of transmitting by writing the knowledge he has acquired. 
 v/a are enabled to benefit by the toil and exertion of those 
 who have gone before us, and take advantage of the materials 
 which their industry has collected. 
 
 The first and most obvious thing to be done is, to fix upon 
 some good distinguishing marks by which the principal groups 
 of animals may be separated from each other. This would, 
 
 A
 
 2 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 at first sight, appear an easy matter. Thus, birds might be 
 distinguished by the power of flight, and fishes by that of 
 living and swimming in the water. But a little attention 
 would show, that such characteristics would, in both cases, 
 lead to erroneous results. The Bat flies in the air, yet it 
 brings forth its young alive and suckles them as the domestic 
 cat would do. The Whale lives in the sea ; but, while in the 
 fish the heart has only two compartments, the blood is cold, 
 and respiration is effected by gills, the Whale has a heart fur- 
 nished, like that of the Ox, with four compartments, the blood 
 is warm, and breathing is carried on by lungs. The fish 
 deposits its spawn, and the young, when liberated from the 
 eggs, provide for themselves according to their several instincts. 
 The young of the Whale, on the contrary, are brought forth 
 alive, are objects of maternal solicitude,, and are suckled with 
 affectionate assiduity. The Bat, though flying hi the air, is 
 not therefore a bird; the Whale, though swimming in the sea, 
 is not therefore a fish. They both belong to the same division 
 as our large domestic quadrupeds, which, from the circum- 
 stance of their suckling their young, are grouped together by 
 the expressive term " Mammalia." 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that structure must form the basis 
 of classification. And in the present state of our knowledge, 
 it is no less obvious that arrangements, based on the structure 
 of one particular organ, or one series of organs, to the exclusion 
 of others, would be incomplete, and would lead to error. All 
 organs must be considered, and internal as well as external 
 structure must be examined, before any true systematic 
 arrangement can be attained; and this will be complete, 
 exactly in proportion to the extent and the accuracy of our 
 knowledge. The great object is, to arrange animals in such 
 a way as to exhibit their true affinities to each other, and to 
 embody, with regard to each group, the most comprehensive 
 truths regarding them which the conjoined labours of eminent 
 men have as yet elicited. 
 
 Lamarck, a distinguished French naturalist, proposed ar- 
 ranging all animals according to the presence or absence of a 
 skull and a backbone or vertebral column ; and this division 
 is so convenient and so obvious that it is still retained. 
 But Baron Cuvier pointed out, that great and important 
 differences exist among the invertebrate animals, or those 
 which are destitute of a skull and vertebral column dif-
 
 CLASSIFICATION. 3 
 
 ferences so great as to justify a further subdivision; and 
 that, according to the modifications of the nervous system, the 
 entire animal kingdom might be divided into four primary 
 groups, one of them consisting of the vertebrated animals, 
 and three of those which are invertebrated. Adopting these 
 views, we follow the illustrious Cuvier in dividing the whole 
 animal kingdom into four great groups, or sub- kingdoms; 
 namely, 
 
 I. Vertebrated animals, or Vertelrata; 
 
 [iNVEKTEBRATA.J 
 
 II. Soft-bodied animals, or Mollusca; 
 
 III. Articulated animals, or Articulata; 
 
 IV. Radiated animals, or Radiata. 
 
 To begin with those at the foot of the scale and gradually 
 ascend, is the best mode of preparing to enter with advantage 
 on the consideration of the higher ranks of organized beings. 
 Our attention should, therefore, be directed, in the first place, 
 to the Radiated animals. 
 
 RADIATED ANIMALS. 
 
 " Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made 
 them all: the earth is full of thy riches: so is this great and wide sea, 
 wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts."^ 
 PSALMS. 
 
 IF we pick up a common star-fish, which has been left upon 
 the beach by the retiring tide, we notice that the limbs or 
 arms of the animal are like radii, diverging from a common 
 centre, or like rays surrounding a central disc. From this 
 circumstance it is termed a "rayed" or "radiated" animal. 
 
 In other species belonging to the same great class, the 
 radiated structure is not at first sight so obvious. It will, 
 however, be easily detected in the sea-urchin (echinus), although 
 the outline of the animal is so different. In others, it will be 
 found, not in the general aspect of the body, but in the 
 radiated arrangement of the parts surrounding the mouth. 
 Wherever, throughout this division of the animal kingdom, 
 we are able to trace in the body the existence of a nervous
 
 4 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 system, it partakes of that radiated appearance which, ic 
 some species, is presented by the external figure. Some 
 creatures, in which no nervous system has as yet been dis- 
 covered, are included in this division ; and as our knowledge 
 of their structure and habits is increased, our present classifi- 
 cation must be revised, and perhaps amended. 
 
 The Radiated animals may be treated of under four pri- 
 mary divisions or "classes," in each of which there are found 
 animals of a higher and a lower grade of organization, viz. : 
 
 Infusoria, or Infusory Animalcules ; 
 Entozoa, or Internal Parasites ; 
 Zoophyta, or Polypes ; 
 Radiaria, or Rayed Animals. 
 
 For recent additions to these vide foot-note. 
 
 CLASS INFUSORIA, OR INFUSORY ANIMALCULES. 
 
 " Where the pool 
 
 Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible 
 Amid the floating verdure millions stray." THOMSON. 
 
 IF any vegetable substance be allowed to remain for about ten 
 days in a glass of water, exposed in a window to the rays of 
 the sun, the water will appear to the naked eye to have 
 undergone little change. But if a drop be taken from the 
 surface and placed under the microscope, it will exhibit such 
 a multitude of living beings swimming about, that the spec- 
 tacle cannot be looked upon for the first time without surprise, 
 and even astonishment. Nor is the feeling of wonder dimi- 
 nished when we endeavour to calculate their size, and form 
 some estimate of their numbers. If a drop of the water 
 
 NOTE. Nov. 1856. To these, two other Classes containing 
 animals of lower organization may now be added. One of these, 
 the Foraminifera Latin foramen, a hole contains the minute 
 chambered shells mentioned in page 157. These shells are per- 
 forated, and as if covered with pores. The body is gelatinous and 
 furnished with retractile root-like processes, by which these animals 
 are said to imbibe nourishment, and also to swim and crawl 
 hence the term Rltizopod, or " root-footed." The other class com- 
 prises sponges, now generally regarded as members of the animal 
 kingdom. The name Amorphozoa, implies that they are animals 
 without regularity of form.
 
 INFUSORIA. 
 
 containing them be placed between two pieces of glass, they 
 will be seen swimming about with perfect ease in that little 
 falm of liquid, and passing and repassing without even coming 
 
 i'ig. 1. IIFOSORIA. 
 
 into contact. The globules of blood in the human body are 
 variously estimated in regard to size, but when magnified 
 180,000 times do not exhibit an image larger than the ac- 
 companying figure. Many of the infusory animalcules are, 
 however, still more minute, so that 180,000 of them, ^ 
 if formed into a ball and laid upon the paper, would ^ 
 cover even a smaller surface. 
 
 Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, has calculated, that 2,000 
 of them placed together would measure but one line, or the 
 twelfth part of an inch. According to this estimate, a single 
 drop of water might contain 500 millions of these minute 
 animals: a number nearly equalling that of the whole human 
 species now existing on the earth! 
 
 But although these animalcules abound in infusions of animal 
 or vegetable matter whence their name infusoria they are 
 not restricted to such situations. They are numerous in all 
 countries, and are found in all waters ; not merely in those of 
 the stagnant pool, but in lakes, in rivers, and in the sea itself. 
 From materials furnished to him by the late antarctic expedi- 
 tion, Ehrenberg* has ascertained that they exist even in 
 the ice and snow of the polar sea, and that they are abundant 
 not only in inland seas, and in the vicinity of land, but that 
 the clearest and purest water, taken from the open sea, and 
 farfrom land, is crowded with microscopic life. These minute 
 organisms have been found living at the depth of 270 fathoms 
 
 Fig. 1. Four common native species, viz. I. Vorticella convallaria. II. 
 Chitetonotus larut. III. Leucophrys spatula. IV. LepadeWi ovalit. 
 
 Ehrenberg on Microscopic Life in the Ocean at the South Pole, and 
 at considerable depths Annals Nat. Hist. Sept 1844. Page 169.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 (1,620 feet), and, consequently, subjected to a pressure equal 
 to 50 atmospheres.* Nor are they bounded even by these 
 localities, for they have been discovered in the cells of plants, 
 and in other situations where, but a few years ago, their pre- 
 sence would not have been suspected. 
 
 As they are so widely diffused, and must, in such variety 
 of circumstances, subsist on very different kinds of food, it may 
 naturally be expected that they must present very considerable 
 diversity of size, form, and structure. These differences 
 furnish means by which species can be distinguished from 
 each other; the agreement of several species in some one 
 common character enables the naturalist to combine them into 
 one genus ; and, by a repetition of the same process, to unite 
 several genera into one larger group, on which some common 
 and characteristic name is bestowed. In this way, the whole 
 of the Infusoria may be arranged in two great divisions. The 
 characteristic of the first of these is the presence in the body of 
 the creature of whatEhrenberg regarded as a number of sacs, 
 or stomachs ; and from this peculiarity the order was called 
 by him Polygastrica, or " many-stomached" (Fig. 2). In the 
 second order, instead of this pecu- 
 liarity, there is another not less re- 
 markable. About the head there are 
 rounded lobes, which, when looked 
 at under the microscope, seem like 
 wheels in rapid motion; and hence 
 the creatures in which this was ob- 
 served were called "wheel-animal- 
 cules," and the order itself Rotifera, 
 or "wheel-bearing." The parts do 
 not in reality move like wheels, but 
 the movements of the delicate hair- 
 like organs with which they are 
 fringed make them seem to do so. 
 
 The use of scientific terms has 
 something in it very repulsive to the 
 young naturalist. But this often 
 arises from the terms being used without any precise idea of 
 their meaning being conveyed to the mind of the learner. 
 When any term is thoroughly understood, there is an end of the 
 
 Fig. 2. LKCCOPHRYH. 
 
 * About 750 Ibs. on each square inch of surface.
 
 INFUSORIA. 7 
 
 difficulty; and the word once known, it is not readily forgotten^ 
 In the preceding instance, we have explained the meaning of 
 the words Polygastrica and Rotifera, so that we hope there 
 will not be anything difficult or obscure in their use hereafter. 
 "We shall endeavour to do the same with such other scientific 
 terms as we may have occasion to employ. Their number is 
 few, and they are of such great utility that the acquisition of 
 them is worthy of a little effort. By such means we can 
 indicate to a person in a remote country, and speaking a foreign 
 language, the very animal regarding which we have any fact 
 to communicate; and, in like manner, we can know with 
 certainty of what animal observations made in other parts of 
 the world are recorded. The terms of science are common to the 
 men of science in all countries ; and, if the terms be correctly 
 applied, no doubt or ambiguity can arise. They furnish us 
 with the means of expressing the ideas we wish to convey, 
 with a precision otherwise unattainable ; and the habitual use 
 of them assists in giving precision to the ideas themselves, and 
 thus forms a help in that mental process which the mind of 
 the naturalist must undergo in the acquisition of knowledge. 
 
 It may naturally be asked how, in beings so inconceivably 
 minute as the Polygastrica, the existence of cells or "sto- 
 machs" could be discovered. The plan adopted by Ehrenberg 
 for this purpose was ingenious : The professor removed some 
 of them from the water in which they were found, and placed 
 them in water of the purest and most transparent description, 
 and, after having subjected them to a fast for some time, he 
 put into it an infusion of indigo or carmine which tinged the 
 water. When they began toi'eed, he found, as the "stomachs" 
 filled, they became visible by the blue or red particles shining 
 through their transparent skins. The bodies of the Poly- 
 gastrica are furnished with fine hair-like appendages, termed 
 cilia;* these are scattered over the surface, and by their 
 continual movement propel the little animals through the 
 water, and bring within their reach the particles of decaying 
 vegetable matter on which they live. There is reason to 
 believe that these singular organs of locomotion are not put 
 into activity by the will of the animal ; and hence that their 
 movement, like that of the human heart, might continue for 
 any length of time -without inducing a feeling of fatigue. This 
 
 * The Latin word for eyelashes.
 
 8 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 idea receives confirmation from the fact, that by day or night, 
 at whatever period the Polygastrica may be examined, the 
 observer will never find them in a state of repose, or witness 
 them roused to activity by the light 
 
 The Rotifera present a higher organization than the Poly- 
 gastrica. In them we can trace a nervous system; and we 
 observe muscular bands running over the body, both longi- 
 tudinally and transversely, by means of which they can expand 
 or contract their bodies in any direction (Fig. 3). The cilia, 
 already mentioned as fringing the lobes 
 on the upper portion of their bodies, 
 by their ceaseless action cause currents 
 in the water, and thus furnish a supply 
 of food, while, at the same time, they 
 act as instruments of progression. 
 The Rotifera feed on the Polygastrica; 
 and they are furnished with an instru- 
 ment by which they can attach them- 
 selves to one spot, and thus, when not 
 inclined to swim about, they can moor 
 themselves at pleasure, and feed at 
 their ease on the nutriment which the 
 currents caused by the action of the 
 cilia bring within their reach. The 
 Rotifera are remarkable for their te- 
 nacity of life. Fontana, an Italian 
 naturalist, kept a number of them for 
 Fig. a. HTDATUIA. two years and a half in dried sand ; 
 yet, in two hours after the application of rain water, the 
 greater part recovered life and motion. Spallanzaui repeated 
 the experiments with similar results, after having kept the 
 creatures for four years in the torpid state. He further proved 
 their power of revival after apparent death, by alternately 
 drying and moistening the same individuals. He tried this 
 fifteen times; at each exhumation some of the animalcules 
 did not recover after the sixteenth time, none of them 
 revived. 
 
 The different modes of reproduction among the Infusoria 
 are very remarkable. Some are produced from gems or buds. 
 These appear like little tubercles on the body of the parent 
 increase in size assume the form proper to the species drop 
 off, and become perfect and distinct animals. This mode is
 
 INFUSORIA. 9 
 
 called gemmiparous. Another, which may seem more won- 
 derful, is by the division of the body of the parent into 
 parts, each part becoming a distinct animal, and, by a like 
 process, giving life to numerous others. This mode, which has 
 been termed the fissiparous,* "is amazingly productive, and 
 indeed far surpasses in fertility any other with which we are 
 acquainted, not excepting the most prolific insects, or even 
 fishes. Thus, the Paramecium aurelia, if well supplied with 
 food, has been observed to divide every twenty-four hours ; 
 so that, in a fortnight, allowing the product of each division 
 to multiply at the same rate, 16,384 animalcules would be 
 produced from the same stock, and in four weeks the astonish- 
 ing number of 268,435,456 new beings would result from a 
 continued repetition of the process. We shall feel but little 
 surprised, therefore, that, with such powers of increase, these 
 minute creatures soon become diffused in countless myriads 
 through the waters adapted to their habits." f 
 
 There is yet another mode of propagation among the Infu- 
 soria, the oviparous, or that from ova or egg3. As the ditches 
 in which they live dry np in Summer, the animalcules perish ; 
 but, prior to this, the mature ova burst through the skin of 
 the parent, and thus the last act of the creature's life is to 
 provide for the continuance of the species, by depositing 
 thousands of fertile germs. These are lifted up by the winds, 
 are dispersed through the atmosphere, and float in the air, 
 ready to assume the functions of active life, so soon as they 
 are placed in circumstances favourable for its development. 
 
 When we reflect upon the singular structure " of these 
 miniature existences, small almost to invisibility,"! and on the 
 providential care evinced in maintaining, by such varied 
 means, the continuance of the species, we see " that greatness 
 and littleness make no difference to God in his creation or his 
 providence." They reveal to us that u magnitude is nothing 
 in His sight ; that He is pleased to frame and to regard the 
 small and weak as benignly and as attentively as the mighty 
 and the massive." On further investigation, it would be no 
 less obvious that these minute and insignificant creatures are 
 made the humble instruments of great benefits to man, and of 
 important physical changes on the surface of the globe. 
 
 * Latin, fissvs, divided; pario, I produce. 
 
 t Jones' Outlines of the Animal Kingdom. 
 
 if Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the World.
 
 10 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Existing as they do, everywhere in countless multitudes, 
 and endowed with appetites so voracious, it is clear that they 
 are well adapted to be the unseen scavengers of nature, and 
 that one of their uses in creation is to remove those decaying 
 matters which would become offensive to our senses and 
 dangerous to human life. Having removed those dead and 
 decaying substances, and made them a part of their own 
 organization, they in their turn become food for other animal- 
 cules, which again serve as nourishment for fishes. They 
 form, therefore, one of the means by which the salubrity of 
 our atmosphere is preserved, and putrefaction and decay 
 rendered conducive, through their instrumentality, to the 
 support of higher animals, and thus to the sustenance of 
 man himself. 
 
 Some species of the polygastric animalcules, notwith- 
 standing their minuteness, are furnished with shells of various 
 forms and sizes. These are generally formed of silex; and 
 though not displaying the rich colours of the shells of the 
 mollusca, are no less beautiful, for the place of colour is 
 gupplied by the most varied and exquisite patterns of natural 
 eculpture (Fig. 4). 
 
 The large aggrega- 
 1 tion of them indifferent 
 parts of the world is 
 perhaps the most sur- 
 prising circumstance in 
 their history. Ehren- 
 berg found that a hill 
 
 Fig. 4. SHELLS OF ISFOSOBIA. J n Bohemia, composed 
 
 chiefly of the polishing 
 
 substance known in the arts as " tripoli," was one mass 
 of the siliceous fossil shells of these creatures ; and that, 
 in a stratum fourteen feet in thickness, a cubic inch con- 
 tained the remains of 41,000,000,000 of individuals. On 
 the shores of a lake near Urania, in Sweden, is found a de- 
 posit of a similar kind, called by the peasants " mountain- 
 meal," and which they use mixed up with flour as an article 
 of food. Deposits of fossil infusoria are not confined to 
 foreign countries. A few years since, theBann Reservoir 
 Company were deepening a small lakeafewmilesfromNew- 
 castle, in the county of Down, and the workmen found a
 
 ENTOZOA. 1 1 
 
 white deposit at the bottom of the excavation. It proved 
 to be an excellent material for cleaning and polishing plate; 
 and, on subsequent examination, under the microscope of an 
 Irish naturalist, was discovered to consist of fossil Infusoria.* 
 The accumulation of similar deposits is at present producing 
 important changes in the bed of the Nile, at Dongola in Nubia, 
 and in the Elbe at Cuxhaven; it is even choking up some of 
 the harbours in the Baltic sea.t 
 
 When we consider the diminutive size of these creatures, 
 the stupendous monuments which they leave behind, and 
 the mighty changes which their unseen labours are silently 
 effecting, we must admit the justice of Ehrenberg's remark: 
 "Truly indeed the microscopic organisms are very inferior, in 
 individual energy, to lions and elephants; but, in their united 
 influences, they are far more important than all these animals." 
 
 NOTE. May, 1854. A beautifully illustrated work, of great 
 scientific interest, has recently been published by the Rev. Wm. 
 Smith, on these minute shell-producing organisms (Diatomacece). 
 From this it appears that their mode of reproduction is 
 altogether of a vegetable character, analogous to that of the 
 Algae, or water plants. According to these views, the organisms 
 by which the minute siliceous skeletons are produced should be 
 excluded from zoological works. The facts stated in former 
 editions respecting them are, however, allowed to remain, as 
 their value is not affected by any change of opinion respecting 
 the nature of the organisms by which they are deposited. 
 
 CLASS ENTOZOA, OB INTERNAL PARASITES. 
 
 " Verily, for mine owne part, the more I looke into Nature's workes, 
 the sooner am I induced to beleeve of her, even those things that seem 
 incredible." HOLLAND'S FLINT. 
 
 THE body of every vertebrate animal forms the abode of 
 many other animals that live within it. These creatures con- 
 stitute the class Entozoa, a word which simply means " within 
 an animal," and is very appropriate to the internal parasites, 
 which constitute the present group. 
 
 With this class we are as yet imperfectly acquainted; but 
 some idea of its numbers may be formed from the fact, that 
 no species of. animal is supposed to be exempt from their 
 attacks, and that the human body is infested with no less 
 than eighteen species. It is stated that every animal has one 
 
 * Drummond in Mag. Nat. Hist. 1839. 
 
 f Ehrenberg in Edinburgh Phi) Journal, vol. xxxi. p. 386.
 
 12 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 or more species peculiar to itself. If so, the number of 
 species among the Entozoa must exceed that of all other 
 animals existing in the world. 
 
 These singular heings differ widely in their structure. 
 Some, resembling delicate transparent membranes filled with 
 water (Fig. 5), appear more simple than any of the Infusoria; 
 
 others are so complex, that, 
 in some respects, they seem 
 allied to animals of a much 
 higher rank in organization. 
 Many details pertaining to 
 their abode, their nutriment, 
 and their means of increase, 
 though interesting to the na- 
 turalist, and important to the 
 rig. 5. CYSTIC ENTOZOOJC. physician, would here be out 
 of place. But as the Entozoa 
 
 constitute one class of the animal kingdom, and cannot, 
 therefore, be passed over in silence, a brief notice of some 
 of their peculiarities may be inserted. 
 
 They are found in the stomach, in the intestines, in the 
 bronchial tubes, in the biliary ducts, and even in the humours 
 of the eye. The farmer is well acquainted with two kinds, 
 one of which exists in the brain and the other in the liver of 
 the sheep. One species, which infests the human body, is the 
 common Tape-worm (Tcenia solium, Fig. 6), which is occa- 
 sionally found several yards in length. Its head is furnished 
 with four suckers and two rows of recurved bristles, by means 
 of which it is enabled to fix itself securely to any spot it 
 selects. The most singular trait in the structure of the crea- 
 ture is the multitude of its joints, and the power which each 
 of these joints possesses of producing thousands of fertile ova. 
 When these ova come to maturity, the lower segment of its 
 body breaks off from the upper: the Tape-worm may, from 
 this peculiarity, be compared to trees or plants which fling off 
 their seeds when they come to maturity. When the lower 
 segment of the worm separates from the upper portion, the 
 
 Fig. 5. a, Cyiticeretu celluloscr, magnified. 6, the head still further enlarged. 
 
 NOTE. It is this species which, when abundant, gives to the flesh of 
 the Pig the appearance termed meanles, or measly. The Cysticerci are 
 now regarded as the larvae of Teenies, and not as mature or perfect 
 animals. Note p. 66.
 
 EKTOZOA. 
 
 13 
 
 last joint of the upper gradually lengthens end becomes two 
 joints. The thenlowermost joint in the same manner becomes 
 elongated, and divides into two; and by a repetition of the 
 same process the animal, in a short 
 time, regains its original length. 
 In Ascaris lumbricotdes, the most 
 common intestinal parasite of the 
 human body, Dr. Eschright had 
 estimated the number of ova, which 
 one mature female contained, at 
 64,000,000. When creatures of 
 structure and habits so singular 
 were first found in the bodies of 
 birds, fishes, quadrupeds, and other 
 animals, it was naturally a subject 
 of wonder how they got there, and 
 some naturalists imagined that 
 they were produced by the tis- 
 sues of the animal body in fact, 
 by equivocal generation. When, 
 however, it was discovered how 
 elaborate was their construction, 
 and that each animal contained 
 millions of fertile ova, the truth of 
 this theory was disproved, and the 
 naturalist was taught to attribute 
 their production, through the re- 
 gular laws of generation, to Him 
 who created the highest as well 
 as the lowest order of beings. 
 
 If we turn to any works in which 
 the Entozoa are figured, it is im- 
 possible not to be struck with their 
 great diversity, and with the ela- 
 borate delicacy of some of the organs with which they are 
 furnished. Such examination, even when not followed up by 
 that aid which the microscope affords, will convince the most 
 unthinking of the accuracy of the following very beautiful 
 passage from Professor Owen's "Lectures on the Invertebrate 
 Animals:" "In creatures surrounded by, and having every 
 part of their absorbent surface in contact with, the secreted 
 and vitalised juices of higher animals, one might have antici- 
 
 Fig. 6 TAPEWORM.
 
 14 mrp k or>ucTiON TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 patcd little complexity and less variety of organization. Yet 
 the workmanship of the Divine Artificer is sufficiently com- 
 plicated and marvellous in these outcasts, as they may be 
 termed, of the Animal Kingdom, to exhaust the utmost skill 
 and patience of the anatomist in unravelling their structure, 
 and the greatest acumen and judgment in the physiologist in 
 determining the functions and analogies of the structures so 
 discovered. What also is very remarkable, the gradations of 
 organisation that are traceable in these internal parasites 
 reach extremes as remote, and connect them by links as 
 diversified, as in any of the other groups of Zoophyta, although 
 these play their parts in the open and diversified field of 
 Nature." 
 
 CLASS ZOOPHYTA, OR POLYPES. 
 
 "Here, too, were living flowers, 
 
 Which, like a bud comparted, 
 
 Their purple cups contracted ; 
 
 And now in open blossom sniead, 
 
 Stretched like green anthers many a seeking head. 
 
 And arborets of jointed stone were there, 
 And plants of fibres, fine as silkworm's thread, 
 
 Yea, beautiful as mermaid's golden hair 
 Upon the waves dispread. 
 Others that, like the broad banana growing, 
 Baised their long wrinkled leaves of purple hue, 
 Lake streamers wide o'erflowing." SOUTHEY. 
 
 THE animals belonging to this class were formerly regarded 
 as vegetables. They were afterwards considered to be partly 
 of an animal and partly of a vegetable nature, which idea is 
 still conveyed in the term Zoophyte, a word derived from the 
 Greek, and literally meaning " animal-plant." It is to the 
 labours of John Ellis, a London merchant, who devoted much 
 of his leisure to Natural History, and has shown that such 
 studies are not incompatible with commercial pursuits, that 
 science is indebted for the series of accurate observations 
 which, about a century ago,* established the true position of 
 these singular creatures as members of the animal kingdom. 
 In the two former classes, the Infusoria and the Eutozoa,
 
 ZOOPHYTES. 
 
 15 
 
 no radiated structure was externally apparent. In the present 
 class, it begins to be manifested, not in the form of the body, 
 but in the arrangement of the parts surrounding the mouth. 
 These organs, or tentacula, being capable of considerable 
 distension, and being used for the capture of food, probably 
 suggested to the Greek naturalists the application to the 
 animals of the word "polypi,*' the same which they applied 
 to the many-armed Cuttle-fishes, to which externally they 
 bear some resemblance. 
 
 The Zoophytes or Polypes, for by both of these terms are 
 they still designated, may be arranged in four great divisions, 
 to each of which in turn our attention may be briefly directed. 
 
 ORDER I, HYDROIDA.* 
 
 IN the first family (Hydraidce) of the present order, is found 
 the common fresh-water Hydra (Fig, 7), a singular being, 
 whose history is more strange than the strangest fairy tale. 
 Two species are abundant in 
 pools and ditches during warm 
 weather; one (H. fusca), fur- 
 nished with tentacula capable 
 of being distended many times 
 the length of its body; the 
 other (H. viridis), with a shorter 
 tentacula, and of a greenish 
 colour. Seen in its contracted 
 state, on the lower side of a 
 leaf or a twig, floating on the 
 water, it appears a little piece 
 of jelly, not larger than the 
 half of a pea. By extending 
 and contracting its body, it can 
 move along, and change its 
 place at pleasure, executing F '8- 7. HYDRAS. 
 
 a variety of movements not unlike those of the Caterpillars 
 hereafter mentioned as the "geometric." When it is engaged 
 in taking food, its favourite position seems to be the vertical, 
 which is maintained by a singular proceeding. The tail, or 
 * The term means "Hydra- like."
 
 16 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 terminal sucker is exposed to the air until perfectly dry, in 
 which state it repels the water, and thus hecomes an instru- 
 ment for sustaining the hody of the little animal in a perpen- 
 dicular position. In this attitude, the tail being at the surface 
 of the water, the head underneath, it stretches out its ten- 
 tacula, like so many fishing-lines, for the capture of its prey. 
 These tentacula, there is reason 
 to believe, possess the power of 
 communicating some electric 
 shock, or otherwise stunning the 
 minute inhabitants of the water 
 with which they come in contact 
 (Fig. 8). 
 
 The most common mode of re- 
 production in the Hydra is that 
 by gemmation or buds. Little 
 tubercles are observed to arise 
 on the surface of the animal, 
 which ere long assume the ap- 
 pearance of the parent, and then 
 separate; but not unfrequently, 
 even while attached to the body 
 of the parent, the young Hydras 
 _,. , _. throw out buds themselves. In 
 
 rig. 8. nYDBA. 
 
 this way, three or four young 
 
 may be seen at the same time depending from the sides of 
 the mother, and in different stages of growth 
 
 "Where some are in the bud, 
 Some green, and rip'ning some, while others fall." 
 
 For our principal knowledge of the habits of the Hydra we are 
 indebted to Trembley, of Geneva, a naturalist who lived in the 
 last century, and devoted much time and attention to the study 
 of this class of animals. His discoveries were published in 
 1744; and some of the facts he elicited were so astounding 
 that, at first, naturalists refused to give credit to them. He 
 found, for instance, that if a Hydra were divided into two 
 parts, each division became a perfect Hydra, and that the 
 same thing occurred if the creature were cut into forty pieces. 
 Further, he found that if one Hydra were taken, and, by 
 careful management, pulled into the inside of another, the two 
 became incorporated, or formed one body; and that the only
 
 ZOOPHYTES. 1 7 
 
 apparent difference, after the change had been effected, was 
 iu the increased number of teutacula which the animal ex- 
 hibited about the mouth. The metamorphoses of whicu the 
 Hydra was susceptible did not, however, end here. It might 
 be turned inside out, as if it were the finger of a gfove, so 
 that what was the skin would become the stomach, and what 
 had been the lining of the stomach would be converted into 
 the skin. Trembley relates the following circumstance. On 
 one occasion two Hydraa one stronger than the other had 
 seized a worm. Neither would let go its hold of the prey, 
 and each went on devouring it. At length, however, the 
 stronger Hydra made short work of it with his rival ; for he 
 not only swallowed the small worm, but his opponent also. 
 It might be supposed that this tragic occurrence put an end 
 to, at least, one of the combatants, but such was not the fact ; 
 for, after an hour or so, the smaller Hydra came forth unhurt. 
 The Hydra is perfectly naked, having no kind of shell nor 
 cover whatever, differing in this respect from the animals of 
 the next family (Tubulariadce). 
 
 Two species of Tnbnliiria, taken off the Irish coast, present 
 the appearance of a number of convoluted tubes, each sur- 
 mounted by a head of scarlet flowers, which the polype has 
 not the power of withdrawing into the tube. It is difficult 
 to convey an idea of the beauty of these sea-born blossoms, 
 when suddenly drawn up by the dredge from a depth of 
 several fathoms, each seeming petal indued with life, and 
 possessing a distinct power of motion. 
 
 It has been observed* that, when those animals were kept 
 in the same water for a day or two, the heads dropped off; 
 but, if the water was then changed, new heads appeared, so 
 that a succession of heads might be produced from one stem, 
 with this difference, however, that each new head would have 
 a smaller number of tentacula than the original one. The 
 young are produced by means of germs, and as soon as they 
 are endued with life they are observed to have rudiments of 
 tentacula, but they do not use them for the purpose for which 
 they are employed by the mature animal. It is an object on 
 which a great degree of providential care is bestowed, that 
 the young of marine animals should be widely diffused through 
 
 * By Sir J. D. Dalyell. Vide Dr. Johnston's " History of British 
 Zoophytes," from which valuable work most of our information has becu 
 derivwL 
 
 PAKT i. B
 
 18 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the sea, at a distance from the places where the parents 
 are fixed, and where they live and die. Were it not for 
 this wise arrangement, the locality would, in time, cease to 
 supply the conditions requisite for their existence, and the 
 species must perish. The young Tubulariae use the tenta- 
 cula as feet, and, by their aid, remove themselves to a fitting 
 distance from the locality of the parent. 
 
 The polypes of the third family (Sertulariadce*} resemble the 
 Hydra in shape, and are retractile within their cells. Their 
 common habitat or "polypidom"t assumes a tree-like aspect, 
 reminding us, in some species, of miniature ferns and other 
 vegetable productions. These are the corallines, whose fea- 
 thery tufts decorate the ex- 
 terior of the common Oys- 
 ter or Mussel to which they 
 are frequently attached. 
 
 The cells, numerous as 
 they are, are each inha- 
 bited by a polype, not as 
 a mere occupant of the 
 cell, and possessed of the 
 power of leaving it at plea- 
 sure, but forming, with the 
 cell, the stem, and the root, 
 one living mass. Each 
 polype is connected by a 
 thread with the medullary 
 matter in the centre of 
 each branch, and thus all 
 the parts are united into 
 a compound animal, fur- 
 nished with a multitude 
 of mouths; for each indi- 
 dual polype contributes, 
 by the food he takes, 
 to the nutriment of all. 
 This structure will be 
 easily understood by the magnified respresentation of one 
 of these animals given in Fig. 9. The repetition of any 
 
 * From sertulcr, a little nosegay, wreath, or chaplet of flowers. 
 t The term is applied to the horny sheath with which the soft body 
 of the polypes is invested. 
 
 Fig. 9 SKRTULAHIAN Z
 
 ZOOPHYTES. 1 9 
 
 organ is indicative of a comparatively low grade of organiza- 
 tion, and is found only in the lower divisions of the radiate 
 group. An example of this occurs in the numerous stomachs 
 of the polygastrica, and in the ova-producing segments of 
 the hody of one of the Entozoa. The multitude of hungry 
 mouths, each collecting food for the entire group, may be 
 regarded as another instance of the same kind of structure. 
 All the cells are not alike. Among them are some of a 
 larger size and different form, which, from their containing 
 the germs or ova, are termed "ovigerous vesicles." 
 
 The ova found in these vesicles are covered with hair-like 
 cilia, which have the power of vibrating continually. By 
 means of these, they are able to diffuse themselves over the 
 bottom of the sea, and to swim about for a day or two, until 
 they find a fitting place for their future habitation, and for 
 the establishment of new and populous colonies. When the 
 animal becomes fixed, it first spreads a little, so as to form 
 a secure base; next, cells are observed; then branches 
 teeming with their busy occupants are developed, and the 
 coralline assumes the form characteristic of the species. 
 
 Some calculations have been made respecting the number 
 of individual polypes contained in some of these structures. 
 A single plume of a species found upon our shores has been 
 estimated to contain 500. " A specimen of no unusual size 
 has twelve plumes; thus giving 6,000 polypes as the tenantry 
 of a single polypidom! Now, many such specimens, all uuited 
 too by a common fibre, and all the offshoots of one common 
 parent, are often located on one sea-weed; the site, then, of 
 a population which nor London nor Pekin can rival!* Witli 
 regard to the growth of these corallines, it has been observed 
 that the lower cells are developed soonest, and after a season 
 drop off altogether. But "there are facts which appear to 
 prove that the life of the individual polypes is even more 
 transitory; that like a blossom they bud and blow, and fall 
 off, or are absorbed, when another sprouts up from the me- 
 dullary pulp to occupy the very cell of its predecessor, and, 
 in its turn, to give way and be replaced by another."t 
 
 Many of these animals possess luminous properties. If 
 some of them, on the frond or broad-spreading leaf of a sea- 
 weed, are subjected to a sudden shock, they give out an 
 
 * Plumvlaria cristata. Johnston's Zoophytes, page 144. 
 f Idem, page 89.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 instantaneous flash a peculiarity alluded to by Crabbe, with 
 his usual minute accuracy: 
 
 '' See, as they float along, th' entangled weeds 
 Slowly approach upborne on bladdery beads: 
 Wait till they land, and you shall then behold 
 The fiery sparks those tangled fronds unfold 
 Myriads of living points; th' unaided eye 
 Can but the fire, and not the form, descry." 
 
 ORDER IL ASTEROIDA. 
 
 " We'll dive where the gardens of coral lie darkling, 
 And plant all the rosiest stems at thy head." MOORE. 
 
 THK animals of the present order are all marine. They are 
 never found singly, but in a com- 
 munity, forming altogether a polype- 
 mass, variable in form, strengthened 
 in different ways, and having on its 
 surface the cells in which the polypes 
 live, and which open on the surface 
 in a star-like figure, whence the order 
 takes its name (Fig. 10). 
 
 To this order belong the family of 
 Pennatulidse, or Sea-pens. One 
 species, taken in abundance on some 
 parts of the Irish coast, is the Vir- 
 gularia mirabilis, a name which 
 denotes the beauty and singularity of 
 its appearance, for it literally means 
 " wonderful little rod." It is dredged 
 from a muddy bottom, iu M-ater a 
 few fathoms deep, and comes up so 
 perfectly clean, that fishermen sup- 
 pose it stands erect at the bottom, 
 with one extremity fixed in the mud. 
 From the summit to the base of the 
 Virgularia runs a long white, cal- 
 careous substance an axis uniform 
 in thickness throughout. This is the 
 first instance which has as yet come 
 before us of an animal possessing 
 . the P wer of secreting calcareous
 
 ZOOPHYTES 
 
 21 
 
 matter; a power so remarkably developed in those polypes 
 which are the builders of the coral reefs. If one of the wing- 
 like expansions or " pinnae" of the Virgularia is injured, the 
 rest shrink as if all were hurt. The creature seems, however, 
 to possess no motion beyond that of the pinnae; nor, if put 
 into a glass of water, does it change its position. 
 
 To the same order belongs the group under which the 
 "Sea-fans" are included. The species most commonly 
 exhibited in museums is the Gorgonia flcibdlum, which has 
 occasionally been thrown ashore on different parts of the 
 coast of England and Scotland. As usually seen, the surface 
 consists of a hard calcareous material ; but originally this was 
 covered with an irritable living membrane, in the cells of which 
 the polypes lived. If the Sea-fan were formed throughout of 
 a hard, unyielding substance, it must be broken to pieces by 
 the waves; this danger is obviated by the central axis being 
 composed of concrete albumen, a substance resembling horn, 
 which bends under the force of streams and currents, and is 
 
 Fie. 11. RED CORAL.
 
 22 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 thus preserved. An American poet has referred to this with 
 equal beauty and accuracy, 
 
 " There, with a light and easy motion, 
 
 The Fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea; 
 And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean 
 Are bending like corn on the upland lea." 
 
 In another species (Isis hippuris) may be observed an 
 example of the varied but equally effective means by which 
 the same security is attained. Here the stem is composed in 
 part of a horny and in part of a calcareous substance, arranged 
 in alternate joints, and thus uniting strength and flexibility. 
 When recently taken, the stem is covered with one continuous 
 living membrane, in which are the polype-cells. The common 
 Red Coral resembles the Isis, in having a living rind in which 
 the polypes find shelter (Fig. 11). Inside of this is found 
 the calcareous substance known as the Red Coral of the 
 Mediterranean. Its growth is slow, and its short, stunted 
 stems require not, for their protection, the beautiful and 
 effectual contrivances exhibited in the Gorgonia and the Isis. 
 
 ORDER III. HELIANTHOIDA.* 
 " Seas have 
 
 As well as earth vines, roses, nettles, melons, 
 Mushrooms, pinks, gilliflowers, and many millions 
 < >f other plants, more rare, more strange, than these, 
 As very fishes, living in the seas." Du BARTAS. 
 
 THE name of the present order 
 denotes that the animals it in- 
 cludes bear a resemblance to such 
 flowers as the daisy, the marigold, 
 and others, which the botanist 
 terms "compound" (Fig. 12, 14). 
 The most common native species 
 are single, with a fleshy body, 
 live only in the sea, and have the 
 mouth encircled with tubular 
 tentacula. 
 
 Fig. 12. SBA-ANBMO.VK. The common Sea-anemone, 
 
 which is generally to be seen in the rock-pools round our 
 shores (Actinia mesembryanthemum), may be taken as a 
 * Like the Sun-flower.
 
 ZOOPHYTES. 23 
 
 familiar example, and one which will illustrate some 
 of the most striking structural peculiarities of the 
 order. 
 
 Viewed when the tide has receded, and the rocks are left 
 dry, the Actinias,* which adhere to them, appear as fleshy, 
 inert, hemispherical bodies, of an olive tinge, or of a liver- 
 coloured vermillion, the tint being variable. But when the 
 advancing tide has again covered them, they are roused to 
 more active life, unfold their tentacula, and present tho 
 appearance of expanded flowers, as describedby the poet : 
 
 " Meantimo, with fuller reach and stronger swell, 
 Wave after wave advanced ; 
 Each following billow lifted the last foam 
 That trembled on the sand with rainbow hues ; 
 The living flower that, rooted to the rock, 
 Late from the thinner element 
 Shrunk down within its purple stem to sleep, 
 Now feels the water, and again 
 Awakening, blossoms out 
 All its green anther necks." SOUTHET. 
 
 Though found attached to the rocks, they are n t fixed 
 there permanently, but can shift their place at pleasure. 
 Some species are used as food for man, and, when boiled in 
 sea-water, are saidtohaveboththesmellandtaste of Lobster. 
 They live upon small aquatic animals of every kind, includ- 
 ing Crustacea and shell-fish ; the hard and indigestible parts 
 being rejected by the mouth, about ten or twelve hours after 
 being swallowed. By the mouth, also, we have seen the 
 young Actinias expelled, as miniature representatives of 
 the parent, and furnished even then with minute tentacula. 
 By attention in changing the water and supplying the 
 necessary food, they can be kept alive for a considerable 
 period, under the observation of the naturalist. Sir John 
 G. Dalyell, of Edinburgh, has had one living under his 
 roof for a period of seventeen years, f They are said to 
 exhibit, under such circumstances, great sensibility of 
 atmospheric changes; so much so, indeed, that a French 
 philosopher J asserts that they might be of use as sea- 
 barometers ; and he describes, in detail, the manifestations 
 which indicate high winds and agitated waters, fair weather 
 and a calm sea, and their intermediate states. Perhaps, 
 however, no circumstance connected with these animals 
 is more remarkable than their power of bearing mutilation. 
 
 * The word literally means " a ray." 
 
 t This was in Aug., 1845 ; in 1848 it was still living and vigorous. 
 
 J Dicquemare quoted in Johnston's Zoophytes, page 225.
 
 24 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 If the tentaculabe destroyed, others are soon after formed. 
 If the animal be cut across into two distinct portions, the 
 upper part continues to take food as usual, though for a 
 time unable to retain it. If severed longitudinally, each 
 half becomes perfect, so that two Actinias are produced; 
 ray, if it be so destroyed that not a fragment is left except 
 a portion of the base, a fresh offspring is soon raised up 
 to fill the place of the parent. 
 
 The following characteristic occurrence is related by 
 Dr. Johnston: "I had once brought tome a specimen of 
 Actinia gemmacea, that might have been originally two 
 inches in diameter, and that had somehow contrived to 
 swallow a valve of Pecten maximus,* of the size of an 
 ordinary saucer. The shell fixed within the stomach was 
 so placed as to divide it completely into two halves, so that 
 the body, stretched tensely over, had become thin and 
 flattened like a pancake. All communication between the 
 inferior portion of the stomach and the mouth was of 
 course prevented; yet, instead of emaciating and dying of 
 atrophy, the animal had availed itself of what had un- 
 doubtedly been a very untoward accident to increase its 
 enjoyments and its chances of double fare. A new mouth, 
 furnished with two rows of nume- 
 rous tentacula, was opened up on 
 what had been the base, and led to 
 the under-stomach. The indivi- 
 dual had, indeed, become a sort cf 
 Siamese twin, but with greater in- 
 timacy and extent in its unions!" 
 
 Belonging to the same order, but 
 to a different family from the Sea- 
 anemones (Actiniidce), are the 
 Coral-building Polypes of tropical 
 ^^^ seas (Madrephyllicea), some of 
 
 i3.-CARYopHYii.iA. vhich have been taken in deep 
 water off the British ooast(ffy.l3). 
 Their structures have been the wonder of the navigator and 
 the theme of the poet; and while Science endeavours to 
 reveal the process by which they are upreared, she but 
 adduces another example that, under the dispensations of 
 Providence, the mightiest of works can be executed by 
 the weakest of agents. 
 
 The great extent of some of the coral reefs is very rc- 
 * The common Scallop,
 
 ZOOPHYTES. 25 
 
 markable. One on the east coast of New Holland is known 
 to be nearly 1000 miles in length, and unbroken for a 
 distance of 350 miles. Some groups in the Pacific are 
 1100 to 1200 in length, by 350 to 400 in breadth, and 
 these are not formed in an expanse of deep and tranquil 
 waters, but in the midst of an ocean which is ever breaking 
 upon the barrier which the little architects are silently 
 building in the midst of its uproar. 
 
 " The ocean," says Mr. Darwin, " throwing its breakers 
 on these outer shores, appears an invincible enemy; yet we 
 see it resisted, and even conquered, by means which seem 
 at first most weak and inefficient. No periods of repose are 
 granted, and the long swell caused by the steady action of 
 the trade-wind never ceases. The breakers exceed in 
 violence those of our temperate regions; and it is impos- 
 sible to behold them without feeling a conviction that 
 rocks of granite or quartz would ultimately yield and be 
 demolished by such irresistible forces. Yet these low, in- 
 significant coral islets stand, and are victorious ; for here 
 another power, as antagonist to the former, takes part in 
 the contest. The organic forces separate the atoms of 
 carbonate of lime one by one from the foaming breakers, 
 and unite them into a symmetrical structure ; myriads of 
 architects are at work day and night, month after month, 
 and we see their soft and gelatinous bodies, through the 
 agency of the vital laws, conquering the great mechanical 
 power of the waves of an ocean which neither the art of man 
 northeinanimate works of Nature could successfully resist." 
 
 It was formerly supposed that the coral-building polypes 
 worked in unfathomable depths, and in the course of ages 
 reared their pile to the surface of the water ; and it was also 
 conjectured that the oval or circular form of the Lagoon 
 islandsmightbecaused by their being based upon the craters 
 of extinct submarine volcanoes. Both these hypotheses are 
 now abandoned. Recent and widely-extended observations 
 have led to the conclusion that all the phenomena attending 
 the growth and structure of coral reefs may be explained 
 by reference to the combined operation of three causes: 
 
 1st, That the species of polypes most efficient as coral- 
 builders, work only at limited depths, not exceeding 
 twenty or thirty fathoms.* 
 
 * This may seem at variance with the fact, that in the immediate 
 vicinity of some of tae Coral islands, the sea is of great, and sometimes
 
 26 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 2d, That in the Pacific and Indian oceans are tracts 
 where a gradual subsidence of the bottom of the sea is 
 going on ; and 
 
 3d, That the Polypes work most efficiently at the 
 outer edge of the reef, where the water is the purest and 
 best aerated, and where their food is most abundant. 
 
 To enter into further details upon this subject would 
 here be out of place. But this brief notice of the labours of 
 Coral-building Polypes cannot receive a more appropriate 
 close than that which has been furnished by the poet : 
 
 'Millions of millions thus, from age to age, 
 
 With simplest skill and toil unweariable, 
 
 No moment and no movement unimproved, 
 
 Laid line on line, on terrace terrace spread, 
 
 To swell the heightening, brightening, gradual mound, 
 
 By marvellous structure climbing tovv'rd the daj. 
 -" y Each wrought alone, yet all together wrought. 
 ' Unconscious, not unworthy instruments, 
 
 By which a hand invisible was rearing 
 
 A new creation in the secret deep. 
 
 Omnipotence wrought in them, with them, by them ; 
 
 Hence what Omnipotence alone could do 
 
 Worms did. I saw the living pile ascend, 
 
 The mausoleum of its architects, 
 
 Still dying upwards as their labours closed : 
 
 Slime the material, but the slime was turned 
 
 To adamant by their petritic touch ; 
 
 Frail were their frames, ephemeral their lives, 
 
 Their masonry imperishable." MONTG )MERY'sPuLiCAN ISLAND. 
 
 of unfathomable depth. But if, according to Mr. Darwin's theory, the 
 polypes began originally to build at moderate depths, and the founda- 
 tions of their structure were gradually carried downwards by the pro- 
 longed subsidence of the bottom of the sea, it is obvious, from his state- 
 ments, that the ceaseless labours of the polypes are capable, in the 
 lapse of time, of producing all the phenomena described. Vide Darwin's 
 interesting work on the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, 
 and an able analysis of his theory in Lyell's Principles of Geol., vol. iii. 
 
 Fig. 14. SB* ANEiioM
 
 ZOOPHTTES. 
 
 27 
 
 ORDEK IV. ASCIDIOIDA. 
 
 THERE is among the molluscous or soft-bodied animals, which 
 in popular language are known as "shell-fish," a numerous 
 order in which the animals are covered, not with calcareous 
 shells, but with a soft membranous covering or tunic, and 
 are hence called tunicated mollusca. Among them is a genus 
 bearing the name of "Ascidia," one species of which is 
 everywhere abundant round our coast. To this the Zoophytes 
 of the present order bear such resemblance in structure, tliat 
 the name "Ascidioida" is employed to denote the likeness.* 
 
 Fig. 15. FtfM ATT.LI A. a, natural size. J, a group, magnified. 
 
 These Polypes are not separated, but aggregated; their 
 polypidoms are very variable, both in form and in material; 
 sometimes enamelling with delicate net-work the frond of a 
 seaweed or the exterior of a bivalve shell, at others rising 
 into the aspect of miniature plants, or broad leaf-like expansions. 
 They are furnished with distinct orifices for the reception of 
 food, and for throwing off its undigested remains (Fig. 15). 
 Round the mouth is a circle of retractile tentacula covered with 
 
 *May, 18- r >4. Recent Investigat: ans have shown that this is not a mere 
 resemblance, but a real affinity that they are formed on the true molluscan 
 type, and should be placed with the Mollusca Tunicata.
 
 28 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 cilia, from which circumstance the order has been aptly termed 
 " ciliobrachiata." These cilia are " contrived a double debt 
 to pay," for they not only create currents which bring their 
 food within the reach of the Polypes, but they are organs of 
 respiration, and find in the aerated water which surrounds 
 them the means of fulfilling their appointed functions. 
 
 To this class of Zoophytes belong the " Sea-mats ;" or, to 
 use a more scientific term, the species of the genus "flustra," 
 a word derived from the Saxon, and signifying to weave. 
 Some of these encrust shells or seaweed, others present a 
 foliated appearance of a determinate *pattern. They furnish 
 another example of the great abundance of animal life in some 
 of the lower tribes. Though not thicker than common letter- 
 paper, they exhibit, either on one or both sides, successive 
 rows of cells, each of which has been occupied by its owu 
 inhabitant. In one species found on the Irish coast, and with 
 cells upon one side only, Dr. Grant calculates "there are 
 more than eighteen cells in a square line, or 1,800 in a square 
 inch of surface, and the branches of an ordinary specimen 
 present about ten square inches of surface ; so that a common 
 specimen of Flustra carbasea presents more than 1 8,000 polypi, 
 3915.000 tentacula, and 39,600,000 cilia," 
 
 The spectacle presented by one of these polypidoms, when 
 in a saucer containing sea-water, and placed under the micro- 
 scope, is full of interest. Whether the animals lie in a state 
 of repose, or with the tentacula expanded and in full activity, 
 their aspect and motions are all indicative of happiness. This 
 conviction enhances the pleasure with which we regard them; 
 for truly has the poet said, 
 
 " The heart is hard in nature 
 
 that is not pleased 
 
 With sight of animals enjoying life, 
 
 Nor feels their happiness augment his own." COWPER. 
 
 To the scientific zoologist, it is highly instructive to con- 
 template the affinities which connect these Polypes with 
 creatures so highly organised as the Mollusca. Many similar 
 examples occur in his researches, linking together in close 
 relationship beings which are widely severed in his classifi- 
 cation, and showing that " the chain of beings" of which the 
 poet has sung has no real existence in nature.
 
 CLASS RADIARIA, OR RAYED ANIMALS. 
 
 "The firmament 
 
 \Vas thronged with constellations, and the sea 
 Strewn with their images." JAMES MONTGOMERY. 
 
 Fig. 16. SxiR-Fisir. 
 
 WE have now reached the fourth, or highest class of the 
 radiated animals. In these the radiated structure is not con- 
 fined to the nervous system, or to the arrangement of the 
 parts surrounding the mouth: it extends to the form of the 
 body, and is strikingly manifested in the common Jelly-fish, 
 or in any one of the various Star-fishes (Fig. 16) so abundant 
 on our coast. The two examples just mentioned point to an 
 obvious and very natural division of the class. The soft and 
 gelatinous tribes belong to a group of animals whose domain 
 is the wide and open sea; the Star-fish and the Sea-urchin, to 
 a community whose members feed upon garbage and shell-fish, 
 at fathomable depths. The integument or covering of each of 
 these groups of animals is suited to the situation which they 
 are destined to occupy. That of the gelatinous Radiaria is 
 soft and membrauous; that of the other is hard, coriaceous, 
 and prickly; thus furnishing a defence against the perils 
 which those species must encounter whose habitat is on 
 coasts exposed to the violence of the ocean. To the former 
 of these two groups, distinguished, because of their stinging 
 powers, by the term Acalephce, a Greek word signifying 
 nettles, our attention may in the first instance be directed.
 
 30 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 ORDER ACALEPHJ:, OR SEA-NETTLES. 
 
 " Awhile to wait upon the firm fair sand, 
 When all is calm at sea, all still at land ; 
 And these the ocean's produce to explore, 
 As floating by, or rolling on the shore; 
 Those living jellies which the flesh inflame, 
 Fierce as a nettle and from that its name; 
 Some in huge masses, some that you 'may bring 
 In the small compass of a lady's ring; 
 Figured by hand Divine there's not a gem 
 Wrought by man's art to be compared to them; 
 Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow, 
 And make the moonbeam brighter where they flow." CKARBE. 
 
 There is much in the structure of these creatures to excite 
 
 our surprise. Their 
 frail and gelatinous 
 bodies (Fig. 1 7) seem 
 little else than a mass 
 of vivified sea-water. 
 or some analogous 
 fluid; " For," says 
 Professor Owen, * 
 "let this fluid part of 
 a large Medusa, which 
 may weigh two 
 pounds when recently 
 removed from the 
 sea, drain from the 
 solid parts of the 
 body, and these, when 
 dried, will be repre- 
 sented by a thin film 
 of membrane, not ex- 
 ceeding thirty grains 
 in weight." They 
 baffle the skill of the 
 Fig. 17. PELAOIA. anatomist by the very 
 
 simplicity of their structure. Feeble as they appear, fishes 
 
 Lectures on the Anatomy of the Invertebrate Animals, p. 102. 
 Tt is to this work we refer in cases where we merely give the name of 
 iu distinguished author, without special mention of some one of his other 
 numerous contributions to science.
 
 RADIARIA. 31 
 
 and Crustacea are quickly dissolved in their stomachs. The 
 organism of their stinging power is yet but imperfectly 
 understood, and the luminosity which many species possess 
 equally demands investigation. They are found in all seas, 
 and please the eye, both by their glassy transparency and by 
 their brilliant hues. 
 
 To the different species of Acalephse, as to those of other 
 animals, whether inhabitants of the land or of the water, there 
 is allotted a certain range of geographical distribution. They 
 are known within certain boundaries, and beyond these they 
 are rarely found. Now and then, indeed, the winds and the 
 currents bring to our shores marine animals, the inhabitants 
 of warmer climates; and such are, of course, objects of 
 extreme interest to the naturalist. 
 
 Some of these may here be mentioned, because they exem- 
 plify the great variety of aspect which species belonging to 
 the present division assume, and afford examples of some of 
 its most remarkable famib'es. 
 
 In 18.38, an animal (Diphya elongata*) not previously 
 known as an inhabitant of European seas, was captured in 
 Belfast Bay. Its length was about an inch and a half, and 
 its transparency such that the eye could scarcely detect its 
 presence, when the creature was swimming about in a vessel 
 of sea- water. The most remarkable peculiarity in its structure 
 seems to be the facility with which it divides into two parts, 
 each of which continues to exercise powers of voluntary 
 motion, leaving the spectator in doubt whether he is more 
 correct in saying, that it is one animal which easily separates 
 into two, or two animals usually found conjoined in one. 
 
 Another inhabitant of the seas of warmer latitudes is the 
 Physalia, or Portuguese Man-of-war, fleets of which are some- 
 times wrecked upon our southern shores. It exhibits a crest 
 which rises above the surface of the sea, and is enriched with 
 tints of the richest blue and purple. 
 
 Sometimes it happens that the sea of our northern shores 
 is enlivened by the mimic fleets of another navigator, the little 
 Velella. On a bluish oval disc it exhibits a snowy, cartila- 
 ginous crest, fixed obliquely across, which has been compared to 
 the lateen-sail of the Malay boatmen. Thus propelled, the 
 
 " Hyndraan in Annals of Nat. Hist vol. vii. page 164.
 
 32 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 living squadrons of this little mariner (Fig. 1 8), have been 
 observed while passing the picturesque headlands of the 
 Giant's Causeway, or the basaltic bulwarks of the harbour of 
 Ballycastle, on the coast of the County Antrim. 
 
 FIG. 18. VKLELLA. 
 
 Upon the southern shores it is, however, of more frequent 
 occurrence. There the specimen was taken of which, by the 
 kindness of Professor Allman, we are enabled to give a figure 
 of the natural size. The original drawing by that gentleman 
 was from a living Velella, respecting which he remarks: 
 " The individual who sat, or rather Jloated, for his likeness, 
 was one of a fleet of countless multitudes, which, in the 
 Autumn of 1836, was driven upon the coast of the County 
 of Cork. On the subsidence of the gale, which had been 
 blowing strongly from the south-west, the coast for miles 
 round was strewn with the remains of the shipwrecked fleet" 
 
 The occurrence of species such as those mentioned. is rare; 
 and it is, therefore, desirable to convey some knowledge of 
 the structure and habits of the Acalephse, not by those which 
 may seldom or perhaps never be observed by the generality 
 of men, but by those which are abundant on our shores, and 
 may be seen and studied by all. 
 
 If, during the fine weather of summer or autumn, a gauze 
 towing-net be attached to a boat which is rowed gently along, 
 it is probable that, if the net be examined after a short time, 
 there will be fuund among its contents some transparent 
 bodies, differing in size, but in general about as large as a 
 boy's marble. Externally they exhibit ridges like those of a
 
 BEROES. 
 
 33 
 
 melon, and are in form not unlike an orange or an apple, from 
 which circumstance they take their specific name .(Cydippe 
 pomiformis, Fig. 19).* If gently lifted from the net, and 
 placed in a glass of sea-water, the little animals will begin to 
 move by means of eight bands of vibratile cilia, which extend 
 
 Fio. !!>. CYDIPPE. 
 
 from the tipper to the lower extremity of the body. From 
 this peculiar mode of locomotion, they are termed ciliogrades, 
 and constitute a family which is distinguished by the classic 
 appellation of Beroe, from one of the fabled sea-nymphs. 
 
 Specimens of the Cydippe, when recently taken, form most 
 attractive objects, even to the unscientific. Their cilia, which 
 act like so many little paddles on the water, produce a beau- 
 tiful iridescence, and suggest, as not inapplicable, the language 
 of the poet, 
 
 -" Gay creatures of the element, 
 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live." MILTON. 
 
 Their movements are incessant and ever- varying. The little 
 animals can rise or fall at pleasure, executing, as they move 
 up and down, a whole series of gyrations ; or without actual 
 
 * Transactions of Royal Irish Academy, rol. xix. p. 91. 
 
 PAET I.
 
 34 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 change of place, can perform with rapidity and ease a rotation 
 which would put to shame the most finished pirouettes of the 
 opera-dancer. During these movements the form of the body 
 is not uufrequently altered, and the lobes of the mouth become 
 more or less distended. These diversified aspects are further 
 increased by the distension or the retraction of two tentacula, 
 furnished on one side with cirri, which are sometimes spread 
 out like delicate hairs, and, at others, are spirally convoluted. 
 By these singular organs the little Beroe can attach itself to 
 the sides or bottom of its glassy prison, and ride, as if at 
 anchor, moored by these singular and delicate cables. 
 
 Its food appears to consist of small Crustacea,* which may 
 be seen in the transparent stomach for some time after being 
 swallowed. Insensibility to pain, and a continuance of vitality 
 for a long period in mutfJated parts, seem to prevail in this, as 
 in some of the other animals already mentioned. When, after 
 a storm, Beroes are taken in a shattered condition, each 
 fragment of their body continues the action of its cilia unim- 
 paired. On one occasion, the author severed one of these 
 fragments into portions so minute, that one piece of skin had 
 but two cilia remaining attached to i* ; yet the vibration of 
 these organs continued for nearly a couple of days afterwards. 
 On another occasion, a species of Medusa or small jelly-fish, 
 which was furnished with four arms, came in contact with a 
 Cydippe confined in the same glass; the arms immediately 
 closed, and the Cydippe was a prisoner. The diameter of the 
 Medusa was not much greater than that of a sixpence; but 
 it maintained its hold, though we endeavoured to liberate the 
 captive by pushing its conqueror with the stick of a camel-hair 
 pencil. When, at length, it had regained its liberty, the 
 Medusa was found to have cut away a piece fully equal to the 
 one-third of that side it had seized, or a sixth of the entire 
 bulk of the body; yet the Beroe seemed quite unconscious of 
 this mutilation, and did not evince any diminution of its 
 activity or its enjoyment 
 
 It is one of the advantages of natural history pursuits, that 
 they furnish occupation and enjoyment when, from recent 
 indisposition or other causes, either mind or body is unfit for 
 
 * We saw them, in May, 1 835, feeding on two species then nndescribed. 
 One of these was the Anomalocera PtUteraonii, described and figured by 
 Tmpleton in the Trans, of the Entomological Society, vol. ii.
 
 MEDUS-* OB JELLY-FISH. 35 
 
 laborious exertion. At such a period, in a retired locality on 
 the Antrim coast> the ever-graceful Beroes first attracted our 
 attention, and made the summer day seem too short for the 
 inquiries and researches which they suggested. 
 
 A species larger than the Cydippe, and different in form, is 
 also generally diffused round our coast. Its occurrence is more 
 rare, yet it sometimes appears in such abundance, that in 
 Bangor Bay, County Down, we took, on one occasion, one 
 hundred aiid thirty of them in twenty-five minutes. Its body 
 is more fragile, its movements less active, and it is furnished 
 with four ear-like appendages, which are ever changing in 
 their form. When the water in which it is kept is shaken at 
 night, or in a dark place, splendid coruscations, of a beautiful 
 greenish light, are emitted, especially under the several bands 
 of cilia. On one occasion we placed some specimens of this 
 species (Bolina Hibernica)* in a jar on the chimney-piece, 
 and so transparent were the bodies, that the blossoms of some 
 flowers which were also there were distinctly seen through 
 them. It was impossible to look upon these bright-tinted 
 blossoms of earth, and on those colourless, yet not less delicate 
 children of ocean, and not feel that both must have enjoyed 
 the guardianship of Him from whom all their loveliness was 
 derived; that He who had for ages preserved the flowers 
 from perishing by frost, or wind, or rain, had likewise saved 
 the Beroes from destruction, amid the wild tempests of the 
 ocean. 
 
 The other great division of the Acalephae is that to which 
 the jelly-fish, which is so abundantly strewed upon the beach 
 during the summer months, belongs. This group is divided 
 into many genera, comprising about three hundred species. 
 Some are furnished with a central peduncle, and resemble a 
 mushroom with its stalk; others have its place supplied by 
 prehensile arms; some have one simple central mouth, in 
 others both its structure and position are different; in some 
 the margin is furnished with long contractile tentacula, whence 
 the well-known stinging secretion is supplied; in others, this 
 formidable apparatus is altogether wanting. These differences, 
 which are easily observable, enable the naturalist to classify 
 the gelatinous Meduste, for such is their collective appellation. 
 
 Their locomotion is effected by the contraction and expansion 
 
 * Trans. R. I. Academy, vol. xix. p. 156.
 
 36 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 of the outer margin of the disc, the animal striking the water 
 in the opposite direction to that in which it is moving. The 
 motion is easy and graceful, admitting of progress in any 
 direction. The lower surface of the disc is covered with a 
 delicate net- work of vessels, in which the circulating fluids are 
 exposed to the oxygen contained in the sea-water. Each 
 contraction of the margin, therefore, not only impels the 
 animal in its course, but assists in the process of respiration; 
 and, as the moving and the breathing are thus dependent on 
 the performance of the same act, the term pulmonigrades* 
 has been applied to these animals; a term no less descriptive 
 than that of "ciliogrades," which, as already mentioned, has 
 been bestowed upon the preceding group. 
 
 The Medusae differ extremely in size. Some are occa- 
 sionally thrown upon our coast which are as large as a good- 
 sized umbrella. While writing these pages, we have before 
 us, in a jar of sea-water, several which are not larger than 
 peas, and some which scarcely exceed in dimensions the 
 head of a large-sized pin. 
 
 Some species are adorned with brilliant colours, and equal 
 in the richness of their hues the brightest of our garden 
 flowers. When, from a small boat, they are beheld rising 
 and falling at pleasure, in a glassy and transparent sea, and 
 occasionally turning over in the apparent exuberance of en- 
 joyment, they are so very attractive as to excite the as- 
 tonishment of the child, while 
 they furnish matter for the 
 contemplation of the na- 
 turalist. 
 
 Considerable variety pre- 
 vails in the organs for the re- 
 ception and assimilation of the 
 food. In the genus Rhizos- 
 toma (Fig. 20), the arms or 
 peduncles which hang down 
 from the lower surface of the 
 umbrella-shaped disc, are 
 furnished at their extremity 
 
 Fig. M. RuTzotroMA. with a multitude of pores. 
 
 By these, the minute animalcules, or the juices of decaying 
 
 Pulmo, a lung; and gradior, I walk, or advance.
 
 MEDUSA OR JELLY-FISH. 37 
 
 animal substances of larger dimensions, are imbibed, and form 
 the nutriment of the animal. In the genus Cyanea. which is 
 so extremely abundant on our coast, the food is taken by one 
 four-lipped mouth, and is of a coarser kind, consisting prin- 
 cipally of Crustacea and small fishes. A provision for throwing 
 off the undigested portions is therefore required, and we ac- 
 cordingly find that no less than eight canals lead from the 
 centre of the disc to the outer margin, and are appropriated 
 exclusively to this use; an apparatus which, in the other 
 genus, was not wanted, and which, accordingly, had no 
 existence. 
 
 To the minute and laborious researches of modern natu- 
 ralists, we are indebted for a knowledge of the fact, that the 
 sexes in these animals are separate, and that the ova, or eggs, 
 undergo a singular and highly interesting series of trans- 
 formations before assuming the likeness of the parent. 
 
 The species of Medusa most abundant on our coasts during 
 the early part of the summer (Cyanea aurita) is well known 
 by the four conspicuous lunar or heart-shaped figures which 
 it exhibits. These are of a pinkish or purplish colour, and 
 are, in fact, the ovaries. Four pouches are observed on the 
 lower surface of the body. To these the young, at a certain 
 period, are transferred from the ovaries, and undergo a 
 species of development analogous to that of the young qua- 
 drupeds of Australia in the marsupial pouch of the mother. 
 After changes in their size and colour, they exhibit a change 
 of form, become clothed with vibratile cilia, and, leaving the 
 maternal pouch, swim freely about, the larger extremity being 
 ahvays in advance (Fig. 21). The little creature soon at- 
 
 21. 22. 23. 24. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEDUSJE. 
 
 taches itself to some fixed object (Fig. 22), and four arms 
 appear, surrounding a central mouth (Fig. 23). The arms 
 lengthen, four additional ones are developed, all are highly con- 
 tractile, covered with cilia, and actively employed in the capture
 
 38 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 of food. The number of these arms increases until it reaches 
 twenty-four or thirty; and the body, originally about the size 
 of a grain of sand, becomes a line, or the twelfth part of an 
 inch in length. The animal, in its free state, swims about in 
 the manner of the Polygastric animalcules ; in its present con- 
 dition, it presents an analogy to the habits of the Rotifera. 
 Daring the winter months, it remains in security, " where the 
 waves have no strife," and even throws out germs, or buds, 
 which in time become perfect Medusae (Fig. 24). But, with 
 the approach of spring, the body becomes marked with trans- 
 verse lines (Fig. 25), which gradually assume a wrinkled or 
 furrowed appearance. These furrows become deeper, dividing 
 .the body into from ten to fifteen distiuct portions, which, for 
 a time, remain in contact, but without organic connexion, 
 " like piled-np cups"* Fig. 26). After complete separation, 
 
 . 91. 96. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT or THE MBDFSJB. 
 
 each part swims freely about, presenting an appearance so 
 unique, that the young, in this state, has been figured and 
 described as belonging to a new genus (Fig. 27). 
 
 The last change observable is its putting on the appearance 
 of the perfect animal, and under the influence of the sun, the 
 waves, and the currents, becoming a mature Medusa. " We 
 thus see," says Professor Owen, "that a Medusa may actually 
 be generated three successive times, and by as many distinct 
 modes of generation by fertile ova, by gemmation, and by 
 spontaneous fission before attaining its mature condition." 
 
 Our admiration of the various functions performed by the 
 
 * Such is the expression employed by Steenstrup in his Memoir " on 
 the Alternation of Generations;" published by the Ray Society, 1815 
 The facts and illustrations we pive on the authority of Steenstrup, Sars 
 and other distinguished naturalists.
 
 MEDUSJE OR JELLY-FISH. 39 
 
 Acalephae is much increased when we reflect upon the ex- 
 tremely small quantity of solid matter which enters into their 
 composition. This fact admits of easy illustration, both in 
 the Beroes and in the Medusae. 
 
 On one occasion we took a dead Cydippe, and placing it 
 on a piece of glass, exposed it to the sun. As the moisture 
 evaporated, the different parts appeared as if confusedly 
 painted on the glass, and when it was become perfectly dry, 
 a touch removed the only vestiges of what had been so lately 
 a graceful and animated being. 
 
 With regard to the Medusae, we may mention an anecdote 
 which we learned from an eminent zoologist, now a professor 
 in one of the English universities. He had, a few years ago, 
 been delivering some zoological lectures in a seaport town in 
 Scotland, hi the course of which he had adverted to some of 
 the most remarkable points in the economy of the Acalephse. 
 After the lecture, a farmer who had been present came forward, 
 and inquired if he had understood him correctly, as having 
 stated that the Medusae contained so little of solid material, 
 that they might be regarded as little else than a mass of ani- 
 mated sea- water? On being answered in the affirmative, he 
 remarked that it would have saved him many a pound had 
 he known that sooner, for he had been in the habit of employ- 
 ing his men and horses in carting away large quantities of 
 jelly-fish from the shore, and using them as manure on his 
 farm, and he now believed they could have been of little more 
 real use than an equal weight of sea-water. Assuming that 
 so much as one ton weight of Medusas recently thrown on the 
 beach had been carted away in one load, it will be found that, 
 according to the experiments of Professor Owen already men- 
 tioned,* the entire quantity of solid material would be only 
 about four pounds of avoirdupois weight, an amount of solid 
 material which, if compressed, the farmer might, with ease, 
 have earned home in one of his coat pockets 1 
 
 Perhaps there is no circumstance connected with this class 
 of animals more attractive or more remarkable than the power 
 they possess of emitting a beautiful phosphorescent light; 
 and, in some of the larger Medusae, this is of such intensity, 
 that they have been compared to balls of fire suspended in 
 the water. 
 
 * Vide ante, page 30
 
 40 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 To those who delight in the contemplation of such pheno- 
 mena, it affords high gratification to observe from a boat, on 
 a calm night, the effulgence which these creatures shed over 
 the depths below. We have always, at such times, been re- 
 minded of the wild and beautiful lines of Coleridge: 
 
 " Beyond the shadow of the ship 
 
 I watched the water-snakes ; 
 They moved in tracks of shining white, 
 And when they reared, the elfish light 
 
 Fell off in hoary flakes. 
 
 " Within the shadow of the ship 
 I watched their rich attire : 
 Blue, glossy green, and velvet black; 
 They coiled and swam, and every track 
 Was a flash of golden fire. 
 
 " happy living things ! no tongue 
 
 Their beauty might declare : 
 A spring of love gushed from my heart, 
 And I blessed them unaware." 
 
 Professor Rjmer Jones, in speaking of the luminosity of 
 the ocean, which is principally owing to the Acalephae, 
 remarks: " We have more than once witnessed this pheno- 
 menon in the Mediterranean, and the contemplation of it is 
 well calculated to impress the mind with a consciousness of 
 the profusion of living beings existing around us. The light 
 is not constant, but only emitted when agitation of any kind 
 disturbs the microscopic Medusae which crowd the surface of 
 the ocean ; a passing breeze, as it sweeps over the tranquil 
 bosom of the sea, will call from the waves a flash of brilliancy 
 which may be traced for miles ; the wake of a ship is marked 
 by a long track of splendour; the oars of your boat are raised 
 dripping with living diamonds ; and if a little of the water be 
 taken up in the palm of the hand, and slightly agitated, 
 luminous points are perceptibly diffused through it, which 
 emanate from innumerable little Acalephse, scarcely perceptible 
 without the assistance of a microscope. All, however, are 
 not equally minute ; the Beroe's, in which the cilia would seem 
 to be most vividly phosphorescent, are of considerable size ; 
 the Cestum Veneris, as it glides rapidly along, has the ap- 
 pearance of an undulating ribbon of flame several feet in 
 length; and many of the larger Pulmonigrade forms shine 
 with such dazzling brightness, that they have been described
 
 MEDUS.E OR JELLY-FISH. 4 1 
 
 by navigators as resembling ' white-hot shot,' visible at some 
 depth beneath the surface." * 
 
 The phenomenon is not, however, confined to warmer lati- 
 tudes. Sir Walter Scott, in his " Lord of the Isles," has de- 
 scribed it in our own seas: 
 
 "Awaked before the rushing prow, 
 The mimic fires of ocean glow, 
 
 Those lightnings of the wave ; 
 Wild sparkles crest the broken tides, 
 , And, flashing round the vessel's sides, 
 
 With elfish lustre lave, 
 While, far behind, their livid light 
 To the dark billows of the night 
 A gloomy splendour gave/' 
 
 The power of emitting light is possessed by several species 
 of marine animals, among the Polypes, Annelids, Crustacea, 
 and Mollusca. It was formerly a question, to what cause the 
 luminosity of the sea was to be attributed ? By some philo- 
 sophers it was supposed to be owing to the decay of animal 
 substances which it contained; while others conjectured that 
 it arose from a kind of electricity peculiar to itself. These 
 hypotheses arc now abandoned, and it is generally admitted, 
 that the phosphorescence of the sea is owing to that of its 
 living inhabitants, more especially of those which belong to 
 the present order; and it has been found, that the species of 
 Medusas most instrumental in producing the luminosity of the 
 ocean, are those which are the most minute. 
 
 Perhaps no writer has succeeded in giving a clearer idea of 
 the myriads of small Medusae with which great tracts of the 
 sea are peopled, than Scoresby. On examining a bucket of 
 the olive-green water of the Greenland sea, he found its pe- 
 culiar colour was owing to the multitude of minute Medusa; 
 which it contained. "They were about the one-fourth of an 
 inch asunder. In this proportion, a cubic inch of water 
 must contain 64; a cubic foot, 110,592; a cubic fathom, 
 23,887,872; and a cubical mile, 23,888,000,000,000,0001" 
 " Provided the depth to which they extend be but 250 fathoms, 
 the above immense number of one species may occur in a 
 space of two miles square. It may give a better conception 
 of the amount of Medusas in this extent if we calculate the 
 
 * Outline of the Animal Kingdom, page 77.
 
 42 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 length of time that would be requisite, with a certain number 
 of persons, for counting this number. Allowing that one 
 person could count a million in seven days, which is barely 
 possible, it would have required that 80,000 persons could 
 have started at the creation of the world, to complete the 
 enumeration at the present time I" 
 
 " What a stupendous idea this fact gives of the immensity 
 of creation, and of the bounty of Divine Providence in furnish- 
 ing such a profusion of life, in a region so remote from the 
 habitations of men 1 But if the number of animals in a space 
 of two miles square be so great, what must be the amount 
 requisite for the discolouration of the sea, through the extent 
 of perhaps twenty or thirty thousand square miles?" * Even 
 if the learned author, from whom this extract is taken, should 
 prove to be incorrect in his supposition as to the depth to 
 which the Medusae extend, the spirit of his argument would 
 remain unshaken. His observations prove, that they people, 
 in countless multitudes, tracts of ocean which, without them, 
 would be uninhabited, thus filling its vast expanse with life, 
 and with the enjoyment by which life is accompanied; while, 
 at the same time, they furnish an inexhaustible supply of food 
 to whales and other cetacea, and many of the less bulky in- 
 habitants of the deep. Thus, minute though they are, they 
 indirectly contribute to the welfare of man, and exercise an 
 influence on his social relations. 
 
 CLASS RADIARIA CONTINUED. 
 ORDER ECHINODERMATA, OR STAR-FISHES. 
 
 " As there are stars in the sky, so there are stars in the sea." LINK. 
 
 THE second great division of the rayed animals comprises all 
 those which have a hard coriaceous integument (Fig. 28), 
 covered, in some species, with prickles like those of the 
 hedgehog. The word "Echinus" means hedgehog; the 
 word " derma," a coat or covering. Hence the compound 
 word " Echinodermata" is an appropriate and characteristic 
 
 ' Scoresby's Arctic Regions, vol. i. page 179.
 
 STAK -FISHES. 
 
 43 
 
 term, as applied to all those creatures whose integument is 
 coriaceous or prickly. 
 
 The Echinodermata exhibit, in many respects, an entire 
 contrast to the Acalepha;. That of their covering is obvious 
 to the most cursory observer; that of then- internal structure 
 is not less remarkable. The anatomist is baffled by the 
 seeming simplicity and uniformity of texture in the gelatinous 
 
 Fig. 28 STAR-FISH. 
 
 Radiaries; in the harder, or spine-clad species, the extreme 
 complexity and diversity of their constituent parts is found to 
 be no less perplexing.* 
 
 All the animals of this class are marine, and in their adult 
 state move freely about. The sexes are distinct, and the 
 young are produced from ova, which, in a certain stage of 
 their development, become covered with minute cilia. They 
 then come forth as ciliated gemmules, are diffused over the 
 bottom of the sea, and undergo a series of transformations 
 analagous to those described in the Medusae. The observations 
 of a Norwegian naturalist f have made us aware of an interest- 
 
 * Owen, page 112. 
 
 f Sars, vide Annals Nat. Hist. Oct 1844, page 233, and plate IIL
 
 44 INTRODUCTION TO ZOO LOOT. 
 
 ing fact respecting the maternal solicitude evinced in a species 
 of Star-fish, found upon our own shores (Cribdla oculata, 
 Fig. 29). The mother, by bending the arms and the lower 
 surface of the body, forms a receptacle which, in its uses, 
 may be compared to that of the marsupial animals, or to the 
 pouches of the Medusae. Here 
 the ova are hatched ; and for the 
 space of eleven successive days, 
 during which this process is going 
 on, the female Star-fish has re- 
 mained in the same recurved 
 ~ *., r-., and contracted state, and without 
 
 r lg -J. . i ED v/RIBELLA. 
 
 the possibility of taking nourish- 
 ment during that period. "We do not, at present, know any 
 other example of an animal voluntarily forming a receptacle 
 for the development of its young exterior to its own body, 
 and enduring the privations consequent upon such a pro- 
 cedure. 
 
 In this group, we find animals of extremely dissimilar 
 appearance associated together. One species is attached for 
 a certain period to a stem, and resembles a Polype with its 
 waving and Sensitive arms. In the common Star-fish, or 
 "five-fingers," we have the arms radiating from a common 
 centre. In the Sea-urchins, there are no arms, and the form 
 of the body is globular, and, passing over some intermediate 
 gradations of figure, we reach creatures which, in external 
 aspect, resemble worms, and have even been classed as such. 
 At one extremity of the range, the Echinodermata remind us 
 of Polypes creatures of inferior organization; at the other 
 extremity, they approach the annulose * animals, whose struc- 
 ture is of a higher grade. Those occupying the centre of the 
 group may be regarded, therefore, as the types or represen- 
 tatives of the class. 
 
 In Professor Forbes' " Histoiy of the British Star-fishes, "f 
 the entire class is divided into six families. The first of these 
 includes those animals which, in a fossil state, are known as 
 
 * A term derived from annulut, a ring, and applied to animals which 
 like the Earth-worm are composed of a succession of rings. 
 
 f John Van Voorst : London. This is one of that beautiful series of 
 Natural History works, for which we are indebted to that enterprising 
 publisher. From it we have copied figures 31 and 32 ; the latter reduced.
 
 STAR-FISHES. 45 
 
 "stone-lilies" (Fig. 30), and the term (Crinoidece) applied 
 to the family is one which simply means " lily-like." The 
 abundance of these animals in former ages, and their present 
 scarcity, have suggested the following paragraph, which we 
 extract from the work just referred to. " One of the most 
 remarkable phenomena displayed to us by 
 the researches of the geologist, is the 
 evidence of the existence, in primeval 
 times, of animals and plants, the analogues 
 of which are now rare or wanting on our 
 lands and in our seas. Among those tribes 
 which have become all but extinct, but 
 which once presented numerous generic 
 modifications of form and structure, the 
 order of Crinoid Star-fishes is most pro- 
 minent. Now scarcely a dozen kinds of 
 these beautiful animals live in the seas of 
 our globe, and individuals of these kinds 
 are comparatively rarely to be met with : 
 formerly they were among the most nu- 
 merous of the ocean's inhabitants; so 
 numerous that the remains of their skele- 
 tons constitute great tracts of the dry laud 
 as it now appears. For miles and miles 
 we may walk over the stony fragments of 
 the Crinoidece; fragments which were 
 once built up in animated forms, encased 
 in living flesh, and obeying the will of 
 creatures among the loveliest of the in- 
 habitants of the ocean. Even in their 
 present disjointed and petrified state, they 
 excite the admiration, not only of the 
 naturalist, but of the common gazer; and 
 the name of stone-lily, popularly applied 
 to them, indicates a popular appreciation 
 of their beauty." Fie 80.-Esc.mt*. 
 
 We have already seen, among the Zoophytes, instances of 
 the secretion of calcareous matter within a living body. If 
 we suppose a Polype on a long-jointed stalk, extending five 
 pair of arms, composed of a vast number of pieces, all uni- 
 formly shaped and jointed together, we shall have some idea 
 of what these animals were in their living state. The detached
 
 46 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 vertebrae are well described by the common English name of 
 " wheel-stones." " The perforations in the centre of these 
 joints, affording a facility for stringing them as beads, has 
 caused them, in ancient times, to be used as rosaries.* In 
 the northern parts of England, they stfll retain the appellation 
 of St. Cuthbert's beads." Sir Walter Scott has, with his 
 usual felicity, referred to the circumstance in his poem of 
 Marmion : 
 
 " But fain St. Hilda's nuns would learn 
 If, on a rock by Lindisfarn, 
 St. Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame 
 The sea-born beads that bear his name." CANTO II. 
 
 The race of Crinoid Star-fishes was believed to be altogether 
 extinct in European seas, when, 
 in 1823, Mr. J. V. Thompson 
 announced the discovery, in the 
 Cove of Cork, of a diminutive 
 species measuring only three- 
 quarters of an inch in length. In 
 1836, the same gentleman pro- 
 claimed that this was the young 
 state of the Star-fish known as 
 the Rosy-feather-star (Comatula 
 rosacea, Fig. 31). The actual 
 change of the animal, from its 
 fixed and pedunculated state into 
 its free condition, had not actually 
 been seen by this intelligent ob- 
 server. But at length the matter 
 was placed beyond any possibility 
 of doubt. 
 
 "When dredging," says Pro- 
 fessor Forbes, "in Dublin Bay, 
 in August, 1840, with my friends 
 Mr. R. Ball and Mr. W. Thomp- 
 son, we found numbers of the 
 Phytocrinus or polype state of 
 the Feather-star, more advanced 
 than they had ever been seen 
 before; so advanced that we saw 
 the creature drop from its stem, and swim about a true 
 Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. page 424. 
 
 Fig. 31. POLTPK STATE OF THE 
 
 FKATHKII-.STAR (MAONIFIKD).
 
 STAR-FISHES. 47 
 
 Comatula; nor could we find any difference between it and 
 the perfect animal, when examining it under the microscope.* 
 
 The species which formed the subject of these interesting 
 observations has five pair of beautifully pinnated arms, and 
 is of a deep rose colour, dotted over with minute brown spots, 
 which are regarded as the ovaries. It is dredged up on many 
 parts of the Irish coast, and is occasionally found upon the 
 strand. The first specimen we ever possessed was taken on 
 the beach about six miles from Belfast, and was brought to 
 that town alive. Anxious to secure so attractive a specimen 
 for the cabinet, we placed it in a shallow vessel of fresh water, 
 and found, to our surprise, that it emitted a fluid, which 
 imparted to the water a roseate tinge. 
 
 The second family 
 consists of those Star- 
 fishes which have 
 a roundish central 
 body, furnished with 
 five long arms, not 
 unlike the tails of 
 Serpents (Fig- 32) ; 
 and as the word 
 ophiura means a Ser- 
 pent's tail, the term 
 Ophiuridce has been 
 adopted as the family 
 apeEation. These 
 
 arms are not furnish- Fig. 32. COMHO* SAND-STAB.* 
 
 ed with suckers, like 
 
 those of the next division, nor do they contain any prolonga- 
 tion of the digestive organs. They are merely arms external 
 to the body, and easily separated from it at the pleasure of 
 the animal; from which circnmstance the English name of 
 "Brittle-stars" has been bestowed upon the tribe. Its 
 members differ very much in size and appearance. Some of 
 them measure as much as sixteen inches in diameter; others 
 are so small, that a score or two of them might be displayed 
 on an ordinary visiting-card. Those who have looked upon 
 such objects only in the dried and rigid aspect they present m 
 our museums, can form no idea of the flexibility, variety, and 
 beauty which they present in the living state. We have, on 
 
 * Ophiura texturata, Forbes, p. 22.
 
 48 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 many occasions, seen a dredge come up half filled with n 
 spine-covered species (Ophiura rosida) everywhere abundant 
 round the coast, and can bear testimony to the accuracy of 
 Professor Forbes' description: " Of all our native Brittle-stars, 
 this is the most common and the most variable. It is also 
 one of the handsomest, presenting every variety of variega- 
 tion, and the most splendid displays of vivid hues arranged 
 hi beautiful patterns. Not often do we find two specimens 
 coloured alike. It varies also in the length of the ray-spines, 
 the spinousness of the disc, and the relative proportions of 
 rays and disc; and in some places it grows to a much greater 
 size than in others. It is the most brittle of all Brittle-stars, 
 separating itself into pieces with wonderful quickness and 
 ease. Touch it, and it flings away an arm ; hold it, and in a 
 moment not an arm remains attached to the body." 
 
 The word aster means a star, and the term Asteriadce is 
 applied to the third family; that to which the true Star- 
 fishes, or those which are typical of the class, belong. If we 
 take from our cabinets a dried specimen of the common 
 Cross-fish, or " Five-fingers," we find the mouth on the lower 
 surface of the central disc, and five rays, with deep grooves 
 throughout their entire length. Each groove contains a 
 multitude of small orifices, through each of which, when alive, 
 the animal could protrude a tubular organ, capable of adhering 
 to the surface of any body to which it was applied. By such 
 means, its prey can with ease be overcome, dragged into the 
 oral orifice in the centre of the rays, and devoured. 
 
 But these suckers, which render the Cross-fish so formidable 
 an assailant, are not only organs of prehension they are also 
 organs of locomotion. To appreciate them aright, they must 
 be seen in action ; for words alone will not convey an adequate 
 idea of the singularity and beauty of their mechanism. On 
 this subject, we prefer the words of Professor Rymer Jones 
 to any which we ourselves could employ* : " Let any of our 
 readers, when opportunity offers, pick up from the beach one 
 of these animals, the common Star-fish of our coast, which, 
 as it lies upon the sand, left by the retiring waves, appears 
 so incapable of movement, so utterly helpless and inanimate; 
 let him place it in a large glass jar, filled with its native 
 element, and watch the admirable spectacle which it then 
 
 Outline of the Animal Kingdom, p. 111.
 
 STAR-FISHES. 49 
 
 presents ; slowly he perceives its rays to expand to its full 
 stretch, hundreds of feet are gradually protruded through the 
 ambulacra!* apertures, and each apparently possessed of 
 independent action, fixes itself to the sides of the vessel as the 
 animal begins to march. The numerous suckers are soon all 
 employed, fixing and detaching themselves alternately, some 
 remaining firmly adherent, while others change their position; 
 and thus, by an equable, gliding movement, the Star-fish 
 climbs the sides of the glass in which it is confined, or the 
 perpendicular surface of the sub-marine rock." 
 
 It has been remarked, that the Star-fishes are furnished 
 with five rays ; and although individuals are met with which 
 have four or six rays, the five-rayed predominate so much, 
 that, among the problems proposed by Sir Thomas Browne, 
 is one, " Why, among Sea-stars, Nature chiefly delighteth in 
 five points?" Throughout all the animals of this class, five 
 is the governing number, regulating even the plates of which 
 the " shell " of the Sea-urchin is composed. In the Medusae, 
 the governing number is four ; and each Jelly-fish, with but 
 few exceptions, exhibits, in the arrangement of its parts, the 
 number four, or some multiple of that number.f 
 
 Although the rays of the Crossfish, or " Five-fingers," are 
 not mere arms, but true prolongations of the body, and, in 
 many species, have an eye well defended by spines at the 
 extremity, they are frequently broken off, and in such cases 
 are reproduced. The oyster fishermen believe that it loses its 
 rays in attempting to seize the oyster at a tune when the shell 
 is incautiously left open. That it is injurious to oyster-beds 
 may be true, for it is known to feed upon different kinds of 
 Mollusca; but it would appear to overpower its prey, by 
 applying some poisonous secretion, and pouting out the lobes 
 of the stomach, so as to convert them into a kind of proboscis, 
 and thus suck the Molluscs from their shells. 
 
 A species which Mr. Ball has taken in great abundance 
 about Youghal seems to emulate the Brittle-stars in the faci- 
 lity with which it can fling off its rays. It is appropriately 
 named Luidia fragilissima, and has been so graphically 
 delineated by Professor Ed. Forbes, that it would be doing 
 
 * A term derived from the Latin word ambulacra, from a fancied 
 resemblance -which the rows of apertures bear to the walks, alleys, op 
 avenues of some of our old mansions. 
 
 t Forbes. Intr. page 15. 
 
 PAET i. D
 
 60 . INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 injustice to the reader not to present him with the portrait 
 which that gentleman has furnished: "It is the wonderful 
 power which the Luidia possesses, not merely of casting away 
 its arms entire, but of breaking them voluntarily into little 
 pieces with great rapidity, which approximates it to the 
 Ophiurce. This faculty renders the preservation of a perfect 
 specimen a very difficult matter. The first time I ever took 
 one of these creatures I succeeded in getting it into the boat 
 entire. Never having seen one before, and quite unconscious 
 of its suicidal powers, I spread it out on a rowing bench, the 
 better to admire its form and colours. On attempting to remove 
 it for preservation, to my horror and disappointment I found 
 only an assemblage of rejected members. My conservative 
 endeavours were all neutralized by its destructive exertions, 
 and it is now badly represented in my cabinet by an armless 
 disc and a discless arm. Next time I went to dredge on the 
 same spot, determined not to be cheated out of a specimen in 
 such a way a second time, I brought with me a bucket of cold 
 fresh water, to which article Star-fishes have a great anti- 
 pathy. As I expected, a Luidia came up in the dredge, a 
 most gorgeous specimen. As it does not generally break up 
 before it is raised above the surface of the sea, cautiously and 
 anxiously I sank my bucket to a level with the dredge's 
 mouth, and proceeded, in the most gentle manner, to introduce 
 Luidia to the purer element. Whether the cold air was too 
 much for him, or the sight of the bucket too terrific, I know 
 not ; but in a moment he proceeded to dissolve his corporation, 
 and at every mesh of the dredge his fragments were seen 
 escaping. In despair I grasped at the largest, and brought 
 up the. extremity of an arm with its terminating eye, the 
 spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with something 
 exceedingly like a wink of derision." 
 
 The members of the fourth family, that of the Sea-urchins 
 (Fig. 33) are furnished with spines, and, from the resem- 
 blance in this respect to the Hedgehog (echinus), the family 
 bears the name Echinidce. Here the arms have disappeared, 
 and the form has become more or less rounded, according to 
 the species. The spines do not grow from the " shell," or, 
 to use a more correct term, the integument, as thorns do on 
 the branches of the common hawthorn. They are attached 
 to tubercle, and move upon them in the manner of so many 
 ball- aud- Bucket joiuts. The Sea-urchins are also furnished
 
 SEA-URCHINS. 
 
 51 
 
 with retractile stickers, similar to those described in the Star- 
 fishes; and, by the joint action of their spines and suckers, 
 
 Fig. 33. SEA-URCHIN (EXTERIOR;.* 
 
 they can move in any direction they please, or can mfor 
 themselves to the surface of sub-marine rocks. 
 
 The calcareous covering of the Sea-urchin exhibits a sin- 
 gular and beautiful contrivance for the progressive growth of 
 the animal. It is not one piece, as the word "shell," so 
 commonly applied to it, would lead us to suppose. It is 
 formed of a multitude of pentagonal pieces, accurately fitted 
 together, some rows of them bearing the tubercles to whi^-h 
 the spines are attached, and others pierced with hundreds of 
 minute orifices, through which the tubular suckers are pro- 
 truded. A living membrane, analogous to that found in some 
 of the Polypes, covers the entire surface, and dips down 
 between the several plates. It has the power of depositing a 
 calcareous secretion, which, being added to the edges of the 
 plates, augments all in an equal ratio; and thus, whatever 
 may be the size of the Sea-urchin, the relative proportion of 
 the several parts is uniformly maintained. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate the admirable mechanism of 
 the spines and suckers, and the elaborate structure of the 
 shell, -without at once feeling the conviction that in them we 
 behold a portion of " the works of the Lord, and His wonders 
 
 Fig. 33. The spines have been removed from the left side for the purpose of 
 exhibiting the arrangement of the pieces composing the "shell " underneath.
 
 52 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 in the deep." And this feeling increases with the increased 
 minuteness of onr examination. " In a moderate-sized Urchin 
 I reckoned," says Mr. Forbes, " sixty -two rows of pores in 
 each of the ten avenues. Now, as there are three pairs of 
 pores in each row, their number multiplied by six, and again 
 by ten, would give the great number of 3,720 pores; but, as 
 each sucker occupies a pair of pores, the number of suckers 
 would be half that amount, or 1,860. The structure in the 
 Egg-urchin is not less complicated in other parts. There are 
 above 300 plates of one kind,, and nearly as many of another, 
 all dovetailing together with the greatest nicety and regularity, 
 bearing on then- surfaces above 4,000 spines, each spine perfect 
 in itself, and of a complicated structure, and having a free 
 movement on its socket. Truly the skill of the Great Archi- 
 tect of Nature is not less displayed in the construction of a 
 Sea-urchin than in the building up of a world!" 
 
 Respiration is secured in these animals by the free admis- 
 sion of sea -water through the pores in the external covering, 
 and by its propulsion, by means of cilia, over every portion 
 of the body. A large portion of the interior of the shell is, 
 at certain times, occupied by vessels filled with the ova, which, 
 in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, are much prized as an 
 article of food ; but, at other times, the ordinary observer finds 
 in the interior only a tube wound twice round the circum- 
 ference, and containing the stomach and intestine (Fig. 34). 
 In every step we make towards a knowledge of the structure 
 and habits of these animals, we experience a feeling of surprise 
 and pleasure at the peculiarities they exhibit. Thus, on one 
 occasion, we had cut horizontally into two nearly equal parts 
 a large Sea-urchin, for the purpose of examining the intestines 
 and ovaries. These being removed, the shell was thrown on 
 the deck of our little vessel, as being no longer of any service. 
 It chanced, however, that we afterwards picked up the parts 
 and placed them in a shallow vessel of sea-water. To our 
 surprise, the suckers were soon extended, and the animal 
 walked about, apparently as unconcerned as if the loss of 
 intestine and ovaries had been an every-day occurrence. 
 
 At one extremity of the alimentary canal is a singular 
 apparatus, which performs the functions of teeth and jaws, 
 and which, in its detached state, is known as " the lanthorn 
 of Aristotle." Any teeth, fixed in sockets as oura are, would 
 speedily be worn away by their action on the shell-fish, &c. ;
 
 SEA-CUCUMBERS. 
 
 53 
 
 upon which the Sea-urchins feed. They are, therefore, con- 
 stituted with a continual growth, as in the case o.f the gnawing 
 animals, and the points have all the hardness of enamel. Five 
 jaws, admirably adapted to act as grinders, are furnished 
 with bony pieces, ligaments, and muscles, so contrived and 
 arranged as to draw from Professor Ryiner Jones the remark, 
 " these jaws, from their great complexity and unique structure, 
 
 Fig. 34. SEA-URCHIN (INTERIOR). 
 
 form perhaps the most admirable masticating apparatus met 
 with in the whole animal kingdom" (Fig. 34). 
 
 ThePurple Sea-urchin (Echimis lividus)is remarkableforits 
 habit of boring, principally into limestone rocks, and living in 
 the excavation thus formed. It is gregarious, and was found 
 in abundance by Mr. Ball and Mr. Thompson, when visiting 
 the south Isles of Arran, in 1834. "It is always stationary; 
 the hole in which it is found being cup-like, yet fitting so as 
 not to impede the spines. Every one lived in a hole fitted to 
 its own size the little ones in little holes, and the large 
 
 Fig. 34. ANATOMY OP SEA-URCHIN (Echinus'). 
 
 a, Mouth, with the teeth and jaws J, (Esophagus. c. Stomach, or first por- 
 tion of the intestine d, Intestine e. Ovary./, Ambulacra! veeicles. g, Shell 
 with spines.
 
 5-1 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 ones in large holes ; and their purple spines and regular forms 
 presented a most beautiful appearance studding the bottoms 
 of the gray limestone rock-pools." 
 
 The individuals of the fifth family (Holothuridce) are not 
 likely to attract the notice of the casual observer, and are of 
 comparatively rare occurrence even to the naturalist. The 
 English term, Sea-cucumbers {Fig. 35), gives some idea of 
 their general form. In them the spines have disappeared; 
 but, as the covering of the body is soft, they can move by the 
 
 extension or contraction of its parts, as worms do; and, like 
 the Sea-urchins, they continue to employ the aid of suckers. 
 They are remarkable for their power of casting off and of 
 reproducing parts that would seem the most essential. Sir 
 J. G. Dalyell * has known them to lose " the tentacula, with 
 the cylinder (dental apparatus), mouth, oesophagus, lowei 
 intestinal parts, and the ovarium, separating from within, and 
 leaving the body an empty sac behind. Yet in three or four 
 months, all the lost parts are regenerated." 
 
 Mr. Forbes states, "It is this animal which the Malays 
 of the Oriental Isles seek so diligently for the supply of the 
 China market, where it obtains a good price when well pre- 
 served. It is employed by the Chinese in the preparation of 
 nutritious soups, in common with an esculent sea-weed, Sharks' 
 fins, edible birds' nests, and other materials, affording much 
 jelly. Jaeger says the intestines are extracted, the animal 
 then boiled in sea-water, and dried in smoke." 
 
 A species found off the coast of Cornwall, and first described 
 
 * Paper read at Glasgow Meeting (1840) of British Association.
 
 ECHIXODERMATA. 55 
 
 by Mr. Peach at the York Meeting of the British Associa- 
 tion, in 1844, bears the singular name of "the nigger," 
 from its dark colour, and the "cotton-spinner," from ita 
 long white threads.* 
 
 The members of the sixth family (Sipunculidce) in external 
 appearance resemble worms ; but, from an examination of their 
 internal structure, it is ascertained that they must, in reality, 
 be classed among the Star-fishes. They are not furnished 
 with suckers, nor do they exhibit any quinary arrangement of 
 parts; and their movements are so entirely those of worms, 
 that they are, with great propriety, termed " Vermigrade 
 Echinodermata," Some are found under stones, some burrow 
 in sand, and some select as their mansion an empty univalve 
 shell; their habits, however, are as yet imperfectly known. 
 
 We have now completed our proposed sketch of the radiate 
 animals, commencing with the microscopic animalcules, and 
 advancing to those in which the radiated structure attains its 
 highest perfection. To all we may apply the remark with 
 which Professor Forbes concludes the excellent work from 
 which we have so largely quoted. 
 
 " Among the British Echinodermata we have seen some of 
 the most extraordinary forms in the animal kingdom; some of 
 the most wonderful structures and of the strangest habits. 
 Much yet remains to be done towards their elucidation, and 
 the investigation of them, both structurally and formally, pre- 
 sents a wide field of inquiry to the student of nature, as yet 
 but imperfectly explored. The great naturalist of Denmark, 
 
 * Mr. C. W. Peach is one of those lovers of natural history whose 
 ardour in the pursuit surmounts all difficulties. At the time we first 
 made his acquaintance, in 1841, he held a very subordinate situation in 
 the coast guard, and had a numerous family dependent on his scanty 
 pay. He was the schoolmaster of his own children, and the superin- 
 tendent of the Sunday school of the village of Goran Haven, Cornwall, 
 where he then resided. Yet, notwithstanding his ceaseless avocations, 
 and the laborious night and day duties of his situation, natural history 
 was never neglected; and in his solitary rides along the beach, his eye, 
 trained to observe, was ever on the alert. Thus he collected the mate- 
 rials for several communications on Geology and Zoology, made by him 
 at successive meetings of the British Association. We are happy to 
 add that some of the influential members of that body, appreciating his 
 exertions, represented them to government in such colours, that he was 
 appointed to a situation of comparative ease and comfort in the custom- 
 house at Fowey. He has since been promoted, and is now at 
 Wick, Caithness-shire.
 
 56 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 Miiller, long ago said that we need not resort to distant 
 regions and foreign climes for rare or wonderful creatures; 
 that the fields, the woods, the streams, and the seas of our 
 native lands, abounded- in wondrous evidences of God's power 
 and wisdom. The investigation of our native animals must 
 ever be a chief source of sound zoological knowledge ; for it is 
 there onlj we can watch, under favourable circumstances, for 
 the observation of their development, their habits, and their 
 characters. The naturalist whose acquaintance is confined to 
 preserved specimens in a cabinet, can form but a vague idea 
 of the glorious variety of nature, of the wisdom displayed in 
 the building up of the atoms of matter to be the houses of life 
 and intellect ; and, unless we study the creatures living around 
 us, how can we gain that delightful knowledge ? The passing 
 note of an animal observed during travel is an addition to 
 science not to be scorned ; the briefly characterizing of a new 
 species from a preserved specimen, if done with judgment, is 
 of importance ; but the real progress of natural history must 
 ever depend on the detailed examination of the beings gathered 
 around us by the laws of geographical distribution, living and 
 multiplying in their destined homes and habitats.'' 
 
 NOTES. 1854. EJTTOZOA, pape 11. The Entozoa might with great pro. 
 priety be placed among the articulated animals, as many of them exhibit in 
 their structure more of the articulated than of the radiate type. A very re- 
 markable fact with repard to their development Has been discovered that some 
 which continue as cystoid worms in the bodies of certain ani i-als become 
 changed into the higher form of the Tcenia or Tape-worm, if transferred to the 
 bodies of other animals. Vid. Siebold, translated from Ann. Set. Nat, into 
 Annals Nat. Hist., Deo. 1852. Pace 431 
 
 ZOOPHYTKS, pape 17. MEDCSJE. p. 38, connexion between them. 
 Recent discoveries would po lar to show that the separation of these classes 
 "is unnatural, and that the Hydroicl Zoophytes, at least, are very closely allied 
 to, if not belonging to, the same natural order with the Pulmoprade Meduse.' 
 " In what lisiht are we to repard the relationship between the Medusa and the 
 Polype? The one is not the larva of the other. as often improperly said, because 
 there is no metamorphosis of the one into the other. The first is the parent ol 
 the last, and the last of the first; but neither is a stacre of an individual's 
 existence, destined to begin life as a Medusa, and end it as a Polype, and 
 vice rersa." 
 
 "IN THE CASE OF AL'RELIA, &e. 
 
 a. The mcilusa produces epfrs. 
 
 *. The eps produce infusoria. 
 
 c. The inftisoria fix anil become hydroid polypoi. 
 
 4. The hv'lroM pnlvpes produce m<*lns;u y eemmation. 
 IN THE CASE OF CORYNE, *c. 
 
 a. The zoophytes produce medusa: by gemmation. 
 
 k. The meuuKe produce eers. 
 
 e. The rgts produce infutoria. 
 
 J. The infusoria fix and become zoophytes." Profewor Edward Forbet, 
 Mcnogiaph of the British naked-eyed Medusa, publiihed by tlie Ray Society.
 
 57 
 
 ARTICULATA. 
 
 ARTICULATED, OR JOINTED ANIMALS. 
 
 -"Whatever creeps the ground, 
 
 Insect or worm ; those waved their limber fans 
 For wings, and smallest lineaments exact 
 In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride, 
 With spots of gold and purple, azure and green ; 
 These, as a line, their long dimensions drew, 
 Streaking the ground with sinuous trace." MILTOJT. 
 
 THE traveller who passes the line of demarcation which se- 
 parates two adjacent kingdoms, does not at once perceive any 
 ohvious change in their physical features or their natural pro- 
 ductions, nor see anything in the manners or customs of the 
 inhabitants to tell him that he has entered a new realm. 
 Such is the case with the naturalist who has heen an ohserver 
 of the radiate animals, and enters the dominions of the arti- 
 culated. The Leeches and Worms, among which he has come, 
 present very much the same aspect 
 as the vermiform or worm-shaped 
 Echinodermata, from which he has 
 parted. ' ' Why, ' ' he asks, ' ' should 
 they he thus divided?" 
 
 The question is hest answered hy 
 an examinsrtion of the internal struc- 
 ture. A difference in the nervous 
 system is at once apparent. It is 
 no longer arranged on the radiate 
 cype, hut presents the Drain in the 
 form of a ring surrounding the throat 
 (Fig. 36) ; a douhle nervous thread 
 extends along the hody at its lowest 
 side, united at certain distances hy *' 8 ' oc*a*i2. *
 
 58 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 double " ganglions," as these nervous masses are termed, 
 from which are given off the nerves that proceed to the 
 extremities. From the symmetrical disposition of these 
 nervous centres, Mr. Owen has given to this sub-kingdom the 
 name Homogangliata.* The body in general presents a cor- 
 responding symmetrical form, and consists of a repetition of 
 rings or segments, as in the Earth-worm, or the Millepede 
 (Julus, Fig. 37). 
 
 Fig. 37. JOLUS, 
 
 The articulated animals are arranged in the following 
 classes : 
 
 AnneUata, Leeches, Earth-worms, &c. 
 
 Cirripeda, Barnacles and Acorn-shells. 
 
 Crustacea, Crabs, Lobsters, &c. 
 
 Imecta, Beetles, Bees, Butterflies, &c. 
 
 Arachriida, Spiders, Scorpions, and Mites. 
 
 * From two Greek words, one signifying "similar,"' the other "a 
 ganglion," or knot, being the mass of nervous matter from which the 
 nerves diverge.
 
 .59 
 
 GLASS L ANNELLATA. 
 
 LEECHES, EARTH-WORMS, ETC. 
 
 ' Her divine skill taught me this, 
 That from everything I saw 
 I could some instruction draw, 
 And raise pleasure to the height, 
 Through the meanest object's sight" G. WITHER. 
 
 THE most obvious external character of the Leech or the 
 Earth-worm is the number of little rings of which the body is 
 composed; and hence the Latin word "annellus," a little ring, 
 suggests an appropriate and descriptive term for animals of 
 this class. 
 
 The medicinal Leech and the common Horse-leech of our 
 ponds are so well known, that the most incurious cannot fail, 
 
 Fig. 38. LEECH. 
 
 at some period or other, to have noticed the singular disc 
 with which these creatures are furnished at each extremity of 
 the body, and which, at the will of the animal, can be used 
 as a sucker, and thus converted into a support or point of 
 attachment. Leeches are of many species; but these pre- 
 hensile discs may be regarded as "the badge of all the tribe." 
 They are destitute of external organs for locomotion, and move 
 by the expansion and contraction of the segments of the body. 
 In the water they can swim with ease and rapidity. Respi- 
 ration is effected by a series of membranous sacs, which are 
 analogous to internal gills, and to Avhich water is freely ad- 
 mitted by minute orifices on the lower surface of the body.* 
 
 The medicinal Leech (Hinido medicinalis) is not indigenous 
 to Ireland; it is found in some parts of Britain, but is now 
 becoming very rare. It is still seen in the lakes of Cumber- 
 
 * Jones's Nat. Hist, of Animals.
 
 60 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 land, but even there is rapidly disappearing. This fact is 
 mentioned by Wordsworth's leech-gatherer, in a stanza 
 which casually notices, at the same time, the manner in 
 which they are collected. 
 
 " He with a smile did then his words repeat; 
 And said, that, gathering leeches, far and wide 
 He travelled; stirring thus about his feet 
 The waters of the pools where they abide. 
 Once I could meet with them on every side, 
 But they have dwindled long by slow decay ; 
 Yet still I persevere, and find them where I may." 
 
 Resolution and Independence. 
 
 The supply of leeches used in these countries is derived from 
 France, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, the frontiers of Russia, 
 and Turkey; and the great extent of the trade thus carried 
 on may be judged of from the fact, that " four only of the 
 principal dealers in London import 7,200,000 annually."* 
 
 When we find that the medicinal Leech has been applied to 
 the use of man from a remote antiquity, and now constitutes 
 so important an article of commerce, we are naturally led to 
 inquire, ' ' to what peculiarity of structure is its utility owing?" 
 The first and most obvious is that by which its wound is 
 inflicted. Just within the margin of the mouth ' ' are situated 
 three beautiful little semicircular horny saws, arranged in a 
 triradiate manner, so that their edges meet in the centre. "f 
 " No sooner is the sucker firmly fixed to the skin than the 
 mouth becomes slightly everted, and the edges of the saws 
 thus made to press upon the tense integument, a sawing 
 movement being, at the same time, given to each," they cut 
 their way to the sluices of blood beneath. Nearly the entire 
 body of the animal consists of a series of chambers into which 
 the blood thus taken is received. They are eleven in number, 
 perfectly distinct, and in the first eight the blood may remain 
 for months unchanged either in colour or fluidity, the creature 
 merely allowing so much to pass into the alimentary canal as 
 is necessary to preserve its existence.} Hence the repugnance 
 of the animal to repeat the operation, until the store of food 
 with which it is thus gorged has been consumed. 
 
 The term Leech (derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb 
 
 * Penny Cyclopedia, Article Leech. 
 
 t Jones's Natural History of Animals, vol. i. page 322 
 
 j Owen, page 133.
 
 ANNELIDS. 61 
 
 Icece, to cure, to heal) was applied by our old writers, not only 
 to the animal, but also to persons, both male and female, who 
 were skilful in the art of healing. 
 
 Thus, hi the ancient Ballad of Sir Cauline, the king calls 
 upon the princess to exercise her skill on behalf of the wounded 
 knight : 
 
 " Come down, come down, my daughter deare, 
 
 Thou art a leeche of skille ; 
 Farre lever had I lose half my landes, 
 Than this good knight sholde spille." 
 
 The young of the leech are produced from cocoons* depo- 
 sited by the mother towards the end of summer. The winter 
 is passed by our common horse-leech (Hcemopsis sanguisuga) 
 in a state of torpidity, in the mud at the bottom of the ponds 
 or ditches where it resides. This habit gave origin, on one 
 occasion, to a somewhat singular scene, which we chanced to 
 witness. On the morning of the 27th March, 1838, a part 
 of the footway on one of the most crowded thoroughfares 
 adjoining the town of Belfast, was so covered with leeches, 
 that it was scarcely possible to walk without trampling them 
 under foot. So great was their abundance that some of the 
 passers-by remarked, that it seemed as though a shower of 
 leeches had fallen. They extended for about 100 paces in 
 this profusion; on both sides of this space they were less 
 numerous. The phenomenon continued for the two following 
 mornings, but with diminished numbers. A slight examina- 
 tion served to explain its cause. The ditch on the side of the 
 fence which separated the footway from the adjacent fields had 
 been cleaned out the preceding day. The leeches had been 
 buried in the slime, and on this being placed on the top of the 
 fence, they had struggled out, and spread themselves over the 
 adjoining footway. 
 
 The earth- worms represent another tribe of Annelids. In 
 them suctorial discs, such as those of the leeches, do not exist ; 
 but a mechanical contrivance of a different kind may be ob- 
 served. The rings, of which their body is composed, are no 
 longer perfectly smooth; but are furnished with minute 
 bristles, or recurved hooks. These, as the creature pushes its 
 way, catch upon the soil, and form fixed points of support, by 
 which the worm is enabled to maintain its place while drawing 
 
 * Owen, page 145.
 
 G2 INTRODUCTIOX TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 forward the remaining parts of the body. Earth-worms move 
 but little abroad during the day-time, except when disturbed. 
 The young are produced from eggs, which, previous to their 
 being deposited by the mother, have undergone a certain degree 
 of development.* Their blood is red; but in some species it 
 is yellow, and in one it is a pale green, so that the mere 
 colour of the circulating fluid does not seem to be of the 
 zoological importance attached to it by Aristotle. 
 
 The mouth of our common Earth-worm (Lumbricus tcrres- 
 tris) has a short proboscis, but is destitute of teeth. Its food 
 consists of the decaying particles of animal and vegetable 
 matter, "the crumbs thatfallfromnature's bounteous table. "t 
 By the ordinary process of chemical decomposition, these par- 
 ticles would be dissolved and lost. Swallowed by the Earth- 
 worm, they become converted into nutriment, are assimilated 
 to the substance of its body, and in this state minister to the 
 support of beings of higher organization to that of birds 
 and fishes. 
 
 On this subject, the Rev. Gilbert White, in his delightful 
 "Natural History of Selborne," has long since made tho 
 following judicious observations: 
 
 " The most insignificant insects and reptiles are of much 
 more consequence, and have much more influence in the eco- 
 nomy of nature, than the incurious are aware of; and are 
 mighty in their effect, from their minuteness, which renders 
 them less an object of attention, and from their numbers and 
 fecundity. Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and 
 despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make 
 a lamentable chasm. For, to say nothing of half the birds, 
 and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by 
 them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, 
 which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, 
 perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious 
 to rains and fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of 
 leaves and twigs into it, and, most of all, by throwing up 
 such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, 
 which being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and 
 grass." 
 
 The correctness of these views has recently received a 
 
 * Owen, page 146. 
 
 t Rvmer Jones, page 328.
 
 ANNELIDS. 63 
 
 curious confirmation, in a paper communicated by Mr. Darwin* 
 to the Geological Society of London, in Nov. 1837. He ob- 
 serves that, in a pasture field which has long remained 
 undisturbed, not a pebble will be seen, although, in an adjoining 
 ploughed field, a large proportion of the soil may be composed 
 of loose stones. This he attributes to the working of worms, 
 and states his conviction, that every particle of earth in old 
 pasture land has passed through the intestines of worms; and 
 hence that, in some senses, the term " animal mould" would 
 be more appropriate than " vegetable mould." It has been 
 estimated that, hi eighty years, the marl laid upon a field for 
 manure, has been covered with soil to the depth of thirteen 
 inches, by the operations of these creatures. 
 
 " It is commonly supposed," says Dr. Carpenter, " that 
 the earth-worm may be multiplied by the division of its body 
 into two pieces, of which each will continue to live. This, 
 however, does not appear to be the case with regard to the 
 common species. If it be divided across the middle, when in 
 motion, each part will continue to move for a time ; but only 
 the piece which bears the head will be found alive after a few 
 hours. This forms a new tail, and soon shows little sign of 
 injury. But if the division be made near the head, the body 
 will remain alive, and will renew the head; and the head, 
 with its few attached segments, will die."t 
 
 The power of reproduction is enjoyed by many other 
 Annelids to a much greater extent. A small worm (Lumbricus 
 variegatus) was cut by Bonnet, a French naturalist, into 
 twenty-six parts, and " almost all of them reproduced the 
 head and tail, and became so many new and perfect indivi- 
 duals. It sometimes happened, that both ends of a segment 
 reproduced a tail Wishing to ascertain if the vegetative 
 power was inexhaustible, Bonnet cut off the head of one of 
 these worms, and, as soon as the new head was completed, he 
 repeated the act; after the eighth decapitation, the unhappy 
 subject was released by death."| 
 
 In some species, the propagation reminds us of that of 
 which we saw examples in the Infusoria. Thus, "in the Nais, 
 
 * Vide Note to White's Selborne, edited by Re*. L. Jenyns, 1843, 
 and Penny Cyclopedia, art. Lumbricus. 
 
 t Zoology, vol. ii. page 310. t Owen, page 143. The accuracy of 
 such statements has been denied by Dr. Williams (Rep. Brit. Ass.,1851), 
 and affirmed, as regards the Earth-worm, by the late G. Newport, Esq. 
 
 (Annals Nat. Hist. May, 1854, p. 423.) 
 Carpenter's Physiology, 
 
 page 549.
 
 64 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 one of the marine worms, the last joint of the body gradually 
 
 extends, and increases to the size of the rest of the animal; 
 
 and a seoaration is made by a narrowing of the preceding 
 joint, which at last divides. Previously to its 
 separation, however, the young one often shoots out 
 a young one from its own last joint, in a similar 
 manner, and three generations have thus been seen 
 united." It is a curious circumstance, that the same 
 tail serves as the tail of successive individuals, and 
 seems thus to enjoy an exemption from the ordinary 
 laws of mortality. 
 
 Respiration in the earth-worm is carried on by 
 means of pores and internal sacs, similar to those 
 of the leech. In the " lob- worm,"* or " lug of 
 fishermen (Fig. 39), a portion of the body is fur- 
 nished with little arborescent (tree-like) tufts, to 
 which the blood is conveyed, and there purified, by 
 coming into contact with the air diffused through 
 the sea-water. 
 
 In the next tribe of Annelids, a new modification 
 of the respiratory organs is exhibited, one ad- 
 mirably adapted to their peculiar habitats and 
 modes of life. All the individuals of this assem- 
 blage dwell in tubes, consisting either of calcareous 
 matter, secreted from their own bodies, or, as in 
 the Terebella, of particles of sand and gravel 
 agglutinated together to serve as a habitation. 
 Under these altered circumstances, the only place 
 to which the vivifying principle of the sea-water 
 could freely have access, would be that adjacent 
 to the exterior orifice of the tubes; and here, 
 accordingly, we find the respiratory apparatus 
 arranged, often extremely graceful in its form, and 
 enriched with brilliant colouring. The small con- 
 torted tubes which encrust, in so fantastic a man- 
 Pig, so. n er, the old bottles or dead shells dredged up from 
 COLA- any of our bays, form an example of this class. 
 
 They are the dwellings of one of these sedentary worms, 
 
 * This -was formerly classed with the earth-worm, under the name of 
 Lvmbricus marinus ; but, from its difference of structure, it is now 
 referred to a different order (Dorsibrcuchiata), and bears the namo 
 Areuicola piscatorum.
 
 ANNELIDS. 
 
 65 
 
 bearing the name of Serpula (Fig. 40). " If, while the con- 
 tained animals are alive, they be placed in a vessel of sea- 
 water, few spectacles are more pleasing than that which they 
 exhibit. The mouth of the tube 
 is first seen to open by the raising 
 of an exquisitely constructed doorj 
 and then the creature cautiously 
 protrudes the anterior part of its 
 body, spreading out, at the same 
 time, two gorgeous fan-like ex- 
 pansions of a rich scarlet or purple 
 colour, which float elegantly in the 
 surrounding water, and serve as 
 branchial or breathing organs."* 
 
 The minute convoluted shells 
 (spirorlis), which are seen, like 
 whitish specks upon almost every 
 piece of sea- weed, exhibi t an instance 
 no less striking of the sameexquisite 
 design, the same admirable adapta- 
 tion of means to the required end. 
 
 The fourth tribe present, in their 
 habits, a complete contrast to the last. They are formed for 
 locomotion, and some among them can swim with considerable 
 swiftness (Fig. 41). The roving life they lead has induced 
 
 Fig. 41. NEREIS. 
 
 Milne Edwards, the eminent naturalist, whose classification we 
 have followed, to bestow on them the characteristic appellation 
 of Errantes.^ 
 
 * Jones's Natural History of Animals, page 313. 
 f Eecherches pour Servir a 1'Histoire Naturelle du Littcral de la 
 France. Paris, 1834. 
 
 PART i. E
 
 66 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 They present considerable diversity in size. In one tribe 
 (Nemertina) there are individuals not more than one or two 
 inches long, while others, of the same fraternity, attain the 
 enormous length of fifteen feet,* or, when artificially dis- 
 tended, of more than twenty yards.f The sea long-worm, for 
 so this species is named (Nemertes Borlasii), contracts in 
 spirits to one or two feet in length, and the thickness of an 
 ordinary quill. One was taken by Captain Fayrer, " holding 
 on to a bait on his long line, when he was fishing for cod off 
 Portpatrick"J 
 
 In contrast with the freebooter, thus made prisoner while 
 on a predatory excursion, we may mention a species which is 
 so much broader and thicker than other Annelids as to have 
 lost its worm-like aspect. It is common around our coast, and 
 is popularly known as the sea-mouse (Aphrodita aeuleata). 
 Besides being furnished with numerous fasciculi, or bunches of 
 stiff, sharp-pointed bristles, employed both as organs of motion 
 and weapons for defence, it is decorated with numerous soft, 
 silky hairs, of the most brilliant metallic colours, and highly 
 iridescent. Strange it may seem to us, that a worm, living 
 in the midst of the slime at the bottom of the sea, should 
 have a vesture which rivals, in the splendour of its hues, the 
 wing of the butterfly, or the plumage of the humming-bird! 
 But the beauty impressed on even the humblest of created 
 beings seems boundless as the beneficence of Him who called 
 them into being. 
 
 We have enumerated four tribes of Annellata : 
 
 I. The Suctorial, comprising the Leeches; 
 II. The Terricolous, including the Earth-worms ; 
 
 III. The Tubicolous, which inhabit tubes; 
 
 IV. The Errantes, which are the most highly organized, 
 and the most locomotive. 
 
 In respect to some worms, there are traditionary errors 
 
 * Dr. Johnston in Mag. of Zoology and Botany, 1837, page 536. 
 
 f This we state on the authority of Mr. R. Ball, who took one at 
 Clifden, Co. Galway, which he ingeniously caused to distend itself, and 
 was thus enabled to ascertain its measurement. 
 
 { \V. Thompson in Mag. Nat Hist. vol. ii. No. 13. 
 
 Their respiratory organs are placed upon the back ; hence the term 
 applied to them by Cuvier, Dursibrunchiute, from Dorsum, the back ; 
 and branchitE, gills.
 
 ANNELIDS. 67 
 
 which are still current. Thus, there is a species, called the 
 Hair-worm (Gordius aquations), which is abundant, during a 
 part of the summer, in rivulets in the North of Ireland and 
 elsewhere. Its length is about eight or ten inches, and the 
 common superstition about it is, that horse-hairs placed in 
 water become vivified, and are changed into these worms. 
 This notion, with the addition that the Hair-worm was the young 
 state of the serpent, was prevalent in the days of Queen 
 Elizabeth, for we find it is thus recorded by Shakspeare, 
 
 -" Much is breeding, 
 
 Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, 
 And not a serpent's poison." 
 
 The writings of the same poet furnish us with examples of 
 the comprehensive manner in which the word "worm" is 
 used, and of its application to objects different from those to 
 which it is restricted by the naturalist* 
 
 Among these humble animals are some which possess 
 luminous properties: one has been observed in Ireland on 
 some of the extensive tracts of bog; and to Mr. R Ball we 
 are indebted for the following notice of a similar power in one 
 of the marine species: "The most beautiful instance I ever 
 saw, of luminous animals, occurred when I was passing at 
 night, between the Islands of Arran, in the Bay of Gal way. 
 My attention being attracted by spanglings of light on the 
 field of Zostera (grass-wrack) below, I let down my small 
 dredge. On its touching the bottom, a blaze of light flashed 
 from the Zostera, and as the boat was pulled along, the dredge 
 Beemed as if filled with liquid molten silver. On drawing it 
 up, I found the light to proceed from numbers of a very small 
 species of Annelid; these little animals were bright red, and 
 so soft that they could not be taken out of the dredge. Any 
 attempt at preservation would have been vain. By day-light, 
 it is probable, their very existence would have been unnoticed, 
 so little conspicuous were they. An idea of the size and 
 
 * " The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk." OTHELLO. 
 ** A convocation of politic worms." HAMLET. 
 "' Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus here, that kills and pains not?" 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 
 
 " Your worm is your only emperor for diet." HAMLET. 
 " There the grown serpent lies ; the worm that's fled 
 
 Hath nature that in time will venom breed." MACBETH. 
 , " Eyeless venom'd worm." TIMON OF ATHENS.
 
 68 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 luminosity of the Annelid may be formed, by supposing its 
 body to be represented by the slit in a silver spangle, and its 
 luminosity by the disc of the spangle."* 
 
 Some among these creatures occasionally present themselves 
 to oui- notice in situations where they would be least expected. 
 Thus, Templeton describes one (Spio calcared) "living in 
 minute tubular cavities, in our limestone rocks, the tentacula 
 alone projecting, and kept by the animal in constant motion."! 
 We have noticed the same, or some allied species, in rock 
 pools on the County Down coast, where there is no limestone. 
 There the pinkish substance, now regarded as vegetable,]: 
 that lined the pools, formed the materials of its dwelling, and 
 the minute waving tentacula gave animation and interest to 
 the otherwise quiet little basins. 
 
 CLASS II. CIERIPEDA. 
 BARNACLES AND ACORN-SHELLS. 
 
 u Ttere are found in the north parts of Scotland and the islands ad- 
 jacent, called Orchades, certain trees, whereon do grow certain shells of 
 a white colour, tending to russet, wherein are contained little living 
 creatures ; which shells in time of maturity do open, and out of them 
 grow those little living things, which, falling into the water, do become 
 fowls which we call Barnacles." 
 
 THE words which we have selected as the motto for the pre- 
 sent chapter occur in Gerardes' " Herbal, or General History 
 of Plants," a work published in 1597, and regarded for more 
 than a century afterwards as one of the best sources of 
 botanical information. Its author resided in Holborn, and 
 established there a " physic garden" of his own, which was 
 probably, at that period, the best of its kind in England for 
 -he number and variety of its productions. The transformation 
 -.oove mentioned he gives on the authority of others. " Thus 
 
 * As all our readers may not be familiar with the ornament to 
 which our friend, Mr. Ball, has referred, we annex a wood-cut, 
 which will render his illustration more perfectly understood. 
 
 t M;ig. Nat. Hist vol. ix. page 233. 
 
 Millepora palymorpha.
 
 BARNACLES. 
 
 69 
 
 much by the writings of others, and also from the mouths of 
 people of those parts, which may very well accord with truth." 
 He then proceeds in a strain which marks the downright 
 sincerity of this honest and laborious old naturalist, who had 
 mistaken the soft parts of the barnacle for a bird. " But 
 what our eyes have seen and our hands have touched, we shall 
 declare. There is a small island hi Lancashire, called the 
 Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old 
 and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by 
 shipwreck, and also the trunks and bodies, with the branches, 
 of old and rotten trees cast up there likewise, whereon is found 
 a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certain 
 BARNACLES. 
 
 Fig. 42. SHELL OF LEPAS. 
 
 Fig. 43. BODY OF LEPAS. 
 
 shells La shape like those of a mussel, but sharper pointed and 
 of a whitish colour ; wherein is contained a thing in form like 
 a lace of silk finely woven, as it were, together, of a whitish 
 colour, one end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the 
 shell, even as the fish of oysters and mussels are; the other 
 end is made fast unto the belly of a rude mass or lump, which 
 in time cometh to the shape and form of a bird: when it is 
 perfectly formed, the shell gapeth open and the first thing 
 that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the 
 legs of the bird hanging out, and, as it groweth greater, it 
 openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, 
 and hangeth only by the bill. In short space it cometh to 
 full maturity, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth 
 feathers and groweth to a fowl bigger than a Mallard and 
 lesser than a Goose."
 
 70 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 The specific name, Anatifera, or goose-bearing, by which 
 the most common kind of barnacle-shell (Lepas) is distin- 
 guished, commemorates this old traditionary error, which 
 is still current. On more than one occasion, when we 
 have been examining a sea-borne piece of timber, with its 
 crowd of suspended Barnacles, some casual spectator has 
 volunteered to point out to us the bill and feathers of the 
 future bird I 
 
 We may smile at the extravagance of these ideas, and 
 wonder how fancy could have devised such tales. But the 
 wildest stretch of imagination could not venture upon anything 
 more wonderful than the real and simple facts respecting the 
 transformations of these animals. 
 
 Before the shelly covering of 
 that Barnacle was secreted, the 
 creature, not fastened as now by 
 its fleshy pedicle, was free and 
 locomotive, with members well 
 adapted for swimming, and fur- 
 nished, like the fabled Cyclops, 
 with one central eye (Fig. 44). 
 The animal of that acorn-shell, 
 now fixed so immoveably upon 
 the rock, had, at oue time, an 
 elliptic figure, two eyes mounted 
 upon footstalks, and six pair of 
 jointed legs, which, keeping 
 stroke like so many oars, pro- 
 pelled it onwards (Fig. 45). 
 At a certain period its erratic 
 habits were laid aside, its future 
 resting-place was selected, and then, attaching itself securely to 
 the place thus chosen, its shelly covering was secreted, and 
 
 as the process went on, the 
 visual powers, no longer need- 
 ful for the welfare of the 
 animal, were extinguished 
 for ever. 
 
 To Mr. J. V. Thompson, 
 whose name we have already 
 had occasion to mention, we are indebted for the discovery of 
 these metamoq)hoses, which the researches of other observers 
 
 Fig. 44 YOUNG OF LEPAS. 
 
 Fig. 45 YOCNO OF BALANUS.
 
 BARNACLES. 71 
 
 have amply confirmed.* Mr. Thompson, in the spring of 1 826, 
 took, in a small towing-net, a number of minute translucent 
 creatures about the tenth of an inch in length and of a some- 
 what brownish tint.t They were taken on the first of May, 
 and kept alive in a glass of sea-water. They appeared like 
 small Crustacea. On the night of the eighth, two of them had 
 thrown off their outer skin, and were firmly attached to the 
 bottom of the vessel, when they rapidly assumed the apparel 
 of the sessile Barnacles or Acorn-shells (Balanus pusillus). 
 
 The peduuculated Barnacles, or those with the long pedicle, 
 present, in their young state, an appearance ver,y dissimilar; 
 but, in all essential particulars, the change from their transitory 
 swimming condition to their permanently adhesive state is 
 precisely similar. In their perfect state (Figs. 42, 43) they 
 are described by Mr. Owen as being "symmetrical animals, 
 with a soft unarticulated body enveloped in a membrane. 
 They are provided with six pair of rudimentary feet, obscurely 
 divided into three joints, and terminated each by a pair of 
 long and slender, many-jointed, ciliated tentacles, curled 
 towards the mouth, and thence giving origin to the name of 
 the class" (Cirripeda, curl-footed). J 
 
 The Acorn-shell is based on a deposit of calcareous matter, 
 and has a shell composed of many pieces, and thus capable 
 of enlargement according to the wants of the animal. It was 
 formerly classed with the Barnacle amongthe Multivalve shells, 
 the contained animals being regarded as Mollusca, or to use a 
 more common phrase, as "shell-fish." Their structure and 
 their changes being now better understood, they constitute 
 of themselves a small but interesting class, allied to that of 
 the crustaceous animals, which constitute the next division. 
 The sexes have been ascertained to be distinct. 
 
 The cheapness of the pleasures which natural history affords 
 should of itself form a reason for the general cultivation of 
 such pursuits. They are within the reach of the most humble, 
 and are not dependent on costly or complicated apparatus. 
 By means so simple as a glass of sea-water, we have caused 
 the Balani or Acorn-shells to exhibit a series of movements, 
 which we have never shown to the youth of either sex without 
 
 * Vide ante, page 46. 
 
 t Zoological Researches, Memoir iv. page 78, plate xi. 
 
 J Lectures, page 155. 
 
 H. D. Goodsir, in Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, July, 18i3.
 
 72 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 hearing from them expressions of the most unfeigned delight. 
 Let the reader try the experiment. Go at low water to a 
 rock on the beach, choose a few of the oldest and largest 
 Limpets, left uncovered by the receding tide, and encrusted 
 with the Acorn-shells. As the enclosed animals have then 
 been without nourishment for two or three hours, they will 
 be quite ready for another meal. Throw the Limpet-shells 
 into the glass of sea-water, and in a 
 minute or two the Acorn-shells upon 
 them will begin to open. Presently a 
 beautiful feathered apparatus (Balanus, 
 Fig. 46) will be extended, then with- 
 drawn. It will again be put forth, and 
 again retracted; but with such grace, 
 regularity, and precision, that the eye 
 regards it "with ever new delight." 
 And when the same exquisite mecha- 
 nism is exhibited by eveiy one of them, 
 either in succession or simultaneously, 
 and when we consider that it thus minis- 
 ters, at the same moment, both to respiration and nutrition, a 
 train of ideas is excited, which rises from the humble shell to 
 HIM by whom it has thus wondrously been fashioned. 
 
 NOTE. Nov. 1856. A valuable monograph on the Cirripedes, by 
 Darwin, has been published by the Ray Society. 
 
 CLASS III. CRUSTACEA. 
 CBABS, LOBSTEBS, SHBIMPS, &c. 
 
 " What is man, 
 
 If his chief good, and market of his time, 
 
 Be but to sleep and feed ? A beast no more. 
 
 Sure He that made us with such large discourse, 
 
 Looking before and after, gave us not 
 
 That capability and godlike reason 
 
 To fust in us unused." SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 " THE name of this class," says Professor Owen, " refers to 
 the modification of the external tegument by which it acquires 
 due hardness for protecting the rock-dwelling marine species 
 from the concussion of the surrounding element?, from the 
 attacks of enemies, and likewise for forming the levers and 
 points of resistance in the act of supporting the body, aiid
 
 CRUSTACEA. 73 
 
 moving along the .firm ground. In the Crab and Lobster 
 tribes, the external layer of the integument is hardened by 
 the addition of earthy particles, consisting of the carbonate, 
 with a small proportion of the phosphate, of lime."* In the 
 smaller species it is more flexible, resembling the texture of 
 horn or parchment. 
 
 Distribution The Crustacea are nniversally diffused, not 
 ouly throughout the ocean, but through ponds, lakes, ditches, 
 and running waters. In the polar seas they are found in great 
 abundance, though the number of species is very limited. In 
 the equatorial regions, while they are no less numerous, they 
 present a greater diversity of form, attain a larger size, 
 and exhibit, in the highest perfection, those peculiarities of 
 structure by which the several groups are characterised. But 
 though "the world of waters is their home," they are not 
 confined withiu its boundaries, for there are some species 
 which are occasional visiters to the land, and others which 
 make it their permanent residence. 
 
 Form Their figures, when most faithfully delineated, 
 
 present a variety of form so great that at first sight they 
 seem in some cases to be the offspring of a fantastic fancy, 
 rather than the correct delineation of living animals. We 
 find legs so formed as to do the work of jaws (Fig. 56 60); 
 others so constituted as to perform the function of gills ; 
 while some are so long and so slender that, were we to judge 
 merely from appearance, they would seem quite disproportioned 
 to the size of the body to which they are appended. 
 
 Characteristics. As, in the radiated animals, we found the 
 radiated structure most apparent towards what may be con- 
 sidered the centre of the group, so here we may point to the 
 Crustacea as examples of the complete development of the 
 jointed or articulated structure. In them we find the re- 
 spiratory apparatus existing as branchiae or gills, however 
 varied its position or arrangement. The sexes are distinct, 
 and all the individuals are free and locomotive. " It is the 
 combination of branchiae with jointed limbs and distinct 
 sexes which constitute the essential characters of the class 
 Crustacea. 5 '* 
 
 Integument. As the integument is inelastic, and does not 
 admit of enlargement to suit the growth of the animal, a 
 
 * Lectures, page 163.
 
 74 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 beautiful provision exists, by which it is from time to time 
 thrown off, and its place supplied by one of larger dimensions. 
 In two or three days, the new covering assumes the hardness 
 of the old one; and, until then, the animal, as if conscious of 
 its defenceless state, avoids, as much as possible, all exposure. 
 We shall revert to this subject in treating of the best known 
 native species. 
 
 Reproduction. All of them possess the capability of repro- 
 ducing extremities which are injured. Thus, if the leg of a 
 Crab be fractured, it throws off the injured limb, near to the 
 body. "It has the power of doing so apparently for two 
 purposes to save the excessive flow of blood which always 
 takes place at the first wound, and to lay bare the organ which 
 is to reproduce the future limb.* As soon as the injured limb 
 has been thrown off, the bleeding stops ; but if the animal is 
 unable, from weakness or any other cause, to effect this, the 
 result is fatal. The growth of the new limb is slow, until 
 after the period of the next moult, when it rapidly assumes 
 its full proportions." 
 
 Respiration. Every one who has opened the "'shell" of 
 the common Crab, has noticed a number of leaf-like organs, 
 regularly arranged in two parcels, with the points of the 
 little leaves or plates in each parcel brought nearly to- 
 gether (Fig. 47). These are the branchiae or gills, organs 
 admirably adapted to the aquatic life of the animal. In the 
 Lobster the arrangement of the parts is different (Fig. 48), 
 being accommodated to the different form of the body, but 
 providing no less effectually for the aeration of the circulating 
 fluid. In other Crustacea, the gills are formed like feathery 
 tufts, and float freely in tiie water (Fig. 49); while, in one 
 
 Fig. 49. SQUILL*. 
 
 * H. D. S. Goodsir, on "the Mode of Reproduction of Lost Parts in the 
 Crustacea." Anatomical and Pathological Observations. Edinburgh, 1845.
 
 CETTSTACEA. 
 
 75 
 
 Fig. 47. ANATOMY. OP CRAB. 
 
 Fie. 47. p, Part of the lining membrane of the shell ft, The heart 
 a, Arteries. 6, Branchiae in their natural position. V, Branchiae turned back 
 to show their vessels , Stomach. m, Muscles of stomach. I, Liver. 
 
 Fig. 48. CIRCULATORY APPARATUS OF LOBSTER, 
 
 Fig. 48. h. Heart g, g. Sinus or dilated vein receiving the Wood which 
 comes from different parts of the body, and is thence sent to the branchiae b, 
 from which it returns to the heart by the branchial veins, v.
 
 76 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 division, termed, from the circumstances, "gill-footed,"* tho 
 surface of the legs is extended, and made subservient to re- 
 spiration. From this cause, in the minute tribes in which this 
 structure prevails, the feet are sometimes seen in motion when 
 the body is at rest. The more actively the body moves, the 
 more brisk will be the circulation; "and since," as Mr. Owen 
 remarks, "the muscular energy directly depends upon the 
 amount of respiration, the two functions are brought into 
 direct relation with each other by the simple connexion of 
 their respective instruments, "f 
 
 In those tribes that live partially or altogether on the land, 
 the respiratory apparatus is modified, but is still in its most 
 essential features, aquatic. In the Wood-louse (Oniscus,^. 
 Fig. 50), which lives in dark and damp 
 situations, respiration is effected by a 
 series of plates, at the lower side of the 
 abdomen. In the Land-crabs, contri- 
 vances of different kinds exist, to retain 
 so much water as will supply the gills 
 with the amount of moisture needful for 
 the due performance of their functions. 
 But the quantity of oxygen which water 
 only can furnish is insufficient for animals 
 whose respiration is so active. They 
 
 Fig. 50. Caucus. . .1 
 
 must have access to air, or they inevi- 
 tably perish. Hence we are able to understand why it is that 
 they are drowned, if immersed for any long time in water. 
 
 Vision. In the eyes of the Crustacea a great diversity of 
 structure is exhibited. Some species are furnished with two 
 placed upon distinct peduncles or stalks; others have eyes of 
 the same formation, but the peduncle is wanting; such eyes 
 are therefore described as being ' ' sessile ' ' or sitting. In one 
 
 * Phyllopoda. 
 
 f Lectures, page 182. 
 
 t The Oniscus is well-known, in the North of Ireland, by the provincial 
 name of Slater. 
 
 Some of these animals have been found in a fossil state in Wiltshire, 
 in those secondary rocks termed the Wealden formation. The eyes which, 
 like those of the Trilobite, hereafter mentioned, are composed of a num- 
 ber of separate lenses, form beautiful objects when magnified. They are 
 sometimes found not attached to the head, but loose in the limestone. 
 Fossil Insects in the Secondary Rocks of England, by the Rev. P. B. 
 Drudia. London, 1815.
 
 CRUSTACEA. 77 
 
 genus (Daphnia) a "smooth, undivided cornea protects and 
 transmits the rays of light to an aggregation of small ocelli, "* 
 or eye-specks; while in a fossil species (Asaphus caudatus, 
 Fig. 5 1 ) we have an example of the cornea itself heing divided 
 into at least 400 compartments, each supporting a circular 
 prominence, the whole heing so arranged that where the dis- 
 tinct vision of one ceases, that of another begins. 
 
 Among the crustaceous animals now extinct, but whose 
 remains are found in some parts of England and Ireland, 
 and in other countries, is one tribe which, from the three 
 longitudinal divisions of which the body is composed, is known 
 TRILOBITES.f 
 
 Fig- 51- Fig. 52. 
 
 by the name of Trilobites (Figs. 51, 52). In these fossils, 
 one of which has been mentioned in the preceding paragraph, 
 the compound structure of the eyes is so well developed and 
 preserved, that we are enabled to compare it with that of 
 existing species. This circumstance happily suggested to the 
 very Rev. Dr. Buckland a train of reasoning respecting "the 
 condition of the ancient sea and the ancient atmosphere, and 
 the relations of both of these media to light," which furnishes 
 so admirable an example of the manner in which knowledge 
 in one department throws light upon researches in another, 
 that we give the passage in full. 
 
 "With respect to the waters in which the Trilobites J main- 
 tained their existence throughout the entire period of the 
 
 * Owen, page 175. 
 
 t Fig. 51 Asaphus caudatus. Fig. 52 Calymene Blumsnbachii. 
 
 J Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. page 401.
 
 78 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 transition formation, we conclude that they could not have 
 been that imaginary, turbid, and compound chaotic fluid, from 
 the precipitates of which some geologists have supposed the 
 materials of the surface of the earth to be derived; because 
 the structure of the eyes of these animals is such, that any 
 kind of fluid in which they could have been sufficient [for 
 vision] at the bottom, must have been pure and transparent 
 enough to allow the passage of light to organs of vision, the 
 nature of which is so fully disclosed by the state of perfection 
 in which they are preserved. With regard to the atmosphere, 
 also, we infer that, had it differed materially from its actual 
 condition, it might so far have affected the rays of light, that 
 . a corresponding difference from the eyes of existing Crustaceans 
 would have been found in the organs on which the impressions 
 of such rays were then received." 
 
 " Regarding light itself, also, we learn from the resemblance 
 of these most ancient organizations to existing eyes, that the 
 mutual relations of light to the eye, and of the eye to light, 
 were the same at the time when Crustaceans, endowed with 
 the faculty of vision, were first placed at the bottom of the 
 primeval seas as at the present moment. 
 
 " Thus we find, among the earliest organic remains, an 
 optical instrument of most curious construction, adapted to 
 produce vision of a peculiar kind, in the then existing repre- 
 sentatives of one great class in the articulated division of the 
 animal kingdom. We do not find this instrument passing 
 onwards, as it were, through a series of experimental changes, 
 from more simple into more complex forms ; it was created, 
 at the very first, in the fulness of perfect adaptation to the 
 uses and condition of the class of creatures to which the kind 
 of eye has ever been, and is still, appropriate." 
 
 Ova. All Crustacea are produced from fertilized ova, 
 which the female, after they have passed from the oviduct, 
 continues to carry about with her until they have attained a 
 certain amount of development. Various are the appendages 
 employed for this purpose; perhaps no example will be more 
 generally known than the one afforded by the common lobster 
 when " in pea." 
 
 Metamorphoses. The young do not, on their liberation 
 from the ova, present a miniature resemblance to the species 
 to which they belong. The contrary opinion was formerly 
 entertained, and it was even regarded as one of the charac-
 
 CRUSTACEA. 79 
 
 teristics of the higher Crustacea, that they did not undergo 
 a metamorphosis. It will not be uninstructive to advert 
 briefly to the observations, which have led to more correct 
 ideas on this subject. 
 
 In a Dutch work, published in 
 1778, there appeared the figure 
 of a small crustaceous animal 
 (Fig. 53), unlike any previously 
 known. A French naturalist 
 took another in the Atlantic, 
 five or six hundred leagues 
 from the coast of France, and 
 included both under the generic 
 appellation of Zoea. A third 
 was taken in the course of Cap- 
 tain Tuckey's voyage to the 
 
 Congo, and two were observed Fig. 53. ZOEA (MAGNIFIED). 
 by Mr. J. V. Thompson when 
 
 returning, in 1816, from the Mauritius. All the five speci- 
 mens were those of distinct species, and constituted the only 
 examples known of these Crustacea until the spring of 1 822. 
 In that year, Mr. J. V. Thompson, to his great surprise, met 
 with Zoeas in considerable abundance hi the Cove of Cork. 
 Further research showed that these animals, which had been 
 regarded as so rare that the capture of each was recorded as 
 an event, were to be found in vast profusion in our bays and 
 estuaries ; and instead of being perfect and anomalous crea- 
 tures, were but the immature state of the common crabs 1 
 
 The observations of Mr. Thompson, amply corroborated by 
 those of other naturalists, have established the fact, that the 
 Crustacea undergo metamorphoses; but to what extent this 
 takes place in the several tribes, we. are as yet unable to de- 
 termine. Here is an ample field for inquiry, in which the 
 careful accumulation of facts, and even the collecting of 
 specimens, may render good service to the cause of science. 
 
 The young state of the crabs, that to which the term 
 Zoea was formerly applied, exhibits, so far as known, a dif- 
 ferent appearance in each species. The one in which our 
 readers will be most interested is the common edible crab 
 ( Cancer pagurus), and those who have only seen the 
 animal in its mature condition will perhaps be surprised 
 to learn that it existed at one time under the form reprc-
 
 80 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 sented in Fig. 54, its members being adapted for swimming, 
 and its body so minute that its natural 
 size, when in that state, is shown by 
 the speck adjoining the letter n. 
 
 Land-crabs. In the limited space to 
 which, in a work of this kind, we are 
 necessarily restricted, it is only our 
 intention to notice the habits of a small 
 number of our native species; but the 
 land-crabs of foreign countries consti- 
 tute a group too remarkable to be 
 altogether omitted. Of the genus Thel- 
 phusaf ( Fig. 55 ), one fresh- water 
 species, a native of the rivers of 
 southern Europe, was well known to 
 the ancients, who often represented it 
 on their medals. Colonel Sykes states, 
 Fig. 54. YOUNG OP THE that another species is found in the 
 COMMON CRAB. valleys along the Ghats in India, and 
 also on the most elevated table-lands.^ They are there not 
 
 only numerous but 
 troublesome, intrud- 
 ing themselves into 
 the tents, and even 
 invading such beds 
 as are placed on the 
 ground. He also in- 
 forms us, that the 
 table-land of the ele- 
 vated hill-fortress 
 Hurreechundurghur, 
 3900 feet above the 
 sea, is inhabited by 
 such multitudes of land-crabs that their burrows render 
 
 * The figures 53, 54, and the information by which they are accom- 
 panied, are taken from " Zoological Researches," by J. V. Thompson. 
 A Zoea, different from any of the species noticed by that author, is de- 
 scribed by Templeton, in the Trans, of the Entomological Society, vol. ii. 
 p. 114. It was taken by us in Larne Lough, County Antrim, in May, 
 1835. 
 
 f Carpenter's Zoology, vol. ii. page 250. Vide, also, Milne Edwards' 
 " Hitoire des Crustaces," tome ii. page 10. 
 
 J Trans. Entomological Society, vol. i. page 182. 
 
 Fig. 55. THKLPHUSA.
 
 CRUSTACEA. 
 
 81 
 
 it unsafe to ride over many parts of the mountain. From 
 his own observation, and from the concurrent testimony of 
 the natives, he is of opinion that these Crabs do not migrate. 
 Another Indian species is thus noticed in the Journal of 
 Bishop Heber. " All the grass through the Deccan usually 
 swarms with a small Land-crab, which burrows in the ground, 
 and runs with considerable swiftness, even when encumbered 
 with a bundle of food almost as big as itself; this food is 
 grass, or the green stalks of rice, and it is amusing to see the 
 Crabs sitting, as it were, upright, to cut their hay with their 
 sharp pincers, then waddling off with their sheaf to their holes 
 as quickly as their sidelong pace will carry them." The 
 Land-crabs of the Antilles* have long been celebrated for 
 their nocturnal and burrowing habits, and for the determina- 
 tion evinced, by some species, to take the most direct line to 
 the coast, when the period of visiting the sea, for the purpose 
 of depositing their eggs, has arrived. 
 
 Classification. Among the numerous tribes of Crustacea, 
 it is to be expected that 
 at considerable difference 
 must exist as to the nature-^ 
 of their food, and a corres- 
 ponding difference in the 
 
 form of their mouths, and 
 
 the structure of those organs 
 by which the food is taken. 
 Some are furnished with 
 jaws or mandibles suited 
 for mastication; others with 
 a beak or tubular apparatus 
 adapted for suction. This 
 enables us at once to sepa- 
 rate the class into two great 
 divisions, the masticating 
 and the suctorial. There is, 
 however, a tropical genus, 
 the Limulus or King-crab 
 (Fig. 56), whose mouth 
 has no peculiar appendages, 
 
 but is Surrounded by legs, Fig. 5G.-LlMriAS (REDUCED). 
 
 Greyurriuiens. Milne Edwards' Crustaces, vol. ii. page 18. 
 I'AIU L F
 
 82 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the bases of which perform the office of jaws; and for its 
 reception a third division Xiphosura* has been specially 
 constituted. 
 
 Reverting to our native species, we find some, as already 
 mentioned (page 76), with the eyes on footstalks, others with 
 the eyes sessile. This forms an excellent characteristic dis- 
 tinction. Again, some have the gills enclosed in the body, and 
 have ten legs ; others have the gills external, and the number of 
 the legs or appendages variable. By such characters they are 
 divided into sections, orders, sub-orders, genera, and species. 
 All of those which are the best known and the most valued, 
 are, with regard to their food, masticating (Maxillosa) ; have 
 the eyes on footstalks (Podophthalma) ; and have ten legs 
 (Decapoda).^ These scientific terms, though startling to 
 beginners, do nothing more than express, in a different form, 
 the same meaning that the simple English words convey. 
 
 The animals composing the first group we shall mention 
 among our native Crustacea, familiarly known as " Spider- 
 crabs, " from their length of legs. Mr. W. Thompson gives an 
 instance of one of them (Hyas aranea) only two and a quarter 
 inches across the "shell" which had an oyster three inches in 
 diameter upon his back, and remarks that the Crab must have 
 enacted the part of Atlas for some successive years, as the oyster 
 was encrusted with large acorn-shells, and could not have been 
 less than five years old. J A series of such observations would 
 
 * Sword-tailed. Figure 56 represents the lower surface of the animal. 
 m, the Mouth -f, Feet, the basis of which perform the office of jaws. 
 a, Abdominal appendages bearing the branchiae f, Sword-shaped tail. 
 
 t In the ten-footed Crustacea (Decapoda), there is a striking dif- 
 ference in the form and development of the tail, as in the Crab and in 
 the Lobster; and they are thus divided into two very natural groups. 
 The Hermit-crabs, in which the tail is prolonged, but defenceless, may be 
 regarded as a connecting link. Hence, Milne Edwards, in his excellent 
 " Histoire des Crustaces," arranges them in three sections, distinguished 
 by terms expressive of these peculiarities of structure. Thus: 
 DECAPODA. 
 
 1st section, Brachyitra, or short-tailed, as the Crabs. 
 
 2d Anomoura, or irregular-tailed, as Hermit-crabs. 
 
 3d Macroura, or long- tailed, as the Lobster, Cray-fish, &c. 
 
 | The information given in this page, and acknowledged elsewhere, 
 by the initials, W. T. is derived almost exclusively from a paper on 
 "the Crustacea of Ireland, order Decapoda," by William Thompson, 
 Esq.; President Xat. Hist Society, Belfast, published in Annals Nat. 
 Hist. vols. x. xi. 1842-3 ; and we have not scrupled, on many occasions, 
 to avail ourselves of the language there employed.
 
 CRUSTACEA. 83 
 
 help us to a solution of the question, " what is the longevity 
 of different species of Cmstacea?" one which, at present, we 
 are quite unable to answer. Those who wish to obtain 
 specimens of the Spider-crabs, without going out to dredge 
 for that purpose, will occasionally find them along with shells, 
 Star-fishes, &c. in the stomachs of the Cod and the Haddock. 
 
 The Crabs used as food are, of course, those which are 
 most valued and sought after. The large edible Crab is 
 that which in the North of Ireland is known as the Crab 
 ( Cancer pagurus, Leach, Fig. 57). It is distributed round 
 all our coasts, and is generally taken by wicker-baskets, like 
 the cage-shaped wire mouse-traps, and baited with guts of 
 fish, or other garbage; but it is also taken by means of a 
 piece of hooked iron 
 thrust into its retreats 
 at low water. M. Ed- 
 wards mentions that, on 
 the French coast, their 
 weight sometimes ex- 
 ceeded 5 Ibs. ; at Fal- 
 mouth it has reached 
 14 Ibs. In the London 
 market they very com- 
 monly weigh 9 fts. ; and 
 some equally large have 
 
 been taken on the Irish Fig> 57 ._ CAMCEB PAOORCS . 
 
 coast. The smaller edi- 
 ble Crab of British authors (Carcinus mcenas) is the most 
 common species round the entire coasts of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, lurking beneath stones or tangle, or half concealed in 
 the moist sand. It appears to be very tenacious of life. 
 Some which were buried in a garden to the depth of twelve 
 or fourteen inches, with a little sea-weed placed between them 
 and the soil, were found alive at the end of seventeen days; 
 and one individual evinced his customary promptitude in the 
 use of his nippers. 
 
 We learn from Leach* that this species "is sent to London 
 in immense quantities, and eaten by the poor, who esteem it 
 a great delicacy ;" and M. Edwards observes it is used hi like 
 manner in Paris. It is never offered for sale hi the markets 
 
 * Malacostraca Podopthalmata Britannise, Table 5.
 
 84 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 of the North of Ireland, nor, as far as we know, is it ever 
 employed there as an article of food. Mr. R. Ball states,* 
 that when these Crahs are ahout to change their shells, or have 
 recently done so, they are sought for under the sea-weeds, at 
 low tide, hy the fishermen at Youghal, chiefly as bait for 
 flat-fish. In this soft state they are called Pilcrdbs. From 
 their habits of elevating their claws in a threatening attitude, 
 when molested, they have, on the coast of Normandy, the 
 name of "Crabes enrages." 
 
 The Pea-crabs form an interesting group, from their dimi- 
 nutive size, and their singular habitation in bivalve shells, one 
 of which was celebrated iu connexion with the Crab; as, 
 
 "The anchored Pinna and her cancer friend." 
 
 The Pinna, according to tradition, being warned of the ap- 
 proach of danger by the alacrity of the little Crab, who was 
 the joint and friendly occupant of her mansion. One species 
 (Pinnotheres pisum) is so common on our Irish coast, that 
 Mr. W. Thompson obtained fourteen of them, by opening 
 eighteen of the large or "Horse-mussel," dredged off the 
 County Down shore; and in the common Cockle at Youghal, 
 Mr. Ball found them so abundantly, that about nine out of 
 every ten Cockles contained a Crab. Two and even three 
 Crabs are occasionally found in one Mussel, or one Pinna. 
 The Hermit-crabs belong to a different order. The tail is 
 prolonged and soft, being destitute of the hard calcareous 
 covering which protects the anterior portion of the body; and 
 hence, in self-defence, the animal is obliged to occupy some 
 univalve shell, which has been deserted by its original occu- 
 pant. From the fact of each Crab being thus the solitary 
 inmate of its retreat, the common English name has no doubt 
 been bestowed. The species most abundant on our coast 
 (Pagurus Bemhardus) is found in shells of very different 
 dimensions, and from time to time leaves its abode, as it feels 
 a necessity for a more commodious dwelling. It is said to 
 present on such occasions an amusing spectacle, as it inserts 
 the tail successively into several empty shells, until one is 
 found to fit.f We learn from Professor Bell, however, that 
 
 * In Mr. W. Thompson's Paper, 
 t Carpenter's Zoology, page 252.
 
 CRUSTACEA. 85 
 
 :t does not always wait until the house is vacant, but occa- 
 casionally ejects the rightful occupant vi et armis.* 
 
 In the Crustacea of the next order, the tail is not only 
 longer but is different hi form, being divided into five broad 
 
 Fig. 53. Spirr LOBSTER (REDUCED). 
 
 flat pieces, so as to act with great effect upon the water. 
 The common Lobster (Homarus vulgaris) is perhaps the best 
 
 * History of British Crustacea, page 173 ; Published by Tan Voorst
 
 86 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 known example ; it is taken all round the rocky portions of 
 the coast. So mnch is it valued, that the finest flounders and 
 plaice are, in some places, cut up to furnish the most tempting 
 bait for the Lobster-pots.* Another species, the Spiny Lobster 
 (Palinurus vulgaris, Fig. 58), attains even larger dimensions, 
 being occasionally taken of eighteen or twenty inches in 
 length, and weighing so much as twelve or fifteen pounds.* 
 It frequents deep water, and only approaches the shores in 
 spring, for the purpose of laying its eggs. 
 
 The Cray-fish (Fig. 59) inhabits rivers in many parts of 
 
 Fig. 59. CRAY-FISH (REDUCED).! Fig. 60. MASTICATING APPARATUS.} 
 
 * W. T. 
 
 t Fig. 59. Exhibits the lower side of the Cray-fish, a and b, Antenna?. c, 
 
 Eyes. d. Auditory tubercle or organ of hearing. e, External feet-jaws 
 
 /, First pair of thoracic legs. g, Fifth pair. A, Abdominal false legs. , Tail 
 formed for swimming. 
 
 J Fig. 60. Shows, in their detached state, the six pair of appendages which 
 constitute the apparatus for mastication, a. Mandibles. b and c, First and 
 second pair of jaws or niaiilla:. d, e,f, Three pair of feet-jaws.
 
 CRUSTACEA. 87 
 
 Ireland, but is generally stated to have been introduced. It 
 is said to be possessed of great longevity: M. Edwards asserts, 
 that it lives for more than twenty years, and continues to 
 grow during that entire period.* It is the office of the males 
 to cater for the female and young; and a very intelligent 
 observer states, that he has frequently seen them catching 
 and breaking up small fish as their food.f On being dis- 
 turbed, both sexes gather their young under their tails; but a 
 singular difference prevails between the sexes, with regard to 
 the manner of protecting their progeny. The male, on being 
 lifted, retains them under his tail; but the female, on being 
 captured, wiser than her lord, "slaps" them into the water 
 with such force as to produce the effect of a shower of rain 
 upon the surface. 
 
 The cast-off shell of many of the Crustacea preserves its 
 former appearance so completely as to exhibit the form of the 
 animal, and even its most minute appendages. This we have 
 not been so fortunate as to observe, but it is fully confirmed 
 by the following note from Mr. R. Ball, who adds, at the 
 same time, some other particulars, illustrative of habits. 
 " Some years ago, I kept a Cray-fish for a considerable time, 
 in a shallow glass vessel, about twenty inches in diameter, 
 and containing about two inches' depth of water. This animal 
 gradually acquired great viciousness, and would eagerly attack 
 the fingers of any one who chose to put them within his 
 range, pursuing the intruding digits round the boundaries of 
 his demesne. After he had been thus a year in my possession, 
 I was one day surprised to see a second Cray-fish in the vessel; 
 but on taking the intruder in my hand (believing it to have 
 been placed in the vessel by a waggish relative), it proved to 
 be the exuviaj of my old friend, so perfect as to present his 
 exact counterpart. Instead of his usual boldness, he now 
 exhibited the most remarkable timidity, which continued for 
 three or four days. He was at first quite soft, and appeared 
 considerably larger than usual, but gradually grew firmer, and 
 on the fifth day felt to the touch as hard as usual, and ad- 
 vanced with open pincers to the attack of my finger, though 
 evidently not without some little doubtfulness of his powers. 
 Before the end of the week he was himself again, came on 
 
 * Histoire des Crustacea, tome ii. page 330. 
 
 f These notices of the Cray-fish are entirely extracted from Mr. 
 Thompson's article on the Crustacea, already referred to.
 
 88 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 more boldly than ever, and with greater effect, as his weapons 
 were sharper. He lived nearly two years with me, and 
 during the whole time received no food excepting one or two 
 worms."* 
 
 The Shrimp* (Crangon vulgaris) is common on the sandy 
 shores, and adjacent saline marshes, from the north to the 
 south of Ireland. About thirty years ago, it was regularly 
 exposed for sale at Belfast, but the side of the bay on which 
 it was taken has now become soft and oozy, and the Shrimps 
 so small and scarce that they are no longer sought for.f 
 
 The Prawn (Palcemon serratus, Fig. 61), so common iu 
 
 I I 
 
 Fig. 61. PRAW.I (RBDUCED). 
 
 some of the English markets, is still taken abundantly in 
 some localities in the south and west, but " a good dish of 
 
 * W. T. 
 
 f No apology is needed for introducing, in this place, the following 
 beautiful passage from the writings of Archdeacon Paley. 
 
 " Walking by the sea-side, in a calm evening, upon a sandy shore, 
 and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently remarked the appearance of 
 a dark cloud, or rather very thick mist, hanging over the edge of the 
 water, to the height, perhaps, of half a yard, and the breadth of two or 
 three yards, stretching along the coast as far as the eye could reach, and 
 always retiring with the water. When this cloud came to be examined, 
 it proved to be nothing else than so much space filled with young 
 ' Shrimps.' in the act of bounding into the air from the shallow margin 
 of the water, or from the wet sand. If any motion of a minute animal 
 could express delight, it was this: if they had meant to make signs of 
 their happiness, they could not have done it more intelligibly. Suppose 
 then, what I have no doubt of, each individual of this number to be in a 
 state of positive enjoyment, what a sum collectively, of gratification and 
 pleasure, have we before our view!"
 
 CRUSTACEA. 89 
 
 prawns," is a delicacy quite unknown along the north-eastern 
 shores of Ireland. 
 
 It would be inconsistent with our limits to enter into detail 
 respecting the smaller Crustacea, which present themselves to 
 our notice under circumstances so varied, and at times so 
 unexpected, that they often excite feelings of surprise, and 
 cannot be regarded without interest. 
 
 Certain species we find in the deep water of our bays; 
 others, like the h'ttle sand-hoppers (Fig. 62), on the moist 
 margin of the strand; but there is, perhaps, no place that 
 better repays our investigation than the beautiful little rock- 
 pools, fringed with sea- weeds and corallines, and inhabited by 
 multitudes of small Crus- 
 tacea, which climb upon their 
 branches, or enjoy themselves 
 in the clear expanse of their 
 waters. It is interesting to 
 know the extraordinary fer- 
 tility of these apparently in- 
 significant creatures, whether 
 living hi such situations or 
 
 in the ponds and ditches Of F 'S- 62. TALUKUS (MAGNIFIED), 
 
 our fields. " Jurine has, with great fidelity, watched the 
 hatching and increase of one freshwater species (Cyclops 
 quadricornis), and has given a calculation which shows its 
 amazing fecundity. The female carries, on each side, a little 
 packet of eggs, and he has seen her, when isolated, lay ten 
 times successively; but, in order to be within bounds, he sup- 
 poses her to lay eight times within three months, and each 
 time only forty eggs. At the end of one year, this female 
 would have been the pro- 
 genitor of 4,442,189,120 
 young!"* This genus, from 
 being furnished with one 
 large compound eye, bears the 
 classic name of Cyclops (Fig. 
 63); but its cannibalism is 
 
 worse than that Of the fabled Fig- 63. CYCLOPS (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 * Dr. Baird, in Mag. of Zoology and Botany, 1837, vol. i., page 314. 
 See also his work entitled " The Natural History of the British Ento- 
 mostraca," published by the Ray Society, 1850. It should, perhaps, be 
 mentioned, that the female, when once fecundated, is so for life.
 
 90 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 giant, for the mother has been seen to devour her own young. 
 Jurine, while he admits the fact, urges, in vindication of his 
 little favourites, that she does not do so from choice, hut 
 that the helpless young cannot resist the action of the 
 whirlpool the mother causes around her, and are thus car- 
 ried unconsciously into the old one's mouth. 
 
 Another one-eyed Crustacean deserves mention for the ex- 
 hibition it affords of one of those striking instances of provi- 
 dential care which the little, no less than the great, experience 
 from the Maker of all. In drains and ditches there is found 
 in abundance a minute creature, which, from its branching 
 horns (antennae), and its peculiar movements, is called the 
 arborescent water-flea (Daphnia pulex). It looks like a small 
 crustaceous animal enclosed in a transparent bivalve shell. 
 The eggs are developed in the space between the body of the 
 animal and the shell. The Daphne continues its moultings 
 even when full grown, but perishes with the cold of winter. 
 Ere that season, however, comes on, two eggs are produced, 
 enclosed in a horny case, and are thrown off with the shell. 
 These float on the water, protected from injury by their pecu- 
 liar covering, and from these the numerous progeny of the 
 ensuing summer is derived. Nor is this all; the impregnated 
 female is not only fertile for her own life, but conveys that 
 fertility to her female offspring for five or six successive 
 generations, whether they be derived from the ordinary 
 eggs or from those enveloped in the horny covering.* 
 
 It is obvious, from the particulars we have stated, that 
 the Crustacea afford matter for curious inquiry and patient 
 investigation, whether sought for 
 
 " By paved fountain or by rushy brook, 
 Or on the beached margin of the sea." 
 
 But it will be exhibiting them in a different light, if we men- 
 tion to our readers a species that attacks the works of man, 
 and crumbles into dust the wood- work of his piles and flood- 
 gates, piers, or jetties, constructed in salt-water. It is the 
 Limnoria terebrans^ a pigmy assailant, scarcely more than 
 
 * See note in preceding page. 
 
 f Kirby and Spence's Entomology, vol. i.; W. Thompson, in Edinburgh 
 New Phil. Journal, January, 1835. Another species, Chelura terebrans 
 has been recorded as native by Dr. Allmann, in Annals of Nat. Hist, 
 June, 1847; and some further particulars are given by Mr. Thompson in 
 the same periodical for Sept. 1847.
 
 CRUSTACEA. 9 1 
 
 the one-eighth of an inch in size, but whose destructive 
 powers have been manifested on many parts both of the 
 British and Irish shores. 
 
 Some of the Crustacea possess luminous powers, and 
 together with the minute Medusae formerly mentioned (page 
 41), give to the sea the splendid phosphorescence described 
 by mariners. 
 
 There is a singular race, which we have not yet mentioned 
 those which infest the skin, the eyes, and the gills of fishes, 
 and other marine animals (Fig. 64). Like the Entozoa, they 
 are parasites ; but from they situation they occupy, not in but 
 upon other animals, they are spoken of by some naturalists 
 under the name Epizoa. They are crustaceous annuals, under- 
 going transformations, and ere the brief period of their 
 locomotive state is ended, selecting the situa- 
 tion to which they afterwards adhere. Each 
 species is known as the parasite, not only of 
 some one particular animal, but also of somef 
 one particular organ. Hence their number is 
 perhaps greater than that of the whole class of 
 fishes. The sexes are distinct, " The male 
 appears always to retain his freedom, and is 
 singularly smaller than the female, generally 
 not more than a fifth part of her size."* 
 
 We shall close this brief notice of the struc- 
 ture, classification, and habits of the Crustacea, 
 by an extract from the Zoological Researches 
 of Mr. J. V. Thompson. It occurs in his de- 
 scription of the opossum shrimp, a species found 
 in " countless myriads" on some parts of our 
 coast, and so named from a singular pouch,Fi&-64. LKRSJA 
 analogous to that of the opossum, in which the ( MAGXIFIED )- 
 young are earned about. The spirit of this remark is, how- 
 ever, applicable to a wide range of objects. 
 
 " It is in looking closely into the structure of these little 
 animals, that we see the PERFECTION of the Divine Artist. 
 Nature's greater productions appear coarse, indeed, to these 
 elaborate and highly-finished master-pieces; and in going 
 higher and higher with our magnifiers, we still continue to 
 bring new parts and touches into view. If, for instance, we 
 
 * Owen's Lectures, page 149, &c.
 
 92 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 observe one of their members with the naked eye which may 
 be the utmost stretch of unassisted vision with the micro- 
 scope it first appears jointed, or composed of several pieces 
 articulated together; employing a higher magnifier, it appears 
 fringed with long hairs, which, on further scrutiny, gain a 
 sensible diameter, and seem to be themselves fringed with 
 hairs still more minute; many of these minute parts are evi- 
 dently jointed and perform sensible motions; but what idea 
 can we form of the various muscles which put all these parts 
 in movement, of the nerves which actuate them, and the ves- 
 sels which supply them with the nutriment essential to their 
 growth and daily expenditure, all of which we know from 
 analogy they must possess ?" 
 
 CLASS IV. IXSECTA DsSECTS. 
 
 " The insect youth are on the wing, 
 Eager to taste the honied spring, 
 And float amid the liquid noon : 
 Some lightly o'er the current skim, 
 Some show their gaily-gilded trim, 
 Quick- glancing to the sun." GRAY. 
 
 " WE now come to a class of Articulata in which," says 
 Professor Owen, " the highest problem of animal mechanics is 
 solved, and the entire body and its appendages can be lifted 
 from the ground and be propelled through the air. The 
 species which enjoy the swiftest mode of traversing space 
 breathe the air directly; but their organs of respiration are 
 peculiarly modified, in relation to their powers of locomotion."* 
 
 Fig. 65. SCOLOPENDRA. 
 
 NOTE. The total number of Irish insects at present known is about 
 3850. Vid. note by A. H. Haliday, Esq. appended to the report on 
 the Fauna of Ireland, by William Thompson, Esq. Proceedings British 
 Association, 1843. 
 
 * Lectures, page 192.
 
 IXSECTS. 
 
 93 
 
 The body is deeply cut into segments, a peculiarity which 
 explains the origin of the word insect.* In the lower tribes 
 the segments of the body are numerous, and in some cases so 
 many as sixty or eighty pairs of legs may be counted on one 
 individual. From this circumstance the term "Myriapoda" 
 has been applied to the Centipede (Scolopendra, Fig. 65), and 
 others of similar organization (Fig. 37). 
 
 In the true insects, the body consists of three portions 
 (Fig. 66); the head, with the " horns" or antennae, and the 
 organs of sensation; the thorax or chest, with the organs of 
 
 Antenna's 
 
 Eyet 
 
 HEAD. 
 
 1st pair of Leg* 
 
 1 4 pair of Wingt 
 
 2d pair of Legi 
 
 2d pair of Wings 
 
 'Mm$X 
 
 3d pair ttf Legt / '/'/ ~~\ -\AJ ABDOMEH. 
 
 Tibia - 
 
 Tartut 
 
 Fig. 66. EXTERNAL Aw ATOMY OF AS LNSECT. 
 
 locomotion, whether wings or legs; and the abdomen, includ- 
 ing the organs needful for nutrition and reproduction. 
 
 The heart is an elongated muscular tube, situated along 
 the middle of the back, and hence called the dorsal vessel. 
 The circulating fluid is cold, transparent, and nearly colour- 
 less.! " The action of the heart is accelerated, as in other 
 
 * Latin insectus, cut or notched. 
 
 f Westwood, Int. to, Classification of Insects, page 15, vol. L
 
 94 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 animals, by muscular exertion and excitement; and Mr. Newport 
 has counted as many as one hundred and forty-two pulsations 
 in a minute in a species of wild Bee so excited."* 
 
 Respiration is effected by means of two great canals 
 (tracheae) running along the sides of the body, beneath the 
 outer surface, and communicating with the atmosphere by 
 means of numerous short tubes, terminating 
 at or near the sides of the body in breath- 
 ing pores (spiracles) ; internally the tracheae 
 divide into innumerable branches, convey- 
 ing the air to every portion of the body, 
 and thus pervading its organs and tissues. 
 This structure will easily be understood by 
 referring to the accompanying figures. The 
 Water- Scorpion (Nepa, Fig. 67) is an in- 
 sect common in fresh water; and the re- 
 spiratory apparatus of the same insect, 
 as it appears when highly magnified, is 
 Fig. 67 NKPA. shown in Fig. 69. 
 
 " There is one circumstance connected with the tracheae 
 which is specially deserving of admiration, whether we con- 
 sider the obvious design of the contrivance, or the remarkable 
 beauty of the structure employed. It is evident that the sides 
 of canals so slender and delicate as the tracheae of insects 
 would inevitably collapse and fall together, so as to obstruct 
 the passage of the air they are designed to convey; and the 
 only plan which would seem calculated to obviate this would 
 appear to be to make their walls stiff and 
 inflexible. Inflexibility and stiffness, how- 
 ever, would never do in this case, where the 
 vessels in question have to be distributed, in 
 countless ramifications, through so many 
 soft and distensible viscera ; and the problem 
 therefore, is, how to maintain them per- 
 manently open, in spite of external pressure, 
 and still maintain the perfect pliancy and 
 softness of their walls. The mode in which 
 this i8 effected is &s fo^ows: Between the 
 two thin layers of which each air vessel 
 consists, an elastic spiral thread (Fig. 68) 
 
 Fig. 68,-AiR-TCBE OF 
 INSECT. 
 
 * Owen's Lectures, page 223.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 Fig. 69. RESPIRATORY SYSTEM IN NEPA (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 is interposed, so as to form, by its revolutions, a firm 
 cylinder of sufficient strength to insure the calibre of the 
 vessel from being diminished, but not at all interfering with 
 its flexibility or obstructing its movements; and this fibre, 
 delicate as it is, may be traced with the microscope even 
 through the utmost ramifications of the tracheae, a character 
 whereby these tubes may be readily distinguished."* 
 
 Fig. 69. a, Head b, First pair of legs. e, First segment of thorax. d, Base 
 of wings. e, Second pair of legs. e', third pair of legs./. Trachea;. g, Stig- 
 mata or spiracles. h, Air sacs. 
 
 Outline of the Animal Kingdom, bj Professor Rymer Jones, p. 266.
 
 96 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 It is unnecessary liere to dwell on the nervous system of 
 insects; their general character is given in that of the class 
 (page 57). In different families of insects, the ganglions, 
 or nervous centres, whence nerves are sent to the several 
 organs, are different in their number, and in the amount of 
 concentration which they present (Fig. 70) ; and, as might 
 
 Fig. 70. NERVOUS SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 
 
 naturally be expected, they undergo modifications, ac- 
 cording to the changing form and powers of the same 
 insect, in its different stages of development. 
 
 With regard to the external senses, insects differ from the 
 higher animals in the possession of two processes appended to 
 the head, and which, in the Butterfly, resemble delicate horns 
 terminated by a 1cnob. The entomologist * calls them antenna ; 
 
 Fig. 70. A, Nervous system of an Ear-wig. B, Of a Grasshopper. C, Of a 
 Stag-beetle. D, Of a Field-bug ( Pentatoma).a, Brain. A, c, The Optic nerves. 
 d. Thoracic ganglions. e, Abdominal ganglions. 
 
 * Entomology is that department of Natural History which treats of 
 insects.
 
 INSECTS. 97 
 
 the less scientific observers, horns, or feelers; and the latter 
 term shows that they are applied to external objects in such 
 a manner as to indicate that they are organs of touch. There 
 is also reason to believe they are to some extent organs of 
 hearing; but great doubt yet exists as to the precise extent 
 and nature of their functions. They are very diversified iu 
 their form and structure, and vary not only in different genera, 
 but often in the males and females of the same species. 
 
 That insects have the sense of touch and of taste, is gene- 
 rally conceded ; and that of smell they have been supposed to 
 possess in such perfection, that one of our most popular poets 
 has asserted that Bees return to their hives by retracing 
 
 " The varied scents which charmed them as they flew."* 
 
 While we dissent from this poetical theory, we would by 
 no means deny the powerful influence which certain odours 
 exert in repelling or attracting these creatures. Of this Mr. 
 Knapp gives an instance, in speaking of one of the Beetles, 
 which from their habits are called " Dung-chafers." One or 
 two only of the common Dor or blind Beetle (Geotrupes 
 stercorartus) are usually seen at the same time. But, on one 
 evening, such numbers of these insects were passing, as to 
 constitute a little stream. This naturally excited his attention ; 
 and "I was led," he continues, "to search into the object of 
 their direct flight, as in general it is irregular and seemingly 
 inquisitive. I soon found that they dropped on some recent 
 nuisance ; but what powers of perception must these creatures 
 possess, drawn from all distances and directions, by the very 
 little factor which in such a calm evening could be diffused 
 around! and by what inconceivable means could odours reach 
 this Beetle, so as to rouse so inert an insect into action! but 
 it is appointed one of the great scavengers of the earth, and 
 marvellously endowed with powers of sensation and means of 
 effecting the purpose of its being."f 
 
 The sense of hearing was formerly denied to insects, even 
 by naturalists so distinguished as Linnaeus and Bonnet. 
 Shakspeare entertained a different and more correct opinion, 
 when he used the words, 
 
 " I will tell it softly; 
 Yon Crickets shall not hear me." 
 
 * Rogers', " Pleasures of Memory." 
 f Journal of a Naturalist, 3d edition, page 319. 
 PART i. &
 
 98 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 On this point the observations of Brunelli, an Italian natura- 
 list, are quite conclusive. Several of the field Crickets which 
 he kept hi a chamber, "continued their crinking song through 
 the whole day; but the moment they heard a knock at the 
 door they were silent. He subsequently invented a method 
 of imitating their sounds, and when he did so outside the 
 door, at first a few would venture on a soft whisper, and by- 
 and-by the whole party burst out in a chorus to answer him; 
 but upon repeating the rap at the door, they instantly stopped 
 again, as if alarmed. He likewise confined a male in one side 
 of his garden, while he put a female hi the other at liberty, 
 which began to leap so soon as she heard the criuk of the 
 male, and immediately came to him an experiment which 
 he frequently repeated with the same result." * 
 
 There are some insects in which no organs of vision have 
 been discovered; but in general they are not only veiy obvious, 
 but present considerable variety in colour, form, position, and 
 structure.f They are generally sessile; and when, to give 
 them a wider range, they are fixed, like those of many crus- 
 tacea, on peduncles, those stalks are not moveable. The most 
 usual number of eyes is two ; but when it is needful that the 
 insect should, at the same time, have the power of 
 observing objects in the ^ir and in the water, it is 
 gifted with four eyes, as hi the common Whirl-gig 
 (Gyrinus natator, Fig. 71), which may be seen per- 
 forming its rapid evolutions on our ponds and stream- 
 lets. The eyes are sometimes simple, sometimes a 
 Fig. 7:. number of simple eyes are collected together, and are 
 GYRISUS. jjjen ca n e( i conglomerate; but the most common kind 
 is that which is termed compound. Such eyes, when seen 
 under the microscope, appear to consist of an infinite number 
 of convex hexagonal pieces. When separated and made 
 clean, they are as transparent as crystal. Their number is 
 extremely variable, and cannot but strike the most indifferent 
 with astonishment. " What would be thought of a quadruped 
 whose head, with the exception of the mouth and place of 
 juncture with the neck, was covered by two enormous masses 
 of eyes, numbering upwards of 12,000 in each mass? Yet 
 such is the condition of the organs of vision in the Dragon-fly." 
 
 * Insect Miscellanies, page 77. 
 
 f Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology, voL UL
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 99 
 
 In the common Bee the same structure is not less apparent. 
 The fiery eyes of many Gad-flies (Tabani, Fig. 72), which 
 present vivid bands of purple and green, are composed of 
 similar lenses, and each eye 
 contains nearly seven thou- 
 sand.* The Ant has 50 
 lenses ; the House-fly 4,000 ; 
 while above 17,000 have 
 been counted in the eye of 
 a Butterfly, and more than 
 25,000 in that of a species 
 of Beetle.f 
 
 It is impossible to read 
 
 the simple facts which science thus makes known, and not be 
 struck with the complexity of structure shown in those dimi- 
 nutive creatures, considered with regard to only one of their 
 senses and its manifold functions. Nor can we 'hesitate for a 
 moment to attribute to the beneficence of our common Creator 
 the compensating contrivances by which the want of motion 
 
 Fig. 72. TABANUS. 
 
 Fig. 73. PYRALIS OF THE VINE. 
 
 Fig. 73. Vine-leaf attacked by the Pyralis.4, The male. 4 a, The female 
 4 b, The Caterpillar. 4 c, The eggs. 4 d and 4 e, The pupae. 
 
 * Kirby and Spence, vol. iii. f Mordella Beetle.
 
 100 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 in the eyes is more than counterbalanced by the abundance in 
 which these organs are bestowed. 
 
 No one circumstance connected with insects, has perhaps 
 arrested the attention of ordinary observers so much as what 
 is termed their metamorphoses. The vertebrate animals retain 
 through life, with some variations in size and colouring, very 
 much the same forms which they had at birth. Insects, on 
 the contrary, pass through four states of existence, and these 
 are in general distinctly marked (Fig. 73). They are first 
 contained ha eggs, which are deposited by the parent in 
 suitable situations, and with a degree of instinctive care which 
 fills us with admiration. They then become active and 
 rapacious, and are well known by the names of grubs, maggots, 
 and caterpillars, according to the tribes to which they belong 
 (Fig. 77). To this condition Linnaeus applied the Latin word 
 larva (a mask), as if the perfect insect were masked or con- 
 cealed in the figure of the Caterpillar. The ravages of which 
 the forester and the gardener complain, result most generally 
 from the voracity of insects in their larva state. They eat 
 much, increase rapidly in size, change their skin several times, 
 and pass into another state, in which, in some tribes, all 
 appearance of vitality is for a time suspended. The Caterpillar 
 of the Butterfly or Moth, when the period for this change 
 arrives, seeks out a secure asylum for its period of helpless- 
 ness, and suspends itself by a thread (Figs. 74, 78), envelopes 
 itself in silk, makes a covering of leaves, or entombs itself in 
 the earth, according to the habits of the species. Some of 
 them in this state appear, on a miniature scale, like Egyptian 
 mummies, or like an infant wrapped up in swaddling-clothes. 
 From this peculiarity the term pupa (a baby) has been given 
 to them; and chrysalis, a word of Greek origin, referring to 
 the bright or golden colours which some of them display, has 
 also been applied. We shall use the terms pupa and chrysalis 
 indifferently, meaning, in all cases, the insect in the form it 
 has prior to its appearance in the last and perfect form ; that 
 which is termed the Imago (Figs. 75, 79), as though it had 
 not until then its perfect or fully developed image. All insects, 
 however, do not assume the quiescent state of those just 
 mentioned. The young of the common Gnat (Fig. 76) pass 
 the early stages of their existence as inhabitants of the water, 
 jerking about with great agility, or swimming with case and 
 swiftness. The Crickets and Cockroaches are as active and
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 101 
 
 Fig. 78. PCPA OF PAPILIO MACHAOH. 
 
 Fig. 79. IHAGO OF PAPIUO MACHAOK.
 
 1 02 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 lively at this period of their lives as at any other, and differ 
 in appearance from the perfect insect only in the absence of 
 wings. 
 
 There is something in the contemplation of these changes 
 highly suggestive of poetic thought. The Caterpillar is seen 
 crawling on the earth, then apparently lifeless in its self- 
 constructed sepulchre, then flinging off the vestments of the 
 tomb, and, with beauty of form and powers unknown before, 
 entering on the enjoyment of a new state of existence. Hence 
 it is not surprising that the ancients found, in its transforma- 
 tions, a symbol of the vague and shadowy ideas they enter- 
 tained of the life of man here, of his repose in the tomb, and 
 of the probability of a more glorious state of being hereafter. 
 " Psyche," says an ingenious and learned writer, "means, in 
 Greek, the human soul, and it means also a Butterfly; of 
 which apparently strange double sense the undoubted reason 
 is, that the Butterfly was a very ancient symbol of the soul."* 
 
 A number of terms have been employed by entomologists 
 to denote the variety observable in insect metamorphoses: 
 but a better acquaintance with the laws observable in the 
 development of animals in their several stages, and a more 
 accurate acquaintance with the functions performed by differ- 
 ent organs and tissues in the animal frame, have stripped these 
 changes of much of their distinctive character. Some bisects 
 are not, at any time, possessed of wings ; but up to the period 
 at which wings are developed, it is found that all insects 
 undergo a similar series of changes. In some, however, an 
 amount of change is undergone, before their liberation from 
 the egg, which others do not experience until they have been 
 some time in the enjoyment of active existence. The duration 
 of the several progressive stages of growth differs widely in 
 the several tribes; and this also tended to give to each an 
 apparently distinctive character, to which it was not in reality 
 entitled.f 
 
 "With regard to their food, insects may be said to be omni- 
 vorous; for there is no animal or vegetable substance which 
 docs not form the aliment of one or more species. Some live 
 entirely on putrifying substances, and, by thus removing them, 
 prevent the salubrity of our atmosphere from being impaired ; 
 others are rapacious, and subsist by the destruction of those 
 
 * Nare's Essays, i. 107. Quoted by Kirby and Spence, iv. 74. 
 f Owen's Lectures, pages 236, 237.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 103 
 
 that are weaker than themselves; some feed upon timber; 
 others upon leaves and grass ; some, like the " worm i' the 
 bud," feast on our loveliest flowers; and others revel on the 
 nectar of our choicest fruits. Some idea of the elaborate 
 apparatus by which the food is assimilated may be formed 
 from an examination of the digestive system in one of the 
 carnivorous Beetles (Fig. 80). 
 
 Fig. 80. DIGESTIVE APPARATUS OF BEETLE. 
 
 Fig. 80 a, The head, with mandibles and antennae. b, The crop ana 
 -c, Stomach and intestine. d, Biliary vessels.
 
 1 04 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 From the diversity of their food, and the great variety of 
 circumstances under which it is obtained, we naturally expect 
 considerable modification in the structure of the mouth and its 
 appendages in other words, of the instruments by which the 
 food is obtained; and, accordingly, we find it is sometimes 
 furnished with jaws for cutting and for masticating solids, 
 and, at other times, with tubes of very different kinds, 
 adapted for the imbibing of fluids, such as the blood of 
 animals, the honey of flowers, or the sap of growing plants. 
 Before noticing this admirable variety of structure, in con- 
 nexion with the habits of different bisect tribes, it may be 
 well to acquire distinct ideas of the parts of which the mouth 
 is composed. 
 
 The mouth of one of the rapacious Beetles (Fig. 8 1 , Carabus\ 
 which are constantly crossing our path in quest of prey, will 
 afford a familiar example. It consists of seven parts (Fig, 82). 
 An upper ]ip(labrwri) ; a lower lip (labium) ; a tongue (lingua) ; 
 two upper jaws (mandibulce)\ and two lower jaws (maxillce). 
 The motion of the jaws is not vertical, as in the vertebrate 
 animals, but is horizontal; and the lower jaws are sometimes 
 
 Fig. 81 CARABCS. Fig. 82. PARTS OP MOUTH or CARABCS. 
 
 employed in holding the food which the upper jaws or man- 
 dibles are engaged in cutting to pieces. In some orders the 
 seven parts are not to be seen with such distinctness, some of 
 them being prodigiously enlarged, and others diminished, or 
 perhaps altogether wanting. 
 
 Fig. 82. a, Lab-urn. d, Labium J, Mandibles. c, Ma.tlllse. The feelers 
 
 attached to the Maxillae are called AlariOary palpi; and those to the Labium, 
 Labial palpi.
 
 INSECTS. 105 
 
 To bring this varied organism fully into play, it is necessary 
 that each insect should possess the power of transporting 
 itself with ease to whatever situation its necessities require, 
 and that it should be furnished, for this purpose, with organs 
 of flight adapted to the varying circumstances and requirements 
 of the several tribes. These wings never exceed four in 
 number. In beetles of burrowing habits the upper pair is 
 hard and horny, and serves to protect the softer membranous 
 pair when not in nse. The wing-covers or shards (elytra) 
 are expanded in flight, and, by their concavity, help to sustain 
 the insect in the air ; hence Shakspeare's description of 
 
 " The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums," 
 is not less accurate than poetical. In other tribes the wings 
 resemble the finest lace ; and in the butterflies and moths they 
 are covered with a mealy substance, which examination under 
 a lens shows to be composed of the most delicate scales, dif- 
 fering in form, in size, and in colouring, and giving to some 
 of these " gilded butterflies" the gorgeous metallic tints for 
 which they are so remarkable. 
 
 "The grand and characteristic endowment of an insect,"' 
 says Professor Owen, " is its wings ; every part of the organi- 
 sation is modified in subserviency to the full fruition of these 
 instruments of motion. In no other part of the animal 
 kingdom is the organization for flight so perfect, so apt to 
 that end, as hi the class of insects. The swallow cannot 
 match the dragon-fly (Fig. 83) in flight. This insect has 
 
 Fig. 83. DBASOJJ-FLT.
 
 106 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 been seen to outstrip and elude its swift pursuer of the fea- 
 thered class; nay, it can do more in the air than any hird; it 
 can fly backwards and sidelong, to right or left, as well as 
 forwards, and alter its course on the instant without turning." 
 These " limber fans" are of use in another capacity; they 
 take their share in the business of respiration, and hence 
 have been termed, from analogy, " aerial gills." 
 
 From the great importance of the wings, and from the 
 modifications in their structure, they become naturally the 
 basis for classification; and without going much into details, 
 we shall endeavour to denote the principal groups of insects, 
 and notice their most striking characteristic features and 
 habits. 
 
 NOTE. Tn the brief outline, here given, we have, for the sake of 
 simplicity, adhered to the Linnaean orders, with the additions of Orthnp- 
 tera and Strepsiptera. Some of them, it may be proper to mention, have 
 been subdivided by modern entomologists. The meaning of the com- 
 pound term by which each order is designated will be given where the 
 term occurs: but it seems desirable, at the commencement, to place before 
 the learner, at one view, a list of all the orders hereafter mentioned, with 
 the literal signification of the names, and some well-known example of 
 the insects belonging to each division. Thus: 
 
 I. Coleoptera, sheath-winged, beetles, &c. 
 
 II. Orthoptera, straight -winged, crickets, locusts, &a 
 
 III. Neuroptera, nerve-winged, dragon-flies. 
 
 IV. Hymenoptera, membrane-winged, bees, ants, &c. 
 V. Strepsiptera, twisted-winged, stylops. 
 
 VI. Lepidoptera, scale-winged, butterflies, &c. 
 
 VII. Hemiptera, half-winged, cicadse, water-scorpions, &c. 
 
 VIII. Diptera, two-winged, flies, gnats, &c. 
 
 IX. Aptera, without wings, fleas, spring-tails, &c. 
 
 The first of these orders Coleoptera (page 107) was established by 
 Aristotle. The term is derived from two Greek words, meaning sheathed 
 or encased wings. Of Beetles, or Coleopterous insects, we have about 
 950 Irish species, according to the catalogue mentioned at page 92, and 
 referred to hereafter. It must be recollected that the numbers quoted 
 at any particular time, as belonging to the different orders, should be 
 regarded as showing the extent to which they had been investigated at that 
 period, and not as representing either the proportion actually collected, 
 or that probably existing.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 107 
 
 COLEOPTERA. 
 
 Fig. 84. 
 PTINUS (MAGNIFIED;. 
 
 Fig. 85. Fig. 86. 
 
 MALE GLOW-WORM. FEMALE GLOW-WOBM. 
 
 Among the various tribes of beetles constituting the present 
 order, very great difference exists even in our native species, 
 in size and colouring. The great water-beetle (Dytiscus 
 marginalis) is sufficiently powerful to play the tyrant of the 
 pool in which he lives, and even to attack and overcome small 
 fishes. Others, again, are so minute, as to live in the per- 
 forations they make in the timber of our dwelling-houses, and 
 thus to escape detection by ordinary observers.* Among 
 the latter may be mentioned those little beetles (Fig, 84), to 
 which vulgar superstition has given the name of " Death- 
 watch." 
 
 " The solemn Death-watch click'd the hour she died." GAY. 
 
 This sound, which is only the call of the insect to its com- 
 panion, has caused many a heart to throb with idle fears, 
 which a slight knowledge of natural history would for ever 
 have dispelled. It so exactly resembles the ticking of a 
 watch, that Mr. R. Ball, by placing his watch to the wainscot 
 which the little beetle frequented, has caused the insect to 
 respond to its ticking. 
 
 The structure of the mouth and of the wings has already 
 
 * Mr. Spence has given an interesting account of the destruction of 
 large beams of timber in the dwelling-houses at Brussels, by one of those 
 insects. " The mischief," he says, ' is wholly caused by Anolnum 
 tessellatum which thus annually puts the good citizens of Brussels to an 
 expense of several thousand pounds, much of which might have possibly 
 been always saved, had the real cause of the evil been known.' ' Trans- 
 actions of the Entomological Society, vol. ii. page 11.
 
 108 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 been mentioned, but it most be understood that in both there 
 are considerable modifications. In many beetles, the wing- 
 cases, or, to use the more correct term, the elytra, are united 
 together, and, as wings could not be used, they are not given. 
 In the glow-worm (Fig. 85, 86), an insect we do not possess 
 in Ireland,* the female, being soft and wingless, does not seem 
 to belong to the present order; but the male is possessed of 
 elytra, and of expansive wings, by means of which he is 
 enabled to shape his course to the " nuptial lamp" displayed 
 by the more stationary female. This idea, though apparently 
 fanciful, appears to be borne out by experiment. | 
 
 The " droning-flight" of the Dor-beetle, heard in the twi- 
 light of the summer-evening's walk, is a sound with which 
 every one is familiar; and equally well known is the manner 
 in which the creature startles us from our reveries by striking 
 against our faces. It is from this circumstance, and not from 
 any absence of the sense of vision, that its common epithet, 
 the " blind-beetle," has been derived. Both peculiarities have 
 been noticed by Collins in his " Ode to Evening" : 
 
 "Now air is hushed, save 
 Where the beetle winds 
 His small but sullen horn ; 
 , As oft he rises, 'midst the twilight path. 
 
 Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum." 
 
 This common insect affords an example of the manner in 
 which many animals feign death, in order to deceive their 
 enemies. If taken in the hand, and tossed about, its legs 
 will be set out perfectly stiff and immoveable (which is its 
 posture when really dead), and will so continue until allowed 
 to remain for a minute or two undisturbed. If the hand be 
 closed, its strength is such, that it is difficult, by the strongest 
 pressure we can exert, to prevent its escape. 
 
 To this family belongs the sacred beetle of the Egyptians 
 (Fig. 87), whose image remains sculptured on many of their 
 
 * The luminous worm found on some of the bogs in Ireland (ante, 
 page 67), is not an insect, but a species of annelid. 
 
 t Vide Entomologia Edinensis, page 206. The idea has been em- 
 bodied by Moore: 
 
 "beautiful as is the light 
 
 The glow-worm hangs out to allure 
 Her mate to her green bower at night"
 
 INSECTS. 109 
 
 obelisks and other monuments. 
 Denou,* in his splendid work on 
 Egypt, states that it was an em- 
 blem of wisdom, strength, and 
 industry, and that it occupies the 
 most distinguished place in the 
 temples, not merely as an orna- 
 ment, but as an object of worship. 
 Among the Egyptian antiquities 
 preserved in the British Museum, 
 is a colossal figure of this insect, 
 placed upon an altar, before which 
 a priest is kneeling. Similar . - 
 figures of the insect, but of a 
 
 small size, are frequently found on the breasts of mummies, 
 and were probably worn as amulets. 
 
 All Egyptian travellers speak with surprise of the habits of 
 this beetle, in collecting and rolling about a ball of dung, in 
 which it deposits an egg. A similar custom prevails in one 
 of our native species (Geotrupes vernalis); but in districts 
 where sheep are kept, it wisely saves its labour, and inge- 
 niously avails itself of the pellet-shaped balls of dung which 
 these animals supply, and which are admirably adapted for 
 its purpose, t 
 
 Among the beetle tribes are some which are cased in 
 armour of brilliant metallic lustre, and there are species found 
 on vegetables which are splendid objects when their beauties 
 are revealed by the microscope. There is one which, though 
 taken hi many parts of Ireland, has not as yet been observed 
 in the northern districts, and which is remarkable both 
 for its beauty and its activity (Cidndda campestris). Its 
 colour is a golden green, with white or yellow spots, and 
 appeai-s particularly rich when the insect is running rapidly 
 along in the bright sunshine of a summer's day. It ia one of 
 a family, justly named by Linnaeus the tigers of the insect 
 tribes. " Though decorated with brilliant colours, they prey 
 upon the whole insect race; their formidable jaws, which 
 cross each other, are armed with fearful fangs, showing to 
 what use they are applicable ; and the extreme velocity with 
 
 * Vol. ii. page 60. 
 
 f Sturm, quoted by Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. page 475-
 
 110 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 which they can either ran or fly, renders hopeless any attempt 
 to elude their pursuit"* (Fig. 88). In contrast with these 
 carnivorous Beetles, we may mention some whose powers are 
 exercised on vegetable matter. The best known of these is 
 perhaps the common Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), an 
 insect extremely abundant in England, but in the North of 
 Ireland of comparative scarcity. It spends three years in the 
 ground feeding on the roots of grass and other vegetables. In 
 its mature state its attacks are openly made on the leaves of 
 our hedge roses and forest trees. There are others who carry 
 on their proceedings so as to elude our observation. Thus: 
 
 " The red-capp'd worm, that's shut 
 
 Within the concave of a nut," 
 
 is the larva of a Weevil. The mother is furnished with a 
 long horny beak (fig. 89), and while the nut is yet soft, she 
 
 Fig. 88. ClCISDELA. Fig. 89. NUT WEEVIL (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 drills a hole through the shell, deposits an egg, and thus fur- 
 nishes her future offspring with a house for its defence and 
 food for its support. 
 
 Much more laborious is the process by which the burying 
 Beetles (Fig. 90) attain the same object. With united 
 industry they excavate the earth from under the dead body 
 of a frog, a bird, or other small animal, until at length 
 it is interred to the depth of some inches, and covered 
 
 * Kirby and Spence, vol. i. page 268.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 over with earth. The eggs are de- 
 posited in the decaying flesh, and thus 
 the young grubs, when hatched, find 
 themselves surrounded by a store of 
 food provided by the instinctive la- 
 bours of the parents. 
 
 We have spoken of the coleopterous 
 insects more fully than we shall of 
 those belonging to some of the other 
 orders; but not more fully than their 
 variety and importance deserve. Mr. 
 Westwood states, that the number 
 of species of this order, with which entomologists are ac- 
 quainted, cannot be less than 35,000 ; and he thinks it more 
 than probable, that when those from foreign countries shall 
 have been collected, the number will be doubled, if not 
 trebled. The Berlin museum alone contains 28,000 species. 
 
 Fig. 90. 
 BURYING BEETLE. 
 
 DIFFERENT STATES OF A GRANIVOROUS BEETLE 
 (CALOSOMA). 
 
 Fig. 92. 
 
 UlAliO.
 
 112 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 ORTHOPTERA.* 
 
 Fig. 94. PnvLi.iuM SICCIFOI.IUM. 
 
 This division includes in it the Cockroaches, Crickets, Grass- 
 hoppers, and Locusts, and those singular-looking creatures, 
 from tropical countries, which have been, by common consent, 
 named "walking-sticks" and "leaf insects." Some of the 
 latter, which we see in our museums, have the wing-covers of 
 so bright and fresh a green, that we can with difficulty per- 
 suade ourselves we are looking on an insect; while others 
 present a no less striking resemblance to the colour of the 
 leaf, and its delicate reticulations, as it lies on the ground in 
 its withered state (Fig. 94). 
 
 Another foreign insect deserves mention, because it has 
 
 * Derived from two Greek words; one signifying straight, the other 
 a wing; the arms being longitudinally folded when at rest About fifty 
 Irish species.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 113 
 
 obtained from its attitude the appellation of the "praying 
 Mantis" (Fig. 95); and popular credulity, both in Europe and 
 Africa, has gone so far as to assert, that a child or a traveller, 
 who has lost his way, would be guided by taking one of 
 these pious insects in his hand, and observing in what direction 
 it pointed. They have the character of being gentle, while in 
 
 Fig. 95. MAMTIS. 
 
 reality they are extremely ferocious. Using one of the fore- 
 legs as a sabre, they can cut off the head of an antagonist at a 
 single stroke, and are so pugnacious, that the Chinese children, 
 according to Barrow, sell to their comrades bamboo cages, 
 each containing a Mantis, which are put together to fight.* 
 Insects of this order have jaws no less powerful than those 
 of the Beetle tribes, and which are well fitted for acting upon 
 the vegetables that form their principal food. Their wings 
 are different from those of the Coleoptera, the wing-covers 
 being less opaque, and bearing some resemblance to parch- 
 ment, while the wings themselves are folded, when not in 
 use, in a different manner. 
 
 Fig. 96. HOUSE-CRICKET. 
 
 Perhaps in these countries no individual of the order is so 
 well known as the House-cricket (Fig. 96), which common 
 
 * Kirby smd Spence, voL L page 275. "Westwood, vol. i. page 427. 
 PAKTL H
 
 114 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 belief regards as foretelling cheerfulness and plenty. The 
 more just exposition would be, that as crickets revel on the 
 yeast, the crumbs, the milk, the gravy, and all the waste and 
 refuse of a fireside, their presence does not prognosticate that 
 plenty is to come, but that it already exists. In like manner, 
 when they gnaw holes in clothes which are drying at the fire, the 
 naturalist would say, that the action is not done, as is com- 
 monly said, because of injuries they have received, but simply 
 because the moisture which the clothes contain is gratifying 
 to their thirsty palates. 
 
 Shakspeare, Milton, and many other poets, have noticed 
 the chirp of "the Cricket on the Health," but none have 
 offered to it a more graceful tribute than Cowper: 
 
 " Thou surpasseth, happier far, 
 Happiest grasshoppers that are ; 
 Theirs is but a summer's song, 
 Thine endures tlie winter long, 
 Unimpair'd, and shrill and clear 
 Melody throughout the year." 
 
 The Rev. Gilbert AVhite, in that charming "Natural His- 
 tory of Selborne," which it seems scarcely possible to quote 
 without commendation, devotes a letter to a graphic and 
 interesting account of the habits of the Field-cricket (Acheta 
 sampestris). In this he justly remarks, that "sounds do not 
 always give as pleasure according to their sweetness and 
 melody, nor do harsh sounds always displease. Thus the 
 shrilling of the Field- cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet 
 marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds with a 
 train of summer ideas, of everything that is rural, verdurous, 
 and joyous." 
 
 The Cockroaches (Fig- 97), which also belong to the pre- 
 sent order, are regarded with feelings very different from those 
 associated with the crickets. They devour bread, meat, 
 cheese, woollen clothes, and even shoes. On board ship, 
 barrels of rice, corn, and other provisions, are at times com- 
 pletely destroyed by them. In some tropical countries, they 
 swarm by myriads in old houses, making every part filthy 
 beyond description. They sometimes attack sleeping persons, 
 and will even eat the extremities of the dead.* 
 
 There is another insect belonging to the present order, 
 whose very name is associated, not with disgust, but with 
 
 * Westwood, vol. i. page 418,
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 115 
 
 terror: we allude to the Locust (Fig. 98). In these countries 
 we are happily exempt from its devastations; but a few 
 detached individuals are occasionally wafted hither, and, in 
 this way, so many as twenty-three species are now recorded 
 as British. For some account of the 
 ravages which they have at various 
 times committed, we refer to Kirby 
 and Spence's Introduction to En- 
 tomology, vol. i. page 212, where 
 much information on the subject has 
 been carefully brought together. The 
 description given by the Prophet Joel 
 is not less remarkable for its fidelity 
 than its grandeur. "A fire devoureth 
 before them, and behind them a 
 flame burneth: the land is as the 
 Garden of Eden before them, and 
 behind them a desolate wilderness; 
 yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
 Like the noise of chariots on the tops 
 of mountains shall they leap, like the 
 noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong 
 people set in battle array." 
 
 Fig. 97. COCKROACH. 
 
 'U. 98. Locubi.
 
 116 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 NEUROPTERA.* 
 
 Fig. 99. INDIAN LIJIKLLUI.A, oa DKAGON-JXY. 
 
 This order of insects includes the Dragon-flies, the May- 
 flies, the Lacewinged-flies, the Ephemera, and the destructive 
 Tennites, or white ants. They have four large-sized wings, 
 equal in size, furnished with numerous nervures, and pre- 
 senting, in some species, an appearance of the most delicate 
 network. The jaws are fitted for mastication. 
 
 No one who looks upon any of our native Dragon-flies 
 (Libellulce, Fig. 86) hawking over a pond on a bright summer 
 day, and marks the facility with which their insect prey is 
 taken and devoured, could ever suppose that these swift- 
 flying creatures had' but a few weeks before been inhabitants 
 of the water. Yet it is there the early stages of their life 
 are passed. The female has been observed to descend the 
 leaf or stem of an aquatic plant to deposit her eggs. The 
 larva, when excluded, is not less ferocious than the perfect 
 insect, and is furnished with a singular apparatus, a kind of 
 mask, which is used not only for seizing its prey, but for 
 holding it while the jaws perform their customary oifice.f On 
 one occasion we lifted one of these larvae, when feeding on a 
 
 * From two Greek words, one signifying a nerve, the other a wing. 
 The terra "nerves" is commonly applied to the nervures or minute 
 tubes by which the wings are expanded. The order contains about 
 seventy Irish species. 
 
 f For a lucid description of this instrument, see- Kirby and Sppnce, 
 vol. iii. page 125.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 117 
 
 Tadpole, but it continued its repast without evincing the 
 slightest discomposure. When the time for deserting the 
 water has arrived, it climbs upon the stem or leaf of one of 
 the water-plants, emerges from its pupa case, and, after 
 resting until its wings are expanded and dried, enters, in the 
 air upon a course of the same ceasless rapacity which it had 
 waged while in the water. 
 
 Some have the wings expanded horizontally when at rest 
 {Figs. 83, 99) ; others have them closed and erect (Fig. 1 00) ; 
 
 Fig. 100. AGRIOS 
 
 but in both, the movements of the insects are so light and 
 graceful, their colours so splendid, and, at the same tune, so 
 varied, displaying the softest green and the richest azure, 
 that our neighbours, the French, have bestowed on them the 
 appellation of "demoiselles;" and one of our poets has applied 
 to them a corresponding term. 
 
 " Chasing, with eager hands and eyes, 
 
 The beautiful blue damsel flies, 
 That fluttered round the jasmine stems 
 
 Like winged flowers or flying gems." MOORE. 
 
 The insects to which anglers give the name of May- 
 flies (Phryganece, Fig. 101) also pass the beginning of their 
 
 Fig. 101. FHKYAO5BA.
 
 us 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 existence in the water. Mr. Hyndman, of Belfast, noticed, 
 some years ago, the proceedings of the female in one of the 
 ponds in the Botanic Garden, near that town, and favoured 
 us with the following note : " I first observed the Phrygauea 
 on the leaf of an aquatic plant, from which it crept down 
 along the stem under the water, very nearly a foot deep; it 
 appeared then to have been disturbed by some stickle-backs, 
 which approached and seemed inclined to attack it, and swam 
 vigorously and rapidly beneath the water, over to some other 
 plants. I there took the insect up, and found a large bundle 
 of eggs, of a green colour, closely enveloped in a strong jelly- 
 like substance, attached to the extremity of its abdomen." 
 
 The larvae of these flies, well known under the name of 
 Case-worms, or Caddis- worms (Fig. 102), are to be found iu 
 
 Fig. 102. CADDIS-WORMS. 
 
 every running stream, and almost in every ditch. Their 
 habitations are extremely singular, and differ considerably, 
 both in the materials employed and in their external con- 
 figuration. Some are formed of numerous little pieces of grass 
 and stems of aquatic plants cut into suitable lengths and placed 
 cross ways, forming a rude polygonal figure; others are con- 
 structed of bits of stick, or grains of sand and gravel, cemented 
 together; and others, again, are composed of fresh-water 
 shells, each containing its own proper inhabitant, "a covering," 
 as Kirby and Spence remark, " as singular as if a savage, 
 instead of clothing himself with squirrel-skins, should sew 
 together into a coat the animals themselves." But, whatever 
 may be the material employed, the little builders contrive to 
 make them of nearly the same specific gravity as the water, 
 so as to be carried without labour. When about to assume 
 the pupa state, they construct a kind of grating at each 
 extremity of the case, and thus provide, at the same time, for 
 respiration and defence.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 119 
 
 Similar cases encrusted with carbonate of lime are fonnd in 
 Auvergne, in France, forming strata six feet in thickness, and 
 extending over a considerable area.* 
 
 Fig. 103. EPHEMERA. 
 
 The Ephemera (Fig. 1 03), whose brief period of existence 
 in its perfect state has become proverbial, belongs also to this 
 division. He who reads Dr. Franklin's charming paper f con- 
 taining the soliloquy of an aged Ephemera, who had lived 
 " no less than four hundred and twenty minutes," will ever 
 afterwards look with interest upon the insect which has been 
 made the means of conveying a lesson so true and so com- 
 prehensive. 
 
 HYMENOPTERA.J 
 
 Fig. 104. TEXTHREDO. 
 
 Fig. 105. ICHSKUKOJf. 
 
 The insects of this order have four veined membranous 
 wings, but they are not equal in size, nor are they reticulated, 
 
 * Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. iv. page 165. 
 t The Ephemera, an Emblem of Human Life. 
 
 J From two Greek words; one signifying a membrane, the other a 
 winy, all the four wings being membranous. About 1100 IrLih species.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 as in the preceding oraer. The female is furnished either 
 with a sting at the extremity of the abdomen, or with an 
 instrument termed an ovipositor (Fig. 107), used in the de- 
 position of the eggs. The jaws are powerful, and the tongue, 
 instead of being small and inconspicuous, becomes in some 
 tribes an organ of great size and importance. To this order 
 belong the Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ants, Wasps, and Bees, 
 insects which have in all ages attracted attention, and among 
 which the power of instinct, in directing the actions of popu- 
 lous communities, is displayed in its highest perfection. 
 
 The Saw-flies (Tenthredinidae, Fig. 104) take their name 
 from a pair of saw-like instruments, with which the female is 
 furnished, and which she employs for making an incision, in 
 which she deposits an egg. The turnip, the rose, the apple, 
 and the willow, suffer from insects of this tribe. But the 
 species best known in these countries, is perhaps that whose 
 larva? attack the gooseberry (Nematus grossttlarice). From 
 fifty to more than a thousand are sometimes observed upon a 
 single tree, of which they devour all the leaves at the begin- 
 ning of summer, so that the fruit cannot ripen. There are 
 two generations in the course of a year.* An allied species 
 attacks the red currant ; but we have been informed that it 
 sedulously avoids the black currant, and in the course of its 
 defoliating progress leaves it quite untouched. 
 
 The Gall-flies (Cynipidce, Fig. 106) are those which 
 puncture plants, and, in the wound 
 thus made, insert one of their eggs 
 along with an irritating fluid, the action 
 of which upon the plant produces tu- 
 mours or galls of various sizes, shapes, 
 and colours. That found on the wild 
 rose, and called the beguar or bedeguar 
 of the rose, is well known. The galls 
 which come to us from the Levant, and 
 which are of so much importance for 
 
 Kg. 106. CYHIPS. . . ' 
 
 the manufacture of writing- ink and of 
 black dyes, are about the size of a boy's marble, and each 
 contains only one inhabitant; others support a number of 
 individuals. Mr. Westwood procured so large a number as 
 1 1 00 from one large gall found at the root of an oak. 
 
 * Westwood's Introduction, vol. ii. page 103.
 
 INSECTS. 121 
 
 The celebrated Dead Sea apples, described by Strabo, the 
 existence of which was denied by some authors, have recently 
 had their true nature ascertained. They are galls, not fruit, 
 of a dark reddish purple colour, and about the shape and size 
 of small figs. The inside is full of a snuff-coloured, spongy 
 substance, crumbling into dust when crushed; and this fur- 
 nishes the guides with an opportunity of playing " tricks upon, 
 travellers." " The Arabs," says Mr. Elliott, " told us to bite 
 it, and laughed when they saw our mouths full of dry dust." * 
 Moore has very felicitously referred, in his Lalla Hookh, to 
 those 
 
 " Dead Sea fruits that tempt the eye, 
 
 But turn to ashes on the lips." 
 
 In the next division (Ichneumonidoe, Figs. 105, 107) we 
 find the insects depositing their eggs, not on the leaf or stem 
 of a tree, but actually in the body of a living caterpillar. 
 Because of their services in thus preventing the too great 
 multiplication of insects, Linnaeus gave to them the name 
 Ichneumon, thus indicating an analogy in their habits to those 
 formerly attributed to the quadruped of that name, as the 
 destroyer of the crocodile. About three thousand species of 
 Ichneumons are at present known and described. " They all 
 deposit in living insects, chiefly while in the larva state, 
 sometimes while pupae, and even while in the egg state, but 
 not, as far as is known, in perfect insects. The eggs thus 
 deposited soon hatch into grubs, which immediately attack 
 their victim, and in the end ensure its destruction. The 
 number of eggs committed to each individual varies according 
 to its size, and that of the grubs which are to spring from 
 them, being in most cases one only, but in others amounting 
 to some hundreds."! 
 
 In order Jo convey an idea of the services rendered by these 
 insects, Kirby and Spence inform us, " that out of thirty 
 individuals of the common cabbage caterpillar, which Reaumur 
 put in a glass to feed, twenty-five were fatally pierced by an 
 Ichneumon; and if we compare the myriads of caterpillars 
 that often attack our cabbages and brocoli with the small 
 number of butterflies of this species which usually appear, we 
 
 * Trans. Entomological Society, voL 5i. page 11. 
 f Intr. to Entomology, vol. i. page 264.
 
 122 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 may conjecture that they are commonly destroyed in some 
 such proportion a circumstance which will lead us thankfully 
 to acknowledge the goodness of Providence, which, by pro- 
 viding such a check, has prevented the utter destruction of 
 the Brassica genus, including some of our most esteemed and 
 useful vegetables."* 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the caterpillar thus attacked 
 continues to eat and apparently to enjoy life as usual. The 
 larva placed within it avoids the 
 vital parts, until the period for 
 its own liberation or change of 
 state has arrived; and it has been 
 ascertained that many of these 
 larvae are, in like manner, preyed 
 upon by Ichneumons still more 
 minute than themselves. 
 
 " The development of these 
 parasites within the bodies of 
 other insects was, for a long time, 
 a source of much speculation 
 amongst the earlier philosophers, 
 who conceived it possible that 
 one animal had occasionally the 
 power of being absolutely trans- 
 formed into another. Thus, 
 Swammerdam records, as ' a thing 
 very wonderful,' that 545 flies 
 . of the same species were produced 
 
 Fig.107. ICHMKCMO!t. r 
 
 from four chrysalides of a but- 
 terfly, ' so that the life and motion of these seem to have 
 tran-vmigrated into that of ".45 others.'! How much greater 
 would have been the astonishment of this ardent and laborious 
 naturalist, could he have seen 20,000 of these minute Ichneu- 
 mons issue from the chrysalis of a goat-moth, a number which 
 one author regards as a 'moderate computation!'"! 
 
 * Intr. to Entomology, vol. i. page 266. All the varieties of the turnip 
 and cabbage belong 'to the genus Bratsiea. 
 
 f Westwood, vol. ii. page 145. 
 
 f Moses Harris. Vid. Westwood, vol. ii. page D. 
 
 The three thread-like appendages at the extremity of the abdomnn, 
 In figure 107, consist of the ovipositor, and two filaments between which 
 it lies, as in a sheath, when not in use
 
 INSECTS. 123 
 
 We now enter upon the examination of those insect tribes 
 which congregate into large and well-regulated communities, 
 and in which new powers and instincts are developed. Among 
 these are the Ants, in which we mark, with wonder arid 
 admiration, 
 
 ." The intelligence that makes 
 
 The tiny creatures strong by social league, 
 Supports the generations, multiplies 
 Their tribes, till we behold a spacious plain, 
 Or grassy bottom, all with little hills, 
 Their labour, cover'd as a lake with waves; 
 Thousands of cities in the desert place 
 Built up of life, and food, and means of life!" 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 It may seem strange that the little, busy, wingless creatures, 
 that we see foraging about our fields and gardens, with 
 ceaseless activity, should be mentioned among insects having 
 four membranous wings. But, if an ant's nest be examined 
 towards the end of summer, numbers of them will then be 
 found possessed of these appendages. They are young Ants, 
 just liberated from the cocoon. The males and females rise 
 together into the air; the males soon perish: some of the 
 females return to their original home, and others, casting their 
 wings aside, become the solitary founders of industrious and 
 populous cities. On the neuters devolve the erection of the 
 store-houses, the making of the highways, the nursing of the 
 young scrubs, the catering for all, and many other offices 
 essential to the well-being of the community. For an account 
 of their labours, their sports, their wars, their ingenious 
 devices, their slave-taking expeditions, and their modes of 
 communicating information, we refer to Kirby and Spence's 
 delightful Introduction to Entomology, in which the most 
 interesting observations of Gould, Huber, and many other 
 naturalists, have been embodied. 
 
 The celebrated honey-dew of the poets is now found to be 
 a saccharine secretion, deposited by many species of aphides 
 or plant-lice. Of this the ants are passionately fond, not only 
 sucking it with avidity whenever it can be obtained, but, in 
 some cases, shutting up the aphides in apartments constructed 
 specially for the purpose, and tending them with as much 
 assiduity as we would bestow on our milch cattle.* It is a 
 
 * Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. page 90.
 
 1 24 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 singular circumstance, and one that shows how infinite is the 
 wisdom with which all these things are ordered, that the 
 aphides become torpid, and remain so during the winter, at 
 the same degree of cold that induces torpidity in the ants 
 themselves. 
 
 The fact, now ascertained, that our ants pass the winter in 
 a torpid state, is contrary to popular belief. The prevailing 
 notion is, that during the summer and autumn, they sedulously 
 lay up a stock of provision for the winter, one end of each 
 grain being carefully bitten off, in order to prevent germination. 
 This idea, current but erroneous, is embodied in the following 
 extract from Prior: 
 
 " Tell me, why the ant, 
 
 In summer's plenty, thinks of winter's want? 
 By constant journey, careful to prepare 
 Her stores, and bringing home the corny ears 
 By what instruction does she bite the grain? 
 Lest, hid in earth, and taking root again, 
 It might elude the foresight of her care." 
 
 In this, and many other examples which might be quoted, 
 the poet gives utterance to the fallacious but prevailing opinion 
 of his time. The error, in this instance, had probably arisen 
 from the ants having been observed carrying their young 
 about in the state of pupa?, at which time, both in size and 
 shape, they bear some resemblance to a grain of corn ; and it 
 would receive confirmation from their being occasionally seen 
 gnawing at the end of one of these little oblong bodies not 
 to extract the substance of the grain, or to prevent its future 
 germination, but in reality to liberate the enclosed insect from 
 its confinement. 
 
 The fact that no European species of Ant stores up grain, 
 no way affects the lesson which Solomon so beautifully incul- 
 cates : " Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways 
 and be wise ; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, pro- 
 videth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the 
 harvest."* Even if the insect did not collect a supply of food 
 for future use, we might all, with great advantage, " consider 
 her ways and be wise." But it is more than probable that 
 Solomon referred to species living in a warmer climate, and, 
 
 * Proverbs, chap. iv. ver. 6, 7.
 
 INSECTS. 125 
 
 consequently, different in modes of life from those which are 
 indigenous here. This view is corroborated by the discovery 
 made by Colonel Sykes, of a species* living in India, which 
 hoards up in its cell the seeds of grass, and takes the pre- 
 caution of bringing them up to the surface to dry, when wetted 
 by the heavy rains peculiar to the country. 
 
 We pass on to a tribe of Hymenopterous insects with which 
 the generality of observers have but little sympathy the 
 Wasps. Their community consists of males, females, and 
 neuters. At the commencement of spring, an impregnated 
 female, w.ho has survived the winter, commences the foundation 
 of a colony, which, ere the end of summer, may contain twenty 
 or thirty thousand individuals. The neuters are soon brought 
 forth, and set themselves sedulously to their task of forming 
 cells, collecting food, and attending to the young brood. It 
 is while they are engaged in these labours that we find them 
 so intrusive and troublesome. 
 
 The males and females are produced only towards autumn ; 
 the males and neuters die as the season advances, and each 
 of the widowed females who survives comes forth in spring 
 an isolated being, to establish another city not less populous 
 than that which has perished. The singular treatment the 
 young grubs receive appears to us, at first sight, unnatural and 
 even revolting. On the approach of cold weather, they are 
 dragged from their nests, and rigorously put to death by the 
 old Wasps, who, until then, had laboured so assiduously for 
 their support and protection. 
 
 It is a singular fact, that the nests of these insects are 
 made of a material which we are apt to regard as a modem 
 invention paper. With their strong mandibles they cut or 
 tear off portions of woody fibre, reduce it to a pulp, and, of 
 the papier mache thus fabricated, the cells, and often the 
 covering of their habitations, are formed. The exterior of 
 the tree-nests of some of the foreign species is perfectly 
 white, smooth, and compact, resembling in appearance the 
 finest pasteboard. The nest of our common Wasp is less 
 attractive; but when it has been carefully dug out of the 
 earth, and the interior laid open to view, with its successive 
 layers of symmetrical cells skilfully supported upon ranges of 
 suitable pillars, the regularity and perfection it displays cannot 
 
 * Atta provident. Trans. Entomological Society, vol. i. page 103.
 
 126 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 be contemplated without feelings of surprise aiid admiration 
 (Fig. 108). 
 
 Fig. 108. INTERIOR OF WASP'S NEST. 
 
 Besides the social Wasps, there are tribes which have 
 obtained the name of ''Sand-wasps." These consist only of 
 males and females, which form their habitations in the crevi- 
 ces of old walls, or excavate them in wooden palings, in sand- 
 banks, or similar situations. The female does not limit her 
 maternal care to the placing of her eggs in safe and suitable 
 situations; but with provident anxiety she collects a supply 
 of food sufficient for the sustenance of the young grub. The 
 food consists of other insects, larvae and spiders; and, this 
 being provided, the entrance is carefully closed up.* 
 
 The Bee, "that at her flowery work doth sing," is so 
 associated with pleasurable ideas of sunshine and flowers, of 
 
 * Westwood, vol. ii. Kirby and Spence, vola. i. and ii.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 127 
 
 industry ami happiness, that all have felt what Archdeacon 
 1'aley has well expressed, "a Bee amongst the flowers in 
 spring is one of the cheerfullest objects that can be looked upon. 
 Its life appears to be all enjoyment ; so busy and so pleased." 
 Bees may, like Wasps, be divided into the solitary and the 
 social. Some of the solitary Bees, like the solitary Wasps, 
 construct their cells in a cylindrical hole, scooped out of a dry 
 bank ; or in one of the vacant spaces of a stone wall. Others 
 select the hollows of old trees, and have occasionally been 
 found in the inside of the lock of a garden gate, taking the 
 precaution, however, to cover their nests with the woolly 
 portions of certain plants, and thus to secure, for their young, 
 a more equable temperature.* A third srroup has been termed 
 Carpenter Bees, as wood 
 forms the material in 
 which they excavate their 
 nests. Among these, the 
 female of one of our native 
 species "chooses a branch 
 of brier or bramble, in the 
 pith of which she exca- 
 vates a canal about a foot Fi *- 109.-XYLOCOPA, OR CABPKSTKR BBB. 
 
 long, and one line,f or sometimes more, in diameter, with 
 from eight to twelve cells, separated from each other by par- 
 titions of particles of pith glued together." But perhaps the 
 most remarkable insect of the group is the Xylocopa (Figs. 
 109, 1 10), a large species be- 
 longing to southern Europe, 
 and having wings of a beautiful 
 violet colour. In the decaying 
 espaliers, or other wood-work, 
 she hollows out a tunnel of 
 twelve or fifteen inches, which 
 she divides into ten or twelve 
 distinct apartments, in each of 
 which she deposits an egg and 
 a quantity of honey and pollen, 
 for the support of the future 
 
 grub. Fig- 1 10. NEST OF XYLOCOPA. 
 
 This mast be a work of time, so that it is obvious the last 
 
 * Kirby and Spence, vol. i. page 437 439. 
 :. t -A. line is the twelfth part of an inch.
 
 128 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 egg in the last cell must be laid many clays after the first ; 
 and, consequently, the egg in the first cell must have changed 
 into a grub, and then into a proper Bee, many days before the 
 last. What, then, becomes of it? It is impossible that it 
 should make its escape through eleven superincumbent cells 
 without destroying the immature tenants ; and it seems equally 
 impossible that it should remain patiently in confinement 
 until they are all disclosed. This dilemma our heaven-taught 
 architect has provided against. With forethought never 
 enough to be admired, she has not constructed her tunnel 
 with one opening only, but at the farther end has pierced 
 another orifice, a kind of back-door, through which the insects 
 produced by the first-laid eggs successively emerge into day. 
 In fact, all the young Bees, even the uppermost, go out by 
 this road; for, by an exquisite instinct, each grub, when 
 about to become a pupa, places itself in its cell with its head 
 downwards, and thus is necessitated, when arrived at its last 
 state, to pierce its cell in this direction."* 
 
 Another group of artisan Bees carry on the business, not 
 of carpenters, but of masons, building their solid houses solely 
 of artificial stone. This material is formed of particles of 
 sand, agglutinated together, and the mansion is generally 
 erected in some eligible site, sheltered by a projection, and 
 facing the south. But there are others still more luxurious, 
 who hang the ulterior of their dwellings with a tapestry of 
 leaves or flowers. These are the upholsterers; among them 
 is "a species (Apis papaveris), whose manners have been 
 admirably described by Reaumur. This little Bee, as though 
 fascinated with the colour most attractive to our eyes, inva- 
 riably chooses for the hangings of her apartments the most 
 brilliant scarlet, selecting for its material the petals of the 
 wild poppy, which she dexterously cuts into the proper form."f 
 The bottom of the chamber she has excavated is rendered 
 warm by three or four coats, and the sides have never less 
 than two. Other native species of the same family are content 
 with more sober colours, generally selecting for their tapestry 
 the leaves of trees, and especially those of the rose; whence 
 they have obtained the name of leaf-cutter Bees. 
 
 The social Bees have, in each community, three kinds of 
 
 * Taken from Kirby and Spence, vol. i. page 440, who give the facts 
 on the authority of Reaumur. 
 
 t Kirby and Spence, voL i, pages 443, 444.
 
 INSECTS. 1 29 
 
 individuals males, females, and workers or neuters; arid, 
 among other peculiarities, they are distinguished from the 
 solitary species by the secretion of the wax of which the cells 
 are constructed. The humble Bees, composing the genus 
 Bombus (Fig. Ill), are known by their large size and hairy 
 
 Fig. 111. KOMMUS OK HUMBLE BEE. 
 
 bodies, often of a black colour with orange bands. " They 
 form societies consisting of about fifty or sixty individuals, 
 occasionally, however, amounting to two or three hundred. 
 They construct their dwellings under ground, in meadows, 
 pastures, or hedge-rows, generally employing moss for this 
 purpose. Their union, however, lasts only till the cold weather 
 kills the great mass of the inhabitants, a few impregnated 
 females alone surviving, to become the foundresses of fresh 
 colonies at the commencement of the following spring."* 
 
 The Hive-bee is, however, the species to which above all 
 others our interest attaches; and it is curious that much of 
 our knowledge of the habits and economy of these insects is 
 derived from the labours of a blind man. The elder Huber 
 lost his sight at the early age of seventeen ; but, by means of 
 glass hives variously constructed, he was able to exhibit to 
 his wife all that was going on within them, and by her faithful 
 recital of what she witnessed, and the aid of an untiring 
 investigator, M. Burnens, he amassed the material for his 
 celebrated work. Among the ancients, Aristotle, Pliny, and 
 Virgil have recorded their observations upon Bees ; in modern 
 times, Swammerdam, Reaumur, Latreille, Bonnet, and some 
 
 PART i. 
 
 * Westwood, page 280. 
 I
 
 130 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 distinguished British naturalists, have contributed much that 
 is valuable ; yet the subject is still unexhausted.* 
 
 The accompanying figures (112, 113) exhibit the difference, 
 in regard to size and figure, of the drones and workers. The 
 
 Fig. 112. DRONE BEE. Fig. 113 WORKER BEE. 
 
 one female, to which we give the name of queen, had always 
 a male epithet applied to her by the ancients; so also, in 
 Shakspeare's splendid description of the economy of a hive: 
 
 -" So work the honey Bees; 
 
 Creatures that, by a rule in nature, teach 
 
 The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 
 
 They have a king, and officers of sorts; 
 
 Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; 
 
 Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; 
 
 Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, 
 
 Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; 
 
 Which pillage they with merry march bring home 
 
 To the tent-royal of their emperor: 
 
 Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 
 
 The singing masons building roofs of gold ; 
 
 The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; 
 
 The poor mechanic porters crowding in 
 
 Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate; 
 
 The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, 
 
 Delivering o'er to executor's pale 
 
 The lazy yawning drone." HENRY V. Act i. scene 2. 
 
 On the workers the business devolves of collecting honey 
 and pollen, constructing cells, tending the young, and per- 
 forming all the multiplicity of duties which the common welfare 
 demands. The drones or males take no part in the labours 01 
 the hive; and when, by the fertilization of the queen, the 
 
 * Mr. Westwood (page 278) estimates the number in a populous hive 
 at 2,000 males, 50,000 workers, and one queen. Some writers state 
 30,000 as the probable population. Perhaps the difference that exists in 
 the same hive, at different periods, may account for the discrepancy.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 131 
 
 groat end of their existence is effected, and the continuance 
 of the community is secured, they are dragged forth, and 
 mercilessly stung to death by the workers. To this slaughter, 
 which takes place in autumn, it is probable the poet may 
 have referred, in the concluding lines. 
 
 The deference with which the queen is attended in her 
 progress through the hive, her fierce encounters with rivals, 
 the sagacity displayed by her attendants in promoting or in 
 preventing these conflicts, according to the different condition 
 of her subjects, and the conduct of the virgin queen, as she 
 sets forth with h^r emigrants to found cities no less populous 
 than the one they have forsaken, are matters on which our 
 space does not allow us to dwelL But we must mention in 
 what manner the anarchy which succeeds the death of the 
 queen is terminated, and it is one of the examples with which 
 the study of nature abounds, that the truth is stranger than 
 the fiction. The workers select one or more cells, containing 
 the grubs or young workers in their larva state. They give 
 them more commodious, or, as they are termed, "royal cells;" 
 they feed them with "royal jelly;" and, instead of small-sized 
 sterile workers, they come forth virgin queens, with forms, 
 instincts, and powers of production, 
 altogether different!* 
 
 The tongue of the Bee a piece of 
 admirable mechanism is furnished with 
 numerous muscles, and protected by 
 sheaths when not in use, yet fitted 
 for being instantaneously unfolded, and 
 darted into the blossom of a flower. 
 Its structure in one of the humble Bees 
 is shown in the accompanying figure 
 (Fig. 114). The nectar thus swept 
 up is at once consigned to the honey- 
 bag. This being done, the tongue is 
 sheathed with the same rapidity, re- 
 tracted in part into the mouth, and the 
 remainder doubled up under the chin 
 and neck, until again required. When 
 needful, the mandibles are called into 
 
 F1 n , 
 
 114. a, Antenna. b. Mandibles e, Labrum. rf, Maxillary palpi.- 
 . /, Lateral lobes of tongue. g, Labial Palpi. A, Tongue. 
 
 * Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. page 129.
 
 1 32 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 requisition, and the corolla of the flower is pierced, so that the 
 honey it contains may be more conveniently procured. 
 
 The little pellets which we see the Bees carrying home on 
 their hind legs consist of the pollen or farina of flowers. 
 Shakspeare has, therefore, given utterance to the common, 
 but incorrect idea, when he uses the words, 
 
 " Our thighs are packed with wax." 
 
 The pollen, when brought home, is mixed with honey, and 
 forms what is called Bee-bread. The wax itself is not col- 
 lected from flowers, but is secreted by means of peculiar 
 organs, which may easily be seen by pressing the abdomen 
 so as to cause its distension. It is not a secretion which is 
 constantly going on; it takes place only when required for 
 the construction of comb. To supply it, the wax-workers 
 which Huber has proved to be distinct from the nurses are 
 obliged to feed on honey, and remain inactive, generally sus- 
 pended from the top of the hive, for about twenty-four hours 
 previous to the deposition of the wax. 
 
 Mathematicians inform us that Bees have, in their hexa- 
 gonal cells, given a solution to the problem of how the greatest 
 strength may be combined with the least quantity of material, 
 another proof of the perfection of their instinctive actions.* 
 Wax and honey, the products of their labours, become, in some 
 parts of the world, important articles of commerce. The honey 
 of Mount Hymettus, so celebrated in ancient Greece, even yet 
 retains its celebrity, though all around is changed. 
 
 STREPSIPTERA-f 
 
 Fig. 115 STYLOPS (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 This order consists of only a single family (Stylopidce, Fig. 115) 
 
 * See Paley's Natural Theology, edited by Lord Brougham. 
 
 f The term is derived from two Greek words, meaning "tunsted 
 wings" and was given by the Rev. Mr. Kirby, the discoverer of the order, 
 from the first pair of wings being absent, and represented by twisted 
 rudiments." Mr. Westwood regards these insects as " the most anoma- 
 lous aunulose animals with which we are acquainted." Vol. ii. page 288.
 
 INSECTS. 133 
 
 which, however, is one of great interest to the entomologist. 
 The individuals composing it are short-lived, diminutive 
 in size, not exceeding a quarter of an inch, and pass the 
 early stages of their existence as parasites in the bodies 
 of Bees and Wasps, especially in those of different species of 
 solitary bees. With this brief notice of their existence, we 
 proceed to the numerous families of Butterflies and Moths, 
 composing the order 
 
 LEPIDOPTERA.* 
 
 Fig. 116. PEACOCK BUTTERFLY. 
 
 The wings are four in number, large, extended, covered on 
 both sides with minute scales, overlapping each other like the 
 slates on the roof of a house ; and on their removal showing 
 that the wing itself is membranous. There is a pretty little 
 Moth (Fig. 117), by no means rare in some parts of Ireland, 
 which might, at first sight, appear to have a greater number 
 of wings; but they are regarded as four wings only, cut into 
 a number of longitudinal or feather-shaped pieces, so as to 
 resemble a plume or fan. 
 
 The mouth of the Lepidoptera differs much from that of 
 any of the insects we have hitherto been considering. The 
 powerful jaws have disappeared, and instead of them we find 
 a slender tubular apparatus, which is carried about coiled up 
 
 * "Scale-winged:" the wings, with few exceptions, being covered with 
 fine scales, resembling feathers. About 450 Irish species are known.
 
 134 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 like the mainspring of a watch (Fig. 118). In a moment it 
 can be darted into a flower to obtain the nectar on which the 
 insect lives, and which is sucked up through the centre of this 
 delicate proboscis. Any one, by applying a pin to this 
 
 Fig. 117. PLUMED MOTH (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 Fig. 118. HEAD or 
 
 BUTTERFLV. 
 
 "tongue" as it is commonly but incorrectly called will find 
 that it consists of two pieces, and that by their union the canal 
 is formed, through which the nutriment is imbibed. 
 
 The number of these insects is very great. "Dr. Bur- 
 meister supposes them to amount to not fewer than 12,000 
 species; and of these nearly 2000 have been described as 
 British."* In expanse of wing, and beauty of colouring, they 
 stand unrivalled. Some foreign 
 species measure, when expanded, 
 not less than nine or ten inches ; 
 and others display tints so splendid 
 that they have been compared to 
 those of gems and flowers. 
 
 Even in those which are natives 
 of our more northern clime, con- 
 siderable diversity exists. Some 
 are scarcely distinguishable from 
 the leaves of the plants, or the 
 trunks of the trees on which they 
 repose (Fig. 119); others vie 
 with the snow-flake in the purity 
 of their vesture. Some exhibit 
 gorgeous metallic hues; and 
 others an azure surpassing that 
 of the summer sky at noon. 
 
 * West-wood, page 310.
 
 INSECTS. ] 35 
 
 They have been divided, according to the times of their 
 appearance, into three groups. Those that fly during the day 
 (Diurna), or Butterflies; those that appear in the twilight 
 (Crepu^cularid), or Hawk-moths; and those that come forth 
 at night (Nocturna), or Moths ; and though this arrangement 
 is not very precise, it will be sufficiently so for our present 
 purpose. 
 
 Many of the most splendid British Butterflies are not found 
 in Iroland; and several species as, for example, the Pea- 
 cock Butterfly (Fig. 116) are taken in the South of Ireland, 
 but are quite unknown in the North. Hence, as certain kinds 
 have but a limited range, each change of place brings fresh 
 objects of interest before the eye of the naturalist ; and as the 
 appearance of different species is periodical, a similar gratifi- 
 cation is connected with each change of season. 
 
 Sometimes lepidopterous insects, of species rare or unknown 
 in a certain locality, appear there in considerable numbers for 
 a few days and then vanish not to be seen again for years. 
 Why they do so, is a question which, in the present state of 
 our knowledge, we are quite unable to answer. 
 
 But apart altogether from the consideration of such pheno- 
 mena, the person who studies the habits of this tribe of beings 
 will, in all seasons, and in the most limited locality, find full 
 scope for his mental activity. What can be a more common 
 occurrence than the escape of the Nettle Butterfly from the 
 chrysalis-case. Yet, let any one mark the progress of the 
 phenomena from the time the insect bursts its prison-house 
 until the miniature wings have expanded to their full extent 
 and are ready for flight, and he will admit the truth which 
 Hay long since inculcated. " There is a greater depth of art 
 and skill in the structure of the meanest insect than thou art 
 able for to fathom or comprehend."* 
 
 The Lepidoptera of the second great division those which 
 
 * Wisdom of God in Creation, published 1690. The author, John 
 Ray, F. R, S. bbrn in Essex, 1627, was the son of parents of humble 
 rank. He was the founder of true principles of classification, both in 
 Botany and Zoology, and was not more respected for his scientific 
 attainments than for his benevolence and his high moral and religious 
 worth. An association for the publishing of valuable natural history 
 works, has recently been established in these kingdoms, and has called 
 itself " the Ray Society," in honour of this truly illustrious man. It 
 consists of nearly a thousand members; to some of its publications we 
 have more than once referred.
 
 136 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 fly most generally in the cool of the morning or evening 
 have the swiftest and most powerful flight ; hence the name 
 Hawk-moths (Fig. 120). They are also called Sphinxes, in 
 
 Fig. 120. SPHINX or THE Via*. 
 
 consequence of the head of the caterpillar being held erect, so 
 as to give it some resemblance to the attitude of the Egyptian 
 Sphinx. The tube, -which they insert into the blossoms for 
 extracting the honey, is of considerable length : in one native 
 species (Sphinx convolvuli), it measures nearly three inches. 
 Some of the tribe come forth in the brightest sunshine, and 
 have obtained the name of Humming-bird Hawk-moths. One 
 very remarkable, both for its size and markings, is the Death's- 
 head Moth. Its wings, when fully expanded, measure four 
 inches and three quarters across, so that it is the largest of 
 all European Lepidoptera. It has the habit of robbing bee- 
 hives, and is said to utter a sound which stills the busy 
 inmates, and enables then- gigantic plunderer to carry off his 
 booty in safety. We have one in our cabinet which was 
 taken in Holywood (Co. Down), while engaged in battling 
 against a sparrow. By the ignorant it has been always re- 
 garded with superstitious terror, as the precursor of war, 
 pestilence, and famine. 
 
 The remaining tribes are all included under the common 
 name of " moth." The word is sometimes used to express 
 the extreme of littleness. Thus, we have in Shakspeare, " a 
 moth will turn the balance ;" " wash every moth out of his 
 conscience ;" and similar expressions. To show how inaccurate 
 is this idea of their diminutive size, it is only necessary to
 
 INSECTS. 137 
 
 mention, that the Oak-moth measures three Inches and a half 
 across the expanded wings, and the Emperor-moth (Saturniu 
 pavonia minor, Fig. 121) is of equal dimensions. 
 
 Fig. 121. .EMPEROR MOTH. 
 
 To such species the lines of Spencer are strictly applicable, . 
 
 " The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie, 
 The silken down with which his back is dight, 
 His broad outstretch'd horns, his airy thighs, 
 His glorious colours, and his glistening eyes. * 
 
 The caterpillars of some moths are of large size; those of 
 others are so minute that the thickness of an ordinary leaf is 
 sufficient to afford them concealment, as they eat away its 
 interior; -nay, half its thickness is sufficient, as an examina- 
 tion of any leaf, showing upon one side only their whitish 
 zigzag lines, will testify. 
 
 Some, from their peculiar movement, which seem as if they 
 were measuring the space they traverse, are called surveyors 
 (Geometrce), and they can fix themselves to a twig in a manner 
 so stiff and motionless as to seem a part of the plant. Others, 
 with inimitable skill, construct vestures for themselves of very 
 different materials, occa- 
 sionally employing what to 
 us would seem the most un- 
 suitable. Some, like those 
 represented in Fig. 122, 
 possess the art of rolling a 
 leaf, so as to convert it to 
 a habitation; and others, 
 spinning a snow-white ca- 
 nopy, dwell together hi 
 social communities. Fig ' 122 - NEST * TORTRIX - 
 
 * From his poem, entitled Minopotnios, or the Fate of the Butterfly.
 
 135 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Our space forbids us to enter into these details, however 
 instructive or interesting they might prove ; but we should be 
 inexcusable, did we pass by in silence the effects which the 
 labours of one insect of this order has produced, and is still 
 producing, on the employments and habits of many hundred 
 thousands of human beings. We allude, of course, to the 
 Silkworm-moth (Bombyx mori, Fig. 125) whose larva (fig. 
 123) forms the cocoons from which silk is manufactured. 
 
 Fig. 123. SILKWOMC. 
 
 There was a time when this article, now so abundant, was 
 valued in Rome at its weight hi gold,* and the Emperor 
 Aurelian refused his empress a robe of silk because of its dear- 
 ness. At that very period the Chinese peasantry, amounting 
 in some of the provinces to millions in number, were clothed 
 with this material; and both there and in India it has formed, 
 from time immemorial, one of the chief objects of cultivation 
 
 Fig. 124.-CakrgAi.il 
 or SILKWORM. 
 
 Fig. 125. SILKWORM MOTH. 
 
 * From Kirby and Spence, Intr. voL L page 381.
 
 INSECTS. 139 
 
 and manufacture. About the year 550 the eggs were brought 
 to Constantinople, thence they were introduced into Italy, and 
 under the auspices of Henry IV. of France, the cultivation of 
 silk was commenced in his dominions. In its various states, 
 it now constitutes in many parts of the world so important an 
 article of commerce, that the learned authors, from whom we 
 have taken these particulars, remark, " that when nature 
 
 " Set to work millions of spinning worms, 
 
 That in their green shops weave the smooth-hair'd silk, 
 To deck her sons." MILTON. 
 
 she was conferring on them a benefit scarcely inferior t^> 
 that consequent upon the gift of wool to the fleecy race, or a 
 fibrous rind to the flax or hemp plants." 
 HEMIPTERA.* 
 
 Fig. 126. PENTATOMA Fig. 127. HALYS 
 
 (LOWER SURFACE). t (UPPER SURFACE). 
 
 In the insects belonging to this order the mouth is formed 
 for abstracting the juices of animals or plants (Fig. 126). 
 The wings are four in number, partly overlapping each other, 
 and with the portion towards the base of each wing tougher, or 
 more coriaceous than the other portion, which is membranous. 
 In some genera the coriaceous part is so small as to be incon- 
 spicuous; and such bisects have, by modern entomologists, 
 been separated from the others, and designated by a term 
 expressive of uniformity in the appearance of the wings. An 
 example of this structure is afforded by an insect, whose name 
 
 * Half- winged. About 150 Irish species. 
 
 f This figure exhibits the shape and jointed structure of the proboscis, 
 and its position when not in use. The legs and antennae are represented 
 as cut off near the base.
 
 140 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 is familiar to every classic reader the Cicada (Fig. 128). 
 Its image, made of gold, was worn by the Athenians in their 
 hair, and to excel its song was the highest commendation of 
 a singer. We quote two stanzas from a spirited ode by 
 Anacreon, addressed to the Cicada, as illustrative of the esti- 
 mation in which it was formerly held.* 
 
 Fig. 128. CICADA. 
 
 " Thine is each treasure that the earth produces ; 
 Thine is the freshness of each field and forest ; 
 Thine are the fruits, and thine are all the flowers, 
 Balmy spring scatters. 
 
 " Thee, all the muses nail a kindred being ; 
 Thee, great Apollo owns a dear companion; 
 Oh ! it was he who gave that note of gladness, 
 Wearisome never." 
 
 The clamorous " Catydids" of North America belong to 
 this tribe; one species has been discovered in England. 
 
 The strange-looking creatures to which travellers have 
 given the name of Lantern-flies, and which we see in our 
 museums, belong to the present order. But better known to 
 every inhabitant of these countries is the frothy substance 
 known by the name of Cuckoo-spit, common on plants during 
 
 * The translation is extracted from the Entomological Magazine.
 
 INSECTS. 141 
 
 the summer months. It is an exudation proceeding from the 
 larva of a little insect (Aphrophora spumaria), and affording 
 it, at the same time, concealment from enemies and pro- 
 tection from vicissitudes of weather. 
 
 Fig. 129 LARVA OF APHIH Fig. 130. APHIS (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 The minute insects which are black upon the woodbine, 
 green upon the rose, and which have a cottony appearance 
 upon the apple-tree, are all of them different species of 
 Aphides or plant-lice (Figs. 129, 130). 
 
 "A feeble race, yet oft 
 
 The sacred sons of vengeance, on whose course 
 Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year." THOMSON. 
 
 When very numerous, they weaken and occasionally de- 
 stroy the plants on the juices of which they subsist. The 
 saccharine fluid of which the Ants are so fond is secreted by 
 the Aphides; they are preyed upon and destroyed by insects 
 of other orders. The most remarkable circumstance connected 
 with their history, is their extreme fecundity, and the singular 
 provision for the preservation of the race from year to year. 
 A common species which infests the apple, and is known as 
 the American Blight (Aphis lanigera), produces, in the course 
 of a season, eleven broods of young. The first ten broods are 
 viviparous, or are brought forth alive, and consist entirely of 
 females. These never attain their full development as perfect 
 insects; but, being only in the larva state, bring forth young, 
 and the virgin Aphides thus produced are endowed with 
 similar fecundity. But at the tenth brood this power ceases.
 
 142 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 The eleventh does not consist of active female larvse alone, 
 but of males and females. These acquire wings, rise into the 
 air, sometimes migrate in countless myriads, and produce eggs 
 which, glued to twigs and leaf-stalks, retain their vitality 
 through the winter. When the advance of spring again 
 clothes the plants with verdure, the eggs are hatched, " and 
 the larva, without having to wait for the acquisition of its 
 mature and winged form, as in other insects, forthwith begins 
 to produce a brood as hungry and insatiable, and as fertile as 
 itself." Supposing that one Aphis produced 100 at each 
 brood, she would at the tenth brood be the progenitor of one 
 quintillion of descendants! 1,000,000,000,000,000,0001* 
 
 There is another tribe known to gardeners as scale insects, 
 or mealy bugs, which are very destructive, especially to our 
 hot-house plants. They constitute the family Coccidce. The 
 female, from her motionless aspect, bears a greater resemblance 
 to a gall or excrescence upon a leaf than to a living insect 
 with numerous young. But if these singular and inert beings 
 are the cause of occasional injury to man, they repay the 
 damage a hundredfold, by furnishing him with the brilliant 
 scarlet dye known in commerce by the name of cochineal. 
 The insect from which this is procured is the Coccus Cacti, of 
 Mexico. It is found upon a plant termed "Cactus Cochinel- 
 lifer," and is collected in such quantities, that, according to 
 Humboldt, 80,000 pounds of cochineal are annually brought 
 to Europe, each pound containing about 70,000 insects; and 
 Dr. Bancroft estimated the weight of that annually consumed 
 in England at 150,000 pounds, worth 370,000.f Lac, a 
 substance much used for varnishes, sealing-wax, &c. is pro- 
 duced by another species of the same family. 
 
 Every pond affords examples of other insects 
 whose structure exhibits, in a more obvious 
 manner, the characteristics of the order. There 
 we find the Boat-fly (Notonecta, Fig. 131), which 
 rows gracefully along upon its back; and the 
 Water-scorpion (Nepa, Fig, 132), in which the 
 dark external covering of our most cornmoa 
 native species contrasts beautifully with the 
 Fig. 131. scarlet body underneath ; and others which glide 
 
 NOTONECTA. 
 
 * Owen, page 235. Vide foot note, page 151. 
 f Westwood, pages 448, 4i9.
 
 IXSECTS. 
 
 143 
 
 rapidly along, or perform a more unusual 
 feat that of walking upon the surface of 
 water. 
 
 To the present order belongs one in- 
 sect, universally regarded as a very dis- 
 gusting visitant (the Bed-bug, Cimex 
 lectularius, Fig. 133). This creature 
 would appear to be much more common 
 now than in the days of Queen Elizabeth ; 
 for, although Shakspeare mentions several 
 insects in his plays, and the word Bug 
 occurs five or six times, it is never ap- Ffe- 132 NKPA. 
 
 plied to the insect, but is always used 
 as synonymous with Bugbear.* It is 
 destitute of wings, differing in this 
 respect from some of those (Figs. 1 26, 
 127) which feed on the juices of 
 v plants, and are sometimes of large 
 N size and brilliant colours. 
 
 Fig. 133. BED-BUO 
 
 (MAGNIFIED). DIPTERA.f 
 
 This order consists entirely of two- winged flies. The wings 
 are membranous. The mouth is formed for suction; and in 
 certain tribes, such as the Gnat (Fig. 1 34), the Gad-flies, &c. 
 it is furnished with lancet or razor-shaped organs, to enable 
 it to pierce the skin. So great is the number, not only of 
 individuals but of species, that above a thousand species fully 
 described and named are recorded as indigenous to Ireland. 
 We do not, therefore, attempt any enumeration of the different 
 families or their distinguishing characteristics, but merely 
 bring forward a few examples of their powers, whether bene- 
 ficial or injurious. 
 
 The larvae of some species live in the most disgusting 
 substances, and speedily effect their removal. Of the family 
 (Muscidce) to which the House-fly, the Blue Bottle-fly, &c. 
 belong, Meigen has described nearly 1,700 European species. 
 Among these are the Flesh-flies, whose office it is to consume 
 
 * Thus, "Tush! tush! fear boys with biigt." 
 
 " The bug which you -will fright me with I seek." 
 | Two winged. About 1050 Irish species.
 
 144 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Fig. 194. GXAT (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 Fig. 134. LARVA (MAGNIFIED.) 
 
 the dead and decaying bodies of animals, which soon would 
 taint our atmosphere. They are gifted with wonderful powers 
 for effecting this object. The young are brought forth alive, 
 and the femalo will give birth to twenty thousand young.* 
 Hence the assertion of Linnaeus, with regard to Musca 
 vomttoria, that three of these flies would devour a dead horse 
 as quickly as a lion would, is perhaps not much overstrained. 
 
 So far these insects are the benefactors of man. Let us 
 now regard them as his tormentors, or as the cause of irritation 
 and suffering to many of his most valuable quadrupeds. 
 
 According to Arthur Young, flies that is, the common 
 House-flies constitute " the first of torments in Spain, Italy, 
 and the olive districts of France. It is not," continues he, 
 "that they bite, sting, or hurt, but they buzz, tease, and 
 worry. Yonr month, eyes, ears, and nose are full of them ; 
 they swarm on every eatable ; fruit, sugar, milk, everything is 
 attacked by them."f Humboldt, in his Personal Narrative, 
 frequently mentions " these noxious insects, which, iu spite of 
 their littleness, act an important part in the economy of 
 Nature." The annoyance occasioned by the Mosquito is 
 noticed by every traveller in the southern parts of Europe 
 and the northern parts of Asia and America. Dr. Clarke 
 states, in his journey along the frontier of Circassia, that the 
 Cossack soldiers " pass the night upon the bare earth, pro- 
 
 * \VestTvood, page 569, on the authority of De Geer and Reaumur, 
 t Travels, voL ii. page 35.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 145 
 
 tected from the Mosquitos by creeping into a kind of sack 
 sufficient only for the covering of a single person.* 
 
 Let us now notice, with equal brevity, the sufferings 
 inflicted by insects on some of our domestic animals. No 
 words which we could use for this purpose would be so 
 graphic as those of Spencer: 
 
 " As when a swarme of Gnats at eventide 
 Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise, 
 Their murmuring, small trumpets sounden wide; 
 Whiles in the air their clust'ring armies flyes, 
 That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skyes; 
 Ne man nor beast may rest, or take repast, 
 For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries; 
 'Till the fierce northern wind, with blustering blast, 
 Doth blowe them quite away, and in the ocean cast." 
 
 FAERY QUKEXE, Book II. c. ix. st 16. 
 
 Besides being subjected to the biting of Gnats, our horses 
 and oxen suffer from the various species of Gad-flies (Taba- 
 nidai, Fig. 135), which make them the peculiar object of 
 attack. They pierce the skin, and suck the blood, their 
 razor- shaped weapons per- 
 forming the double office 
 of making the wound and 
 pumping out the liquid. 
 The peculiar noise which 
 they make, and which has 
 gained them the name of 
 "the breeze," constitutes 
 of itself a source of fright F>g- 135 TABAU. 
 
 and annoyance.f 
 
 Perhaps the terror caused by the Bot-flies, or (Estri (Fig. 
 136), is still more striking; it has long been observed, for it 
 is accurately described by Virgil.}; Each species of (Estrus 
 not only selects the peculiar species of quadruped on which it 
 is parasitic, but with unfailing instinct fixes its eggs in the 
 situation best adapted for the welfare of its future progeny. 
 Thus, the species which attacks the ox deposits its eggs on 
 the back of the animal, and these, when hatched, produce the 
 
 * Travels by Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. 2d edition, page 387. 
 
 t "\Vestwood, page 539. 
 
 J Georgics, Book III. 
 
 Bracey Clarke in Trans. Unnaean Society. 
 
 PAKT. i. K
 
 1 46 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 tumours known among the 
 country people by the name 
 of " wurbles ;" while one de- 
 voted to the horse fixes them 
 on the parts most liable to be 
 licked by the animal. They 
 are thus taken into the stomach, 
 Fig. 137. and there they remain at a 
 LARVA, temperature of one hundred 
 degrees, until they attain their full size, as the larvae so well 
 known by the name of "bots" (Fig- 137). 
 
 But it would be unjust to allow the reader to leave the 
 Dipterous insects without bringing some of the tribes before 
 him in their hours of enjoyment. Every person is familiar 
 with the appearance of that large-winged, long-bodied insect, 
 known as the " Harry Long Legs;" the largest species we 
 have of the Tipulidae. The members of this family and those 
 which are spoken of as "Midges" (Ctdicidce) have long been 
 noted for their aerial dances. Every one has observed how 
 they come forth in the sunshine, how they sometimes keep 
 pace with the traveller as he journeys along,* and how even 
 in winter they occasionally present themselves in multitudes. 
 Some instances are recorded of their appearing in such num- 
 bers as to excite surprise, and even alarm. Thus, in PhiL 
 Trans. 1767, it is stated that in 1736 the common Gnat 
 (Culex pipiens) rose in the air from Salisbury Cathedral in 
 columns so resembling smoke, that many people thought the 
 cathedral was on fire. In Norwich, in 1813, a similar alarm 
 was created. At Oxford, in 1766, "a little before sunset, 
 six columns of them were observed to ascend from the boughs 
 of an apple-tree, some in a perpendicular, and others in an 
 oblique direction, to the height of fifty or sixty feet." 
 
 For some successive evenings towards the middle of June, 
 1842, a phenomenon similar to that last mentioned was ob- 
 served by us in the vicinity of Belfast. " The insects appeared 
 in columns above the trees, the shade of colour varying according 
 
 * This circumstance has been thus noticed by Wordsworth: 
 
 " Across a bare, wide common I was toiling, 
 With languid feet, which by the slippery ground 
 Were baffled ; nor could my weak arm disperse 
 The hosts of insects gathering round my face, 
 And ever with me as I paced along." THE EXCURSION.
 
 INSECTS. 147 
 
 to the greater or less density of the mass, from that of light 
 vapour to black smoke, the columns not only differing in this 
 respect from each other, but each column being frequently 
 different in different parts. They might have been mistaken 
 for dark smoke-wreaths but for their general uniformity of 
 breadth, and for a graceful and easy undulation, similar to that 
 of the tail of a boy's kite, when at some height and tolerably 
 steady. The individual insects flew about in each column in 
 a confused and whirling multitude, without presenting in their 
 mazy dance any of those regular figures which Gnats frequently 
 exhibit over pools of water, while the motion of their wings 
 filled the air with a peculiar and not unmelodious humming 
 noise. The columns rose perpendicularly to the height of from 
 30 to 60 feet, and in some instances to the height of 80 feet. 
 They were equally abundant over trees of every kind, as ash, 
 beech, birch, poplar, &c. ; and so numerous were these distinct 
 columns, that so many as from 200 to 300 were visible at 
 the same time. As each column was every instant undergoing 
 a change in density of colour, diameter, elevation, or form, 
 the phenomenon was one of exceeding interest, especially 
 as connected with the living myriads which, in these aerial 
 gambols, gave expression to their enjoyment." 
 
 If we ask, why do they thus associate together? by what 
 principle are they impelled to congregate in this ever-varying 
 dance? we are unable to give any reply to the question more 
 just, or more philosophical, than that suggested by the Poet : 
 
 " Nor wanting here, to entertain the thought, 
 Creatures that in communities exist, 
 Less as might seem for general guardianship, 
 Or through dependence upon mutual aid, 
 Than by participation of delight 
 And a strict fellowship of love combined ; 
 What other spirit can it be that prompts 
 The gilded Summer-flies to mix and weave 
 Their sports together in the solar beam, 
 Or in the gloom of twilight hum their joy?" WORDSWORTH.
 
 148 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 APTEKA.* 
 
 UNDER this term numerous insects, and tribes allied to insects, 
 have, since the time of Aristotle, been artificially grouped 
 together, the common bond of union being their agreement in 
 the negative character derived from the absence of wings. 
 The Linnsean order Aptera is subdivided by modern entomo- 
 logists into four orders. 
 
 I. MYRIAPODA Insects which are possessed of numerous 
 feet, such as the Centipede and the Millepede, belong to this 
 order. The Centipede (Scolopendra, Fig. 1 39) is carnivorous 
 
 Fig. 138. SCOLOPKNDRA. 
 
 in its habits, an infuses a poisonous secretion into the wound 
 inflicted by its mandibles. Some of the foreign species of 
 Centipede are above a foot in length, and proportionately 
 formidable. The Millepede (Jidus, Fig. 1 39) feeds principally 
 on decaying vegetable matter, and is frequently found under 
 the bark of trees, coiled up like the mainspring of a watch. 
 
 Fig. 139 JBLUS. 
 
 II. THYSANOURA (fringed-taiT). In this order there is great 
 diversity of structure; but the peculiarity whence the name 
 of the order is derived, will be understood by reference to 
 
 * Without winys. The Crustacea and Arachnida, -wliich now con- 
 stitute distinct classes, were formerly included in this order.
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 149 
 
 Fig. 140), representing an insect which frequents stony places, 
 and is allied, in its structure, to that found in sugar (Lepisma). 
 The name Podura, meaning literally a "leg in the tail," was 
 bestowed by Linnaeus on those which have the tail forked 
 
 Fig. 141. PODURA ("MAGNIFIED). 
 
 Fig. 140. 
 
 MACHILIS (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 Fig. 142. THE COMMON LOUSK 
 (MAGNIFIED), WITH THE EGGS 
 THE NATURAL SI7.E AMD MAG- 
 NIFIED. 
 
 (Fig. 141). It is kept bent underneath the body when not 
 in use; when unbent it acts as a spring, and has given origin 
 to then* English name of Spring- tails." * Some species 
 abound on pools, leaping even on the surface of the water; 
 others may be found under stones or beneath decaying leaves. 
 
 III. PARASITA The Louse (Fig. 142) and its allies 
 
 insects parasitic on man and the lower annuals form the 
 numerous but unpopular genera comprised in the present order. 
 
 * A Paper, by Robert Templeton, Esq. on the Irisb species of spring- 
 tailed insects, is published in the Transactions of the Entomological 
 Society, voL L
 
 150 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 Fig. 143. 
 FLEA (MAGNIFIED). 
 
 IV. SUCTORIA These insects may be 
 represented by the common Flea (Pulex 
 irritans, Fig. 143). The month of the 
 Flea is formed for suction, and the hind 
 legs for jumping. The length of its leap 
 has been measured, and found to be two 
 hundred times that of its body an extra- 
 ordinary instance of muscular power. 
 
 CLASS V.ARACHXIDA SPIDERS, &c. 
 
 Fig. 144. 
 
 THE present class includes Mites, Scorpions, and Spiders. 
 They exhibit a more concentrated state of the nervous system 
 than insects; they do not undergo similar transformations; 
 and in the larger tribes there is a higher condition of the 
 respiratory system ; for they breathe iiot by air tubes, but by 
 "air sacs, or lungs."* They differ from true insects, also, in 
 their having four pair instead of three pair of legs. 
 
 The eyes vary in number and position, but are never 
 compound. Spiders have the sense of hearing, but neither 
 the organ nor its situation is known: the same may be said 
 of the sense of smell. 
 
 * Owen, pages 250, 251 257, 260.
 
 SPIDERS. 
 
 151 
 
 All Spiders secrete a poisonous fluid, which is, no doubt; for- 
 midable and even fatal to insects, though it produces but little 
 effect on the human frame. The poison is conveyed through 
 a perforated fang in the mandibles. In the Scorpion (Fig. 1 45), 
 
 Fig. 145. SCORPION. 
 
 on the contrary, it is lodged in the extremity of the slender 
 flexible tail, and the wound is inflicted by the recurved sting 
 by which the tail is terminated. 
 
 Spiders have another secretion, still better known; that 
 which furnishes the material of which their threads are com- 
 posed. The little teats, whence the threads proceed, are at 
 the hinder extremity of the body, and are four, six, or eight 
 in number. Each of these is composed of orifices so fine, that 
 Leeuwenhoek and other eminent microscopic observers have 
 regarded a Spider's thread, even when so fine that it is almost 
 imperceptible to our senses, not as a single line, but as a rope 
 composed of at least four thousand strands. From Mr. 
 Blackwall's observations, there is reason to think that this 
 estimate is too high, and that the total number of the papilla, 
 whence the lines proceed, does not greatly exceed a thousand; 
 yet, even admitting this to be the case, our wonder at the 
 complex structure of a Spider's thread is scarcely lessened.* 
 
 That any creature could be found to fabricate a net, not less 
 ingenious than that of the fisherman, for the capture of its 
 prey; that it should fix it in the right place, and then patiently 
 await the result, is a proceeding so strange, that if we did not 
 see it done daily before our eyes by the common House-spider 
 and Garden-spider, it would seem wonderful; but how much 
 is our wonder increased when we think of the complex fabric 
 
 * Trans. Linnsean Society, voL xvi. page 220.
 
 152 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 of each single thread, and then of the mathematical precision 
 and rapidity with which, in certain cases, the net itself is 
 constructed; and to add to all this, as an example of the 
 wonders which the most common things exhibit when carefully 
 examined, the net of the Garden-spider consists of two dis- 
 tinct kinds of silk. The threads forming the concentric circles 
 are composed of a silk much more elastic than that of the 
 -ays; and are studded over with minute globules of a viscid 
 gum, sufficiently adhesive to retain any unwary fly which 
 comes in contact with it. A net of average dimensions is 
 estimated by Mr. Blackwall, to contain 87,360 of these glo- 
 bules, and a large net of fourteen or sixteen inches in diameter, 
 120,000 ; and yet such a net will be completed by one species 
 (Epeira, apoclisa) in about forty minutes, on an average, 
 if no interruption occur.* In ordinary circumstances, the 
 threads lose their viscidity by exposure to the air, and require 
 to have it renewed every twenty-four hours. Any observer, 
 by scattering a little fine dust over the web, may satisfy 
 himself that it is retained only on the circles where the minute 
 globules are placed, and not upon the radii.f If the globules 
 are removed, both lines are unadhesive ; but in other respects 
 they are essentially different, the circular lines being trans- 
 parent and highly elastic, while the radial lines are opaque, 
 and possess only a moderate degree of elasticity. The astro- 
 nomer finds the opaque silk of the radial lines and of the 
 egg-bag a convenient substitute for platina wires in the tele- 
 scopes attached to his instruments ; but the silk of the circular 
 lines being transparent, is, from that circumstance, unsuitable 
 for his purpose.} The nets of some Spiders are constructed 
 under water the secretion being insoluble and are spread 
 out for the capture of aquatic insects. 
 
 A great deal of false commiseration has been bestowed 
 upon the flies which fall victims to the voracity of the Spider, 
 who has accordingly been regarded as " Cunning and fierce, 
 mixture abhorred." But considered aright, there is no cruelty 
 in any animal exercising, for its support, those powers with 
 which it has been endowed by its Creator. It does not kill 
 
 * Trans. Linnsean Society, vol. xvi. page 478. 
 
 f Kirby and Spence, vol. i. page 419. 
 
 J This fact has been very kindly communicated to ns by the Kev. 
 Dr. Robinson, Armagh Observatory. The silk there employed is procured 
 from the egg-bags of the common Garden Spider (Epeira. Diadema~).
 
 SPIDERS. 
 
 153 
 
 from wantonness but from necessity. It must kill, or it must 
 cease to live. 
 
 Gossamer, the origin of which was formerly conjectural, is 
 now known to be the production of a minute Spider. Spencer 
 speaks of it as " scorched dew," and Thomson regards it as 
 " the filmy threads of dew evaporate." 
 
 Spiders have been divided into families, which present very 
 considerable differences in their modes of life. Some are 
 hunters, and live by the chase ; some leap upon their prey ; 
 some more deliberately move sideways or backwards, as the 
 exigency requires; some fix long threads and prowl about 
 them to secure their game, while others construct nets of 
 various kinds hi the air, or exercise their skill hi the water. 
 
 Not less varied are their habitations. Perhaps the most 
 remarkable is that of the Mygale ccementaria, who, having 
 formed a subterraneous tube or gallery, lines it with silk, and 
 constructs a door formed of several coats of cemented earth 
 and silk. "This door (Fig. 146) the ingenious artist fixes 
 to the entrance of her gallery by a hinge of silk ; and, as if 
 acquainted with the laws of gravity, she invariably fixes the 
 hinge at the highest side of the opening, so that the door, 
 when pushed up, shuts again 
 by its own weight." The 
 part against which it closes 
 with great accuracy, and the 
 defences by which it is secured, 
 are not less excellent as me- 
 chanical contrivances. 
 
 The female Spider is remark- 
 able for her parental affection. 
 One species (Epetra fasciala) 
 makes an elaborate envelope for 
 her eggs, attaches it to a branch 
 of a high tree, and guards it 
 with ceaseless vigilance. The habits of another are thus 
 described by Professor Hentz : " When a mother is found with 
 the cocoon containing the progeny, if this be forcibly torn 
 from her, she turns round and grasps it with her mandibulse 
 (mandibles). All her limbs, one by one, may then be torn 
 from her body without forcing her to abandon her hold. But 
 if, without mangling the mother, the cocoon be skilfully 
 removed from her, and suddenly thrown out of sight, she 
 
 Fig. 148. NEST OF
 
 154 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 instantaneously loses all her activity, seems paralysed, and 
 coils her tremulous limbs, as if mortally wounded : if the bag 
 be returned, her ferocity and strength are restored the moment 
 she has any perception of its presence, and she rushes to her 
 treasure to defend it to the last." 
 
 We now close our notice of the Articulated animals. We 
 have spoken of Worms, Barnacles, Crabs, Insects, and Spiders; 
 to common observers a motley and unattractive group. Yet, 
 how varied in their structure I how wondrous hi their habits ! 
 To the humble-minded and patient observer, they are sug- 
 gestive of ideas and emotions too multiplied and fugitive to 
 be embodied in words, but affording an example of the truth 
 so beautifully expressed by the poet: 
 
 " The air in which we breathe and lire, 
 
 Eludes our touch and sight; 
 The fairest flowers their fragrance give, 
 
 To stillness and to night: 
 The softest sounds that music flings, 
 In passing from her heaven-plumed -\vings, 
 
 Are trackless in their flight! 
 And thus life's sweetest bliss is known 
 To silent, grateful thoughts alone." B. BARTOX. 
 
 NOTE. 1854. APHIDES, page 141. The terras " virgin 
 aphides" and " larva state 1 ' cau no longer be considered strictly 
 applicable. The successive broods owe their origin not to female 
 aphides, but to sexless individuals which are capable of repro- 
 duction lay a process of budding. " The germs," to use the words 
 of Dr. Burnet, " are situated in moniliform rows, like the suc- 
 cessive joints of confervoid plants, and are not enclosed in a 
 special tube." "What interpretation shall we put on these 
 reproductive parts these moniliform rows of germs ?" Ignoring 
 all existing special theories relating to reproduction, the ob. 
 serving physiologist would be left no alternative but to regard 
 them as buds, true gemmae, which sprout from the interior surface 
 of the aphis, exactly like buds, from the external skin of a 
 Polype." Dr. Burnett on the development of viviparous aphides. 
 American Journal of Science and Arts. January, 1854.
 
 155 
 
 MOLLUSCA, 
 
 "Oh! what an endlesse work have I in hand, 
 To count the sea's abundant progeny ! 
 Whose fruitful seede farre passeth those in land, 
 And also those which wonne in the azure sky; 
 And much more eath to tell the starres on hy 
 Albe they endlesse seeme in estimation; 
 Then to recount the sea's posterity, 
 So fertile be the flouds in generation, 
 So huge their numbers, and so numberlesse their nation." 
 
 SPENSER'S FAERY QUKEJJE, Book iv. canto xii. 
 
 Fig. 147. LYMNKUS STAGNAI.IS. 
 
 THE soft-bodied animals, to which the term " Mollusca" is 
 applied, constitute another of the primary groups of the animal 
 kingdom. In them we see no longer the jointed or articulated 
 structure characteristic of the Crustacea and insects. The 
 body, as the very name of the group implies, is soft, and it is 
 devoid of the jointed legs, which, in some of the preceding 
 tribes, were applied to such diversified uses. The nervous 
 system is also different, being unsymmetrical; it consists of a 
 ring surrounding the gullet, with one or two ganglions or 
 knots of nervous matter connected with similar masses in 
 other parts of the body. "The blood is colourless, or not 
 red,"* and the respiratory organ or gill, which is never 
 
 * Owen, page 13.
 
 156 ' INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 wanting, presents great diversity in position and figure, and 
 is, in some species, a very remarkable and attractive object. 
 
 The Mollusca are very widely diffused, abounding not only 
 in tropical and arctic seas, but in lakes, ponds, and rivers. 
 Some, round our coasts, are found buried in sand or mud ; 
 others construct their dwellings in indurated clay, and even 
 in limestone rocks. Some species (Fig. 147) delight in quiet 
 sunny nooks, on the margin of fresh- water pools; some in 
 rapid and mighty rivers; and others dwell in the ocean at 
 depths which have been but seldom explored by the dredge 
 of the naturalist. But though the greater number are aquatic, 
 all are not so. The terrestrial species, even in our own 
 country, are found in our pastures, our gardens, and our 
 plantations ; some may be found on sandy banks, others in 
 moist and shady places; some lurking under withered leaves, 
 and others at various heights on the trunks of our forest trees, 
 
 Fig. 148. BUCCINUM. Fig. 149. VOLUTE. 
 
 The beautiful variety of form (Figs. 148, 149, &C-) ob- 
 servable in the shells of different species of Mollusca, has, in all 
 ages, attracted attention ; and the splendour of their colouring 
 is not surpassed by that of our brightest garden-flowers. In 
 some respects it is even superior, for their most delicate tints 
 become here unfading and permanent ; and a peculiar structure 
 of the surface gives rise occasionally to iridescent hues. 
 Among savage tribes, shells are formed into elaborate orna- 
 ments, and applied to numberless uses. In a part of Africa 
 a species of shell called " cowry" is the current coin. The 
 wampum belts of some of the North American Indians, 
 whether constituting their records or presented to strangers 
 when they enter into or recognise a treaty of amity, are
 
 MOLLUSCA. 157 
 
 formed of shells. " The thin inner layers of some large flat 
 bivalves, when polished, are used in the south of China, and 
 hi India, instead of glass, for windows."* Many of the do- 
 mestic utensils of uncivilised nations are shells ; and they are 
 converted into drinking-cups, knives, spoons, fishing-hooks, 
 and even razors. " In Zetland, one of our common univalve 
 shells (Fusiis antiquus), suspended horizontally by a cord, is 
 used as a lamp, the canal serving to hold the wick, and the 
 cavity to contain the oil." In former times the scallop 
 (Pecten maximus, or opercularis) was worn by religious pil- 
 grims, a custom occasionally referred to by our poets. Thus, 
 Parnell says of his hermit, 
 
 " He quits his cell, the pilgrim staff he bore, 
 And fixed the scallop in his hat before." 
 
 The difference in point of size is not less remarkable than 
 that of the form and colouring. The Tridacna, or Giant 
 Clamp-shell (Fig. 150) is said to attain occasionally a weight 
 
 Fig. J50. TRIDACJIA. 
 
 of more than 500 pounds; from which circumstance the story 
 may have originated of an oyster which furnished a dinner to 
 a whole regiment. Let us, in imagination, contrast with this 
 the microscopic chambered shells, of which Soldari collected 
 the astonishing number of 1 0,454, t from less than an ounce 
 and a half of stone found in the hills of Casciana, in Tuscany. 
 " Some idea of the diminutive size of these shells may be 
 
 * From a series of papers on Molluscous animals. inMag.Nat.Hist., 
 from the pen of Dr Johnston , author of Hist of British Zoophytes, &c. 
 
 t Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, TO!, i. page 117. They were 
 doubtless Foramimjera, shells, not produced by mollusca, but by 
 Rldzopods, animals of a much lower organization. Ante, p. 4.
 
 158 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 formed from the circumstance, that immense numbers of them 
 passed through a paper in which holes had been pricked with 
 a needle of the smallest size." Even without going to foreign 
 countries, or having recourse to the microscope, we have, on 
 our own shores, examples of shells remarkable for their 
 minuteness. On one occasion we gathered some handfuls of 
 a small univalve shell (Paludina muriatica. Lamarck), which 
 was lying in dark, irregular patches on the strand, near 
 Belfast. It bore considerable resemblance, except in size, to 
 the common fresh- water species (Fig. 151). The weight of 
 four quills, when filled with these shells, was 
 80 grains; and, as twenty-two of the shells, 
 with their contained animals, weighed only two 
 grains, the number of shells thus enclosed was 
 880. The weight of the quills and their con- 
 tents, when enclosed in a letter, was less than 
 half an ounce ; and we were, therefore, enabled 
 to transmit 880 living animals and their habita- 
 tions from Belfast to Dublin, per mail, for one 
 penny. 
 
 We have just used the word " habitations," and it is in 
 this light that shells should be viewed. They are not beau- 
 tiful productions formed merely to please the eye, but are 
 mansions constructed by molluscous animals for their own 
 especial use and safety. How much is the worth of a shell 
 enhanced in our eyes by this one consideration ! Before, it 
 seemed little else than a toy, a pretty thing to look at, and 
 nothing further; but now it assumes an interest in our 
 thoughts; we ask, how was it fashioned? of what is it 
 composed? whence were the materials derived? by what 
 means was it so exquisitely coloured ? by what architectural 
 skill was the edifice so contrived that it was adapted, at all 
 periods, to the progressive growth and requirements of its 
 occupant ? 
 
 The shelly matter is secreted by a peculiar organ, termed 
 the " collar" iu shells consisting of one piece (univalves), such 
 as the common snail-shell; and by the margins of the 
 cloak or mantle in those of two pieces (bivalves), such as 
 the oyster or the cockle. The shell was formerly regarded 
 merely as an exudation of calcareous matter, held together by 
 a kind of animal glue. But microscopic observation has 
 shown, that it is a membrane composed of minute cells, dif-
 
 MOLLUSCA. 
 
 J59 
 
 fering in size, shape, and arrangement, in different families, 
 and containing secreted calcareous matter. There seems reason 
 to believe, "that this membrane was, at one time, a constituent 
 part of the mantle of the Mollusk;" and Dr. Carpenter regards 
 the cells as "the real agents in the production of shell, it being 
 their office to secrete into their own cavities the carbonate of 
 lime supplied by the fluids of the animal." * 
 
 The deposition of the colouring matter is the province of 
 glands situated on the margin of the cloak or collar; and in 
 many instances we are able to trace an agreement in the 
 pattern or tracings on the shell and the arrangement of the 
 colours in the secreting organ. Thus, in the banded Snail, 
 there are as many coloured spots on the edge of the collar as 
 there are zones on the shell; and if a part of the margin of 
 the shell be cut away, the piece reproduced is brown opposite 
 to the dark portion of the collar, but in other parts yellow. 
 
 The changes of form which shells undergo, as they approach 
 maturity, is sometimes so great, that the full-grown, specimen 
 is altogether different from the appearance presented by the 
 same shell in its immature state. Of 
 this the common Leg-of-mutton Shell 
 (Aporrhais pes pdicani, Fig. 152) of 
 our shores, and the beautiful tribe of 
 Cyprseas (Fig. 153), furnish familiar 
 examples. We have reason to believe 
 that there is, in all cases, an effort on 
 the part of the animal to accommodate 
 the form of its mansion to the changes 
 in the form or dimensions of its body. 
 Professor Owenf has stated that an 
 oyster kept without food will frequently 
 expend its last energies in secreting a 
 new layer, "at a distance from the old 
 internal surface of the concave valve, 
 corresponding to the diminution of bulk which it has experi- 
 enced during its fast, and thus adapt its inflexible outward 
 case to its shrunken body." 
 
 It has been justly remarked, that the beauty of shells was 
 for ages exerting an influence injurious to the study of 
 
 * On the Microscopic Structure of Shells. Report of British Associa- 
 tion, 1844. 
 
 f Proceedings Zoological Society, No. liv 
 
 Fig. 152. APOURHAIS.
 
 160 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 conchology on philosophical principles, for it fixed the attention 
 of men more upon the covering than upon the humble animal 
 contained within. Such was not the spirit with which 
 Aristotle regarded them ; for the structure and habits of the 
 creatures were the main objects of his study, while their 
 relations to the other animated beings by which they were 
 surrounded, and their own mutual affinities, were not for- 
 gotten.* To conchology as a science, Pliny added nothing 
 that Aristotle did not supply; but he has furnished some 
 anecdotes regarding its economical applications, and has graced 
 its history with some amusing fictions. 
 
 Fig. 153 CVPRJEA.. 
 
 Passing from the ancieHts to the distinguished Swede, 
 whose labours in the last century have done so much for the 
 advancement of natural science, we come to the system of 
 Linnaeus, which was perfected in 1766. Shells were at that 
 time arranged into three primary divisions univalve, bivalve, 
 and multivalve according to the number of pieces of which 
 the shell was composed. The animals were spoken of as 
 naked mollusca, when, like our common slug, they were 
 destitute of an external shelly covering, and as testaceous 
 mollusca (testa, a shell), when, like the garden snail, they were 
 furnished with this protection. In the system of Linnseus, 
 the testaceous mollusca occupy one order by themselves, in 
 which there are four sections multivalve, bivalve, univalves 
 with a regular spire, and univalves without a regular spire. The 
 naked tribes are placed in the order denominated "mollusca," 
 along with worms, zoophytes, and star-fishes. 
 
 " In estimating," says Dr. Johnston, " the merits of this 
 system, it is not fair to look back from our present vantage- 
 ground, and magnify its defects by a comparison with modern 
 
 * The few remarks here made on the progress of conchology are taken 
 from an article by Dr. Johnston, in Magazine of Zoology and Botany, 
 voL ii. page 238.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 161 
 
 classification: we are, in candour, to place ourselves behind 
 its author, and, looting forward, say how far his efforts have 
 been useful or quickening." " The superiority of it lies in its 
 simplicity; in the regular subordination of all its parts; in 
 the admirable sagacity with which the families or genera are 
 limited;" in the conciseness of the specific characters, the 
 skill with which they were chosen, and the facility with which 
 species could be named. It labours under the censure of 
 having too small a regard to the animals, and to their position 
 in the groups, as regulated by the affinities of their organization. 
 
 We now pass on to the labours of Baron Cuvier, who, 
 when scarcely nineteen years of age, went, in 1788, to reside 
 some time at Caen, in Normandy. There the marine mollusca 
 attracted his attention, and he commenced that series of 
 observations on their habits and investigations into their 
 anatomical structure which afterwards formed the sure and 
 enduring basis of his classification. Cuvier's object was not 
 merely " to give us a key to the name, but to make that key 
 open, at the same time, a knowledge of the structure and 
 relations of the creature." According to his system, the student, 
 when in search of the name and place of an object, was 
 obliged, at the same time, to acquire a knowledge of its 
 principal structural peculiarities. On these again, as Cuvier 
 beautifully explained, all its habits in relation to food, to 
 habit, and to locomotion, were made dependent. His division 
 of the annual kingdom into four primary groups or sub- 
 kingdoms has already been mentioned ; the essential character 
 of the mollusca, as one of these groups, has also been stated. 
 It is derived from the peculiar arrangement of the nervous 
 system, consisting of some ganglions scattered, as it were, 
 irregularly through the body, and from each of which nerves 
 radiate to its various organs. Then* further division into 
 classes is founded on characters derived from the organs of 
 locomotion, or others not less influential. 
 
 Since the time of Cuvier, the system which he propounded 
 has been elaborately worked out in detail by succeeding 
 naturalists, and has, from time to time, been slightly modified, 
 according to the advance of knowledge; but in its essential 
 characteristics it remains unchanged. Dr. Johnston, in speak- 
 ing of the effects of Cuvier's example and views, remarks: 
 " They raised the character of the conchologist, and gave a 
 more philosophical tone to his pursuit ; they originated a new 
 
 PART i. L
 
 162 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 school, with Better directed zeal and a higher aim, and 
 numbers became disciples when they saw that here as much 
 satisfaction and profit were to be reaped as in the study of 
 almost any other class; for it may be laid down as an axiom, 
 that no branch of natural history, however apparently trifling, 
 " but may be ennobled by the manner in which it is pursued ; 
 and when the student carries all its wonders back to the one 
 Great Source, the smallest worm, and the most beautiful of 
 hia own species, mil afford him subjects for the deepest 
 contemplation." 
 
 We now proceed to examine some of the leading divisions 
 of the mollusca. The first and most obvious is into two great 
 .groups, one containing those which, like the common oyster, 
 are destitute of a head (Acephala); and the other those 
 which, like the snail, are provided with a head, and generally 
 with mouth, eyes, and tentacula (Encephala).* Each group 
 a divided into three classes the former " according to the 
 modifications of the integument or of the gills ; " the latter, 
 according to those of the locomotive organs. We shall briefly 
 notice the characteristics of these six classes, and enumerate 
 some of the best known examples of each. 
 
 * The names of the classes into which the mollusca are divided may 
 be exhibited thus: 
 
 ACEPHALA. 
 
 I. Tunicate with a cloak or tuuic. 
 
 II. Brachiopoda arm-footed. 
 
 III. Lamellibranchiata plate-shaped gills. 
 
 ENCEPHALA. 
 
 IV. Pteropoda wing-footed. 
 
 V. Gasteropoda belly-footed. 
 
 VI. Cephalopoda head-footed.
 
 163 
 TUNICATA. 
 
 Fig. 154. PottOPHORA. 
 
 THERE are some Mollusks which are not naked like the slug, 
 nor provided with a shelly citadel like the oyster, but are 
 furnished with a kind of leathery covering or tunic, and are 
 hence termed " Tunicated" They have already been casually 
 mentioned in our notice of the higher organized polypes 
 (page 27), to which, in certain points of structure, they pre- 
 sent a considerable affinity. Some of them are aggregated 
 together, and form compound animals; others are solitary, 
 and so inert that to common observers they exhibit no indi- 
 cations of life. The kind best known to our fishermen is a 
 solitary species (Ascidia communis) about the size of the 
 largest common mussel, and to which, from its shape, the 
 name of ''paps" is given. The exterior is darkish, warty, and 
 unattractive, and exhibits two orifices, from one of which the 
 animal can squirt water with considerable force. The internal 
 structure is extremely beautiful and delicate. A great part 
 of it consists of a large chamber, lined with a delicate mem- 
 brane, over which the blood-vessels are widely distributed. 
 The surface is abundantly covered with vibratile cilia; and, 
 as the sea-water is freely admitted into the cavity, the cease- 
 less action of the cilia propels it in currents over the surface 
 of the membrane, which thus performs the office of an internal 
 gill. The chamber itself is hence appropriately termed the 
 " branchial sac." Through it the nourishment of the animal 
 must pass ere it can be received into the stomach, which is at 
 
 Fig. 154. m, Mouth. i, Stomach. i, Intestine. o. Orifice t. Common 
 Stem. The arrows indicate the direction of the currents of water subservient to 
 respiration.
 
 1 64 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the lower extremity. On many occasions we have found 
 specimens of a small crustacean* swimming about in the 
 branchial cavity, and looked upon it as a parasite, established 
 in its appropriate quarters, not as a casual occupant, destined, 
 like some unfortunate wight in the fairy tale, as food for the 
 Ogre into whose fortress it had intruded. 
 
 But although some species of Ascidia are rough and darkish, 
 others of smaller size are possessed of glassy transparency, 
 and, when kept alive in vessels of sea-water, furnish a spec- 
 tacle of novelty and interest. Some of the compound species 
 are branched (Fig. 154); and such is their transparency, that 
 the movements of the internal organs can be distinctly seen. 
 This has enabled Milne Edwardsf to detect, in these animals, 
 a very singular condition of the circulating system. The 
 blood actually moves backwards and forwards, to and from 
 the heart, in the same vessel, which thus performs the office 
 both of a vein and of an artery, in the manner it was of old 
 supposed to do in the human body. The young Ascidians 
 are not fixed to the place of their birth, but gifted for a short 
 period with locomotive powers, analogous to those of other 
 marine animals already mentioned. 
 
 Some of these compound Ascidians are found arranged in 
 regular radiating patterns on the fronds of our large sea- 
 weeds. In such cases, the young, in its early state, has 
 possessed a reproductive power by gemmation or buds, analo- 
 gous to that of the larva of the medusa already mentioned 
 (page 37). This fact, which has been established by Milne 
 Edwards, explains the origin of the characteristic patterns 
 which they sometimes exhibit on rocks washed by the waves, 
 or on sea-weeds thrown upon the beach. These singularly- 
 foi-med creatures (JBotrylli) are, in their colours, gay and 
 diversified, and their general aspect is such as would be 
 presented by minute but brilliant medusae, set with great 
 regularity round a common centre. 
 
 Among the Tunicata are some (Pyrosoma) which are found 
 in the open sea, especially in tropical climates, sometimes 
 united together in masses of more than a mile in extent, and 
 lighting up the sea by a beautiful pale greenish light, which 
 passes with great rapidity into the other prismatic colours. 
 
 * Notodelphys ascidicola. For description and figure, vid. Professor 
 AHman, in Annals of Natural History, vol. xx. July 20, 1847. 
 f Sur les Ascidies coinposeea des cotes de la Manche. 1841.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 
 
 165 
 
 A remarkable circumstance regarding the reproduction of 
 some genera, is stated on the authority of Chamisso. The 
 Salpce (Fig. 155) arc found linked together in long chains; 
 
 m b h 
 
 Fig. 155. KIPIIORA, ONE OF THE SAI.P.S.* 
 
 after a time their union is dissolved, and each individual pro- 
 pagates a solitary young one. This attains the full size of 
 the species, and then brings forth a social chain of young 
 salpce, which again give origin to solitary individuals ; " so 
 that a salpa mother," to use Chamisso's familiar expression, 
 " is not like its daughter or its own mother, but resembles its 
 grand-daughter and its grandmother."! 
 
 BRACHIOPODA. 
 
 THESE are bivalve Mollusca, and, like some of those just 
 mentioned, are destitute of the power of locomotion. They 
 are attached to foreign bodies, and are furnished with two 
 long fringed arms (Fig. 156; hence the name of the class, 
 " arm-footed." They are found abundantly in a fossil state. 
 The species now existing are few in number, and some of them 
 have been brought up from depths of from sixty to ninety 
 fathoms. Mr. Owen, in reference to this circumstance, re- 
 marks, that both the respiration and nutrition of animals 
 
 FIR. 155. a. Mouth./ Liver, &o. 4, Branchial Sac. m. Muscular Bands. 
 A, Heart. , Nervous Ganglion. 
 
 t Steenstrup on Alternation of Generations, page 39
 
 166 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Fig. 156. TERSBRATULA 
 PSITTACEA. 
 
 Fig. 167. V*LVE OP THE s 
 TEKEBRATULA. 
 
 existing under the pressure of such a depth of sea-water 
 "are subjects suggestive of interesting reflections, and lead 
 one to contemplate with less surprise the great strength and 
 complexity of some of the minutest parts of the frames of 
 these diminutive creatures. In the unbroken stillness which 
 must pervade those abysses, their existence must depend upon 
 their power of exciting a perpetual current around them, in 
 order to dissipate the water already laden with their effete 
 particles, and to bring within the reach of their prehensile 
 organs the animalcules adapted for their sustenance." * Some 
 of these animals have been taken in deep water on the Irish 
 coast, at Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, and the entrance to Belfast 
 Bay.t 
 
 LAMELLIBRANCHIATA. 
 
 Fig. 158. MACTRA. 
 
 THE third and last class of those Mollusks which are headless 
 comprises those which have their gills hi the form of mem- 
 
 * Lectures, page 279. 
 
 f W. Thompson, Report on the Invertebrate Fauna of Ireland.
 
 MOLLUSC A. 167 
 
 branous plates ; and, as the Latin word lamella means a plate, 
 the compound term above employed denotes that structural 
 peculiarity by which the class is distinguished. It includes 
 the oyster, the scallop, the cockle, the mussel, and other well- 
 known bivalves. 
 
 The sexes are distinct. The ova remain, for some time, in 
 receptacles within the gills, which are thus made to perform 
 the office of a marsupial sac ; and here the young of some 
 species, in their more advanced state, may be observed swim- 
 ming freely about. The young of others anchor themselves, 
 after exclusion from the parent, by means of silken filaments 
 which are wanting in the mature individual, thus furnishing 
 to the naturalist a beautiful example of "prospective design 
 for the well-being of the weak and defenceless." * 
 
 The mouth of the oyster is situated near the hinge, beneath 
 a kind of hood formed by the edges of the mantle (Fig. 
 159). But the question naturally arises, how is it supplied 
 with food, the animal itself being utterly incapable of any 
 active exertion for that purpose? We shall answer in the 
 words of Professor Rymer Jones: "Wonderful, indeed, is 
 the elaborate mechanism employed to effect the double purpose 
 of renewing the respired fluid and feeding the helpless in- 
 habitants of these shells ! Every filament of the branchial 
 fringe, examined under a powerful microscope, is found to be 
 covered with countless cilia in constant vibration, causing, by 
 their united efforts, powerful and rapid currents, which, 
 sweeping over the entire surface of the gills, hurry towards 
 the mouth whatever floating animalcules or nutritious particles 
 may be brought within the limits of their action, and thus 
 bring streams of nutritive molecules to the very aperture 
 through which they are conveyed to the stomach, the lips and 
 labial fringes acting as sentinels to admit or refuse entrance, 
 as the matter supplied may be of a wholesome or pernicious 
 character.''! Furnished with an apparatus so effectual, we 
 can imagine that these animals realise the condition described 
 by the poet; and, 
 
 " In their pearly shells at ease, attend 
 
 Moist nourishment." MILTON. 
 
 If, however, while the oysters are thus lying " at ease," the 
 
 * Owen, pages 289, 290. 
 
 f Outline of the Animal Kingdom, page 378.
 
 168 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 shadow of an approaching boat is thrown forward, so as to 
 cover them, they close the valves of their shells before any 
 undulation of the water can have reached them, thus showing 
 they are sensible to changes of light.* 
 
 " The principal breeding season of the common oyster 
 {Fig. 159) is in April and May, when they cast forth their 
 
 Fig. 159. AXATOMY OF THE OYSTER. t 
 
 young in little masses like drops of grease, formed of several 
 united together by an adhesive fluid, upon rocks, stones, or 
 other hard substances that happen to be near; and to these 
 the spats, as they are termed by fishermen, immediately 
 adhere, soon forming a thin shelly covering. Very commonly 
 they adhere to adult shells, and thus are formed the large 
 masses termed banks. Their growth is very rapid. In three 
 months they are larger than a shilling; and, at the end of the 
 first year, they have a diameter of two inches.":}: 
 
 Shakspeare has said, " Honesty dwells like a miser in a 
 poor-house as your pearl in your foul oyster;" and the con- 
 
 * Owen, page 285. 
 
 t Fig. 159. B, One of the valves of the shell v', Hinge. TO, One of the lobes 
 of the mantle. m'. Portion of the other lobe folded back. c, Adductor muscle. 
 br, Branchia, or gills. b, Mouth. t, Tentacula. /, Liver i, Intestine. a, 
 Orifice. h, heart. 
 
 J Carpenter's Zoology, vol. ii. page 398.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 169 
 
 nexion of the oyster with the pearl is one of the interesting 
 circumstances connected with its history. Moore, with his 
 usual felicity, has referred to the Eastern fable of 
 
 " That rain from the sky 
 
 That turns into pearls as it falls in the sea." 
 
 The real facts, as at present known, are scarcely less won- 
 derful. The shell is pierced by some worm, and the oyster 
 deposits the "nacre,", or mother-of-pearl, on the perforated 
 part; or grains of sand or gravel gain admission into the 
 substance of the mantle, and become encrusted by a similar 
 deposit. This would appear to be, in many instances, the 
 origin of the pearls, so highly prized, and still so eagerly 
 sought for. The Romans were extravagantly fond of these 
 ornaments, which they ranked next 
 to the diamond, and are said to have 
 given almost incredible prices for 
 them. "Julius Caesar presented 
 Servilia, the mother of M. Brutus, 
 with a pearl worth 48,417 10s.; 
 and Cleopatra, at a feast with 
 Antony, of which Pliny has given 
 a long and interesting account, 
 swallowed one dissolved in vinegar 
 of the value of 80,729 3s. 4d" 
 Such statements are generally re- 
 
 .. Fig. 160. PEARL OYSTER. 
 
 garded by naturalists of the present 
 
 day with distrust, as exaggerated or erroneous. 
 
 The shell (Avicula margaritaceaj Fig. 160) from which 
 the greater number of pearls and the largest quantity of 
 mother-of-pearl is obtained, is not an oyster strictly so called, 
 but belongs to an allied genus. It is not our intention to 
 enter into any history of the pearl fisheries of Ceylon or the 
 Persian Gulf, which annually give employment to some 
 hundreds of boats and many thousand men. But we would 
 mention, that a very exaggerated idea prevails as to the 
 length of time a pearl-diver is in the habit of staying under 
 water. The usual period on the Aripo banks, is stated by 
 Captain Steuart, to be 53 to 57 seconds; when paid for the
 
 170 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 effort they stay 84 or 87 seconds.* The depth is commonly 
 from four and a half to eight fathoms. The entire amount of 
 revenue derived from the pearl-fisheries of Ceylon, from 
 March, 1828, to May, 1837, amounted, according to the 
 same authority, to 227,131, but has decreased very con- 
 siderably since that tune. 
 
 The large Scallop, or, as it is called in the North of Ireland, 
 the " Clam-shell" (Pecten maximus), can move rapidly through 
 the water by striking the valves of the shell together, and 
 thus propelling itself in the contrary direction. From their 
 lively movements in the water, and the vigorous flappings of 
 their brightly tinted valves, they have obtained the name of 
 sea-butterflies, t 
 
 The common Mussel (Mytilus edulis) enjoys no such power 
 of locomotion, being moored to its "bed" by the silken cable 
 which it constructs for the purpose. This byssus, or, to use 
 a more common term, this beard, of the Mussel, has been 
 employed to assist in giving additional strength to works of 
 human construction. At the town of Biddeford, in Devon- 
 shire, there is a long bridge of twenty-four arches across the 
 Towridge river, near its junction with the Taw. At this 
 bridge the tide flows so rapidly, that it cannot be kept in 
 repair by mortar. The corporation, therefore, keep boats in 
 employ to bring mussels to it, and the interstices of the bridge 
 are filled by hand with these mussels. It is supported from 
 being driven away by the tide entirely by the strong threads 
 these mussels fix to the stonework; and by an act, or grant, 
 it is a crime liable to transportation for any person to remove 
 these mussels, unless in the presence and by the consent of 
 the corporative trustees. } 
 
 The Pinna, a bivalve already mentioned (page 84) excels 
 any other hi the quantity and fineness of its silk, " which has 
 been woven into some articles of dress, that in early tunes 
 were so highly prized as to be worn only by emperors and 
 kings." At Taranto, in Italy, it is still mixed with about one- 
 third of real silk, and made into gloves, caps, stockings, &c. 
 
 * Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon, by James Steuart, Master Attendant at 
 Colombo, and formerly Inspector of Pearl Banks Printed at Ceylon, 
 1843. 
 
 f Owen, page 291. 
 
 j Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. ii. page 90.
 
 MOLLPSCA- 171 
 
 of a beautiful brownish colour, valued as objects of curiosity, 
 but too expensive for general use, the price of a pair of gloves 
 on the spot being about six shillings, and that of a pair of 
 stockings, eleven.* 
 
 But all the bivalves of this class are not destitute of organs 
 specially adapted for locomotion. The "foot" of the common 
 Cockle is an example of the contrary. By means of this 
 instrument, the animal can, with ease, bury itself in the sand. 
 In some of those bivalves the creature excavates its dwelling 
 in mud, and, furnished with a tubular apparatus, thus keeps np 
 its communication with the water above, and feels no want of 
 either respiration or nourishment. The foot, in its structure, 
 " almost exactly resembles the tongue of a quadruped, being 
 entirely made up of layers of muscles crossing each other at 
 various angles ; the external layers being circular or oblique 
 in their disposition, while the internal strata are disposed 
 longitudinally." t 
 
 Perhaps this is the place where we may best direct the 
 attention of the reader to the vast importance of the marine 
 Mollusca of our coast, as an article of food. As such they 
 find their \vay into the dwellings of the rich, and are prized 
 as a cheap and wholesome article of diet in the cabins of the 
 poor. If it were possible to obtain from each locality some 
 tabular returns of the number of persons employed in collect- 
 ing " shell-fish," to use the common appellation, and of the 
 average weight which each individual procured, we doubt not 
 that the result would be so great as to excite astonishment. 
 While residing, in July, 1837, near the town of Lame, 
 County Antrim, we endeavoured to form some calculation of 
 the quantity of the common Limpet taken from the rocks about 
 that part of the coast, and used as food, and had reason to 
 believe that the weight of the boiled "fish" was above eleven 
 tons-J The weight, as carried from the beach, was, however, 
 much greater, as there is to be added that of the shell, and 
 of a small quantity of sea-water which it contained. Whelks 
 or Periwinkles (Turbo littoreus, Linn.) were also collected at 
 the same time; and thus made the probable weight of these 
 two kinds of shell-fish as taken from one locality, hi a single 
 
 * Dr. Johnston. Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iii. page 257. 
 f Jones's Outline, page 381. 
 
 j Vide paper " On the Common Limpet as an Article of Food." 
 Annals Nat. Hist vol. UL June, 1839.
 
 172 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 season, not less than forty tons. This must, however, be 
 greater than the average of ordinary seasons, when causes 
 connected with the scarcity or high price of provisions, which 
 then prevailed, are not in operation. But after every such 
 allowance has been made, the quantity used as food is very 
 considerable. This is attested in other localities round the 
 coast, by the large heaps of shells which may be seen about 
 the dwellings of the humbler classes. 
 
 The entrance to the Bay of Belfast, and the loughs of 
 Strangford and Carlingford, furnish a valuable supply of oysters, 
 which are conveyed for sale to considerable distances. The 
 Carrickfergus oysters are large in size, and so much in demand, 
 that their price in the Belfast market is generally from twelve 
 to fifteen shillings per hundred of 1 20 oysters. It is occa- 
 sionally 20*. ; and we have known one instance in which so 
 much as 30s. was paid. The price of the pearl oysters,* 
 when landed on the beach at Condatchy, varies from 14s. to 
 6 per thousand; so that the best edible oysters are sold 
 in these countries at more than the pearl oysters at Ceylon. 
 
 It is interesting to the botanist, in passing over moor, and 
 mountain, and valley, to observe the kind of plants which are 
 found in each of these situations, and which could not thrive, 
 or perhaps could not live, if removed to any of the others. 
 A similar pleasure awaits the zoologist, who, in his progress 
 round the coast, notes how the species of marine animals 
 which are abundant in one district have disappeared as the 
 coast changes its character, and have their place supplied by 
 species altogether different, but suited to the nature of the 
 locality where they are found. Thus the coast, both to the 
 north and to the south of Belfast Bay, is rocky, and Limpets 
 are, accordingly, plentiful. Within the bay, and opposite to 
 the village of Holywood,t are extensive mud banks, which, 
 
 * Steuart on the Pearl Fisheries at Ceylon. 
 
 f An old inhabitant of that village has favoured us with the following 
 particulars: 
 
 "The year 1792 or 1793 was remarkable for the great drought that 
 prevailed, and the distress consequent upon it. In the month of June 
 or July, that year, about twenty families of poor people came from the 
 interior of the country, and encamped along the road side and on the 
 beach, a short way to the west of Holywood. They remained there 
 about five weeks, during which they subsisted partly on such vegetable 
 food as they were able to pick up about the hedge-rows and fences, but 
 principally upon the mussels which are so abundant on ' the bank,' about
 
 MOLLUSCA. 
 
 173 
 
 towards their outer edges, are the chosen residence of millions 
 of mussels, forming continuous beds, from which the people 
 of the village procure an abundant supply, and 
 where boats are sometimes filled with mussels 
 for the Belfast market. By crossing the narrow 
 neck of land which separates the loughs of Belfast 
 and Strangford, we come at once upon a wide 
 extended beach of sand. Here the Limpets have 
 disappeared the Mussels abound no longer, and 
 their place is more than supplied by multitudes 
 of the common Cockle, which alike furnish food 
 and occupation. 
 
 Among the Mollusks of the present class, are 
 those which possess the art of boring into hard sub- 
 stances, and living in the excavation thus formed. 
 We have dug out of indurated clay, so hard as 
 to make our progress in it a work of labour, 
 perforating bivalves of two genera (Pholas and 
 Venerupis). Some even bore into the solid lime- 
 stone rock, and the piers and breakwater at 
 Plymouth, which are formed of this material, 
 bear evidence of their powers. Perhaps none of 
 these animals is so noted for its ravages as the 
 Teredo (Fig. 161), which Linnaeus emphatically 
 termed " calamitas navium." " They are now 
 common in all the seas of Europe, and, being gifted 
 with the power of perforating wood, they have 
 done, and continue to do, extensive mischief to 
 ships, piers, and all submarine wooden buildings. 
 The soundest and hardest oak cannot resist them ; 
 but in the course of four or five years they will so 
 drill it as to render its removal necessary, as has 
 happened in the dockyard of Plymouth. In the 
 year 1731 and 1732, the United Provinces were 
 under a dreadful alarm, for it was discovered that 
 these worms had made such depredations on the 
 piles which support the banks of Zealand, as to Fi , 6I 
 threaten them with total destruction, and to claim TEREDO. 
 
 half a mile distant. No instance of disease from this diet occurred ; and, 
 during that summer, the poorer classes in the village appeared quite as 
 healthy as in other years, though mussels formed the chief part of their 
 food."
 
 174 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 from man what he had wrested from the ocean. Fortunately, 
 they, a few years after, totally abandoned that island, from 
 causes unknown, but suspected to be from their not being 
 able to live in that latitude when the winter was rather 
 severer than usual."* 
 
 Owing to the general use of metal sheathing, the Teredo is 
 now nearly extinct on the British coast The last account of 
 its ravages was one in 1834, relative to the injury it had 
 caused to the piers of Portpatrick, in Wigtonshire-t 
 
 It is occasionally the pleasing duty of the naturalist to 
 direct attention to some of the many examples where there 
 springs from " partial evil, universal good ;" and perhaps the 
 Teredo, notwithstanding the evidence of its destructive powers, 
 might, if the whole truth were known, be ranked among the 
 number of our benefactors. Mr. R. Ball has remarked to us, 
 "that but for the maligned Teredo, the sea would be so 
 covered with floating logs of timber, as to be to some extent 
 nnnavigable; that the rivers of warm latitudes would be 
 choked up by the accumulated driftwood at their months, and 
 that their fertile banks would, in many cases, be converted 
 into morasses." 
 
 On one occasion, on our northern coast, a piece of the 
 carved and painted woodwork of some unfortunate vessel was 
 flung up by the waves as we strolled along the beach, and 
 never shall we forget the interest with which we examined 
 the numerous perforations of the Teredo. The animals were 
 still living in the galleries which they had excavated, and 
 which were lined, throughout all their windings, with a smooth, 
 white, shelly secretion. While all had applied with effect the 
 curious auger-shaped valves by which their perforations are 
 made, none had interfered with the progress of his fellows. 
 Almost in every instance, when the borings approached too 
 close, their direction had been changed, and contact thus 
 avoided. It was strange to look upon this piece of drift 
 timber, the sport of the wind and waves, and reflect upon the 
 little world of animated existence it contained, and the skill 
 and perfection shown in the structure of their sea-borne 
 dwellings. 
 
 Dr. Johnston, in 1829. Mag. Nat Hist. vol. ii. page 23. 
 
 f Win. Thompson, in Edinburgh New Phil. Journal. Jan. 1835. 
 The same gentleman has since recorded in Annals of Nat. History, Sept. 
 1847, its occurrence at Ardrossan, Ayrshire.
 
 MOLLUSC A. 175 
 
 We now proceed to notice, with equal brevity, some of the 
 best known examples of the different classes of the encephalous 
 Mollusca, or those which have a distinct head. The classes, 
 as already mentioned (page 162), are three in number. 
 
 L PTEROPODA. 
 
 Fig. 162. HYAL.EA. 
 
 THE little Mollusks belonging to this order are furnished with 
 two membranous expansions, like fins or wings (Fig. 162), 
 and hence the compound term, which signifies " wing-footed," 
 points out the obvious distinguishing characteristic of the 
 class. 
 
 There are several genera, but the species best known (Clio 
 borealis) is about an inch in length, and so abundant in the 
 Arctic seas as at tunes to colour the surface for leagues, and 
 to form an important supply of food to the great whale. Our 
 knowledge of its structure is principally derived from the 
 researches of Professor Eschricht, of Copenhagen. The head 
 is furnished with six retractile appendages, which are of a 
 reddish tint from the number of distinct red spots distributed 
 over their surface, and amounting on each to about 3,000.* 
 When examined under a high magnifying power, each of these 
 specks is found to consist of about twenty suckers, each 
 mounted on a footstalk, so as to be projected beyond the edge 
 of their sheath, and applied to their prey. *' Thus, to use 
 
 * Vide Owen, page 293; Carpenter, p. 359; Jones, p. 425.
 
 176 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the words of Professor Jones, " There will be (3,000 X 20 X 6 ) 
 360,000 of these microscopic suckers upon the head of one 
 Clio; an apparatus for prehension perhaps unparalleled in 
 the creation." 
 
 II. GASTEROPODA. 
 
 Fig. 163. VOLUTE (THE ANIMAL REPRESENTED IN MOTION). 
 
 IF we look at the common Snail, as it crawls along, we notice 
 that the only organ it possesses as a substitute for legs is a 
 broad muscular disc, forming the lower surface of the body. 
 Hence the compound term Gasteropoda (belly-footed) indicates 
 the peculiarity of its locomotive structure, and is used as 
 the name of the class in which a similar structure prevails 
 (Figs. 147, 153, 163). 
 
 The class is extremely numerous, and is conveniently dis- 
 tributed into orders distinguished by modifications of their 
 respiratory organs.* Into any minute details of these structural 
 
 * It may be convenient to enumerate, in one place, the orders into 
 which the class is divided, accompanied by an explanation of the 
 scientific names. 
 
 Nudibranchiata gills naked. 
 
 Inferobranchiata gills inferior or lower. 
 
 Cyclobranchiata gills round the body. 
 
 Tecti branchiate gills covered by mantle. 
 
 Pulmonata breathing by lungs. 
 
 Scutibranchiata gills with a shield. 
 
 Tubulibranchiata gills with a tube. 
 
 Pectinibranchiata gills like a comb. 
 
 The order last mentioned is the highest in point of organization; in 
 it the sexes are distinct.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 
 
 177 
 
 characteristics it is not our intention to enter; still less do we 
 purpose giving any enumeration of. the genera into which the 
 several orders are subdivided. We shall merely endeavour to 
 convey some idea of the principles on which the classification 
 is conducted, and relate some particulars with regard to the 
 habits, structure, or uses of a few well-known species. 
 
 In two orders the animals are all marine, and are destitute 
 of any shelly covering. In that to which the term Nudi- 
 Iranchiata is applied, the gills are also naked or unprotected, 
 and are arranged in various forms, and attached to different 
 parts of the body. The animals are found upon the rocks and 
 seaweeds on our shore, and floating with the foot uppermost, 
 on the smooth surface of our bays ; they are 
 also dredged up from considerable depths. 
 When placed in sea-water, they exhibit figures 
 of great delicacy, variety, and elegance, and 
 with a beautiful diversity of colouring. Their 
 size is very different, some of our native species 
 being less than half an inch in length, while 
 others measure so much as four inches.* The 
 eggs of many are in the form of a delicate 
 spiral ribbon-shaped coil, and are attached to 
 stones near the shore or to corals in deep 
 sea- water, according to the habits of the 
 species, t Some gaily-coloured members of 
 this group are found in the Mediterranean 
 and the Indian seas, and swim with great 
 rapidity. 
 
 The common Limpet forms an example of 
 a Mollusk of a different order, in which the 
 gills extend like a fringe round the lower edge 
 of the body, and between the body and the foot Fig. 164. EOLIS. 
 ( Cydobrmich iota). Those who see the Limpet 
 only when left uncovered by the tidr have no idea of the ease 
 with which it can march about when the returning waters 
 once more surround its dwelling. Its little excursions are not, 
 however, "idlesse all;" they are undertaken for the important 
 
 * R. Ball. Vide \V. Thompson, on Mollusca of Ireland, in Annals 
 of Nat. Hist. 1840. 
 
 f Vide an elaborate Monograph on the British Species of Nudibranehittte 
 Mollusca, by Messrs. Alder and Hancock, now in course of publication 
 by the Ray Society. It is illustrated with figures of exquisite delicacy. 
 " PARTI. M
 
 178 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 object of procuring food. This consists of sea-weeds of 
 different kinds, which it rasps down by means of a ribbon 
 shaped instrument longer than its entire body, and covered 
 with minute recurved hooks. The first time we chanced to 
 
 Fig. 165. LIMPET." 
 
 Fig. 166. CHITON. 
 
 see this, we mistook it for some strange species of worm * but, 
 on examining several Limpets, the supposed worm was seen 
 in all; and great was our astonishment when we discovered 
 that we had, in every case, been looking at the tongue of the 
 Limpet, and not at any intruder into the privacy of his conical 
 fortress. 
 
 The shell of the Limpet consists of one piece ; but in the 
 Chiton (Fig. 166), an allied genus found near low water 
 mark, and under stones, the shell is composed of a number 
 of distinct plates. These are so arranged that the edges 
 overlap -like the slates of a house, and the ligaments possess 
 such flexibility, that the shell can, at the pleasure of the 
 animal, be rolled into a ball. 
 
 That order which is characterised by having the gills 
 concealed under a fold of the mantle (Tectibranchiata) may 
 be illustrated by reference to a creature not uncommon on our 
 shores, the Aplysia or Sea-hare, the Lepus marinus of the 
 
 Fig. Ifi5. Th animal of the Limpet, as seen from below ~v. Head. e, 
 Edge of shell. m, Mantle. b, Branchi* /, Foot.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 179 
 
 ancients (Fig. 167). The first which our dredge brought up 
 was placed on one of the rowing benches of the boat, and 
 emitted a rich purplish fluid so copiously that it ran along the 
 
 Fig. 167. APLYSIA. 
 
 board. Being transferred to a phial of sea-water, the purple 
 dye was still given off in such abundance that the creature 
 soon became indiscernible. It was not until the water was 
 changed that we had the opportunity of observing the ease 
 and grace with which it moved about, elevating and depress- 
 ing its mantle, altering the outline of its body, and extending 
 and retracting its tentacula so incessantly, that an artist 
 would have found a difficulty in catching its characteristic 
 figure. It is probable that the form of the upper pair of 
 tentacula suggested the idea of the ears of the hare, and thus 
 gave origin to its common title. The body of this species 
 (A. depilans) was marked with numerous brownish spots, of 
 irregular size and form ; but when the animal died and the 
 body was placed in spirits, the beautiful spotted epidermis 
 disappeared off the larger portion. This creature, it was 
 once believed, held such antipathy to man that its touch 
 would cause the hair to fall off; and it also was said to 
 supply a poison, the operation of which was speedy and 
 inevitable. Time has stripped this inoffensive creature of 
 these imaginary powers. 
 
 Of the tribes which breathe by lungs (Pulmonata) the 
 common Slugs and Snails offer familiar examples. Even of 
 these species, which are aquatic, many come to the surface 
 for respiration, and float or move with the back downwards. 
 " On a Summer's day," says Dr. Johnston,* 4 ' any one may 
 
 * Mag. Nat. Hist rol. iii. page 531.
 
 1 80 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 see the Lymnaea and Planorbes (Figs. 147, 168) thus 
 
 Fig. 168. PLAXORBIS. 
 
 traversing the surface of ponds and ditches, in an easy undu- 
 lating line, or suspended there in luxurious repose, perhaps 
 
 " To taste the freshness of heaven's breath, and feel 
 That light is pleasant, and the sunbeam warm." 
 
 The soft skin of those species which are unprotected with 
 shells might naturally be supposed to be possessed of great 
 sensibility, but such does not appear to be the case. " Baron 
 Ferussac, for example, states that he has seen the terrestrial 
 Gasteropods or slugs allow their skins to be eaten by others, 
 and, in spite of large wounds thus produced, show no sign of 
 pain."* They possess, in a high degree, the power of repair- 
 ing injuries and of reproducing lost parts. Many species, in 
 their young state, can suspend themselves from any object by 
 means of a thread emitted for the purpose, and in some this 
 thread-producing power continues during life.f Those who 
 have not examined the internal structure of these animals may 
 perhaps be surprised to learn that in each there exists a small 
 rudimeutal shell. If we are asked "what is the use of it?" 
 we can only answer, "we cannot tell;" but, in many other 
 animals, we can point to a rudimental structure apparently of 
 no use hi the organization of a certain species, yet, in others 
 with which it is nearly allied, becoming, in its full development, 
 of great importance to the economy and habits of the animal 
 
 Thus, in the present case, though we find only a rudimental 
 shell in the Slug (Limax), we meet with a conspicuous ex- 
 ternal covering of shell in the Snail (Helix). The species 
 belonging to the latter family (Helicidce) are very numerous, 
 
 * Quoted by Owen, page 306. 
 
 t liev. B. J. Clarke, on the Irish species of the Genus Limax. Annala 
 Nat. Hist. vol. xiL page 341.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 181 
 
 no less than forty being known in Ireland alone.* In a little 
 wooded glen, we have, in a couple of hours, collected more 
 than a dozen of species, some of them, though minute, of 
 great beauty when examined under the microscope. The larger 
 species afford a plentiful supply of food to two of our favourite 
 songsters, the blackbird and the thrush. Those with thin 
 shells are, of course, the most in request, and are brought to 
 some flat stone, and there broken to pieces. We recollect 
 how tantalising, on one occasion, it seemed, when searching 
 with a friend for a very elegant native species, which is found 
 in wooded districts (H. arbustomm), while the shells we 
 discovered were " few and far between," the recent fragments 
 strewed plentifully about the stones, used by the thrushes for 
 their demolition, showed that the birds were much more suc- 
 cessful in their search than the naturalists. 
 
 About the sandy slopes and hillocks which extend for con- 
 siderable distances along the coast, several creatures of this 
 family may be found ; and he who examines them critically 
 will notice that, although the habitat appears of the same 
 character, species will be abundant in one locality which are 
 wanting in another, and their presence or absence does not 
 seem to depend upon any law of geographical distribution. 
 How constantly do the phenomena of nature make us feel the 
 limited extent of our knowledge, and say, in a manner not to 
 be misunderstood, " Be humble 1" It is a general belief that 
 these little snails are eaten, in vast numbers, by the sheep 
 which graze upon the scanty pasturage of the sandy knolls, 
 and that they form a very fattening kind of food. 
 
 The Helices are not, however, used only as food for birds, 
 or for sheep and other quadrupeds, such as the hedgehog. 
 There is a species, found in the southern and midland counties 
 of England, which has been considered a delicacy by man 
 himself (H. Pomatia). " From the time of the Romans, who 
 fattened them as an article of food, they have been eaten by 
 several European nations, dressed in various ways. Petronius 
 Arbiter twice mentions them as served up at the feast of Tri- 
 malchio (Nero), first fried, and again grilled on a silver gridiron. 
 At one time, it seems, they were admitted at our own tables ; 
 and Lister, in his Historia Animcdium Anglice, p. Ill, tells us 
 the manner hi which they were cooked in his time. They are 
 
 * W. Thompson. Import of British Association, 1843.
 
 1 82 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 boiled in spring- water, and when seasoned with oil, salt, and 
 pepper, make a dainty dish."* 
 
 Fig. 169 represents a species belonging to a different order 
 
 Tig. 169. VERMETBS. 
 
 (Tiibulibranchiata). Such shells occur in gronps, and are 
 always found attached to other bodies. They bear some re- 
 semblance to the tubes of the serpulae (Fig. 40), though the 
 contained animals are widely different. 
 
 Of those which possess comb-shaped gills (Pectinibranchiata) 
 the common Whelk, or, to use the term employed in the North 
 of Ireland, the " Buckie" (Buccinum undatum) is perhaps the 
 best known example. It is carnivorous in its habits, and is 
 furnished with a singular kind of proboscis, well adapted for 
 boring into the shells of other Mollusks. On some parts of the 
 Irish coast it is taken in wicker baskets containing offal, and 
 is then extensively employed by the fishermen as bait. From 
 its abundance and its size, it is very frequently used by children 
 in the manner described in the exquisite lines of Wordsworth : 
 
 -" I have seen 
 
 A curious child applying to his ear 
 
 The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, 
 
 To which, in silence hushed, his very soul 
 
 Listened intensely, and his countenance soon 
 
 Brightened with joy; for murmuring from within 
 
 Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, 
 
 To his belief, the monitor express'd 
 
 Mysterious union with its native sea. 
 
 Even such a shell the universe itself 
 
 Is to the ear of faith, and doth impart 
 
 Authentic tidings of invisible things ; 
 
 Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power; 
 
 And central peace subsisting at the heart 
 
 Of endless agitation." 
 
 Another shell, even more plentiful on our rocky shores, is 
 the Dog-whelk (Purpura lapillus). It is remarkable for 
 furnishing a purplish dye, which makes an indelible marking- 
 ink. This is contained in a whitish or straw-coloured vein, 
 
 * Turton's Manual, edited by John Ed. Gray, pages 135, 136.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 
 
 183 
 
 close to the head, and when applied to white linen when the 
 sun is bright, is first green, then blue, changing to a reddish 
 tint, and finally purple. It is not, however, to be supposed 
 that this fluid is identical with that dye for which Tyre was 
 so celebrated when its " merchants were princes, and its 
 traffickers the honourable' of the earth ;" and which was re- 
 served for the brilliant hangings of temples, or the costly 
 robes of priests and kings. By what species of shell this dye 
 was produced, and how it was extracted, have been questions 
 respecting which much difference of opinion has prevailed. 
 Our latest information on tho 
 subject is derived from Mr. 
 Wilde,* who, when visiting tho 
 ruins of Tyre, in 1838, found 
 on the shore "a number of 
 round holes cut in the solid 
 sandstone rock, varying in size 
 from that of an ordinary metal 
 pot to that of a large boiler." 
 Within these, and on the ad- 
 jacent beach, he found largo 
 quantities of shells broken, ap- 
 parently by design, but subse- 
 quently agglutinated together. 
 Hence he inferred, that the 
 shells had been collected, in 
 large masses, into these holes or 
 mortars, to be pounded in the 
 manner mentioned by Pliny, 
 for the purpose of extracting 
 the fluid which the animal con- ?1 *' <>. 
 
 tained. This opinion received confirmation from his finding 
 that the broken shells of this conglomerate proved, on exa- 
 mination, to be the Murex trunculus, one of the species from 
 which the Tyrian dye is known to have been obtained; and, 
 also, that several of the recent shells, exactly agreeing with 
 these, were found on the adjoining beach. The genus contains 
 shells of great beauty (Fig. 170), some of which are furnished 
 with long and deh'cate spines. 
 
 * Narrative of a Voyage to "Madeira, Teneriffe, &c. 2d edition, page 
 378; and Appendix to the same work, page 629.
 
 1 84 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 III. CEPHALOPODA CUTTLE-FISHES. 
 
 Fig. 171. CALAMART. 
 
 IF we look at a Cuttle-fish (Fig. 171), we notice that the 
 head is surrounded by a number of appendages; and this 
 peculiarity is implied in the term " Cephalopoda."* It is 
 restricted to the third division of the encephalous Mollusca; 
 to that class which is the most elevated in organization. Its 
 .superiority is manifested in the muscular, the respiratory, and 
 the nervous systems, and also in the existence of a true in- 
 ternal skeleton of a peculiar structure, the first approach towards 
 the most obvious characteristic of the vertebrate animals. 
 
 Though the shell of the Pearly Nautilus (Nautilus Pompi- 
 livs, Fig. 172) is common in museums, the capture of the 
 
 t 
 e 
 
 Fig. 172. PEARI.T NACTILCS, -WITH TH SHELL LAID ore*. 
 Fig. 172 t, Tentacula. / Funnel g, Foot m, Part of uiantie.- 
 s, Siphon. 
 
 * From two Greek words, signifying head-feet. 
 
 ?, Bye.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 
 
 185 
 
 living animal is of rare occurrence. One was taken, when 
 floating in the South Seas, and being presented to the College 
 of Surgeons, London, was there dissected by Professor Owen, 
 who published an elaborate memoir on its structure, and its 
 relations to other families, both recent and extinct. We learn 
 from this source that it has four gills (Tetrabranchiata), in 
 which respect it differs from all other existing species of 
 Cuttle-fish, that it occupies the outer chamber of its shell, 
 and that it can rise to the surface or descend at pleasure. 
 Similar in structure and in powers were the Ammonites (Figs. 
 173, 174), which at former periods of the earth's history, 
 
 Fig. 173. 
 
 Fig. 174. 
 
 AMMONITES. 
 
 must have been living in its seas, though now known only as 
 fossil; and alike in general organization, though different in 
 form, are those large tapering chambered fossils 
 (Orthoceratites) which, in some parts of Ireland, 
 are so abundant in the limestone quarries. 
 
 The other Cuttle-fishes (Dibranchiata) abound 
 in all seas, and are arranged in two divisions, 
 according as they have eight or ten arms. To 
 the latter group belong the Loligo or Calamary 
 (Fig. 171) the common Sepia or Cuttle-fish 
 and the Loligopsis (Fig. 175), so remarkable for 
 the great length of one pair of its arms. All 
 possess a shell or internal skeleton differing in 
 form and structure in different species; all are 
 furnished with a powerful horny beak for tearing 
 up their prey, and with an ink-bag, from which, 
 at pleasure, they can emit a fluid which darkens 
 the water and favours their escape from their 
 
 . *!& MO. 
 
 enemies. BSLEM.MIE.
 
 186 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 To this division belonged the Belemnite (Fig. 176), whose 
 remains are abundant in the white limestone of the County 
 
 Fig. 175 LOLIOOPSIR. 
 
 Antrim. The flinty conical body we now behold constituted 
 part of the internal skeleton of the living animal. The remains 
 of a Belemuite have been found in England in such a state of 
 preservation as to show the head, the arms, the ink-bag, and 
 the internal shell* From a careful examination of its struc- 
 ture, Mr. Owen is of opinion that it possessed the power of 
 swimming backward and forward with great vigour and pre- 
 cision, could rise swiftly and stealthily to infix its claws into 
 the belly of a fish, and then perhaps as swiftly dart down, 
 drag its prey to the bottom, and devour it. How strange it 
 is to gaze upon that fossil entombed in masses of limestone, 
 and, in imagination, picture that flinty structure gifted with 
 life, and forming part of a carnivorous animal, who, in the 
 primaeval seas, ere these lands were upheaved from the bed 
 of ocean, carried on his career of rapine, the voracious de- 
 stroyer of the weaker inhabitants of the deep I 
 
 * Owen, pages 337, 339.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 
 
 187 
 
 Fig. 177. ARGOXACT, OB PAPER NAUTILUS. 
 
 Of the eight-armed division, the most interesting species 
 is the Argonaut or Paper Nautilus, regarded as giving to 
 man the first example of the art of navigation. It has been 
 usually represented as in the annexed figure (Fig. 177), with 
 six arms extended over the sides of its little vessel to act as 
 oars, and two others upraised as sails. Such being the 
 universal belief among naturalists, it is to be expected that
 
 1 88 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 poets would not fail to celebrate its nautical capabilities.* 
 Thus, Pope bid us 
 
 " Learn of the little Nautilus to sail, 
 Spread the thin oar and catch the driving gale." 
 
 And Montgomery, in his " Pelican Island," gives a picture so 
 exquisitely finished, that even the naturalist can scarcely 
 bring himself to wish that it were different : 
 
 " Light as a flake of foam upon the wind, 
 Keel upward from the deep emerged a shell, 
 Shaped like the moon ere half her horn is till'd; 
 Fraught with young life, it righted as it rose, 
 And moved at will along the yielding water. 
 The native pilot of this little bark 
 Put out a tier of oars on either side, 
 Spread to the wafting breeze a twofold sail, 
 And mounted up and glided down the billow 
 In happy freedom, pleased to feel the air, 
 And wander in the luxury of light." 
 
 It is now ascertained that the Nautilus never moves in the 
 manner here described. The account, though so universally 
 accredited, is altogether fabulous. It moves backwards through 
 the water by the action of its arms, like other Cuttle-fish. 
 It can creep along the bottom, and, like many other Mollusks, 
 it can rise to the surface; but there, the arms are never em- 
 ployed as oars. Nor are those which have the broad expanded 
 membranous disc ever used as sails; their true function, as 
 ascertained by M. Rang, and confirmed by the experiments 
 of Madame Power, is the secretion of the substance of the 
 shelL They are stretched tensely over its surface, and, when 
 accidental injuries arise, they deposit for its repair the needful 
 quantity of shelly matter. To do this, and to supply what is 
 wanted for the enlargement of the shell with the growth of 
 the animal, is their appointed duty ; one similar to that of the 
 mantle of the bivalve shells. 
 
 * Byron's well-known description is too beautiful to be omitted: 
 " The tender Nautilus who steers his prow, 
 The sea-bom sailor of his shell canoe, 
 The ocean Mab, the fairy of the sea, 
 Seems far less fragile, and, alas! more free. 
 He, when the lightning-wing'd tornados sweep 
 The surge, is safe his port is in the deep 
 And triumphs o'er the armadas of mankind, 
 Which shake the world, yet crumble in the wind." 
 
 TUB ISLAND.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 1 89 
 
 The species of Octopus (0. vulgaris, Fig. 178) found on 
 the British shores, and known as the common Poulpe, is of 
 rare occurrence on the Irish coast.* Its strange figure and 
 staring eyes cannot fail to excite astonishment when seen for 
 the first time, more especially when its twisting arms are 
 
 Fig. 178 OCTOPUS OR POCLTE. 
 
 employed in the act of walking, or in that of swimming, by 
 means of the contractions of their connecting membrane. 
 These arms have, however, another office, for which they are 
 elaborately adapted; and as the description given of them by 
 Professor Jones is equally applicable to other Cephalopoda, 
 we shall adopt the language of that eloquent writer: 
 
 " The feet or tentacula appended to the head are not, how- 
 ever, exclusively destined to effect locomotion ; they are used, 
 if required, as agents in seizing prey, and of so terrible a cha- 
 racter, that armed with these formidable organs, the Poulpe 
 becomes one of the most destructive inhabitants of the sea; 
 for neither superior strength nor activity, nor even defensive 
 armour, is sufficient to save its victims from the ruthless 
 ferocity of such a foe. A hundred and twenty pair of suckers, 
 more perfect and efficacious than the cupping-glasses of human 
 contrivance, crowd the lower surface of every one of the eight 
 flexible arms. If the Poulpe but touch its prey, it is enough ; 
 
 * Another species {Eledone ventricosa) takes its place, and often its 
 name E. Ball
 
 190 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 once a few of these tenacious suckers get firm hold, the swift- 
 ness of the fish is unavailing, as it is soon trammelled on all 
 sides by the firmly-holding tentacula, and dragged to the 
 month of its destroyer. The shell of the lobster or crab is a 
 vain protection, for the hard and crooked beak of the Cepha- 
 lopod easily breaks to pieces the frail armour." * 
 
 An instance of its powers, both of attack and escape, fell 
 under the observation of Mr. Broderip, of London. He 
 attempted, " with a hand-net, to catch an Octopus that was 
 floating within sight, with its long and flexible arms entwined 
 round a fish, which it was tearing to pieces with its sharp 
 hawk's-bill. The Cephalopod allowed the net to approach 
 within a short distance of it before it relinquished its prey, 
 when, in an instant, it relaxed its thousand suckers, exploded 
 its inky ammunition, and rapidly retreated, under cover of the 
 cloud which it had occasioned, by rapid and vigorous strokes 
 of its circular web."f 
 
 Besides the power of thus escaping when pursued, it also 
 possesses, in common with others of its class, a protection 
 against being discovered, which, conjoined with the other, 
 surpasses the cloak of darkness in the fairy tale. It can 
 change its colour to that of the adjacent objects ; so that, like 
 the Ptarmigan in the snow, it becomes comparatively incon- 
 spicuous. Mr. Owen remarks, that "the power which the 
 Cephalopods possess of changing their colour, and of har- 
 monizing it with that of the surface on which they rest, is at 
 hast as striking and extensive as in the Chameleon, hi which 
 it seems, from the latest observations, to be produced by a 
 similar property and arrangement of pigmental cells." J 
 
 The prepared ink of the Cuttle-fish is capable of being made 
 into a pigment, and, even after being entombed for centuries, 
 preserves its powers. Dr. Backland supplied some of this 
 fossil ink to an eminent painter, who immediately inquired 
 from what colour-man such excellent sepia might be procured. 
 The internal bone is used in making erasures, and is manu- 
 factured into the article known as "pounce" in the shops. 
 The flesh, especially that of the arms, is considered very 
 nutritious. It was highly prized by the ancients, and, though 
 not used in these countries, is still much sought for in other 
 
 * Outline of the Animal Kingdom, pasre 431. 
 f Owen, page 346. J Page 343.
 
 MOLLUSCA. lyl 
 
 parts of the world, aud occasionally exposed for sale in the 
 market at Naples and elsewhere. Oar most common species 
 (Loligo vulgaris) forms the bait with which one-half of the 
 cod taken at Newfoundland is caught.* During violent gales 
 of wind, hundreds of tons of them are thrown up there on the 
 beach. Other species appear elsewhere to be no less numerous. 
 Sir. Bennett t describes them as forming a dense shoal on the 
 surface of the water, extending several hundred yards on 
 each side of the ship he was in ; and also gives an animated 
 description of the flights of the flying squid, a name given to 
 another species because of their manner of leaping from the 
 water. 
 
 Stories are told of gigantic Cuttle-fish throwing their arms 
 over luckless vessels, the thickness of each arm being equal to 
 that of the mizen-mast. But it is the business of science to 
 dispel these exaggerations, and patiently and laboriously to 
 seek out the truth, hailing with joy each new light which may 
 shine on the subject of inquiry. In the College of Surgeons, 
 London, are preserved portions of the largest specimen of a 
 Cuttle-fish which any of our museums contain. The carcass 
 was found during Captain Cook's first voyage, floating on the 
 sea, surrounded by aquatic birds, who were feeding on its 
 remains. " Comparing the size of this animal, from the parts 
 existing, with that of the smaller perfect animals, its body 
 must have been at least four feet long, which, added to the 
 tentacula, would make it seven feet in length." J We have, 
 in these countries, no positive evidence of the existence of any 
 Cuttle-fish of larger dimensions, but the general prevalence of 
 such belief inclines naturalists at present not to deny the 
 possibility of their occurrence. 
 
 The ova of the Cuttle-fish are contained in vesicles, which, 
 in some cases, are clustered together, and known as " sea- 
 grapes." On one occasion, our dredge brought up a large 
 mass of them, so mature that, in the act of throwing it into 
 a vessel of sea-water, many of the ovisacs burst, and, to our 
 astonishment, we beheld the fluid swarming with minute 
 Cuttle-fish, whose dark eyes were singularly conspicuous. In 
 April, 1345, we found, on a sandy bank, in Belfast bay, a 
 number of detached vesicles, which had been left uncovered 
 
 * Dr. Johnston in Mag. Xat. Hist. vol. iii. pace 153. 
 
 f Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe. London, 1840. 
 
 j Owen, vid. Athenaeum, 1840, page C7G.
 
 19^ INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 by the retiring tide. Each had a thread-like extremity, buried 
 in the sand to the depth of two or three inches, and highly 
 elastic. We have been unable to ascertain to what kind of 
 Cuttle-fish they belonged.* Mr. K. Ball has recorded, as 
 occurring in the Irish seas, twelve species of Cephalopoda, 
 three of which were previously undescribed.f 
 
 The remains of animals of this family have been found along 
 with the undigested portions of the food of the gigantic saurian 
 reptiles of remote ages; and thus, in the words of Dr. Buck- 
 land, " the general law of nature, which bids to eat and be 
 eaten in their turn, is shown to have been co-extensive with 
 animal existence on our globe; the carnivora in each period 
 of the world's history fulfilling their destined office, to check 
 excess hi the progress of life, and maintain the balance of 
 creation." 
 
 The brief space devoted to the Mollusca cannot be closed 
 without adverting to then- great importance hi a geological 
 point of view. Their shells, which, in a fossil state, are found 
 in the secondary rocks, are different from those of any animals 
 of the same tribes now existing. They may belong to the 
 same families, in some cases to the same genera, but invariably 
 the species is extinct. In the older tertiary rocks, we meet, for 
 the first tune, with shells hi a fossil state, which are specifically 
 identical with some now living. But the number of such is 
 so small, that it has been estimated at only three and a half 
 per cent, of the entire. As we approach the more recent 
 strata, the number of shells of species still living continues to 
 increase, until, in those tertiary rocks which are the most 
 recent, it constitutes nine-tenths of the entire number. Hence 
 shells have, with great propriety, been termed " the medals 
 principally employed by Nature in recording the chronology of 
 past events." | 
 
 An aid in the detection of generic resemblances between 
 different fossil shells, and also between recent and fossil, has 
 
 * They have so much resemblance to the ovisacs contained in the 
 ovary of Russia palpetrosa, figured by Professor Owen in the appendix 
 to Koss's voyage, that we are inclined to surmise they must have been 
 those of some species of the same genus a conjecture the more probable 
 as to this genus belong two species, added to our Fauna by Mr. Ball. 
 Ovisacs described to us as similar to what we have noticed were found 
 by Miss Ball on Clontarf strand. 
 
 t Proceedings Royal Irish Academy, 10th Jan. 1842. 
 
 j Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. page 283.
 
 MOLLUSCA. 1 93 
 
 of late been afforded by the microscopic investigation of their 
 structure by Dr. Carpenter, an investigation which is still in 
 progress. That gentleman observes, "that marked differences 
 in the structure of shell go along with marked difference in 
 general characters, and that a close correspondence in the 
 structure of the shell may be held to indicate a tolerably close 
 natural affinity."* And he enumerates certain genera "which 
 may be at once distinguished from each other, and from all 
 other shells, by the characters supplied by a fragment of shell 
 which a pin's head would cover." Should more extended 
 observations warrant the broad inferences to which such in- 
 quiries at present point, and be found applicable to the Crus- 
 tacea and Echinodermata, no less than to the Testacea, how 
 clear is the light which they will cast into "the palpable 
 obscure," which sometimes baffles the most anxious and 
 persevering efforts of the geologist 1 
 
 Another series of observations, of a nature totally unlike 
 these, has given additional importance to the shells of stratified 
 rocks, by teaching us better to understand the circumstances 
 under which they have been originally deposited. These 
 investigations were carried on by Professor Edward Forbes, f 
 in the ^Egean Sea, on board H. M. S. Beacon, Captain Graves, 
 and continued for eighteen months. By means of the dredge, 
 the Mollusca and Radiata of that region were explored, at all 
 depths of water between the surface and 230 fathoms. Nearly 
 700 species were thus found, and, in different regions of depth, 
 they were associated in such a manner that each of these 
 regions presented its own peculiar and characteristic association 
 of species, just as on lofty mountains the character of the 
 vegetation changes in proportion to the altitude. Those 
 species which had the widest range of geographical distribu- 
 tion, had also the most extensive range with regard to regions 
 of depth; and some were discovered living, which had pre- 
 viously been known only as fossil. Both with regard to 
 vegetable and animal life, species were found to attain, at 
 certain depths, a maximum size, then gradually to diminish, 
 and finally to disappear, their places being supplied by similar 
 forms, specifically distinct. Genera, in like manner, were 
 found to be replaced by corresponding genera. So that the 
 
 " Annals Nat Hist. December, 1843. 
 
 f Heport to British Association. Cork meeting, 1843. 
 
 N
 
 194 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 exploration of this sea exhibited, in regard to depth, a series 
 of phenomena similar to what had been already observed by 
 geologists with regard to successive periods of time, or to de- 
 grees of latitude in geographical distribution; thus showing 
 that the study of the characters which Nature now exhibits 
 furnishes the key to that series of ciphers in which she has 
 written the history of the past. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that, in the study of the Testacea, 
 the naturalist rises from the determination of species to 
 inductions which lead him to examine the structure, habits, 
 and distribution of extensive groups; to investigate the con- 
 ditions under which they are found to exist ; and, uniting in 
 one series the past and the present, to aim at generalizations 
 sufficient to task, to their utmost capability, the limited 
 powers with which man, in his present state of existence, has 
 been endowed. 
 
 END OF PART i.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 USE OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS, 
 
 -" Earth in her rich attire, 
 
 Consummate, lovely, smiled ; air, water, earth, 
 
 By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd." 
 
 MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. 
 
 WE have had our attention directed to the three groups of 
 animals termed "Invertebrate," from the absence of the 
 vertebral * column ; and we are now prepared to enter upon 
 the examination of the more highly organized beings which 
 constitute the fourth great division of the animal kingdom. 
 These have a more complex structure and a higher intelli- 
 gence ; many of them by their great strength and vast propor- 
 tions must excite our amazement ; and in this class, after 
 passing many inferior grades, we reach to man himself, " the 
 paragon of animals." 
 
 The most obvious character by which the Vertebrate Ani- 
 mals are distinguished from the lower tribes is, as the name 
 denotes, the possession of a skull and back-bone ; or rather 
 by their " having the brain and principal trunk of the nervous 
 system included in a bony articulated case, composing the 
 skull and vertebral column." f There are other important 
 
 * " Vertebral, as consisting of segments of the skeleton, which turn one 
 upon the other, and as being the centre on which the whole body can bend 
 and rotate ; from the Latin verto, vertere, to turn." Professor Owens lec- 
 tures on the Vertebrate Animals. 
 
 t Manual of British Vertebrate Animals. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, 
 M.A.
 
 196 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 though less striking characteristics. Vertebrate Animals pos- 
 sess red blood, a muscular heart, distinct senses, a mouth fur- 
 nished with two jaws moving vertically, and limbs which, 
 however modified irrform, never exceed four in number. 
 
 The skeleton of Vertebrate Animals presents considerable 
 variety, not only in its form, but in the material of which it is 
 composed. Bone consists of animal matter, chiefly gelatinous, 
 hardened by a general diffusion of earthy particles. The 
 proportion of the animal and of the earthy parts, or, in 
 other words, the proportion of the organic and inorganic 
 matter, varies in different classes. " Fishes have the least, 
 birds the largest, proportion of earthy matter;" "the mam- 
 malia, especialy the active predatory species, have more 
 earth, or harder bones, than reptiles." In each class there 
 are differences in the density of bone among its several 
 members. For example, in the freshwater fishes the bones 
 are lighter, and retain more animal matter, than in those which 
 swim in the denser sea ; and in the dolphin, a warm-blooded 
 marine animal, they differ little in this respect from those of 
 the sea fish.* 
 
 The Vertebrate Animals are distributed into four classes, 
 namely : 
 
 I. FISHES. 
 II. KEPTILES (Toi-toises, Lizards, Serpents, Frogs.} 
 
 III. BIEDS. 
 
 IV. MAMMALIA! (Man, Bats, Whales, Quadrupeds) 
 
 Two of these, Fishes and Reptiles, are, with few exceptions, 
 cold-blooded; and the remaining two, Birds and Mammalia, 
 are warm-blooded. 
 
 * Professor Owen's Lectures on the Vertebrate Animals, p. 25. 
 
 f Most of the animals belonging to this Class, being four-footed, it is not 
 unusual in systematic works of a popular character, to speak of them all 
 (including the bats and whales) as " Quadrupeds," instead of using the more 
 scientific term " Mammalia."
 
 197 
 
 CLASS I. 
 
 PISCES. FISHES. 
 
 "They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in 
 
 great waters; 
 " These men see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." 
 
 PSALMS. 
 
 How widely different are the ideas suggested by the word 
 " Fish " to the minds of the angler, the epicure, the fisherman, 
 and the naturalist ! The last is here to be our guide ; and, 
 according to his definition, fishes are cold-blooded animals, 
 eminently and specially adapted for living as inhabitants of 
 the water. The body is, in most instances, covered with 
 scales ; they have fins instead of feet ; and respiration is car- 
 ried on by gills. The young are produced from eggs. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION. Fishes are found in rivers, lakes, and seas, 
 and, according to the laws of geographical distribution, have 
 certain limits within which they range, and beyond which they 
 seldom pass. Some live habitually in temperatures far above 
 that which we would have ventured to suppose. Thus, fishes 
 have been observed in a hot spring at Manilla, which raises 
 the thermometer to 187, and in another in Barbary, whose 
 usual temperature is 172;* and Humboldt mentions that, 
 during his researches in tropical America, he found them 
 thrown up alive from the bottom of an exploding volcano, 
 along with water at that time so hot as to raise the thermo- 
 meter to 210, or within two degrees of the boiling point. 
 An observation, made under such circumstances, does not, 
 however, furnish any evidence as to the temperature of the 
 water in which such fishes habitually lived. When the vital 
 actions are suspended by excess of cold, and the fish congealed 
 in a mass of ice, life does not appear to be permanently extin- 
 guished. With the gradual thawing of the ice, all the powers 
 of life return : hence, in the northern parts of Europe, Perch 
 and Eels are conveniently transported from one place to 
 another while in a frozen state. Even the same species seems 
 
 * See Notes to Dr. W. F. Edwards' work " On the Influence of Physical 
 Agents on Life."
 
 198 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 capable of bearing considerable extremes of heat and cold. 
 The delicate-looking Gold-fish thrives and breeds to excess in 
 water the temperature of which is so high as 80, and has 
 been known to be frozen into a solid body of ice, and revived 
 by the gradual application of warmth.* 
 
 FOEM. The great variety of form observable among fishes 
 may be illustrated by reference to some of our most common 
 native species the Eel, the Plaice, and the Haddock. Some 
 fishes have aspects so strange and grotesque that the names 
 " Fiddle-fish," " red-riband," and " Hammer-head," have 
 been bestowed on them, as indicating their resemblance to 
 some well-known object. There are some, which to a certain 
 extent, can vary the form of their body at pleasure. Thus 
 the Diodon,f or Globe-fish (Fig. 179), by swallowing air, 
 
 Fig. 179. GLOBK-FISH. 
 
 can inflate itself like a balloon. The air passes into the first 
 stomach, which occupies the lower surface of the body. This 
 part, becoming the lightest, is that which remains uppermost, 
 and the fish floats on the surface with its usual position re- 
 versed. But. while thus floating without effort, it is in the 
 most perfect security from all its usual enemies : for, owing to 
 the distension of the skin, the numerous spines with which it 
 is beset become erect, and present a bristling front on every 
 
 * Jesse's Second Series of Gleanings in Natural History. 
 
 f This fish belongs to a family which has no true teeth, but in which the 
 gums are covered with a substance resembling ivory. The enamel in each 
 jaw is without any division, so that the fish appears to have but two teeth 
 whence its name Diodon.
 
 TTSHES. 199 
 
 side to all assailants.* Cuvier doubts whether the Diodon, 
 when in this position, is able to swim ; but Mr. Darwin's 
 observations show that it can not only move forward in a 
 straight line, but that it can also turn to either side.f 
 
 COVERING. Most fishes are covered with scales, which dif- 
 fer considerably in their shape, and are yet so uniform in each 
 particular kind that they serve as valuable aids in the discrimi- 
 nation of species. Those along the well-marked line observ- 
 able on both sides of the body are distinguished from the others 
 in shape, and each of them is found to be pierced with a small 
 hole, which is, in fact, the extremity of a tube. Through 
 these orifices a mucus or slime is emitted. This forms a coat- 
 ing to the body, and diminishes the friction of its passage 
 through the water. These apertures are, in general, larger 
 and more numerous about the head than over the other parts, 
 and may be regarded as one of those beautiful provisions of 
 Nature which we are permitted so frequently to observe and 
 to admire. " Whether the fish inhabits the stream or the lake, 
 the current of the water in the one instance, or progression 
 through it on the other, carries this defensive secretion back- 
 wards, and spreads it over the whole surface of the body."J 
 The scales are sometimes marked with minute lines, possess a 
 varying metallic lustre, and exhibit a diversity of brilliant 
 colours, which render them highly attractive objects. The 
 poet is perfectly accurate when he describes fishes, which, 
 
 -" Sporting with quick glance, 
 
 Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold." MILTCX. 
 
 Thus the wide-spreading sea has in its waters tribes of beings 
 fitted for that element, and scarcely, if at all, inferior in rich- 
 ness of colouring, variety of figure, or grace of movement, to 
 those which are the admired denizens of the air. 
 
 * M. Edwards' "Elemens," p. 305. Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, 
 p. 433. 
 
 f Darwin's Journal, p. 13. " Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle." 
 
 Tamil's History (if British Fishes, p. 4. 
 
 The brilliant metallic colours of the scales of fishes are thus accounted 
 for by Dr. J. I,. Drummond: "The scales of fishes are pellucid; and their 
 brilliant appearance is owing to a thin film which covers the under side 
 of each scale, and is entirely formed of spicula, as is easily proved by 
 scraping off a quantity of scales, and agitating them in water with a stick 
 or other body, so as to detach the films. The water will then be found to 
 contain thousands of moving spicula, which in the sunshine may be discerned
 
 200 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 But, although we may convince ourselves of the truth of 
 this remark, by an examination of those on our own shores, 
 we should not limit our view to them, but extend it to those 
 of other seas. There, with new forms we find new vestments. 
 Thus, the Trunk-fish* (Ostradon, Fig, 180), and the Pipe- 
 fishes of our own 
 shores (Fig. 182), in- 
 stead of being covered 
 with flexible scales, 
 are clad in a covering 
 of bony plates firmly 
 united together, re- 
 Fig. 180.-TBU5K-KSH. minding us of a tes- 
 selated pavement ; and if we look back to those which in re- 
 mote eras were the inhabitants of these seas, and whose re- 
 mains are found imbedded in rocks of marine formation in 
 different parts of these islands, we find numerous tribes whose 
 coats of mail did not consist of bone but of enamel. 
 
 SENSES. The sense of feeling can scarcely be exerted in its 
 fullest extent by the bodies of fishes, covered as they are with 
 their scaly integuments. From this remark, however, we 
 should except the long cirri or feelers of certain fishes, which 
 are placed about the mouth. " These appendages," says Mr. 
 Yarrell, " are to them delicate organs of touch, by which all 
 the species provided with them are enabled to ascertain, to a 
 certain extent, the qualities of the various substances with 
 which they are brought in contact ; and are analogous in func- 
 tion to the beak, with its distribution of nerves, among cer- 
 tain wading and swimming birds which probe for food beyond 
 their sight ; and may be considered another instance, among 
 the many beautiful provisions of Nature, by which, in the case 
 of fishes feeding at great depths, where light is deficient, com- 
 pensation is made for consequent imperfect vision, "f As the 
 
 with the utmost ease by the naked eye. The scales of the Salmon answer 
 best for the purpose, as they are large and easily detached." "On certain 
 Appearances Observed in the Dissection of the Eyes of Fishes." Trans. 
 JKoy. Soc. of Edinburgh. 1815. 
 
 The slender, flat, silvery bodies, here named "spicula," are perfectly 
 opaque, and must therefore be examined under the microscope by reflected 
 not by transmitted light : when thus seen, their brilliancy is almost too great 
 for the eye to sustain. Idem. 
 
 * M. 'Edwards' " Ele'mens," p. 303. Eoget, p. 432. 
 
 f British Fishes, p. 30.
 
 FISHES. 201 
 
 prey of fishes is seized by the mouth, and retained there until 
 swallowed ; and as the mouth at the same time admits the 
 stream of water to the gills, but little mastication can possibly 
 take place ; there is, consequently, but little exercise of the 
 sense of taste. Its existence is, however, indicated in some 
 species both by the structure of the skin which covers the 
 palate, and by the supply of nerves. 
 
 The sense of smell would appear to be enjoyed in great 
 perfection, not only from the development of the olfactory 
 nerves, but also from observations respecting habits. Mr. 
 Jesse states of fish which he kept in a pond suitable for the 
 purpose, that they preferred paste and worms that had been 
 prepared by particular perfumes. 
 
 The existence of the sense of hearing in fishes has been 
 questioned ere now, because there is no external organ ana- 
 logous to an ear. But the pleasing writer just quoted informs 
 us, that he has seen fishes suddenly move at the report of a 
 gun, though it was impossible for them to see the flash ;* and 
 we know that the Chinese summon their Gold-fish to their 
 food by the sound of a whistle. The researches of the ana- 
 tomist would, however, be sufficient of themselves to remove 
 such a doubt, if it were ever seriously entertained. He reveals 
 to us the existence of a special apparatus for the purpose, pre- 
 senting great diversity in its arrangement; and we learn that 
 in cases such as those just mentioned, the sonorous vibrations 
 of the water were communicated to the organ of hearing 
 through the medium of the solid parts of the body. In many 
 species there is a communication between the ear and the air- 
 bladder ; and it has hence been inferred that the air-bladder, 
 among other uses, serves to increase the intensity of the undu- 
 lations communicated through water to the body of the fish.f 
 With the parts of the auditory apparatus, called the otolites, or 
 ear-bones, every one is familiar. 
 
 The sense of sight exists in great perfection ; but the lenses 
 of the eye are modified to suit the denser medium through 
 which the rays of light must pass. In general, the eye is 
 much rounded, and the pupil is large, so as to allow the 
 greatest possible quantity of light to enter. But while such 
 careful arrangements are made for the sense of vision, in all 
 cases where that power can be exerted, the economy of nature, 
 
 * Gleanings in Natural History, p. 74. 
 
 f Miiller, quoted in Owen's Lectures, p. 211.
 
 202 INTBODUCTIOTT TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 vrhich gives nothing in vain, has withheld the gift from those 
 species whose dwelling-place is such as to preclude the possi- 
 bility of its exercise. An instance of this is supplied to us 
 from Kentucky, where there is a cavern, known because of its 
 great dimensions by the name of the Mammoth Cave.* It is 
 said to extend to a distance of upwards of twenty miles, and 
 has obviously been excavated by the long-continued action of 
 a subterranean river. There is an expanse of this river, about 
 four miles from the entrance, forming a subterranean lake. 
 Here the sense of sight would be useless ; and it is found, 
 accordingly, that the fishes which inhabit those gloomy waters 
 are without eyes;t or, to speak more correctly, the visual 
 organs exist only in a rudimentary condition. The capture 
 of these fishes is, nevertheless, difficult, because of the great 
 acuteness of their sense of hearing. 
 
 The eyes of fishes exhibit striking peculiarities. They are 
 without eyelids, properly so called ;J and as the eye is at all 
 times washed by the surrounding water, that gland which 
 supplies moisture to the eye of the higher vertebrate animals 
 is not required, and therefore does not exist. The colours of 
 the eye are of great beauty, varying through various shades 
 of black, blue, red, yellow, and richest orange. 
 
 LOCOMOTION. We now turn to the consideration of the 
 various structural peculiarities, by means of which fishes are 
 enabled to move through the waters with the same, or even 
 greater ease, than the Hawk and the Swallow wing their course 
 through the air. The first bears reference to the weight of 
 the body of the fish, compared with that of the medium in 
 which it lives. This specific gravity, to use the proper term, 
 is nearly the same in both ; or, in other words, the weight of 
 the body of the fish is nearly the same as that of an equal 
 
 * There is a popular description of the Mammoth Cave in Chambers' 
 Edinburgh Journal, 1837, vol. vL and again, in 1843, vol. xii. 
 
 f W. Thomson's Notice of the Blind-fish, Cray-fish, and insects from 
 the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Annals of Natural History, vol. xiii. p. 112. 
 some of these blind-fish are preserved in the Belfast Museum. Not only the fish, 
 but the Crustacea and insects, are specifically distinct from those found else- 
 where ; and in all of them the eyes are apparently wanting, or greatly dimin- 
 ished in size. The "Blind-fish" (Amblyopsis spelteus) is described in Silli- 
 raan's American Journal of Science, July, 1843, p. 94; and in Annals Nat. 
 Hist, Oct. 1843. 
 
 J The fold of the skin observed on the eyes of the Dog-fish and other 
 Sharks, is not generally regarded as a true eyelid.
 
 FISHES. 203 
 
 bulk of water. If the specific gravity should be increased 
 the fish would necessarily descend, without any muscular exer- 
 tion ; or, if diminished, the fish would become lighter than the 
 water, and would, therefore, rise to the surface. A beautiful 
 arrangement, by which the fish can thus rise or sink at plea- 
 sure, and without exertion, is exhibited by a singular and 
 effectual piece of mechanism, provided apparently for this 
 purpose. It is a membranous bag, placed at the lower side 
 of the spinal column, and known as the "swim-bladder" or 
 " air-bladder." In the Cod-fish it is the part which is called 
 the "sound." It differs much in form, and sometimes con- 
 sists of two or more membraneous bags, with small connect- 
 ing apertures, or with the divisions quite distinct, or with 
 prolongations from the sides or ends.* But whatever be 
 the form, the principal use seems to be the same- namely, 
 that of enabling the fish to regulate the specific gravity of 
 its body. 
 
 Professor Owen regards it as the representative in fishes of 
 the true lung of the air-breathing vertebrate animals. It is 
 brought as we have seen (p. 201), into connexion with the 
 chamber or labyrinth of the organ of hearing ; and in a few 
 fishes it is subservient to the production of sounds, which are 
 caused by the air passing from the air-bladder, by means of an 
 air-duct, into the gullet (oesophagus). It appears also to act 
 in some cases, as a safety-valve against high-pressure, when 
 the fish sinks to great depths, and to a limited extent as a pro- 
 tection against the too sudden expansion of the gas, when the 
 fish rises to the surface.t 
 
 When we begin to examine to what extent this mechanism 
 prevails among fishes, we find it is by no means universal. 
 It is not observed in the Plaice, the Turbot, the Sole, and 
 other flat fishes ; and as -these different species live near the 
 bottom of the water, we are at first inclined to say it is not 
 given to them for that reason, but that it is given to those 
 which are in the habit of rising and sinking. A little further 
 examination, however, shows that we are mistaken. Eels, 
 which live near the ground, have the swimming-bladder well 
 developed : while the Red Mullet, which has no swimming- 
 
 * Lectures, p. 227. 
 
 f The gas in the air-bladder is found to consist of nitrogen and oxygen, 
 the constituents of atmospheric air in varying proportions. No hydrogen has 
 ever been detected. Owen's Lectures, p. 277.
 
 204 
 
 rNTBODUCTIOJT TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 bladder, seems, in its habits, to be similar to fishes which are 
 thus provided. Nay, of two species of Mackerel found on the 
 British coasts, both of which swim near the surface, and with 
 apparently the same ease and swiftness, one has a swim-bladder 
 and the other has not.* 
 
 The external organs of motion act in a manner more easily 
 understood. They consist of the tail and fins. We use the 
 word "tail" as expressing not only the lower extremity of 
 the body, but also the fin by which the body is terminated, 
 appropriately called the " caudal fin " (Latin, cauda, a tail). 
 This is the most efficient organ in progression. It acts upon 
 the water somewhat like the oar of the boatman, when he 
 propels his little craft by that alternate movement of the oar 
 which is called "sculling." The tail placed vertically in 
 fishes, but horizontally in whales is a very powerful instru- 
 ment of motion. To its movement a great parfc of the mus- 
 cular power of the fish can be applied ; and the great flexibility 
 of the skeleton largely adds to the effect. The fins on the upper 
 and lower portions of the body bear their part in the exertion, 
 or unite with those nearer the head in retarding, stopping, or 
 changing the direction of the movement. The annexed figure 
 of the Perch (fig. 181) exhibits the fins, and also the spiny 
 processes by which they are supported. 
 
 Fig. 181. SKELETON OF THK PERCH. 
 
 The fins upon the back of the fish are naturally termed the 
 "dorsal" fins (dorsum, the back), and if there be more than 
 
 * Yarrell's British Fishes, vol. i. p. 39.
 
 FISHES. 
 
 205 
 
 one, that nearest the head is distinguished as " the first dorsal." 
 Those near the gills, on what might be called the shoulders of 
 the fish, are the " pectoral," * and the pair nearest to them, but 
 on the lower surface of the body, are of course the " ventral." t 
 Thus the fins, in all cases, are named from the part of the 
 body to which they are attached. 
 
 In the summer of 1846 we had an opportunity of observing 
 the capability of the fins and tail in enabling a fish to achieve 
 a movement of a very unusual kind. We had taken in a tow- 
 ing-net one of the Pipe-fishes (Syngnathus acus, Fig. 182), 
 which had been swimming near the surface, and had placed it 
 in a basin of sea-water. J One of the long-bodied Crustacea 
 
 Fig. 182. PIPE-PISH. 
 
 which are abundant during fine weather, and had been captured 
 at the same time, was placed in the same vessel. It was a 
 species of Gammarus, and about an inch in length. The 
 Gammarus would seem to have got tired of swimming, and, 
 
 * Latin, pectoralis, of or belonging to the chest. 
 
 f Venter, ventris, the belly. The fin or fins between the tail and the vent 
 are called the " anal." 
 
 | Among the pleasant circumstances connected with the preparation of 
 this little book, I reckon the kindness with which my efforts have been 
 encouraged and assisted. Among those to whom my obligations are thus 
 due, I must make especial mention of Mr. Yarrell and Mr. Tan Voorst, 
 by whose liberality I have been permitted to copy some of the beautiful 
 illustrations of the "British Fishes." 
 They are the figures numbered 
 182, 183, 191, 194, 195, 204. 
 R. P. 
 
 Its appearance will be best 
 understood by the annexed figure of 
 Gammarus tocusta.
 
 206 INTBODTTCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 for a resting-place, it fixed itself on the back of the Pipe-fish, 
 close to the tail. The fish had not been a consenting party to 
 this arrangement, and soon evinced its dissatisfaction, by lash- 
 ing the tail with great violence on each side, to dislodge the 
 intruder. He, however, kept his hold ; and so soon as the 
 iish ceased for a few seconds, he crept a little farther up on 
 the back, as if aware that the velocity of movement was less 
 near the centre of the circle. The fish lashed the water again 
 with great violence, but without any good result ; and so soon 
 as it stopped, the Grammarus crept up a little nearer to the 
 head. The Grammarus seemed to be the marine prototype of 
 the Old Man of the Mountain, whose pertinacity in retaining 
 his place on the back of Sinbad the Sailor is a portion of that 
 lore of our boyhood that is never afterwards forgotten. The 
 Pipe-fish then changed its tactics. Instead of lashing with 
 its tail, it gave to its whole body the kind of movement it 
 might have had if fixed on a Lilliputian spit, and in the act of 
 being roasted. The body was made to revolve round and 
 round on its longitudinal axis ; but the Grammarus still held 
 on, and, at each interval of rest, made a few steps farther in 
 advance. This was more than once repeated, until, pitying 
 the poor Pipe-fish, we removed the cause of its annoyance to 
 another vessel. 
 
 In the Flying-fishes (example Exocostus volitans, Fig. 183), 
 
 Kig. 183. FLTISG-FISH. 
 
 more than one species of which have been taken off the British 
 coasts, the pectoral fins are extremely large, and remind us of 
 wings. But in reality the fins never act as wings ; nor can 
 these fish, with correctness, be said to fly. They have the 
 power of springing out of the water with such force, that
 
 FISHES. 207 
 
 Capt. Hall has seen them pass over a space of 200 yards ; 
 but they cannot alter the direction of their course, and the 
 expanded fins, when in the air, serve only to make the descent 
 more gradual.* 
 
 RESPIRATION. The heart of fishes is composed of two 
 cavities only. It receives the blood which has circulated 
 through the system, and propels it to the gills. These are 
 the great organs for respiration, and in the greater number of 
 fishes are arranged in the form of arches on each side of the 
 hinder part of the head. The water is taken in at the mouth, 
 and passes out between these arches, where the venous blood 
 in the gills is purified by the air diffused through the water. 
 The delicate membrane by which the minute ramifications of 
 the blood-vessels are supported, forms no obstacle to the free 
 action of the water on the impure or carbonated blood. The 
 details connected with the circulation will be more easily 
 understood by an examination of the annexed figure (184) 
 than by any formal description. The true cause of death in 
 a fish kept out of water is an interesting question, which 
 appears to have been satisfactorily answered by M. Fleurens, 
 a French physiologist. Though the gill-cover be raised and 
 shut alternately, the gills themselves are not separated. 
 Their fine filaments rapidly dry and cohere together. The 
 blood can no longer circulate through them, and hence it is 
 not affected by the vivifying influence of the oxygen of the 
 air. " The situation of the fish is similar to that of an air- 
 breathing animal enclosed in a vacuum, and death by suffoca- 
 tion is the consequence."t The gills vary considerably in 
 form and arrangement. Some are convol-ited, some are in 
 little tufts, some are enclosed in cavities, with circular orifices, 
 and others furnished with gill-covers composed of distinct 
 bones, to which certain fixed names are appropriated. 
 
 FOOD. Some fishes live upon marine vegetables. The 
 species of one genus (Scarus) are known to browse upon the 
 living polypes which built up the coral reefs ; and as the 
 polypes retreat, when touched, into the star-shaped cavities of 
 their support, these fishes are furnished with a dental apparatus 
 
 * Fragments of Voyages and Travels. Second series, vol. 1, p. 220. 
 A more recent writer asserts that the fins are used as wings ; vide Note 
 in Edinburgh Phil. New Journal, April, 1847, p. 384, from Gardner's 
 Travels in Brazil. 
 
 f Yarrell, voL i. p. 67. Owen, p. 60.
 
 208 
 
 UTTEODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 sufficiently powerful to reduce it to a pulp. To some the 
 dead animal body seems to be not less acceptable than the 
 
 Branchial Artery 
 
 Arterial Bulb 
 
 Vessels of the Gills 
 
 Vena Cava 
 
 Dorsal Artery 
 
 Kidneys 
 
 Dorsal Artery 
 
 Fig. 184. CIRCCLATISO APPARATUS OF FISH. 
 
 living. Star-fishes, Crustacea, and such mollusca as are not 
 too bulky or too well defended, constitute a large portion of 
 the food of many fishes ; and to this must be added the young
 
 FISHES. 209 
 
 and weaker animals of their own class. One of our justly 
 popular poets has said : 
 
 "Even tiger fell, and sullen bear, 
 Their likeness and their lineage spare ; 
 Man only mars kind Nature's plan, 
 And turns the fierce pursuit on man." 
 
 ROKEBY, canto iii. stanza 1. 
 
 Such a remark is altogether inapplicable to the voracious 
 tribes of which we at present treat, and we would refer to it 
 here only to show how much more completely " kind Nature's 
 plan" is carried out by the present arrangement. As it is, 
 "the multitudinous seas" are peopled with their finny tribes ; 
 and we cannot doubt that the exercise of their various powers 
 in the pursuit of prey, the escape from danger, and all else 
 that is essential to their well-being, is fraught with happiness. 
 They have no apprehension of death ; and when it does come 
 by the jaws of a more powerful assailant, the pain is brief and 
 transient. The pleasure has extended throughout the dura- 
 tion of life ; the final pang endures but for a moment. Great, 
 therefore, in the aggregate, is the amount of happiness secured 
 under these wise and bountiful dispensations of Providence. 
 Did fishes not constitute the food of fishes, how few compara- 
 tively could exist! The naturalist consequently beholds, in all 
 the havoc and destruction of life by carnivorous animals, a 
 merciful dispensation, and is prepared to give his assent to 
 the reflections of the poet : 
 
 " Harsh seems the ordinance, that life by life 
 Should be sustained ; and yet when all must die, 
 And be like water spilt upon the ground, 
 Which none can gather np, the speediest fate, 
 Though violent and terrible, is- best. 
 
 "'Twas wisdom, mercy, goodness, that ordained 
 Life in such infinite profusion. Death 
 So sure, so prompt, so multiform." 
 
 MONTGOMERY'S " PELICAN ISLAND." 
 
 To those who have never considered the omnivorous appe- 
 tite of fishes, the examination of the stomach of a few of 
 those which are most commonly used as food, will furnish very 
 sufficient evidence of their habits. Perhaps the fact cannot 
 be better exemplified than by quoting a passage from a
 
 210 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 lecture delivered by Dr. Houston of Dublin, before the Koyal 
 Zoological Society of that city: 
 
 " This preparation (for the fidelity of which I can vouch, as 
 it belongs to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 
 and which may be taken as a fair average specimen of a fish's 
 breakfast party, captured at an early hour of the morning) 
 will serve as an illustration of the voraciousness of their habits. 
 Here is the skeleton of a Frog-fish, two-and-a-half feet in 
 length, in the stomach of which is the skeleton of a Cod-fish, 
 two feet long ; in whose stomach again are contained the 
 skeletons of two Whitings of the ordinary size ; in the stomach 
 of each Whiting there lay numerous half-digested little fishes, 
 which were too small and broken down to admit of preserva- 
 tion. The Frog-fish, with all these contents, was taken last 
 summer by the fishermen, and offered for sale in the market, 
 as an article of food, without any reference at all to the size of 
 its stomach, which to them is an every-day appearance."* 
 
 TEETH. From considering the food of fishes, we naturally 
 turn to the means by which that food is taken. Here we per- 
 ceive at once that we have got into a new country, and that 
 the tribes by which it is peopled secure their prey by modes 
 very different from those which we have hitherto witnessed. 
 In some of the lower tribes, the action of parts adjoining to the 
 mouth caused currents in the water, and thus supplied the 
 animal with food. The suckers of the Star-fish and the Sea- 
 urchin held fast the prey on which the creatures fed. The 
 lower jaws of the carnivorous beetles maintained their hold 
 while the upper jaws performed their office of laceration. The 
 larger Crustacea had feet which did the same duty. The 
 Cuttle-fish, by means of its suckers, rendered escape impossible, 
 and held its struggling captive firm as in a vice, while its 
 parrot-like beak tore it to pieces. But fishes are destitute of 
 all these appliances. The teeth must seize the prey, and must 
 retain the struggling and sh'ppery victim until swallowed ; and 
 admirably are they fitted for the performance of their appointed 
 functions ; so much so, indeed, that the anatomist finds difficulty 
 in obtaining the command of language sufficiently varied to 
 portray the singular diversity and beauty which they exhibit. 
 " The teeth of fishes, in fact, in whatever relation they are 
 considered whether in regard to number, form, substance 
 
 * Saunders's News-Lctter.
 
 FISHES. 211 
 
 structure, situation, or mode of attachment offer more various 
 and striking modifications than do those of any other class of 
 animals."* 
 
 The teeth of some fishes, as the true Red Mullet, are so 
 fine and close set, that they may be felt rather than seen, and 
 have been compared to plush or velvet. Others, a little coarser, 
 resemble the hairs of a fine brush ; when stronger, they are 
 like stiff bristles ; and some are bent like hooks and barbed. 
 Some of those in the Pike are shaped like the canine teeth of 
 carnivorous quadrupeds -, and some molar teeth are elliptical, 
 oblong, square, or triangular. To such teeth, those of the 
 Sharks (Figs. 185, 186) shaped obviously for piercing, cutting, 
 and holding, offer an interesting contrast. 
 
 Fig. 185. Fig. 186. 
 
 TEETH OF SHARK (Notidanus.) TEETH OF SHARK (Odontaipis.) 
 
 Nor is the variety in point of numbers less than that of 
 form. The Lancelet, the Sturgeon, and the Pipe-fish are 
 without teeth. The Wolf-fish, on the contrary, has a mouth 
 so paved with teeth that it breaks shells to pieces, and lives on 
 the contained animals, separating the one from the other so 
 effectually, that the food, without further preparation, is 
 ready to be consigned to the stomach. " In all fishes the teeth 
 are shed and renewed, not once only, as in mammalia, but fre- 
 quently, during the whole course of their lives. "f 
 
 At the back part of the mouth, the upper end of the gullet 
 (oesophagus) is expanded and forms a cavity known as the 
 pharynx. In many species of fish this is furnished with 
 teeth, and it becomes an interesting question what can be 
 their use in such a situation ? A recently-swallowed fish, 
 taken from the stomach of a Pike, may show marks of the 
 
 * Owen's Odontography, page 1. It is from this splendid Avork and 
 the more recent Lectures of the same eminent author, that our information 
 respecting the teeth is derived. 
 
 f YarrelL 
 
 P
 
 212 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 large canine teeth, but has obviously not undergone any 
 further subdivision. It has now been ascertained that the 
 coarser portions of the food, from time to time, return into 
 the oesophagus, and are brought within the sphere of the 
 teeth with which the pharynx is furnished ; and, after being 
 there carded and comminuted, are again swallowed. In the 
 Carp, the Tench, the Eel, the Pike, and many other fishes, we 
 have thus an action analogous to that of rumination in the 
 cattle of our pastures.* 
 
 REPBODUCTION. A few fishes are brought forth alive as, 
 for example, the young of the Viviparous Blenny ; but such 
 instances are rare ; and, as a general rule, it may be stated 
 that fishes are produced from eggs deposited by the female, 
 and fertilized by the male. The lobes containing the ova are 
 those to which we are accustomed to give the name of "pea" 
 or " roe," and the corresponding but softer lobes in the male 
 fish, are those which are equally well known as the "milt." 
 It has been found by experiment, that when the spawn of 
 both sexes has been taken from dead fishes and mixed 
 together, the ova, placed under water and kept in a proper 
 situation, will produce young. This fact may serve, as Mr. 
 Yarrell remarks, to explain how it is that ponds in the East 
 Indies, which have become perfectly dry and the mud hard, 
 have been found, after the rainy season, with fishes in them, 
 although there did not exist any apparent means by which 
 fish could be admitted. The impregnated ova of the fish 
 of one rainy season continued unhatched in the mud while 
 the pond is dried up ; but then vitality remains unimpaired 
 and the young are produced under the influence of circum- 
 stances favourable to their development when the rainy season 
 has again arrived. We can thus explain, by the operation of 
 natural causes, what was regarded as a puzzling phenomenon, 
 for the solution of which many hypotheses have been framed, 
 alike destitute of any solid foundation. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION. The researches of naturalists have shown 
 that certain fishes are not merely limited in their range, ac- 
 cording to the laws of geographical distribution, but also 
 have depths to which they are in a great degree re- 
 stricted. Hence, some are most usually found at or near the 
 surface ; some are ground-feeders, and are taken at consider- 
 
 * Owen.
 
 PISHES. 213 
 
 able depths ; and some occupy various intermediate stations. 
 When we reflect on the great amount of animal life which the 
 ocean in its several zones of depth must thus support, and con- 
 sider that by far the greater number of young fishes never 
 attain maturity, but form the appointed food of their more 
 powerful neighbours, it is obvious that the young fry must be 
 produced in numbers sufficient to bear this ceaseless destruc- 
 tion, and yet to have among them a sufficient number of indi- 
 viduals which escape these perils to attain a certain degree of 
 maturity, and, by the deposition of their ova, prevent the 
 species from perishing. And accordingly we find here, as in 
 every other department of nature, that HE who framed the 
 mighty scale of created beings, has so arranged the living 
 mechanism, that the continual production is equal to the con- 
 tinual waste. The number of ova which some of our native 
 fishes produce is so very astonishing that it would be regarded 
 with doubt, except on the most unimpeachable testimony. So 
 many as 280,000 have been taken from a Perch of only half a 
 pound weight. Mr. W. Thompson found 101,935 ova in a 
 Lump-sucker (Cydopterus lumpus) of fifteen inches in length,* 
 and the Cod-fish is said to produce several millions. 
 
 In general, with the deposition of the spawn the care of the 
 parents for their future offspring terminates ; but this is not 
 invariably the case. The statement of Aristotle, that there 
 was a fish (Phycis) in the Mediterranean which makes a nest 
 and deposits its spawn therein, has been confirmed ; and Olivi 
 adds, that the male guards the female during the act of ovipo- 
 sition, and the young fry during their development. Dr. Han- 
 cock has observed similar habits in some Demerara fishes 
 called " Hassars." " Both male and female remain by the side 
 of the nest till the spawn is hatched, with as much solicitude 
 as a hen guards her eggs ; and they courageously attack any 
 assailant. Hence the negroes frequently take them by put- 
 ting their hands into the water close to the nest ; on agitating 
 which, the male Hassar springs furiously at them, and is thus 
 captured."t 
 
 But we need not go so far as the West Indies to find ex- 
 
 * Annals Nat. Hist., vol. iii. p. 44. 
 
 f Quoted in Owen's Lectures. A nest of the Hussar, with the spawn 
 and the parent fish, is in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 
 London.
 
 214 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 amples of fishes constructing nests, and evincing a remarkable 
 degree of care and anxiety for their young. The observations 
 of Mr. Couch prove, that, on our own shores, " nests are built, 
 in which the ova are deposited, and over which the adult fish 
 will watch till the young make their escape." On one occa- 
 sion this gentleman visited daily for three weeks a nest of the 
 Fifbeen-spined Stickle-back (Gasterosteus spinachia), formed 
 of sea-weed and the common coralline, and invariably found 
 it guarded ; nor would the old fish quit its post so long as he 
 remained.* 
 
 MEANS OF ESCAPE, DEFENCE, AND ATTACK. In some tribes 
 safety is to some extent secured by the colour of the skin 
 being inconspicuous. It was an old belief, when the real 
 fructification of the ferns was unknown, that the possession of 
 the seed gave supernatural powers of concealment ; and hence 
 Shakespeare says : " We have got the fern-seed ; we walk 
 invisible." Without possessing the fern-seed, there are cer- 
 tain fishes that enjoy, to some extent, the gift which it was 
 supposed to bestow ; and such fishes are living in great abun- 
 dance on our own shores. We allude to some of the most 
 common flat-fishes. Let any one try to see them as they lie 
 upon the bottom, and he will be convinced it is not an easy 
 matter. When in motion they are of course detected, and 
 occasionally the white side of the body shows for an instant as 
 they glide along ; but as soon as they stop, and by the action 
 of the fins have settled down into the sand, they are so similar 
 in colour to the surface on which they rest that they escape 
 detection, unless the eye has watched the movement. All 
 parts of the beach, are not, however, of the same material, and 
 therefore are not of the same colour ; but, whatever it may be, 
 the upper surface of the fish exhibits a correspondence which 
 is very remarkable. We have seen it of a uniform dark tint, 
 similar to that of the muddy bottom on which the fish had been 
 found ; while on others it was of a mottled or pepper-and-salt 
 colour, like the gravel of the little bay in which it had been 
 captured. 
 
 The Flying-fish springing into the air when pursued by the 
 Bonito, is an example of a different mode by which danger is 
 avoided. Others, however, do not content themselves with 
 
 * Notes on the Nidification of Fishes, by R. Q. Couch, Esq., published in 
 " The Zoologist," vol. ii. p. 795. 1844.
 
 FISHES 215 
 
 concealment or escape, but wield with energy their peculiar 
 weapons of defence. The Skate has a tail armed with sharp 
 spines ; the point of the nose and the base of the tail are bent 
 towards each other, and the tail, when lashed about in all 
 directions, is capable of inflicting severe wounds. The Weaver 
 (Trachinus draco) is furnished with spines on the gill-cover 
 and on the first dorsal fin, which have the power of inflicting 
 severe wounds, and even of imparting a venomous secre- 
 tion. This power, which has been questioned by modern 
 writers, was well known to the ancients, though they attri- 
 buted venomous powers to some species which are certainly 
 harmless.* 
 
 " Cruel spines 
 
 Defend some fishes, as the Goby, fond 
 Of sands and rocks, the Scorpion, Swallows fleet, 
 Dragons and Dog-fish, from their prickly mail 
 Well named the spinous. These in punctures sharp, 
 A fatal poison from their spines inject." OrriAN. 
 
 Pennant says that he has seen the lesser Weaver direct its 
 blows with as much judgment as a fighting cock. 
 
 The Picked or Spined Dog-fish (Acanthias vulgaris) is dis- 
 tinguished from all other Sharks by a single spine placed in 
 front of each of its two dorsal fins. " This fish,*' says Mr. 
 Yarrell, "bends itself into the form of a bow, for the purpose 
 of using its spines, and by a sudden motion causes them to 
 spring asunder in opposite directions ; and so accurately is this 
 intention effected, that if a finger be placed on its head, it will 
 strike it without piercing its own skin." 
 
 These spines, which are three-sided, and very sharp, are 
 perfectly developed in the young fish prior to birth, and Mr. 
 Ball has made known to us a beautiful provision by which 
 they are prevented at that time from lacerating the mother. 
 Each point is covered with a small knob of cartilage, fastened 
 by straps of the same material, one of which passes down each 
 of the sides of the spine, so as to be easily detached at birth, 
 thus allowing the little animal (like the goddess of classic 
 fable) to commence life effectively armed.f 
 
 * Dr. G. J. Allman, Annals Nat. Hist., vol. vi. p. 161. He had suffered 
 acute pain from a wound inflicted by the spine attached to the gill-cover of 
 the Weaver. 
 
 t Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 27th April, 1846. Mr. Ball 
 exhibited at the same time two perfectly-formed young, which he had taken 
 from the mother on the 30th of the preceding November.
 
 216 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 The common Stickle-back* (Gasterosteus, Fig. 187) of our 
 
 Fig. 187. STICKLE-BACK. 
 
 streams seems to be provided with a weapon, 
 which to its opponents would prove no less 
 formidable. At the lower surface of the 
 body, it has a stiff, sharp spine, which can 
 be erected at pleasure, and so firmly that 
 it may be said, in military phrase, to "fix 
 bayonets, "f The Stickle-back is an irritable 
 and pugnacious little fellow ; and with this 
 bayonet of his has been seen to rip up the 
 belly of an unfortunate antagonist, so that 
 he sank to the bottom and died of his 
 wound. 
 
 An active species of Shark has the teeth 
 within its mouth small and obtuse, and wholly 
 inadequate to destroy the prey on which it 
 subsists ; but this deficiency is compensated 
 by a singular and formidable weapon, with 
 strong lateral projections, with which the 
 front of the head is provided. Its saw-like 
 edge has gained for its owner the appropriate 
 name of Saw-fish (Pristis, Fig. 188). 
 
 The Sword-fish (Xiphias gladius) has 
 occasionally been taken upon the British 
 coasts, and is furnished with a weapon, more 
 formidable than perhaps any other species. 
 Daniel, in his " Rural Sports," states that a 
 man while bathing in the Severn, was struck 
 by, and actually received his death-wound 
 from a Sword-fish. The elongated upper 
 Fig. 188. SVW-FISH. jaw (Fig. 189) forms the sword, which is fre- 
 
 * Called Sprittle-bag, or sprickly-bag, in the North of Ireland Pinkeen 
 in the South. 
 
 t Drumrnond's Letters to a Young Naturalist.
 
 FISHES. 217 
 
 quently found three or four feet in length. The fish occa- 
 sionally attains a length of more than twelve feet, and a weight 
 of more than four hundred pounds. It is said to entertain 
 great hostility to the whale ; and some of them will join in 
 stabbing it below, while the Fox-sharks will fling then; selves 
 several yards into the air, and descend upon the back of their 
 unhappy victim. It is a commonly-received notion, that it is 
 in consequence of mistaking the hull of a ship at sea for a 
 whale that the Sword-fish occasionally thrusts his sword-like 
 beak into the vessel.* 
 
 Fig. 189. SWORD-FISH. 
 
 The force with which this is done must be very considerable : 
 many museums contain planks thus pierced either by the 
 Sword-fish or others nearly allied to it. A portion of its 
 sword, about nine inches in length and two inches diameter, 
 was sent to the Belfast Museum,f taken from the Euphemia, 
 a vessel which had become leaky on her passage to Brazil. It 
 had been driven not only through the copper sheathing, but 
 also through nine inches of the solid timbers. Other instances 
 are recorded of vessels having suddenly sprung a leak, and 
 being with difficulty got into port, the Sword-fish having been 
 the origin of the calamity. 
 
 tr. 190 ELECTRIC SILURUS 
 
 But a still more remarkable mode of defence is exercised by 
 some species of fish, in the power they possess of giving a 
 severe electric shock. One of these is the Electric Silurus or 
 Malepterums of the Nile (Fig. 190), a fish to which the Arabs 
 
 Yarrell, p. 145. 
 
 f Thompson, in Annals of Natural Historv, vol. xiii. p. 235.
 
 218 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 give a name signifying tfiunder.* Another is the Torpedo or 
 Electric Ray of our own shores (Fig. 191); and a third is 
 the Gymnotus or Electric Eel of the South 
 American rivers, whose shock is sufficiently 
 powerful to stun and even destroy horses. 
 Humboldt gives a most graphic picture of 
 the scene attending their capture ; the livid 
 yellow Eels swimming near the surface and 
 pursuing their enemies, the groups of Indians 
 surrounding the pond, and the horses with 
 their manes erect and eyeballs wild with pain 
 and fright, striving to escape from the electric 
 storm which they had roused, and driven 
 back by the shouts and long whips of the 
 
 Fig. 191. TORPEDO. . , J T .. 
 
 excited Indians. 
 
 VITALITY. There are some fishes which die almost imme- 
 diately when taken out of the water, and others which exhibit 
 symptoms of life after a lapse of several hours. In reference 
 to this subject Mr. Yarrell remarks, " that those fish that 
 swim near the surface of the water have a high standard of 
 respiration, a low degree of muscular irritability, great necessity 
 for oxygen, die soon almost immediately when taken out 
 of the water, and have flesh prone to rapid decomposition. 
 On the contrary, those fish that live near the bottom of the 
 water have a low standard of respiration, a high degree of 
 muscular irritability, and less necessity for oxygen ; they 
 sustain life long after they are taken out of the water, and 
 their flesh remains good for several days."f The phenomena 
 connected with this law are highly interesting, and excite the 
 attention of the most incurious. Mackerel are so perishable 
 that they are permitted to be cried through London for sale 
 upon the Sunday. Herrings die so instantaneously on their 
 removal from the water, that the saying " dead as a herring, " 
 has become proverbial. Perch, on the contrary, live for some 
 hours : " They are constantly exhibited in the markets of 
 Catholic countries, and, if not sold, are taken back to the 
 ponds from which they were remored in the morning, to be 
 reproduced another day."J The Anglesey Morris, a small 
 fish of rare occurrence, has been known to survive after being 
 
 " MUne Edwards' "Elemens," p. 281. 
 f Yarrell, vol. i. p. 8. 
 j Idem, vol. i. p. 22.
 
 FISHES. 219 
 
 wrapped in brown paper, and carried for three hours in a per- 
 son's pocket.* The Carp is so exceedingly tenacious of life, 
 that it is a common practice in Holland to keep it alive for 
 three weeks or a mouth, placed hi wet moss, and in a net kept 
 in a cool place. A little water is occasionally thrown over the 
 net, and the fish are fed with bread steeped in milk. 
 
 EEEOES AXD TRADITIONS. To those who now enter on the 
 study of fishes, with access to the stores of knowledge accu- 
 mulated by earlier labourers, and having for their guidance the 
 light reflected from other departments of science, the ideas 
 with which some species of fish have been associated cannot 
 but seem strange, incongruous, and unreasonable. But this 
 assumption of superiority is one that a wider range of study 
 assuredly dispels ; and it teaches us, at the same time, to hold 
 our own views with humility, seeing how great were the errors 
 of inquirers who were certainly not less able nor less intel- 
 ligent. The subject is one to which we can only advert, yet it 
 cannot but prove instructive. 
 
 The Mackerel Midge, one of the most diminutive of our native 
 fishes (Motella glauca), is only about an inch and a quarter 
 in length. " This seems," says Mr. Couch, "to be one of the 
 species spoken of by the older naturalists under the name of 
 opua, and which, from their minute size, and the multitudes 
 in which they sometimes appeared, they judged to be pro- 
 duced by spontaneous generation from the froth of the sea, 
 or the putrefaction of marine substances."f The notions with 
 respect to the origin of Eels were not less fanciful. Aristotle 
 believed that they sprang from mud ; Pliny, from fragments 
 which were separated from their bodies by rubbing against 
 rocks ; others supposed that they proceeded from the carcases 
 of animals ; Helmont believed that they came from May-dew, 
 and might be obtained from the following process : " Cut up 
 two tufts covered with May-dew, and lay one upon the other, 
 the grassy sides inwards, and thus expose them to the heat of 
 the sun ; in a few hours there will spring from them an infinite 
 quantity of Eels." Horse-hair, from the tail of a stallion, when 
 deposited hi water, was formerly believed to be a never-failing 
 source of a supply of young Eels. J The ear bones of the Maigre 
 (Scicena aquila), a fish which attains the length of five or six 
 
 Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist, vol. vL p. 330. 
 t Vide Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 193. 
 j Idem, vol. ii. p. 289.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 feet, and has been occasionally taken on the British shores, were 
 supposed to possess medicinal virtues. " According to Belon, 
 they were called cholic-stones, and were worn on the neck, 
 mounted in gold, to secure the possessor against this painful 
 malady : to be quite effectual, it was pretended that the wearer 
 must have received them as a gift if they had been purchased, 
 they had neither their preventive nor curative power. 
 
 The Opah, or King-fish (Lampris guttatus), a beautiful spe- 
 cies of rare occurrence in the British seas, is by the Chinese 
 termed Tai, and is esteemed as the peculiar emblem of happi- 
 ness, because it is sacred to Jebis or Neptune. The John 
 Dory (Zeus faber, Fig. 191 *) belongs to the same family, 
 
 Fig. 191*.- JOHN DORT. 
 
 and contends with the Haddock (Morrhua ceglefinus) for the 
 honour of bearing the marks of St. Peter's fingers each being 
 supposed to have been the fish out of whose mouth the Apostle 
 took the tribute money, leaving on its sides, in proof of the 
 identity, the marks of his finger and thumb. 
 
 In many of the ports of the Mediterranean, the Dory is 
 hence called "St. Peter's Fish."* The fishermen of the 
 Adriatic term it il Janitore, "the gatekeeper," a word which 
 
 * Cuvier et Valenciennes. Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, vol. x. p. 6.
 
 FISHES. 221 
 
 may have given origin to the English name ; or it may have 
 been derived from the French doree or jaune doree, having 
 reference to its peculiar golden colour. 
 
 We might greatly enlarge these notices of traditionary lore, 
 as applicable to fishes, but shall merely mention one other 
 example. The Eemora (Echeneis remora, Fig. 192) is re- 
 
 Fig. 19?. REMORA. 
 
 markable for an adhesive or sucking disc, which covers the 
 upper part of the head, and enables it to adhere to the body 
 of another fish, or to the bottom of a vessel. But so great 
 were its fabulous powers, that it was said to be able suddenly 
 to arrest a vessel, even in her most rapid course. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION. To C.uvier we are indebted for that classi- 
 fication of fishes which is most generally adopted. It is 
 founded upon the nature of the skeleton, and on the structure 
 and position of the fins. 
 
 The following table exhibits Cuvier's arrangement : 
 
 OSSEOUS FISHES, 
 
 OR THOSE WITH THE SKELETON OF BONE. 
 
 I. ACANTHOPTERYGII, or fishes with spiny rays in the fins. Exam- 
 ples Perch, Gurnard. This group is not subdivided except into families, 
 genera, and species. 
 
 Malacopterygii; or, fishes with flexible fin-rays. This group is divided 
 into the three following orders : 
 
 II. MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES, with the ventral fins beneath the 
 abdomen. Examples Pike, Salmon, Herring. 
 
 III. MAT,. SUB-BRACHIAI,ES, ventral fins beneath the pectoral. Examples 
 Cod, Whiting, Ling. 
 
 IV. MAL. APODES, ventral fins absent. Examples Eel, Conger Eel. 
 
 V. LOPHOBRANCHII, the gills arranged in tufts. Example Pipe-fish. 
 
 VI. PLECTOGNATHI, jaws as if soldered together. Examples Globe- 
 fish, Trunk-fish. 
 
 CARTILAGINOUS, 
 
 OR THOSE WITH THE SKELETON OF CARTILAGE. 
 
 VII. STURIONES Sturgeons. Branchiae pectinated (Comb-shaped), free 
 with one large aperture. 
 
 VIII. PLAGIOSTOMI. Sharks and Rays. Branchiae pectinated, fixed; 
 gill apertures distinct and transverse. 
 
 IX. CYCLOSTOMI. Lampreys Branchiae purse-shaped, fixed; gill aper- 
 tures distinct and circular.
 
 222 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 In some fishes, as the Skate and the Shark, the skeleton is 
 cartilaginous, or composed of gristle, being so far analogous to 
 the skeleton of the young of the mammalia before the earthy 
 particles which convert the cartilage into bone have been 
 deposited. In others, as the Perch, the Trout, and the Cod, 
 the skeleton is formed of bone. This points out an obvious 
 division of fishes into two primary groups the cartilaginous 
 and the bony. The latter admit with facility of further 
 division. If we examine the Perch and the Trout, we find 
 the bones of the same material, and the gills formed after the 
 same model. The back in each is surmounted by two fins, 
 but the resemblance ceases when we come to examine the 
 structure of these organs. In the Perch, the first of these 
 
 dorsal fins, or that 
 which is next to the 
 head, is composed of 
 stiff spines united by 
 a membrane, as shown 
 in the annexed figure 
 (Fig. 193), or in that 
 of the entire fish (Fig. 
 Fig. 193. DORSAL FIN. 181) ; while in the 
 
 Trout the corresponding fin is formed of soft flexible rays, 
 dividing into branches. A difference of the same kind is ob- 
 servable in the anterior or front portion of some of the other 
 fins : the tail fin consists, in both cases, of the most flexible 
 rays. This difference in the dorsal fin (Latin, dorsum, the 
 back) may seem a very trivial matter; but it enables the 
 naturalist to divide the osseous or bony fishes into two orders 
 those with the fins partly of hard or spiny rays (Acanthop- 
 terygii), and those with the fins entirely of soft rays (Malacop- 
 terygii).* These orders are again subdivided, according to 
 the presence or absence of certain fins the difference in their 
 relative positions the variety in the structure of the gills and 
 gill-covers, and other details of secondary importance. By 
 these characteristic distinctions the ichthyologist, or in other 
 words the naturalist who makes fishes his peculiar study, ar- 
 ranges them in groups, distinguished as orders, families, and 
 genera. 
 
 * These scientific terms are both derived from Greek words, signifying, 
 in the one case, fins of sharp or spinous rays, and in the other, fins soft or of 
 flexible rays.
 
 223 
 
 CAKTILAGINOUS PISHES. 
 
 FROM the peculiar structure of the skeleton, these form an 
 interesting group, holding a place between the Cuttle-fish, in 
 which there is but the rudiment of a skeleton, and the osseous 
 fishes, in which the vertebrated structure in this class of ani- 
 mals reaches its full development. Among them there is 
 great diversity. One little fish, of rare occurrence, the Lance- 
 let (Amphioxus lanceolatus), which is not much more than 
 an inch in length, has no skeleton, properly so called, but 
 merely a membranous thread ; in the Lamprey the divisions of 
 the vertebrae are marked, so that they resemble beads placed 
 on a string ; in the Shark and the Sturgeon, the divisions of 
 the vertebrae are complete. 
 
 PETEOMTZIDJE.* The family of the Lampreys (Fig- 194) 
 
 Fig. 194. RIVER LAMPBKY. 
 
 comprises the Lancelot, the fish just mentioned. Some of 
 them dredged up in deep water, off" the southern coasts of 
 England, by Mr. MacAndrew, were exhibited by Professor 
 Edward Forbes at the Southampton meeting of the British 
 Association, September, 1846. They have, ere now, been 
 ranked with the Mollusca, and exhibit peculiarities of a nature 
 so remarkable as to be objects of the highest interest to the 
 
 * That is, the family of the " Stone-suckers," an appellation bestowed 
 on them because, by means of their circular mouths, they can adhere to 
 stones. Like other terms, it is derived from two Greek words.
 
 224 INTBODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 comparative anatomist. These little fishes had devoured some 
 larger ones of a different species, which had been confined in 
 the same vessels with them, eating off their bodies what they 
 required at one time, and returning, in the Abyssinian fashion 
 described by Bruce, for another supply when wanted. 
 
 Fig. 195. EGG-BAG, WITH YOUNG SHARK. 
 
 SQUALID^;, EAIIDJB. The Sharks and the Rays, though 
 differing so much in external form, belong to a group of fishes 
 of which the gills are fixed, and the water, passing through 
 the mouth, escapes from the gills by a series of longitudinal 
 incisions. The ova, which are few in number, are not depo- 
 sited on the sand or gravel, but each egg is enclosed, for 
 greater safety, in a horny case, attached by long tendrils to 
 the larger sea-weeds ; and among the Sharks of the largest 
 size, some bring forth their young alive. The empty egg-cases 
 are frequently found on the sea-shore, and are well known by 
 the name of "sea-purses," "mermaids' purses," and other 
 local terms. The longer and narrower-shaped {Fig. 195) 
 belong to the Sharks and Dog-fishes ; the broader and shorter 
 ones to the Skates or Kays. Water is admitted into them by 
 means of slits or openings at each end of the purse. In two 
 large clusters* dredged up in Strangford Lough, and sent to the 
 Belfast Museum, the cases were obviously of three very dis- 
 tinct ages, the most recent being yellowish, semi-transparent, 
 and the contents resembling those of a newly -laid hen's egg. 
 Our figure, which is copied from that given by Mr. Yarrell, 
 represents the case laid open, and the young Dog-fish attached 
 to the "yolk," or membranous bag of nutriment, which is 
 gradually absorbed as the growth proceeds. 
 
 * They were regarded as the ova of the Large-spotted Dog-fish. W. 
 Thompson, in Annals Nat. Hist. vol. xiv. p. 23.
 
 FISHES. 225 
 
 The history of fishes furnishes many curious examples of 
 certain kinds being held in high estimation in some places as 
 food, and quite despised in others. This is the case with the 
 Rays, of which there are eight native species. In the London 
 market they are much valued, and in some parts of the coasts 
 they are considered delicate and well-flavoured; while, in other 
 localities, they are not used at all, or employed only as bait 
 for catching crabs and lobsters. Colonel Montagu mentions a 
 similar fact respecting the Sand-eel, known as the Sand Launce 
 (Ammodytes Lancea). At Teignmouth it was in great request 
 as food, while on another part of the south coast of Devon- 
 shire it would not be eaten even by the poorest people. 
 
 The Dog-fishes of our own coasts belong to the family of 
 the Sharks (Squalidai) . In these rapacious fishes, " as among 
 the truly predacious birds, the females are larger than the 
 males ; and almost all the species have received some name 
 resembling Beagle, Hound, Rough Hound, Dog-fish, Spotted 
 Dog, &c., probably from their habit of following their prey, or 
 hunting in company or packs. All the Sharks are exceedingly 
 tenacious of life. Their skins, which are of very variable 
 degrees of roughness, according to the species, are used for 
 different purposes ; in some instances by cabinet-makers, for 
 bringing up and smoothing the surfaces of hard wood."* 
 
 The Small-spotted Dog-fish (Scyllium Ccmicula, Fig. 196), 
 
 ^ 
 
 Fig 196. SlIALt-SPOTTKD DOG-FISH. 
 
 the species most abundant on our shores, is an object of great 
 dislike to fishermen, who try in various ways to avenge the 
 injury which they believe it causes to their fishing. In tropical 
 seas, the capture of the White or of the Blue Shark, the terror 
 of mariners, is always to them a source of great exultation. 
 The first act of the sailors, when their enemy is hauled up on 
 
 * Tamil, vol. ii. p. 369.
 
 TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the deck, is to chop off its tail, as danger is to be apprehended 
 from the great strength with which it is used. Captain Basil 
 Hall gives a most animated and seamanlike description of the 
 entire scene.* 
 
 Some of the Sharks attain a great size. The Basking Shark, 
 a species found off these coasts, has been known to measure 
 thirty-six feet in length, and is one of the largest of the true 
 fishes.f The Blue Shark has been celebrated for its affection 
 for its young ; and the belief yet prevails that the young are 
 accustomed to seek safety from danger by entering the mouth 
 of the parent fish, and taking shelter in its belly. That they 
 have been found alive in the stomach, is admitted ; but that 
 they went there voluntarily, or for safety, seems more than 
 doubtful. J 
 
 A beautiful example of beneficent design is afforded by a 
 peculiarity of structure observable in the young of Sharks and 
 Skates, whilst still imprisoned in the egg-case. From the gills 
 there are projecting filaments ; each of these contains a minute 
 blood-vessel, and serves thus to expose the blood to the 
 purifying action of the water within the horny egg-case. 
 These appendages, like those of the Tadpole hereafter men- 
 tioned, are only temporary; but 
 they fulfil, at an early period of 
 growth, the function which is after- 
 wards so efficiently performed by the 
 gills. 
 
 A more striking example of pro- 
 vidential care is perhaps afforded by 
 the arrangement which furnishes to 
 the Sharks the means of keeping 
 their formidable array of teeth (Fig. 
 197) fit to execute at all tunes their 
 fearful office. They must be liable 
 to be displaced and broken, and if 
 fixed in sockets as our teeth are, 
 and no means provided for a suc- 
 cessive series, it is obvious that 
 these formidable monsters of the 
 deep would in time perish, from ina- 
 bility to seize their prey. But this 
 
 * Fragments of Voyages and Travels. Second Series, vol. i. p. 267. 
 f Yarrell, p. 396. J Yarrell, p. 381. 
 
 Fig. 197. HEAD OF SHARK.
 
 FISHES. 227 
 
 is avoided by the teeth not being fixed in sockets, but attached 
 to a cartilaginous membrane. The first row of teeth stands 
 erect, the others are laid flat behind. The membrane con- 
 tinues to grow, and advance forward, the outer teeth drop out, 
 the membrane itself is thrown off or absorbed, and the row 
 which was originally second takes the place of the first, all the 
 teeth in it standing erect, until, in the course of time, they make 
 way for a third series, which is followed by others in succession. 
 STUEIONID^E. The only remaining fish we shall mention 
 belonging to the cartilaginous group is the Sturgeon (Acipenser 
 Sturio, Pig. 198), and it approaches to the other families of 
 
 Fig. 198. STURGEON. 
 
 fishes in being oviparous, and in having the gills free. Its ex- 
 ternal appearance is striking, and the series of bony plates 
 upon the surface of the skin is very remarkable. 
 
 In comparing the figures of the Sturgeon (Fig. 198), and of 
 the Dog-fish (Fig. 196), with that of the Perch (Fig. 181), 
 the appearance presented by the tail is extremely different. 
 In the perch, the vertebral column ceases at the tail-fin, which 
 if the line of that column were continued, would be divided 
 by it into two equal parts. In the Sturgeon and others, the 
 vertebral column is continued into the upper portion of that fin, 
 and symmetrical appearance in the organ is therefore wanting. 
 This is one of the obvious external characters by which the 
 cartilaginous fishes may be distinguished from the osseous. In 
 remote periods of the earth's history, this peculiarity of struc- 
 ture appears to have prevailed universally : it is found in every 
 fossil fish whose remains are preserved in the magnesian lime- 
 stone, and in strata of older formation. 
 
 The Sturgeon, when caught in the Thames, within the juris- 
 diction of the Lord Mayor, is considered a royal fish ; the 
 term being intended to imply that it ought to be sent to the 
 king.* One taken in 1833, in Scotland, measured eight feet 
 six inches in length, and weighed 203 Ibs. Pennant mentions 
 * Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 362. 
 Q
 
 228 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the capture of one in the Esk, weighing 464 Ibs. In the nor- 
 thern parts of Europe, where the fish is more abundant, caviare 
 is made of the roe of the female, and isinglass from the dense 
 membrane forming the air-bladder. 
 
 OSSEOUS FISHES, 
 WITH THE RAYS OF THE FINS FLEXIBLE. 
 
 " Our plenteous streams a various race supply, 
 The bright-eyed Perch, with fins of Tynan dye, 
 The Silver Eel, in shining volumes roll'd, 
 The Yellow Carp, in scales bedrop'd with gold, 
 Swift Trouts, diversified with crimson stains, 
 And Pikes, the tyrants of the watery plains." POPE. 
 
 HAVING already noticed the Globe-fish (Fig. 179) and the 
 Trunk fish (Fig. 180), which are members of a group con- 
 nected by some points of structure with the osseous,* and by 
 others with the cartilaginous fishes, we proceed to a small but 
 interesting order (Lopholranchii) in which 
 the gills are arranged like little tufts. To 
 this belongs the Hippocampus or Sea-horse 
 (Fig. 199), and the Pipe-fishes (Syngnathidce) , 
 one of which has been noticed in connexion 
 with its powers of movement (p. 206). This 
 species is the largest of our native Pipe-fishes 
 (S. gem, Fig. 182), and is furnished with a 
 marsupial pouch. The idea of such a pouch 
 is connected with that of the female. We 
 know that it is thus the female Kangaroo car- 
 ries and protects her young ; but in natural his- 
 tory we are for ever meeting such strange oc- 
 currences, that it has been well said, " the naturalist has no need 
 to invent ; Nature romances it for him." In the Pipe-fish, con- 
 trary to what we find in other tribes of animals, the marsupial 
 pouch belongs to the male. The sexes come together in the 
 month of April; the ova pass from the female and are transferred 
 into the sub -caudal pouch of the male, the valves of the pouch 
 
 * They belong to the order Plectognathi, of Cuvier, characterized by hav- 
 ing the jaws as if soldered together.
 
 FISHES. 229 
 
 immediately closing over them. " In the month of July, the 
 young are hatched and quit the pouch, hut they follow their 
 father, and return for shelter into their nursery when danger 
 threatens."* 
 
 We have taken Pipe-fishes very abundantly by means of a 
 small dredge towed over an expanse of mud-banks, thickly 
 covered with grass-wrack (Zostera). Here there were doubt- 
 less small mollusca in abundance, affording a kind of food well 
 adapted for the long tubular jaws of the Pipe-fishes. 
 
 Anguillidce, the family of the Eels. The pectoral fins in 
 fishes are the representatives of the members which we call 
 the arms in monkeys, and the wings in birds. The ventral 
 fins are, in like manner, regarded as the representatives of the 
 legs and feet. In the Eel tribe the ventral fins are wanting, 
 and hence the term Apodes, a word signifying " without feet," 
 has been applied to denote this peculiarity .f 
 
 The two species of Sand-eels are alike in their habit of 
 burying themselves in the moist sands of the sea-shore ; and 
 we can speak from experience of the fun, frolic, and activity 
 that prevailed when, on a summer night by a bright moon, 
 some of our merry school companions turned up the sand, 
 while others darted at each fish as it showed its silvery side 
 for a moment in the light and then disappeared. At Dundrum 
 Bay, County Down, and on other parts both of the Irish and 
 English coast, they are taken in such abundance as to consti- 
 tute a valuable article of food. The smaller and more common 
 species (Ammodytes Lanced) is usually from five to seven inches 
 in length, and offers a great contrast to another member of 
 the same family, the Conger Eel of our coasts, which some- 
 times attains the weight of 100 or even 130 Ibs., and measures 
 more than ten feet in length. J There is a notion yet current 
 that common Eels going into the sea remain there, and grow 
 into Congers : an idea as unfounded as that of the child who 
 supposes that ducks will grow into geese. The permanence 
 of species is a truth which increasing knowledge every day 
 confirms. 
 
 Three species of freshwater Eels are described as British. 
 Some of these remain permanently throughout the year in 
 certain ponds or rivers, and there deposit their spawn ; but 
 
 * Owen's Lectures, p. 304. 
 
 f The Order is named Malacopterygii Apodes. 
 
 j Yarrell, ii. p. 306.
 
 230 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 this is the exception to the mle. The Eels may, in general 
 terms, be described as making a migration to the sea in the 
 autumn of the year, for the purpose of spawning. It is at 
 this time that they are taken in the largest quantities for the 
 table. In the north of Ireland, one great place for their cap- 
 ture is Toome, on the Lower Bann, a river connecting Lough 
 Neagh with the sea. The fishermen there assert that the 
 Eels (Anguilla acutirostris) avoid the moonlight, and that 
 " a run" of fish takes place only when the night is dark, and 
 that even a flash of lightning will stop their progress. We are 
 informed by Mr. Finiston, of Toome, that he has " completely 
 stopped their progress, by placing three large lamps, so that 
 the rays of light fell on the surface of the water, directly over 
 the entrance to the net."* A " run," as it is termed, occurs 
 only two or three nights in the season, but the quantity then 
 taken is very considerable. So many as 45,000 small Eels 
 have been taken in one night ; and there are generally about 
 sixty middle-sized Eels and ten large to each thousand of 
 small. They are taken in nets, which may be compared in 
 shape to sugar-loaves with the tops cut off, each from four- 
 teen to sixteen yards long, and placed between weirs. At an 
 early period of the summer it is an interesting sight, at the 
 Cutts, near Coleraine, on the same river, to mark the thou- 
 sands of young Eels there ascending the stream. Hay ropes 
 are suspended over the rocky parts to aid them in overcoming 
 such obstructions. At such places the river is black with 
 the multitudes of young Eels about three or four inches long, 
 all acting under that mysterious impulse that prompts them 
 to push their course onwards to the lake. "There is no 
 doubt that Eels occasionally quit the water, and, when grass 
 meadows are wet from dew or other causes, travel during 
 the night over the moist surface in search of Frogs and other 
 suitable food, or to change their situation." 
 
 Eels have been known to be frozen and again revive, yet 
 they seem in other ways very susceptible of cold. They are 
 not found in the arctic regions nor in the rivers of Siberia. 
 In our latitudes they take shelter from the inclemency of the 
 winter by burying themselves in the mud. But this does not 
 always protect them. In February, 1841, during a hard frost, 
 large quantities of dead Eels, of the common sharp-nosed 
 
 * The family of this gentleman were for many years the lessees of the 
 fishery at Toome.
 
 FISHES. , 231 
 
 species, came floating down the Lagan, and were taken in great 
 abundance about the quays and wharfs of Belfast. The tem- 
 perature for three days, as observed by Mr. Thompson, was 
 then 27|, which was ten degrees higher than during three sue* 
 cessive days in the preceding month, when none were known 
 to have suffered from cold ; but at the time the Eels were 
 killed, a strong easterly wind dried up the moisture of the 
 banks, and probably occasioned their death by the extreme cold 
 arising from evaporation.* The Conger Eels near Cork seem to 
 have suffered from a similar cause at the same time.f 
 
 Passing by the Remora (Fig. 192), the representative of 
 another family (Echeneid<e), and whose singular sucking-disc, 
 placed on the crown of the head, has been already referred to 
 (p. 221), we come to a family (Cydopteridce) in which the 
 ventral fins are not wanting, as in the Eels, but are united 
 beneath the body and form a concave disc, by which the fish 
 can with ease adhere to stones or other bodies. Of this group 
 the Lump-sucker (Cyclopterus licmpus, Fig. 200) is the best 
 
 Fig. 200. LUMP-SUCKER. 
 
 known species, as his uncouth shape, red eyes, and body in 
 which bright tints of blue, purple, and orange, struggle for 
 precedence, arrest the attention of the most incurious. We 
 have taken in rock pools the young fish when less than an 
 inch in length, and by changing the sea-water regularly, have 
 kept them alive for several days, and have thus had oppor- 
 tunities of observing the rapidity with which they could adhere 
 
 * Annals of Natural History, 1841, vol. vii. p. 75. 
 f F. M. Jennings, Idem. p. 237.
 
 232 
 
 INTBODUCTIOtf TO ZOOLOGY.. 
 
 to the sides of the glass vessel in which they were kept, or 
 cast themselves free and pursue their course. Many of these 
 marine creatures are highly interesting objects for observation, 
 and after being kept for a day or two. may be returned to the 
 sea uninjured ; so that death is not the necessary consequence 
 of their temporary imprisonment. 
 
 Pleuronectidce.*- To this family belong the Plaice (Platessa 
 
 vulgaris, Fig. 201), the 
 Flounder (Platessa flesus), 
 the Sole (Solea vulgaris), 
 and other well-known flat- 
 fish. Few are perhaps 
 aware of their importance, 
 regarded merely in the 
 light of a marketable com- 
 modity. It is stated that 
 Fig. 201. PLAICE. for Turbot (Rhombus maxi- 
 
 mus, Fig. 202) brought to the London market, the Dutch 
 are paid 80,000 a-year ; and that the Norwegians receive 
 
 from 12,000 to 15,000, 
 annually for sauce for this 
 luxury, extracted from one 
 million of lobsters taken 
 on the shores of Norway. 
 The Turbot is considered 
 to have been the Rhombus 
 of the ancient Romans : 
 and Juvenal alludes in his 
 Fig. 202. TDMOT. "Satires" to one of enor- 
 
 mous size, taken in the reign of Domitian, who ordered a 
 consultation of the senate, to devise the best mode of bringing 
 it to table : 
 
 " No vessel they find fit to hold such a fisb, 
 And the senate's convoked to decree a new dish." 
 
 The next family (Gadidce) contains a number of species 
 which yield a most abundant supply of nutritious food, and give 
 employment even on the British coasts to many thousands of 
 hardy boatmen and mariners. It includes the Cod (Fig. 203), 
 the Haddock, the Whiting, the Hake, the Ling, and others. 
 
 * The term is compounded of two Greek words, signifying to swim on 
 one side, which is the well-known movement of these fishes.
 
 FISHES. 
 
 233 
 
 The common Cod is so very voracious, that five-and-thirty 
 crabs, none smaller than half-a-crown, have been taken out of 
 
 Fig. 203. COD. 
 
 the stomach of one fish.* But this very voracity makes the 
 capture more easy, as almost any bait is acceptable. The great 
 value of the Newfoundland Cod fishery is well known. The 
 produce in 1836 was 860,354 quintals of fish, f each quintal 
 being a hundred pounds. The oil which they yield is also a 
 product of commercial and medicinal importance. 
 
 Clupeida, the family of the Herring. J Every reader of a 
 newspaper must be familiar with the term, "Whitebait din- 
 ner,'^ as indicating a repast held in high estimation by the 
 Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and by the learned 
 Fellows of the Royal Society ; and for which the ministers of 
 the Sovereign pay annually a visit to Blackwall. This little 
 fish (Fig. 204), so prized for its delicious flavour, was for- 
 
 Fig. 204. WHITEBAIT. 
 
 * By Mr. Couch. Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 145. 
 
 } Fenny Cyclopsedia. 
 
 In the Cod, the Haddock, the Whiting, and other fishes belonging to 
 the families we have been considering, the ventral fins are immediately 
 below the pectorals. In the Herring, the Salmon, the Pike, and others 
 belonging to families now about to be enumerated, the ventral fins are at- 
 tached to the abdomen, and are situated far behind the pectorals. This 
 circumstance enables us to divide such of the soft-rayed fishes (malacop- 
 terygii), as are possessed of ventral fins into two groups the abdominal 
 and sub-brachial, according to the situation of the fins. 
 
 " Feasts which would have made the ichthyophagous epicures of old die 
 of envy." FORBES AND SPKATT'S LYCIA, voL ii. p. 91.
 
 234 INTBODITCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 merly supposed to be the young of the Shad, but has now had 
 its claims established by Mr. Yarrell to rank as a distinct 
 species (Clupea alba). The Sprat (Clupea sprattus), another 
 member of the same family, is valued, not so much for its deli- 
 cacy as for its extreme abundance. It is taken during the 
 winter months ; the coasts of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk being 
 those which are most productive. It is not used only as an 
 article of food ; after that demand has been fully supplied, the 
 numbers are so great that the fish is used as manure. Many 
 thousand tons are in some seasons sold to farmers, at sixpence 
 to eightpence per bushel, for this purpose ; forty bushels of 
 Sprats being spread over an acre of land.* 
 
 The Pilchard (Clupea pilchardus), another of the family, is 
 even more important. The number of persons to whom this 
 fishery gives employment on the Coast of Cornwall has been 
 estimated at 10,521 ; and the capital invested in boats, nets, 
 and cellars for curing, at 441,215. The quantity taken is 
 sometimes almost incredibly large. "An instance," says Mr. 
 Yarrell, "has been known where ten thousand hogsheads have 
 been taken on one shore, in one port, in a single day ; thus 
 providing the enormous multitude of twenty-five millions of 
 living creatures drawn at once from the ocean for human sus- 
 tenance." t The vast multitudes in which they occasionally 
 appear realize the description of the poet : 
 
 " Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, 
 With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals 
 Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales, 
 Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft 
 Bank the mid sea." MILTON. 
 
 Ranking still higher as an object of national importance is 
 the Herring fishery, which gives occupation to thousands around 
 the British coasts, and supplies to hundreds of thousands a 
 cheap and favourite article of diet. The space to which we 
 
 Tarrell. 
 
 f This calculation is made on the supposition that each hogshead con- 
 tains 2,500 fish, which is about the average quantity. It is stated by R. Q. 
 ('ouch, Esq., in a paper read by him before the Penzance Natural History 
 and Antiquarian Society, that the number of hogsheads exported for the 
 last ten years amounts to 176,168, and upwards of a third more is used 
 for home consumption. During the present year, 33,959 hhds. have been 
 exported 3,052 of which were sent to Genoa; 8,499 to Leghorn ; 1,368 
 to Civita Vecchia; 13,309 to Naples; and 7,731 to the Adriatic. Penzance 
 Gazette, 10th Feb., 1847.
 
 FISHES. 235 
 
 are necessarily restricted compels us to limit our notice of this 
 well-known fish to one single point in its economy its appear- 
 ance on our coasts. 
 
 By Pennant, the approach of the Herring (Clupea harengus) 
 has been described as that of a mighty army, which, coming 
 from the arctic circle, divides at the Shetland Isles into two 
 great bodies, one of which fills the creeks and bays of the east 
 coast of Britain, while the other, passing along the west, sepa- 
 rates towards the north of Ireland into two divisions " one of 
 which takes, to the western side, and is scarcely perceived, 
 being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic ; but the other, 
 which passes into the Irish Sea, rejoices and feeds the inhabit- 
 ants of the coasts that border on it." 
 
 This account, though circumstantial, is altogether incorrect. 
 The Herring does not abound in the arctic seas ; and the divi- 
 sion of the mighty army into brigades which pursue their 
 way along the eastern and western shores, is purely imaginary. 
 The Herring does perform a migration, but of a limited range. 
 It comes to the shores for the purpose of spawning ; the in- 
 creased temperature and greater supply of oxygen being neces- 
 sary for the development of the young. The ova being de- 
 posited, the Herring forsakes the shore for the deeper water, 
 where it habitually dwells. It is not a visitant from a distant 
 region, but a constant dweller in our own seas. It comes to 
 the coast for a specific purpose, and that purpose being fulfilled, 
 it again retreats to the deep water. 
 
 The Pilchard was, like the Herring, supposed to migrate 
 from remote seas. Modern research has stripped the history 
 of both fishes of much that was marvellous ; but the mere 
 emotion of wonder which is thus destroyed, is, on a little 
 reflection, succeeded by one of a deeper, more reverential, and 
 more abiding character. Under the impulse of the law by 
 which certain species of fishes are, at successive seasons, im- 
 pelled to approach the shores, the most effectual means are 
 provided for the continuance of each of the several kinds ; and 
 while the perpetuation of the species is thus secured, man is 
 furnished with a varied and successive supply of food, abundant, 
 nutritious, and brought from the depths of the ocean within 
 the sphere of his activity and skill. This constantly -recur- 
 ring, yet ever-varying phenomenon has in its nature nothing 
 of chance. It is a beneficent law, and reveals a beneficent 
 Author.
 
 236 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Salmonidce, The Salmon is the acknowledged head of a 
 well-known family of fishes. Among them is one that by 
 common observers is referred to a different race, and is not 
 unfrequently called the " Freshwater Herring." We refer to 
 the Pollan (Fig. 205), an Irish species found in Lough Derg, 
 
 Fig. 205. POLLAS. 
 
 Lough Erne, and Lough Neagh, and first described by Mr. 
 W. Thompson, as distinct from other species of the same genus 
 in Lochmaben, and in the Cumberland lakes.* It approaches 
 the coasts in large shoals, not only during spring and summer, 
 but when the autumn is far advanced. In September, 1834, 
 the greatest " take" of Pollan ever recollected at Lough Neagh 
 took place, where the Six-mile-water enters the lake. " At 
 either three or four draughts of the net, 140 hundreds, 123 
 fish to the hundred f or 17,220 fish were taken. More were 
 taken at one draught than the boat could with safety hold, and 
 they had, consequently, to be emptied on the neighbouring pier. 
 They altogether filled five one horse carts, and were sold on 
 the spot at the rate of 3s. 4d. a hundred, producing 23 6s. 8d. 
 They are brought in quantities to Belfast, and when the supply 
 is good, the cry of 'fresh pollan' prevails even to a greater 
 extent than that of ' fresh herring," though both fishes are in 
 season at the same period of the year." 
 
 In the nets with the Pollan are taken the Common Trout 
 (Salmo fario) and the Great Lake Trout Salmo ferox). There 
 
 * The local name is Pollan, which has been retained in the scientific 
 appellation, Corregonits Pollan. The information given respecting the 
 fish is entirely derived from Mr. Thompson's researches, as republished 
 in Yarrell's Fishes, 2d edition, vol. ii. p. 156. The figure is copied from 
 that originally published in Annals of Natural History, vol. ii. 
 
 t The English long hundred is six score, or one hundred and twenty.
 
 FISHES. 237 
 
 is a variety of these, not a distinct species, called in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Lough Neagh the Gillaroo Trout, and said by 
 common rumour to have a gizzard like that of a fowl. This 
 notion must have originated in common observers having mis- 
 taken for a gizzard the skin of the stomach, which becomes 
 hardened, possibly from the large numbers of a univalve shell 
 (Paludina impurd) used as food. The Great Lake Trout 
 sometimes exceeds a yard in length and thirty pounds in 
 weight. The large individuals are known at Lough Neagh by 
 the name of Buddaghs, and the smaller as Dolachans. 
 
 Among the delightful fictions of the Arabian Nights' Enter- 
 tainments is one of a lake, in whose waters were fishes of four 
 different colours. Local causes seem to act upon the colour of 
 the common Trout, so as to produce effects scarcely less sur- 
 prising. This fish is distinguished for its bright and speckled 
 skin ; but we have seen, at Lough Katrine, Trout so black, 
 that they seemed as if they had gone into mourning. The 
 author of " Wild Sports of the West" mentions a similar cir- 
 cumstance with regard to the Trout of a small lake in the 
 county of Monaghan, the water being bounded on one shore 
 by a bog, and on the opposite by a dry and gravelly surface. 
 On the bog side the Trout are dark and ill-shaped ; on the 
 other they are beautiful and sprightly, like those inhabiting 
 rapid and sandy streams. " Narrow as the lake is, the fish 
 appear to confine themselves to their respective limits the 
 red Trout being never found upon the bog moiety of the lake, 
 nor the black where the under service is hard gravel." 
 
 But the brief space which we can devote to the Salmonidce 
 renders it needful that we should proceed at once to the most 
 important of the family, the Salmon (Salmo salar). 
 
 During the floods of winter and early spring, this fish 
 descends the river to the sea, lean and ill-conditioned, and 
 returns in a few months, plump, well-conditioned, and greatly 
 increased in size, from the abundance of food derived from 
 small Crustacea, fishes, and other marine animals and their ova. 
 It is on their return from the sea for the purpose of spawning 
 that the Salmon are taken. This occurs during the summer 
 and autumn months, the precise time being different in different 
 rivers. 
 
 Impelled onwards by the instinct which prompts this 
 migration, the Salmon endeavours to surmount all obstacles 
 that lie in its course, and flings itself over ledges of rock teu
 
 238 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 feet or more in height above the surface of the water. It is 
 said that at the falls of Kilmorac, in Inverness-shire, the 
 Frazers of Lovat, the lords of the manor, caused this power to 
 be occasionally exhibited in a singular manner for the enter- 
 tainment of their guests. On a flat rock at the south side of 
 the fall, and close to the edge of the water, a kettle was kept 
 boiling, and the company waited until a Salmon fell into the 
 kettle and was cooked in their presence.* 
 
 We never witnessed the singular spectacle thus recorded, 
 but can imagine nothing in its way more attractive than the 
 drawing of the nets at the salmon fishery called the Cranagh, 
 on the Lower Bann, about a mile below the town of Coleraine. 
 As the fishermen pull the net nearer to the shore, the struggles 
 of the fishes in their efforts to escape, and now and then the 
 vigorous leap which sets a captive free, are in the highest 
 degree exciting. During two days which we spent there in 
 June, 1823, the value of the fish taken, estimated at one 
 shilling per lb., exceeded 400. We were informed by a re- 
 lative, who had at that time the care of the fishery, that on 
 the 5th of July, 1824, four hundred Salmon were taken at one 
 " haul," and three hundred and fifty at the next. The entire 
 weight of the fish captured that day amounted to two tons. 
 
 The fish are packed in ice, and are thus brought to market 
 in good condition. But several years ago, when this practice 
 was unknown there, it is said that the enormous number of 
 1,500 Salmon were taken at a single pull, and sold in Coleraine 
 and the neighbourhood for three farthings per pound. 
 
 It was formerly supposed that the young Salmon fry de- 
 scended to the sea the same season they escaped from the 
 egg, and returned later in the year, their growth having been 
 extremely rapid. But by a number of experiments and 
 observations, made with great care, and ingeniously varied, 
 this has been proved by Mr. John Shaw not to be the case.f 
 The young fry does not go down to the sea until after it has 
 completed its second year, nor does it until then assume what 
 Mr. Shaw terms its migratory dress. 
 
 What, then, is its appearance during the earlier period of 
 its existence ? From the time it is one inch in length it has 
 in common with different species of Trout the lateral 
 markings that have been considered as characteristic of the 
 
 * Mudie's British Naturalist, 
 
 f Transactions of Royal Society, Edinburgh, 1840.
 
 FISHES. 239 
 
 Parr. These it retains until it has completed its second year, 
 and reached the length of six or seven inches. These markings 
 then disappear the old name is laid aside with the old dress, 
 and it is in future known, not as the Parr, but as the Salmon 
 smolts or fry. The fish, therefore, which has hitherto been 
 called the Parr, and believed to be a distinct species, proves to 
 be merely the early state of the Salmon ; and thus one name 
 is struck from our list of native species. 
 
 A remarkable fact is mentioned by Mr. Shaw, that " the 
 milt of a single male Parr, whose entire weight may not ex- 
 ceed one ounce and a half, is capable, when confined in a small 
 stream, of effectually impregnating all the ova of a very large 
 female Salmon.'' 
 
 The young fry are descending the rivers in March, April, 
 and May a fact referred to in popular couplets : 
 
 " The floods of May 
 Take the smolts away." 
 
 They most generally return to their native rivers. The 
 fishermen acquire such habits of quick and accurate observa- 
 tion, that they point out with facility one that is a stranger, 
 and name, in most cases, the place from which it came. This 
 we have repeatedly seen them do at the fisheries on the Bann, 
 and so promptly and decidedly, as to show they entertained no 
 doubt on the subject. 
 
 Esocidce. The Flying-fish is nearly allied to the present 
 family, that which is represented by the Pike (Esox lucius). 
 This is a strong, fierce, active, and voracious fish, of whose 
 audacity many stories are told. Gesner relates that a Pike 
 in the Rhone seized on the lips of a Mule that was brought 
 to water, and that the beast drew the fish out before it could 
 disengage itself.* " At Lord Gower's Canal at Trentham, a 
 Pike seized the head of a Swan as she was feeding under 
 water, and gorged so much of it as killed them both; the 
 servants perceiving the Swan with its head under water for a 
 longer time than usual, took the boat and found both Swan 
 and Pike dead." 
 
 It was formerly a rare fish in these countries ; so much so, 
 that Edward I. fixed its value higher than that of Salmon, and 
 ten times greater than that of the best Turbot or Cod ; and, 
 in the reign of Henry VIII., a large one sold for double the 
 
 * Tarrell, vol. i. All the information here given on the Pike is de- 
 rived from that author.
 
 240 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 price of a house Lamb in February, and a Pickerel, or small 
 Pike, for more than a fat Capon. 
 
 " Pliny considered the Pike as the longest lived, and likely 
 to attain the greatest size of any freshwater fish. Pennant 
 refers to one that was ninety years old ; but Gesner relates 
 that, in the year 1497, a Pike was taken at Hailbrun, in 
 Suabia, with a brazen ring attached to it, on which were 
 these words in Greek characters : ' I am the fish which was 
 first of all put into this lake by the hand of the Governor of 
 the Universe, Frederick II., the 5th of October, 1230.' This 
 fish was, therefore, 267 years old, and was said to have 
 weighed 850 Ibs. The skeleton, nineteen feet in length, was 
 long preserved at Manheim as a great curiosity in natural 
 history. The lakes of Scotland have produced Pike weighing 
 55 Ibs. weight ; and some of the Irish lakes are said to have 
 afforded Pike of 70 Ibs. 
 
 Cyprinidce. The family of the Carp includes the Minnow, 
 the Bleak, the Rudd, the Bream, the Tench, the Gudgeon, 
 and other well-known freshwater fishes. The Golden Carp 
 (Cyprinus auratus) Gold and Silver-fishes, as they are 
 more generally called has been originally imported into 
 these countries, but authors are not agreed as to the precise 
 year. The Carp (Cyprinus carpio) itself is also a naturalized 
 species, but introduced at so remote a date that, in the "Boke 
 of St. Albans," printed at Westminster in 1496, it is men- 
 tioned : " The Carpe is a dayntous fisshe, but there ben but 
 fewe in Englonde." 
 
 The Bream is in such repute on the Continent, that an old 
 French proverb says, "he that hath Bream in his pond is 
 able to bid his friend welcome." And it may be inferred from 
 a couplet in Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, that 
 the feeding and eating of Bream was more in fashion in the 
 days of Edward III. than at the present time 
 
 " Full many a fair Partrich hadde he in mewe, 
 And many a Breme, and many a Luce * in stewe." 
 
 To one class of our young readers, it may perhaps be more 
 interesting to know that from the silvery-looking scales of this 
 family of fishes, the material is derived for making the gorgeous 
 necklaces of artificial pearl which are so temptingly displayed 
 in the toy-shops. 
 
 * Pike.
 
 241 
 
 SPINY-FINNED FISHES. 
 
 THE remaining fishes belong to Cuvier's first Order (Acan- 
 thopterygii) . They have the skeleton of bone, and the dorsal 
 fins, as already mentioned (p. 222), supported in part by rays 
 which are spinous and undivided. In all of them the gills are 
 arches, presenting the pectinated or Comb-like structure so well 
 known in our most common and valuable fishes. 
 
 Labridce. The first family we shall mention is that of the 
 Wrasse, of which there are many species possessing brilliant 
 colours blue, green, orange, and red and one, a Mediter- 
 ranean species, which has been taken on the English coast, 
 has so many bright tints intermingled in his costume, that he 
 is appropriately termed the "Rainbow Wrasse." The Ballan 
 Wrasse (Ldbrus maculatus) is sometimes taken off the rocky 
 parts of the coast of Down and Antrim, measuring about eigh- 
 teen inches in length. We have heard it called in the Belfast 
 market the " Old Wife." In Plymouth market, the females 
 of the Blue or Grey Skate (Jtaia batis) are called " maids" and 
 " good wives.'' We have already mentioned the Fishing Frog 
 (Lophius piscatorius, p. 210), a species which belongs to another 
 family (Lophiadce), and stated that it is also called the Angler. 
 But these are not its only names, for it has as many aliases as 
 other persons of equivocal character, being known as the Sea 
 Devil, and in Scotland by the expressive though not very eu- 
 phonious, appellation of " Wide Gab." 
 
 Gobioidce. Among the Gobies and Blennies of this family, 
 there is one species which brings forth its young alive, and is 
 hence called the " viviparous Blenny.'' Some are remarkable 
 for their tenacity of life. 
 
 Mugttidce. In connexion with the family of the Mullet, an 
 interesting fact has been established that the Mugil chelo, or 
 thick-lipped Grey Mullet of Cuvier a species of extreme rarity 
 on the southern coast of England is that which is most abun- 
 dant on the eastern shores of Scotland, and also along the 
 eastern coast of Ireland. In the Bay of Belfast they are very 
 plentiful, especially where the waters of the river Lagan mingle 
 with those of the sea. Mr. Thompson states that, on 1st of
 
 242 INTEODUCTIOK TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 May, 1838, 7 cwt. of these fish were taken at a single draught 
 of the net ; and on the same night 9 cwt. were secured by the 
 crew of another boat. A Mullet of large size will occasionally 
 weigh so much as 10 or 12 Ibs. ; and one specimen is recorded 
 as being so much as 14| Ibs.* 
 
 The Mullet was believed by the ancients to be the most 
 innocent of fish, and one that did not select as food anything 
 that had life. But the Grey Mullet of Belfast Bay has habits 
 so very much the reverse, that Mr. Thompson remarks, after 
 an examination of the stomachs of many individuals, that they 
 presented "many hundred-fold greater destruction of animal 
 life than he had ever witnessed on a similar inspection of the 
 food of any bird or fish. From a single stomach he had taken 
 as many univalve and bivalve mollusca as would fill a large- 
 sized breakfast cup ; so that one of these stomachs may justly 
 be regarded as quite a storehouse to a conchologist." In clear 
 moonlight, and by day, Mullet of every size often clear the net, 
 sometimes springing five or six feet over it, and when one has 
 set the example, nearly all are sure to follow it. Having sur- 
 mounted the meshy barrier, they sometimes take two or three 
 additional leaps, and skim the surface beautifully, before again 
 subsiding beneath it. 
 
 Tcenioidei.-f We shall not dwell on the family of the 
 Riband-shaped fishes, as it contains but about half-a-dozen 
 of native species, and but little is known respecting their habits ; 
 we shall merely quote one fact to show how appropriate is their 
 
 Fig. 206. RED BAND-FISH. 
 
 name. A specimen of the Red Band-fish (Cepola rubescens, 
 Fig. 206), as we are informed by Mr. W. Thompson, was, in 
 
 On Fishes new to Ireland Annals of Natural History, July, 1838. 
 From this paper the information here given on this Mullet is extracted. 
 f The term denotes, like a band or stripe.
 
 FISHES. 
 
 243 
 
 November, 1837, when penny postages were unknown, sent 
 to him through the post-office, although nineteen and a half 
 inches long ; it was folded up like a riband, and passed in a 
 franked letter of the ordinary size and legal weight under an 
 ounce.* A dead specimen of another species was picked up 
 on the beach at Cairnlough, County Antrim, in 1836, by Dr. 
 J. L. Drummond, author of " Letters to a Young Naturalist," 
 &c., and being transmitted to Belfast, was found to be so per- 
 fectly unique as to require the establishment of a new genus 
 for its reception. Some of the young for whose use this little 
 book is especially written, may yet, in like manner, be so for- 
 tunate as to enrich our Fauna with species of which no other 
 specimens are known to be extant, t 
 
 Scomberidce. The next family contains the Opah, the 
 Dory, and the Sword-fish, all of which have been already 
 mentioned (pp. 217, 220). To this belongs the Pilot-fish 
 (Naucrates ductor, Fig. 207), celebrated for its attendance on 
 
 Fig. '207. PILOT-FISH. 
 
 the large Sharks, and supposed by the ancients to have 
 
 pointed out to navigators their desired course, and borne them 
 
 company during their voyage. Here also must be placed the 
 
 Bonito (Thynnus pelamys), one 
 
 of the ruthless pursuers of the 
 
 Flying-fish ; and the Tunny 
 
 (ThynnvA vulgaris, Fig. 208), a 
 
 fish of large size, though here ir 
 
 represented by a very diminutive F1 - 208 Tunmr. 
 
 figure. One killed at Inverary weighed 460 Ibs., and measured 
 
 * Magazine of Natural History, 1838. 
 
 f It was described and figured by Mr. W. Thompson, in the Transactions 
 of the Zoological Society, vol. ii.; the species being named in honour of the 
 discoverer, Echiodon Drummondii. Another dead specimen was found on 
 the coast of the County Kerry 23rd January, 1852.
 
 244 rNTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 seven feet ten inches in length. These fish visit the shores of 
 the Mediterranean in great shoals, and give origin to an exten- 
 sive and valuable branch of commerce. 
 
 Both the species just mentioned swim near the surface, 
 are great consumers of oxygen, and maintain a high temper- 
 ature. The Tunny is always spoken of by the fishermen of 
 the Mediterranean as warm-blooded ; and Dr. Davy* mentions, 
 that he has known the temperature of the Bonito to be 99, 
 when the water at the surface of the sea was only 80 0- 5. We 
 have here, therefore, a curious example of a fish with blood as 
 warm as that of a man. 
 
 Highly prized though of so much smaller dimensions, is the 
 Mackerel (Scomber scomber) of our own shores. Mr. Yarrell 
 states that the success of this fishery, in 1821, was beyond all 
 precedent. "The value of the catch of sixteen boats from 
 Lowestoffe, on the 30th of June, amounted to 5,252 ; and it 
 is supposed that there was no less an amount than 14,000 
 altogether realized by the owners and men concerned in the 
 fishery of the Suffolk coast." A favourite bait for this fish is 
 a slip of red leather or scarlet cloth ; and a scarlet coat has 
 therefore been called a Mackerel bait for a lady. 
 
 Sparidce. The sea Breams are furnished with strong jaws, 
 and a great profusion of rounded teeth, by means of which 
 they grind down the shells of the mollusca on which they 
 feed. The Stickle-back (Gasterostsus, Fig. 187), and the 
 Gurnard (Trigla), exhibit a peculiarity of a different kind. 
 The head appears as if mailed or armed, and hence the term 
 Loricati, indicating this peculiarity, is that by which they are 
 distinguished. The species known as the " Fifteen-spined " 
 (ante, p. 214), inhabits the sea, and is apparently fond of 
 coming to the surface in fine weather, for we have taken it in 
 a small towing-net, and on one occasion we saw it captured 
 by a sudden plunge of the hand into the water. The Gur- 
 nards emit a peculiar sound when taken from the water ; and 
 hence one of them bears the appellation of "the Piper," and 
 another that of the " Cuckoo Gurnard." f 
 
 The Dactylopterus of the Mediterranean ( Trigla volitans, 
 
 Researches, Philosophical and Anatomical. 
 
 f- The "Drum-fish" of the United States is so called from its loud 
 drumming noise. It is sometimes found three feet in length, and 35 Ibs. in 
 weight : in calm weather the sound which it emits is heard at a considerable 
 distance.
 
 risiiEs. 
 
 Linn., Fig. 209) is a very singular and beautiful species, 
 swimming in shoals, and sometimes rising out of the water in 
 the manner of the Flying-fish, expanding at the same time its 
 pectoral fins, which are large and transparent, of an olive 
 green, with numerous bright blue spots. 
 
 tig. 209. DACTTLOPTEEUS. 
 
 PercidcB. The last family we shall mention includes the 
 Perch (Perca fluvia tills), and also the true Mullets of the 
 Mediterranean ; one of these, the striped Red Mullet (Mullus 
 surmuletus), is a constant inhabitant of the southern shores 
 of England. So much were they prized by the Romans, that 
 a Mullet of six pounds weight is said to have been sold for a 
 sum equal to 48 ; one still larger, 64 ; and even 240 were 
 given for three of very unusual size, procured on the same 
 day, for a repast of more than usual magnificence. The Perch 
 is common throughout all the temperate parts of Europe, 
 and is one of the most beautiful of all our freshwater fishes. 
 The bright vermilion of the tail and lower fins contrasts 
 strikingly with the markings and tints of the other portions of 
 the body. It is a bold and voracious fish. Mr. Jesse tells us 
 that he had placed some Perch in a vivarium (an artificial 
 pond), and in a few days they came freely and took worms 
 from his fingers. 
 
 It is interesting, in regarding the class of fishes, to con- 
 template the variations of structure which connect it with 
 other groups, both of higher and of lower rank in the animal 
 kingdom. We have seen (p. 223) that one small fish the 
 Lancelet has been described as a mollusk. There is another 
 the Lepidosiren which has been regarded as a reptile. 
 Perfect unanimity does not prevail among naturalists with 
 regard to its true place, but, following Professor Owen, we 
 include it among the fishes. Of this animal two species are 
 at present known one found in the river Gambia, the other
 
 246 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 in the Amazon. That of the Gambia (L. annectens, Fig. 210) 
 inhabits a part of the river which overflows extensive tracts. 
 
 Such individuals as do 
 not follow the retreat- 
 ing waters, escape from 
 the scorching rays of the 
 African sun by burrow- 
 ing in the mud, which 
 is soon baked hard 
 above them. There they 
 remain, in a torpid state, 
 until the return of 
 the rainy season again 
 awakes them to ac- 
 
 Fig. 210. LEPIDOSIEES. tivity.* 
 
 We have endeavoured, with great brevity, to exhibit one 
 class out of the many by which "the world of waters" is 
 peopled. But our knowledge of the recent tribes is imperfect 
 unless we add to it that of the extinct ; and, accordingly, the 
 study of the fishes found in a fossil state is a subject of high 
 philosophical research, involving as it does, the question not 
 only of what were their forms, but what were the conditions 
 under which they existed. To this inquiry M. Agassiz, of 
 Neufchatel, has devoted himself; and, in the vast series of 
 investigations which it required, has combined the discrimin- 
 ating eye of the naturalist and the profound generalizations 
 of the philosopher. By him all fossil fishes are arranged in 
 four primary groups, according to the form of their scales : 
 
 1st, Ganoid, with scales shining, as the Sturgeon. 
 2nd, Placoid, with scales broad-plated, as Sharks and Eays. 
 3d, Ctenoid, with scales comb-shaped, as the Perch. 
 4th, Cycloid, with scales of circular or smooth edges, as the 
 Cod and Herring.f 
 
 The researches of Agassiz have led him to infer, that there 
 
 * For details connected with its organization, vide Professor Owen's 
 Lectures, and Memoir in Trans, of Linn. Society, vol. xviii., part iii. It is 
 regarded by him as the representative of a distinct order Protopleri 
 occupying a position between the one containing the Sturgeon and that with 
 the Sharks and Rays. 
 
 f These terms are all derived from the Greek ; the literal meanings being 
 nearly those which are here given.
 
 FISHES. 247 
 
 is a constant correspondence between the characters of the 
 scales and the internal organization of the fish. 
 
 When the number of fishes now living and possessing scales 
 of these different forms, is compared with the number of those 
 which formerly existed, we find that species and genera, which 
 in countless multitudes swam in the ocean which then covered 
 our existing continents, have long since passed away. Those 
 whose vestments of enamel have bid defiance to the hand of 
 Time, exhibit, sculptured on their scales, ornaments of micro- 
 scopic beauty and diversified pattern. As an example of the 
 singular forms presented by some of these fossils, we shall 
 quote one brief paragraph, descriptive of some of the fossil 
 fishes of the Old Eed Sandstone. 
 
 " A stranger assemblage of forms has rarely been grouped 
 together ; creatures whose very type is lost fantastic and 
 uncouth, and which puzzle the naturab'st to assign them even 
 their class ; boat-like animals, furnished with oars and a 
 rudder ; fish plated over like the Tortoise, above and below, 
 with a strong armour of bone, and furnished with but one 
 rudder-like fin ; other fish, less equivocal in their form, but 
 with the membranes of their fins thickly covered with scales ; 
 creatures bristling over with thorns ; others glistening in, an 
 enamelled coat, as if beautifully japanned the tail, in every 
 instance among the less equivocal shapes formed, not equally 
 as it is in existing fish, on each side the central vertebral bone, 
 but chiefly on the lower side, the bone sending out its dimin- 
 ished vertebrae to the extreme termination of the fin. All 
 the forms testify of a remote antiquity of a period whose 
 ' fashions have passed away.' The figures on a Chinese vase 
 or an Egyptian obelisk are scarcely more unlike what now 
 exist in nature than the fossils of the Lower Old Ked Sand- 
 stone."* 
 
 NOTE ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF FISHERIES, AND THE EDUCATION OF 
 FISHERMEN. In an economical point of view, Zoology could not be turned 
 to better account than in the right direction and promotion of the fisheries. 
 
 * From a delightful and highly instructive volume, entitled, " The Old 
 Red Sandstone, or New Walks in an Old Field," by Hugh Miller. The 
 first chapter tells us that the author was himself a working man, and 
 describes " the quarry in which he wrought." It was while labouring in 
 that humble vocation that his attention was first roused to the fossils of 
 the " Old Red Sandstone;" a formation with which his name is now indis- 
 solubly connected.
 
 248 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 This was forcibly put forward by Mr. R. Ball, in 1839, in a lecture de- 
 livered before the Boyal Zoological Society of Ireland,* in which he showed 
 how much science might be made to conduce to the welfare of fishermen, by 
 affording them information on the nature and habits of fish, their migration, 
 and food, viewed in connection with the geological character of the coast. 
 He at the same time proposed a plan for imparting to them scientific and 
 practical instruction by means of nomadic or wandering schools. 
 
 Subsequently the application of science to our fisheries has been ably 
 urged, both in London f and Dublin, J by that eminent naturalist, Professor 
 Edward Forbes. He has shown that the North Atlantic Ocean may be 
 divided into certain zoological provinces ; that each province owes its char- 
 acteristic features to geological changes which occurred in a certain order, 
 and that " the dispositions of the great sea-fisheries of Europe depend upon 
 the disposition of the existing zoological provinces of the European seas." 
 To the last point the learned lecturer called particular attention, and strongly 
 advocated scientific inquiry properly directed, and the training and instruc- 
 tion of fishermen, as suggested by Mr. Ball. 
 
 The great importance of this subject in its bearing upon the British 
 fisheries, and more especially upon those of Ireland, gives additional interest 
 to the following extract from the Thirteenth Report of the Commissioners of 
 National Education in Ireland. 
 
 *' VII. 33. The same practical character which we are anxious to give to 
 our country schools, by the mixture of agricultural with literary instruction, 
 we shall endeavour to give to such of our own schools as are situated on the 
 coast, by uniting instruction more peculiarly applicable to maritime districts, 
 with the ordinary school education. With the view of promoting this ob- 
 ject, and of testing its practicability, we have made a larger grant towards 
 the establishment of a school in the town of Galway, at the fishing station 
 called the Claddagh. In this school it is proposed that the pupils shall devote 
 a portion of their time to acquiring a knowledge of navigation and of the art 
 of fishing, and shall be employed in manufacturing nets and the various 
 other articles required by fishermen in their trade," 
 
 Saunders's News Letter, 24th May, 1839. 
 
 t At the Royal Institution, 14th May; see Athenaeum, 22nd Hay, 1S47. 
 
 t Before Zoological Society of Ireland, Saunders's News Letter, 29th May, 1W7.
 
 249 
 
 CLASS II 
 
 REPTILIA. REPTILES. 
 
 THE Class Reptilia constitutes another of the great groups of 
 vertebrated animals. Respiration is effected in some of the 
 Reptiles by lungs and gills ; in others by lungs only. The 
 blood is cold. The heart consists of three cavities. The 
 young are produced from eggs. 
 
 The great majority of these creatures are regarded by man 
 with suspicion and distrust ; yet there is no class of verte- 
 brated animals which presents the same variety of form and 
 structure. Among quadrupeds, the tiny Field-mouse (Mus 
 messorius) that suspends her nest from a blade of corn, re- 
 sembles, in all essential points of structure, the ponderous 
 elephant. Among birds, in like manner, the diminutive Wren 
 claims a place in the same phalanx with the majestic Condor 
 of the Andes. But who, except the naturalist, could venture 
 to affirm that the flexile Snake should be class-fellow to the 
 shell-covered Tortoise ? 
 
 Reptiles are most numerous in the countries of the torrid 
 zone, a few only being found in those of more temperate 
 regions. It has been well remarked, that "they can more 
 easily bear the rigours of a severe winter than suffer the 
 absence of a hot summer." The number of living species 
 which is known and described amounts to six hundred and 
 fifty-seven. They are divided by Cuvier into four orders ; and, 
 although some changes have been proposed by naturalists 
 whose opinions are entitled to great respect, it will better suit 
 the simplicity which is desirable in an elementary work, to ad- 
 here to the former arrangement, and treat of them as Tortoises 
 Lizards, Serpents, and Frogs.
 
 250 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 The number of species belonging to each of these orders is 
 very different, and may be thus stated : * 
 
 Tortoises (Testudinata) 69 
 
 Lizards (Sauna) 203 
 
 Serpents (Ophidia) 265 
 
 Frogs (Amphibia 120 
 
 657 
 
 It is interesting to remark the manner in which, according 
 to Berghaiis, the number of species diminishes as we pass 
 from the sunny regions of the East to the duller and more 
 cloudy climes of Western Europe. Thus Italy with her 
 islands can number forty-seven species; France has thirty- 
 one ; Great Britain, fourteen ;t and Ireland, it may be added, 
 not more than five. 
 
 It has been stated that the blood of reptiles is cold, or in 
 other words, their power of producing animal heat is so feeble, 
 that we do not notice any difference between the temperature 
 of their bodies and that of the air or water by which they are 
 surrounded. The same was observed in the preceding group 
 of cold-blooded Vertebrata the fishes but arose from a dif- 
 ferent cause. In the fishes the blood is imperfectly aerated, 
 owing to the small quantity of oxygen with which it comes in 
 contact in the gills. In the highest of the reptile tribes, which 
 breathe exclusively by lungs, these organs are supplied with 
 only a portion of the blood that has circulated through the 
 veins ; the other portion is returned into the circulation with- 
 out being purified by exposure to the air. The arteries con- 
 sequently contain a mixture of blood rendered impure by its 
 previous circulation, and blood recently aerated in the lungs. 
 
 * Berghaiis and Johnston's Physical Atlas, from which admirable work 
 all the information here given, as to the distribution and number of species, 
 is derived. 
 
 f Namely, two Turtles, two Lizards, one Blind-worm, two Snakes, two 
 Frogs, two Toads, and three Newts 
 
 In a Memoir read before the Royal Society, by Mr. Higginbottom, 
 entitled, " Researches to determine the number of species and mode of 
 development of the British Triton, the author states, that only two species 
 of Tritons or Newts are met with in England, and that the animals require 
 four years to attain their full growth. "The Triton," he remarks, "pos- 
 sesses the power of reproducing its lost limbs, provided the temperature be 
 within the limits of 58 and 75 Fahrenheit; but at lower temperatures, and 
 during the winter, it has no such power." Athenuium, April 3, 1847 ; An- 
 nals of Natural History, July, 1847.
 
 BEPTILES. 251 
 
 "Hence," says Professor Bell, "arises the circumstance that 
 these animals have what is called cold blood ; for, as it is from 
 respiration that the hlood derives its heat and the temperature 
 of the hody is thereby sustained, in animals which have more 
 perfect respiration, it follows that where this function is but 
 imperfectly performed, the animal heat, muscular force, and all 
 other functions dependent on respiration will be diminished."* 
 In the last class to which our attention was directed that 
 of fishes the circulation throughout life was suited to their 
 residence in water. The first we shall notice in the present 
 class are likewise fitted for aquatic respiration. We shall next 
 proceed to those which in their very early stages breathe by 
 gills, but afterwards by lungs ; and thence pass on to those 
 which at all periods possess aerial respiration. 
 
 OEDEE I. AMPHIBIA. 
 
 "The swimming Frog, the Toad, the Tadpole, the "Wall- Newt, and the 
 water.' ' SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 THE Amphibious Eeptiles (order Batrachia\ of Cuvier) may 
 be separated into two divisions those which possess both 
 lungs and gills throughout the entire period of life, and those 
 which have gills in their young state, and acquire lungs as 
 they approach maturity.^ The former group possesses some 
 animals of very singular structure and habits ; as the Proteus, 
 which inhabits subterranean lakes in the Tyrol, the Axolotl 
 
 * History of British Reptiles Van Voorst; another of that attractive 
 series of works illustrative of the natural history of these countries. In the 
 opinion of the learned author of that work, the structural peculiarities of the 
 Amphibia are such as to justify their being regarded as a distinct class, in- 
 stead of being merely ranked as one of the orders in the class Reptilia. 
 Mr. Jenyns has thus arranged them in his " Manual." 
 
 f From the Greek word signifying a frog (Lat Batrdchus). The term 
 Batrachian means, therefore, a frog-like animal. 
 
 J Those in which the gills are permanent are termed PEREITNIBRAN- 
 CHIATE (Latin, branchice, the gills, and perennis, permanent, lasting, staying 
 all the year round). Those in which the branchiae disappear, are termed 
 CADUCIBKANCHIATE, the word caducus meaning perishable, falling of 
 itself, &c.
 
 252 ETTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 (Fig. 211), the flesh of which is regarded as an article of 
 luxury by the inhabitants of the city of Mexico, near to which 
 it is taken. It is, however, to the latter group that we wish 
 more particularly to call attention ; for in the Frogs, Toads, 
 and Newts of these countries, we have the opportunity of 
 watching the successive steps by which they become fitted 
 for breathing air, instead of continuing to use an apparatus 
 adapted, like that of fishes, for aquatic respiration only. 
 
 Fig. 211. AXOLOTI- 
 
 Let us give our attention, in the first instance, to the 
 changes which take place in the common Frog, (Rana tempo- 
 raria). The eggs are deposited at the bottom of a pool of 
 water, each egg consisting of a black centre, surrounded by a 
 covering of glutinous matter. This covering absorbs water ; 
 the mass swells, so that the central portions appear like black 
 dots, separated from each other by a transparent jelly; and 
 owing, as Professor Bell states, to some partial decomposition, 
 and the consequent disengagement of a gas, the entire mass 
 becomes lighter than the surrounding water, and rises to the 
 surface. It is in this stage that we have taken some of the 
 spawn, and kept it in glass vessels for the purpose of watching 
 the subsequent changes, which are much influenced by the 
 temperature of the apartment. When the little Tadpole has 
 burst from its prison, the gills begin to develope themselves, 
 and increase rapidly in size until they attain their greatest 
 development. They are now objects of singular beauty viewed 
 through the microscope ; for such is their transparency that 
 the course of every blood-globule, as it passes up or down the 
 main stem, or enters the inlets presented by each leaf, is dis- 
 tinctly visible. The delight with which this spectacle is 
 regarded by children, and the interest they henceforward take 
 in the previously-despised Tadpole, are matters of which we 
 can speak from personal experience. This period of expan-
 
 EEPTILES. 253 
 
 sion is, however, more temporary than that of many of 
 our cherished garden flowers. The tufted gills shrink in size, 
 until, like the gills of fishes, they are concealed within the 
 branchial sacs. The little Tadpole (Fig. 212) hegins to feed 
 on decaying vegetable matter ; the tail has become a large 
 and powerful organ for locomotion, and a rapid increase in the 
 size of the body is perceptible. After a time the hinder feet 
 become developed (Fig. 213); then the anterior extremities 
 bud forth* (Fig. 214); the tail shrinks; the form of the 
 perfect animal is assumed (Fig. 215); the remaining vestige 
 of the tail disappears (Fig. 216) ; and instead of an aquatic 
 animal breathing by gills, and subsisting on vegetables, we 
 have a terrestrial animal, breathing by lungs and altogether 
 carnivorous. 
 
 Fig. 212. Fig. 213. 
 
 Fig. 216. 
 
 The food of the Frog consists of insects of various kinds 
 and of small Slugs ; the number which is thus destroyed is so 
 considerable, that the Frog might prove a valuable assistant to 
 the farmer or the gardener. The manner in which the food is 
 taken is worthy of notice. In the Frogs, as in the Toad, the 
 tongue is doubled back on itself. The point, covered with a 
 viscid secretion, is thrown forwards upon the insect and 
 drawn back again with such rapidity as scarcely to be detected 
 without careful watching, t 
 
 In some of the countries of both temperate and tropical 
 regions there are Frogs which, from their habitation, are called 
 
 * We are informed by a friend, who has watched the metamorphosis 
 with great attention, that the left fore leg is perfectly developed before the 
 other appears. 
 
 j Bell's Reptiles.
 
 254 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Tree-frogs (ffylce, Fig. 217). They are described as beautiful 
 and active little animals, not unlike in their colours to those 
 of the trunks and foliage, and furnished at the end of their 
 toes with small cushions or pads, by means of which they can 
 adhere to smooth surfaces. Some of them utter a pleasing 
 
 chirp, which in the cool 
 evenings swells into a 
 kind of concert, the 
 Cicadas and Crickets 
 taking part in the per- 
 formance.* 
 
 The respiration of the 
 Frog is not carried on 
 by the lungs alone, but 
 also by the skin ; and 
 in order that the skin 
 may be always kept 
 Fig. 217.-TEEE-FKOG. moist, and in a state fit 
 
 to perform this important function, the creature is furnished 
 with an internal reservoir of pure water, absorbed and there 
 deposited when fluid is abundant, and given back to the skin 
 when additional moisture is required. There is a peculiarity 
 even in the pulmonary respiration : it cannot be carried on in 
 the Frog by the expansion and contraction of the chest, for it 
 is destitute of ribs. The air is taken into the mouth, and the 
 nostrils and throat being closed, it is forced down into the 
 lungs. As this movement can only be performed when the 
 mouth is shut, the poor creature would perish for want of 
 pulmonary respiration if gagged with the mouth open.f 
 
 The Frog is believed to have been introduced into Ireland 
 in the early part of the last century. The common Toad 
 (Bufo vulgaris) is there unknown, its absence being accounted 
 for, according to popular tradition and song, by the malediction 
 of St. Patrick. The smaller species, the Natter-jack (B. ca- 
 lamita), does not appear, however, to have been banished with 
 the rest of "the varmint," as it is found in three or four 
 localities in the County Kerry, especially at Rossbegh, a 
 small inlet or creek of Dingle Bay. Both Frogs and Toads 
 pass the winter in a state of torpidity. 
 
 * At Rio de Janeiro. Darwin's Journal, p. 34. 
 
 f Bell. Berghaiis and Johnston mention that the common Frog 
 (Rana temporaria) is found on the Pyrenees at an elevation of 7,700 feet.
 
 BEFTILES. 
 
 255 
 
 The remainder of the British Amphibia belongs to the 
 family Salamandridae, and consists of four species of Newts, 
 of which one only (Lissotriton punctatus) appears to be gene- 
 rally distributed in Ireland, In the northern parts it is well 
 known by the name of " Mankeeper," and is regarded by the 
 uneducated with apprehension, from the erroneous idea that it 
 is prone to jump down the throat of any one whom it may find 
 sleeping. 
 
 The metamorphosis of the Newts 
 is so similar to that of the Frogs, 
 that any detail on the subject is 
 unnecessary. The leaf-like tufts that 
 float in the water (Fig. 218) are 
 different in form, though alike in 
 function. But it is not only in ex- 
 ternal figure that the changes of the 
 amphibia are remarkable ; those in 
 internal structure are to the physio- 
 logist even more interesting. The 
 important function of circulation 
 must of course be adapted to that 
 of respiration. Each change in 
 the one necessarily involves a corres- 
 ponding modification of the other. 
 It is not our intention to go into any 
 minute anatomical details ; we would only refer to the accom- 
 panying figures to show the nature and extent of these in- 
 ternal changes. In the first (Fig. 219) the blood-vessels of 
 
 Fig. 218. 
 
 Fig. 219. 
 
 the Tadpole are shown in an early stage ; the second (Fig. 
 220) in a more advanced state, and with those arteries which 
 are to convey the blood to the lungs greatly increased in size.
 
 256 
 
 LMBODTJCTIOy TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Fig. 220. 
 
 In the third (Fig. 221) the gills have disappeared, and the 
 respiratory circulation is carried on by the arteries of which 
 the development was exhibited in the previous figure. 
 
 The Newts, like the 
 Frogs and Toads, are 
 carnivorous, preying upon 
 aquatic insects, larvae, 
 worms, and mollusca ; 
 nor do the larger species 
 hesitate at laying hold 
 of and devouring their 
 weaker and smaller bre- 
 thren. The Tadpole of 
 the Frog forms also an 
 important item in their 
 bill of fare. 
 
 When it is considered 
 that all the amphibia 
 are harmless to man, 
 and many of them actually useful, by keeping in bounds 
 the diminutive assailants of his crops and pastures, it may 
 seem strange that they should have been so generally re- 
 garded as disgusting and pernicious. Perhaps no individual 
 among them has been so slandered as the Toad ; and if we did 
 not know, in other instances, how imagination takes the place 
 of reason, it might seem incredible that this unoffending reptile 
 should have been regarded as " highly poisonous, and this not 
 only from its bite its breath and even its glance were fraught 
 with mischief or death."* It was natural, therefore, that 
 
 Bell's Reptiles.
 
 EEPTILES. 257 
 
 Shakspeare, living at a time when such ideas were still cur- 
 rent, should embody them in his writings, and speak of the 
 Toad as "loathsome," "venomous," and "poisonous,"* should 
 place it first in the cauldron of the witches, and add thereto, 
 
 " Eye of newt and toe of frog." f 
 
 Such records, " figuring the nature of the time deceased," 
 are of high interest and value, for they serve most impressively 
 to mark the varying phases of popular belief at different epochs. 
 In one passage the poet has given us a singular though erro- 
 neous tradition, and a profound moral truth 
 
 " Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. scene 3. 
 
 There is evidence of the former existence in these countries 
 of a gigantic reptile of the present order. From the peculiarly 
 convoluted structure of its teeth, it has received from Professor 
 Owen the highly descriptive appellation of Labyrinthodon : a 
 term compounded of two Greek words, signifying " a laby- 
 rinth" and " a tooth." It has left the mark of its footsteps, 
 resembling the impression of a hand, on the moist sand-beach 
 of the ancient seas, which sand is now consolidated into what 
 is termed "new red sandstone." The impressions vary in 
 size, but those of the hind feet are invariably much larger than 
 those of the fore. In some cases their length is so much as 
 twelve inches, while that of the smaller is about four inches. 
 At the Storeton Hill, near Liverpool, on the west side of the 
 Mersey, similar marks have been found, along with those left 
 by five or six smaller reptiles. 
 
 * "As loathsome as a toad." Trr. AND. Act iv. scene 2. 
 
 " As renamed loads." Third Part K. HENRY VI. Act ii. scene 2. 
 " This poisonous hunch-backed toad." RICHARD III. Act i. scene 3. 
 t For convenience of reference, the passages referred to are extracted : 
 First Witch " Toad, that under the cold stone 
 
 Days and nights hast thirty-one, 
 
 Swelter'd venom sleeping got, 
 
 Boil thou first i' the charmed pot ! 
 Second Witch Fillet of a fenny snake, 
 
 In the cauldron boil and bake : 
 
 Eye of newt and toe of frog, 
 
 Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 
 
 Adder's fork and blindwonn's sting, 
 
 Lizard's leg and owlet's wing." 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. scene 1.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 ORDER II. OPHIDIA. SERPENTS. 
 
 Fig. 222. ANATOMT or A SS.AKE.* 
 
 THE internal structure of one of the Serpents is represented 
 in the preceding figure (Fig. 222). We shall only add, that 
 
 * I, tongue and glottis; oe, OBSophagns, divided at ce to show the heart, &a; '. 
 stomach; f, intestine; c/, cloaca; /, liver; o, ovary; , </eggs; t, trachea; p. prin- 
 cipal lung; ?/, undeveloped lung; vt, ventricle; c, left auricle; c*, right auricle; 
 ag, left aortic arch,; ad, right aortic arch; a!, a 1 , ventral aorta; ac, carotid arteries; 
 , vena cava superior; , vena cava inferior; cp, pulmonary vein.
 
 EEPTILE3. 
 
 259 
 
 in order to endow these tribes with the greatest possible 
 flexibility, the number of joints in their spinal column is even 
 greater than in the Eels. In the Rattle-snake (Crotalus, 
 Fig. 223) there are about two hundred; and above three 
 hundred have been counted 
 in the spine of the Viper 
 (Natrix torquata).* Thus 
 furnished they can glide 
 along with silence and 
 rapidity, climb trees, and 
 leap with considerable vi- 
 gour and agility. 
 
 The number of Serpents, 
 like that of other reptiles, 
 increases towards the tor- 
 rid zone, while compara- 
 tively few are found in 
 cold regions. They do not 
 appear to advance so far 
 northwards as Frogs and 
 Lizards. 
 
 " One of the most cu- 
 rious facts in the distribu- Fig. 223.-RATTLE-ss.vKE. 
 tion of Serpents, viewed in relation to different parts of the 
 globe, is their total absence from the numerous isles of the 
 Pacific Ocean a phenomenon the more remarkable, since the 
 neighbouring isles forming the great Indian Archipelago belong 
 to those regions of the earth most abounding in Serpents. 
 Another interesting fact is, that the Serpents, and indeed all 
 the reptiles of America, are specifically different from those of 
 the Old World ; while, on the other hand, a great many birds 
 and several mammiferous animals of North America are pre- 
 cisely the same as those of Europe and a great part of Asia."f 
 
 Some Serpents live amid the foliage of trees, some inhabit 
 fresh waters, sc-me poisonous tribes live in the seas of tropical 
 Asia and New Holland, but by far the greater number are 
 terrestrial. According to Schlegel, there are at present 265 
 known species, and of these only 58 are venomous ; so that 
 the proportion of the harmless ophidians to those which are 
 
 * Roget's Bridge-water Treatise, vol. i. p. 450. 
 
 t Schlegel, "Essai sur la Distribution Geographique des Ophidiens," as 
 abridged in Berghaiis, Physical Atlas.
 
 260 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 venomous is nearly as four to one. This is contrary to popular 
 opinion, and it was especially so in the " olden time." Thus, 
 whenever Shakspeare mentions one of those animals, it is 
 always as a creature to be shunned as hateful or venomous : 
 
 " He is a very serpent in my way ; 
 And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread, 
 He lies before me." KING JOHN, Act iii. scene 3. 
 
 The gigantic Boa-Constrictor belongs to those which are 
 not venomous. It kills its prey by the enormous compression 
 it exerts when coiled round the body ot its victim, which it 
 then proceeds to swallow entire. The teeth are sharp, point 
 backwards, and thus retain the food. And here comes into 
 use a curious and bountiful provision with which snakes are 
 
 furnished. The lower jaw 
 is not united to the upper ; 
 it is hung to a long, stalk- 
 shaped bone, upon which 
 it is moveable (Fig. 224) ; 
 and this bone has also a 
 power of motion, being 
 attached to the skull by 
 muscles and ligaments. By 
 
 Fig. 224. SKULL OF RATTLE-SNAKE. ., , 
 
 means ot this apparatus, 
 
 which is common to all true Serpents, they can swallow ani- 
 mals larger than themselves. This being done they remain 
 
 in a quiescent state until 
 digestion is completed, 
 and the calls of hunger 
 again excite them to 
 exertion. 
 
 In addition to this 
 elaborate contrivance, the 
 venomous tribes are fur- 
 
 Rg. 225.-Poi.OK APPALS o* RATTLK- she <* ^ Poison-fangs, 
 
 esAKE.* " constituting perhaps the 
 
 most terrible weapons of attack met with in the animal crea- 
 tion" t (Fig. 225). They are two in number, fixed to the 
 upper jaw, or, to use more precise language, one is fixed to 
 
 * Fig. 225. ^p, poison gland ; its duct terminates in the large moveable tooth or fang,/; 
 m, muscles which raise the lower jaw and compress the poison gland. 
 
 f Jones's Outline of the Animal Kingdom.
 
 EEPTILES. 261 
 
 each superior maxillary bone. When not in use, they lie flat 
 upon the roof of the mouth, concealed by a fold of the skin. 
 In each fang is a channel, which opens, not at the point of the 
 tooth, but near to it, by a longitudinal fissure. Through this 
 passage the poison flows. When the animal is irritated the poi- 
 son-fangs are erected in a moment ; and when they are struck 
 into the victim, it is easy to imagine how forcibly the poison 
 must be injected into the wound ; for the powerful muscles 
 which elevate the lower jaw serve at the same tune to com- 
 press the poison-bag. 
 
 Behind the large poison-fang in actual use are the germs of 
 several others, ready to supply its place if accidentally broken 
 off, each of which is soon " adapted in all respects to take 
 upon itself the terrible office of its predecessor." 
 
 The poison itself is neither acrid nor burning. On the 
 tongue it only produces a sensation like that of fatty matter, 
 and it may be swallowed without danger ; but introduced into 
 the blood in sufficient quantity, it causes death with fearful 
 rapidity, though the power varies, according to the species, and 
 other circumstances. To avoid such consequences, the best pre- 
 caution is that which is adopted in these countries for the bite 
 of a dog supposed to be mad : the immediate cutting out and 
 cauterising of the wounded part. 
 
 In one genus of the poisonous Serpents there exists a pro- 
 vision which puts the unwary on his guard, and discloses the 
 proximity of the dangerous reptile. W r e allude of course to 
 the Rattle-snake (Fig. 223). Its tail is terminated by a 
 series of horny rings, loosely put together, which rattle with 
 the slightest movement of the animal, and even with the 
 vibrations of the tail when the creature itself lies in conceal- 
 ment.* 
 
 Among the venomous Serpents is one which possesses a 
 classical and historical interest, associated, as it is, with the 
 death of Cleopatra the Egyptian Naja or Asp (Fig. 226). 
 It is at present much used by the Egyptian jugglers in their 
 exhibitions. One of a nearly allied species, the Cobra-di- 
 Capello, has a curious mark on the skin of the neck, not unlike 
 a pair of spectacles. A specimen of this Snake was presented 
 to the Belfast Museum, by Major Martin (now residing at Ar- 
 
 * The information here given respecting the poisonous Serpents is 
 almost entirely derived from Jones's Outline, Carpenter's Zoology, and 
 Milne Edwards' "Elemens de Zoologie."
 
 262 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 drossan, Ayrshire), who narrated to us the following interest- 
 ing occurrence : While stationed in Ceylon, his servant one 
 morning ran into his room and informed him that a favourite 
 Hen was lying dead in her nest, and that the twelve eggs 
 on which she had been sitting were taken away. Supposing 
 it must have heen by a Snake, immediate search was made 
 throughout the hen-house and other adjoining premises, 
 when a Cobra-di-Capello was found under a piece of wood, 
 and was immediately killed ; being opened, the eggs were 
 found in its belly. Nine out of the twelve eggs were broken ; 
 the remaining three were immediately put under another Hen 
 that was sitting, and in due time a chick was produced, and 
 the .race of the feathered favourite thus preserved from 
 extinction. 
 
 Some of the great Snakes 
 found in India incubate, or 
 sit on their eggs. This 
 fact was observed in the 
 case of a female (Python 
 bivittatus) in the menagerie 
 of the Museum at Paris. 
 Her body was coiled round 
 the eggs (fifteen in number), 
 forming a cone, at the top 
 of which was her head. The 
 temperature of the body was 
 sensibly augmented while 
 incubation was going on, 
 which lasted for nearly two 
 months. During the whole 
 of this period she ate no- 
 thing, but drank greedily 
 
 the young were hatched she left them to themselves, evincing 
 no further affection for the offspring over which she had so 
 sedulously brooded.* 
 
 The remains of Serpents of this tribe, and of that of the 
 Boa-Constrictor, have been found in the London clay, thus 
 proving the former existence in these kingdoms of reptiles 
 which are now only known in tropical countries. No snakes 
 
 * Annales des Sciences Naturelles, tome xvi. p. 65. 
 Jenyns's Edition of White's Selbonie, p. 69. 
 
 Quoted in Xote to
 
 REPTILES. 263 
 
 of any kind whatever exist in Ireland. In England, the harm- 
 less tribes are represented by the Common or Ringed Snake 
 (Xatrix torquata), and the venomous by the Adder or Common 
 Viper (Pdias berus). The injurious results of the bite of the 
 latter reptile would appear to be much exaggerated. Professor 
 Bell states that he has never seen a case which terminated in 
 death, nor has he been able to trace to an authentic source the 
 numerous reports of such a termination. 
 
 Both species lie torpid during the winter, concealed under 
 hedges, or the hollow roots of a tree, or any other sequestered 
 and sheltered situation. The numbers that thus remain coiled 
 together are sometimes so considerable that Dr. Carpenter 
 mentions an instance which came within his own knowledge, of 
 1300 Ringed Snakes being found in an old limekiln.* The 
 return of a more genial season and a higher temperature again 
 rouses them to activity. Hence the remark of the poet 
 
 " It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, 
 And that craves wary walking." SHAKSPEARB. 
 
 These reptiles possess, as is well known, the power of 
 changing or casting off their skin. Before it is cast off a 
 process which appears to take place at uncertain intervals 
 the colouring is dull, and the animal seems blind. When the 
 new skin is completely formed and hardened underneath, the 
 old one bursts or splits asunder, about the neck, being removed 
 as the animal passes through any tangled copse. 
 
 A remarkable difference exists between the Common Snake 
 and the Viper with regard to the production of their young. 
 The former is oviparous, and deposits from sixteen to twenty 
 eggs, which are vivified by heat. The latter is ovo-viviparous ; 
 that is to say, the young are produced from eggs ; but in the 
 very act of deposition, the membranous covering of the egg is 
 rent asunder, and the young which vary in number from 
 sixteen to twenty come forth alive. 
 
 Dr. Clarke, in speaking of the Common Snake, remarks 
 " The movements of this species are highly elegant. Its course 
 among grass or underwood is performed in a zigzag direction ; 
 the head and neck are thrust forward alternately to the right 
 and left, while the rest of the body follows precisely the same 
 course. In its progress the head pushes aside the blades of 
 grass or other yielding bodies, and the remainder of the body 
 
 * Zoology, voL L p. 569.
 
 264 INTEODUCTIOtf TO ZOOLOGY 
 
 follows without communicating any motion to them ; and in 
 this way a snake will often steal across a meadow, or through 
 a thicket, unperceived hy a person standing at a little distance." * 
 In contrast with the clear and simple statement here given of 
 the movements of the common English Snake, it is interesting 
 to place the magnificent description so well known to every 
 reader of " Paradise Lost " : 
 
 " So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed 
 In serpent, inmate bad ! and toward Eve 
 Addressed his way ; not with indented wave 
 Prone on the ground as since, but on his rear 
 Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd 
 Fold above fold, a surging maze ! his head 
 Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes, 
 With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect 
 Amidst his circling spires that on the grass 
 Floated redundant." BOOK ix. 
 
 Like many other now exploded specifics, the flesh of Ser- 
 pents, or the liquid, especially wine, in which they were in- 
 fused, was held of peculiar efficacy for the cure of disease, and 
 as an antidote to poison. These ideas, preposterous as they 
 may now appear, were not discarded until the last century was 
 far advanced. In Dr. Owen's work on Serpents, published in 
 London in 1672, we are informed that " their flesh, either 
 roasted or boiled, the physicians unanimously prescribe, as 
 an excellent restorative, particularly in consumptions and 
 leprosy.". 
 
 There is another reptile equally inoffensive, and not less 
 maligned than some already mentioned the Blind-worm, or 
 Slow-worm of Britain, described as the " eyeless venom'cl 
 worm " by Shakspeare. Yet it has in fact no poison fangs, and 
 is naturally of so timid and gentle a disposition, that only under 
 circumstances of great provocation will it attempt to bite. It 
 is unknown in Ireland ; but in Scotland we have seen it 
 broken in two by the blow of a slight rod, thus illustrating the 
 correctness of the Linnsean appellation Anguis fragilis the 
 Fragile Snake. 
 
 To the systematic naturalist this creature is interesting from 
 its exhibiting in certain points the character of two distinct 
 classes of reptiles. The body is destitute of legs, in that re- 
 spect resembling the true Serpents, while at the same time the 
 
 * Magazine of Natural History, 1838, p. 479.
 
 EEPTILES. 265 
 
 jaws and cranium are consolidated, thus resembling those of 
 the Lizards. 
 
 The great altitude at which some Snakes are found is worthy 
 of notice, as it necessarily involves their capability of living 
 at a lower temperature than might have been expected. It 
 is stated that two species of Viper, one of them the Common 
 Adder of England, are found on the Alps at an elevation of 
 5300 feet; and the Blind-worm nearly as high as 6000 
 feet. 
 
 ORDER III. SAUKIA. LIZAEDS. 
 
 IN this order the body and tail are elongated, the jaws are fur- 
 nished with teeth, the skin is covered with scales, and the ani- 
 mals have generally four feet. About two hundred species are 
 known, which are distributed by naturalists into nine or ten 
 families, and numerous genera. 
 
 The flesh of many of the foreign Lizards, when cooked, is 
 white, and is relished as very good food. Humboldt has re- 
 marked that all the South American species within the tropics, 
 and inhabiting dry regions, are esteemed delicacies for the 
 table. Their habits present considerable variety. Mr. Darwin 
 mentions one (Amblyrhyncus cristalus) that swims out to sea 
 at the Gallipagos Islands, and feeds upon a sea-weed that 
 grows at the bottom; and another (A. sub-cristatus) that 
 makes burrows on the land. He watched one of these for 
 a long time while making its excavation. " I then," continues 
 he, " walked up and pulled it by the tail ; at this it was greatly 
 astonished, and soon shuffled up to see what was the matter, 
 and then stared me in the face, as much as to say, ' What 
 made you pull my tail ?' "
 
 266 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOQY 
 
 The genus which comprises the greatest number of species 
 is that of the Iguanas (Fig. 227), which are found only in 
 
 Fig. 227. IGUANA 
 
 the New World. Some of these are so much as five feet in 
 length, and the colour a beautiful green of a variety of shades. 
 They have a singular crest along the back, and a hanging 
 pouch, like the dewlap of oxen, under the chin. This pouch 
 they have the power of inflating with air. They live among 
 the branches of trees, and feed principally, but not exclu- 
 sively, upon leaves and fruits. Eggs and insects form a por- 
 tion of their diet.* 
 
 Darker in colour and more repulsive in aspect are the 
 
 Fig. 228. GECKO. 
 
 Geckos (Fig. 228) or Nocturnal Lizards. "Though tirnid 
 and harmless, they are always regarded by the vulgar as 
 
 * A gigantic fossil reptile discovered in the South of England, in 1834, 
 by Dr. Mantell, is named the Iguanodon, from its resemblance in many 
 points of structure to the Iguana.
 
 EEPTTLES. 267 
 
 venomous and highly dangerous. Besides the depressed form 
 of the body, they are eminently distinguished by having the 
 feet palmated, or rather lobed and dilated into discs." * In 
 consequence of this peculiarity of structure they can ascend 
 walls, and even run along ceilings. They lurk in crevices 
 during the day, and come forth at night in pursuit of their 
 insect food. 
 
 Perhaps, however, there are no reptiles to which a greater 
 degree of popular interest attaches than to the Chameleons 
 (Fig. 229). They are exclusively natives of the warm parts 
 
 Fig. 229. CHAXELKOS. 
 
 of the Old World, and exhibit several structural peculiarities. 
 Like other Lizards they have five toes ; but they are divided 
 into two parcels, and thus adapted for climbing. The tail also 
 serves as an instrument for prehension. The eyes have such 
 independent powers of motion that they can be turned in the 
 most opposite directions at the same time. The tongue is of 
 great length, and is terminated by an adhesive disc, which 
 they dart out with unerring aim at their insect prey. We 
 have watched for hours their sluggish and almost inanimate 
 appearance, though even at such times they occasionally mani- 
 fest the singular changes of colour for which they are so cele- 
 brated. These, however, are not to the extent set forth in a 
 well-known poetical composition, with which every school-boy 
 is familiar ; but after all allowance for poetical exaggeration, 
 the phenomenon is sufficiently curious to have been for a long 
 time one that naturalists were unable to explain. It was re- 
 served for Milne Edwards to solve the problem, t He has 
 shown that there exist, in the skin of these animals, two layers 
 
 * Swainson on Fishes, Amphibia, and Reptiles. 
 
 f Annales des Sciences Naturelles. January, 1834.
 
 268 INTHODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 of membranous pigment, or colouring matter, so arranged 
 that both may be visible at the same time ; or that the lower 
 layer may appear in varying proportions amid the upper ; or 
 that it may be altogether concealed beneath it. This mechan- 
 ism is similar to that which exists in some of the Cuttle-fish, 
 to whose changes of colour we have already referred (Part I., 
 p. 190). 
 
 The Lizards, which are regarded as the true types or repre- 
 sentatives of the order, do not belong to any of the families 
 yet mentioned, but to the Lacertidoe. These have long, 
 slender, forked tongues, and are the attractive and nimble 
 reptiles which greet the eye of the traveller in France and 
 Italy. The family is not confined to Europe, some of its 
 members are found in each of the four quarters of the globe. 
 It is to this group that the two species of English Lizard be- 
 long Lacerla agilis and Zootoca vivipara. Between them 
 a difference exists similar to that which has been mentioned 
 in the two species of Snakes (p. 263). The larger Lizard 
 (L. agilis) is oviparous ; the smaller (Z. vivipara) brings 
 forth her young alive : or, to speak more correctly, is ovo- 
 viviparous.* 
 
 Perhaps no one circumstance connected with their economy 
 is more surprising, when seen for the first time, than the facility 
 with which the tail separates from the body. Great is the 
 astonishment of a person unacquainted with this peculiarity, 
 when he grasps the tail and finds it remaining in his hand, 
 while the swift-running reptile effects its escape. 
 
 The following characteristic occurrence is narrated by Dr. 
 J. L. Drummond : " Being on the sea shore at Pulo Bay, in 
 Sardinia, and searching for specimens of natural history, I 
 observed a large Lizard running for shelter under a heap of 
 stones. I was just in time to seize it by the end of the tail ; 
 but suddenly the resistance made by the animal to my attempt 
 to drag it from its hiding place ceased, and I gave it up for 
 lost ; but as suddenly had cause for alarm myself, on seeing 
 what appeared to be a small Snake leaping with great agility 
 about my feet, and springing as high as my knee. I instantly 
 started out of its way, and watched it at a respectful distance, 
 when I found that it was the tail of the animal, which I was 
 not before aware could so easily separate." t 
 
 * The meaning of this term has been already explained, vide p. 263. 
 f " First Steps to Anatomy," p. 86.
 
 EEPTILES. 269 
 
 As these animals come forth in sunny weather, decked in 
 bright colours, and gifted with the power of rapid movement, 
 it is not strange that, in more southern countries, where they 
 are more numerous than here, they should he mentioned 
 among the peculiarities and attractions of the scenery. 
 
 -" The green hills 
 
 Are clothed with early blossoms, through the grass 
 The quick-eyed lizard rustles, and the bills 
 Of summer-birds sing welcome as ye pass." 
 
 CHILDE HAROLD, canto iv. st. cxviL 
 
 From the most popular of the order, we turn to the most 
 formidahle, the Crocodiles. Of these, " the Alligators or 
 Caymans are peculiar to America, the true Crocodiles to 
 Africa, and the Gavials to Asia."* The Crocodile of the Nile 
 formed one of the innumerable idols of the ancient Egyptians. 
 His great strength is almost proverbial. " He esteemeth iron 
 as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make 
 him flee ; sling-stones are turned with him into stubble. 
 Darts are counted as stubble ; he laugheth at the shaking of 
 a spear."t Yet this formidable reptile is endued with habits 
 which render him one of the great benefactors of the human 
 race. 
 
 " In the grand policy of nature, the scavengers are by no 
 means the least important agents. In hot climates especially, 
 where putrefaction advances with so much rapidity, were there 
 not efficient and active officers continually employed in speedily 
 removing all dead carcases and carrion, the air would be 
 perpetually contaminated with pestilential effluvia, and entire 
 regions rendered uninhabitable by the accumulation of putre- 
 fying flesh. Perhaps, however, no localities could be pointed 
 out more obnoxious to such a frightful cause of pestilence than 
 the banks of tropical rivers those gigantic streams which, 
 pouring their waters from realm to realm, daily roll down 
 towards the sea the bloated remains of thousand of creatures 
 which taint the atmosphere by their decomposition. "J 
 
 Such are precisely the situations inhabited by the various 
 species of Crocodiles and Alligators. They are specially de- 
 
 Berghaus's Physical Atlas. By several naturalists the Crocodiles are 
 formed into a distinct order, termed, from their peculiar covering, Loricata, 
 or mailed. 
 
 f Job xli. 27-29. 
 
 | Jones's Outline, 559.
 
 270 IJfTEODUCTIOTf TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 signed by nature to feed upon putrefying materials, and so 
 strong is this impulse, that when they drown a living animal, 
 it is said not to he devoured immediately, but dragged into 
 some place where it can be kept until decay has set in.* 
 
 But though, like other gourmands, the Crocodile keeps his 
 game until it has acquired the racy flavour and tenderness of 
 muscle which come with decay, the organ of taste, the tongue, 
 has not the usual freedom of motion ; it is flat and fleshy, and 
 is attached to the mouth so much that the ancients supposed 
 it was altogether wanting. 
 
 We can account, therefore, for their idea respecting the 
 tongue, but there were other notions current respecting the 
 reptiles which cannot be so easily explained ; such as their 
 uttering piteous cries to allure travellers to the water, and 
 there destroying them, weeping while they did so. To this 
 tradition Shakspeare alludes in the passage 
 
 ' Gloster's show 
 
 Beguiles him, as the mournful Crocodile 
 With sorrow snares relenting passengers." 
 
 Second Part KING HESKY VI., Act iii. scene 1. 
 
 In the " Voiage and -Travaile of Sir John Maundeville, Knt.," 
 between the years 1322 and 1356, we are furnished with an- 
 other example of the prevalence of these old errors : 
 
 " In that contre and be all yonde, ben great plenty of Cro- 
 kodilles, that is a manner of a long Serpent, as I have seyd 
 before. These Serpents slew men, and thei eaten hem 
 wepynge ; and whan thei eaten, thei meven the over jowe, 
 and nought the nether jowe : and thei have no tonge." 
 
 The Crocodile sometimes attains the length of thirty feet, 
 but Mr. Swainson remarks, " that it is only dangerous when 
 in the water ; upon land it is a slow-paced and even timid 
 animal, so that an active boy, armed with a small hatchet, 
 might easily despatch one." He elsewhere adds, that on land, 
 " so far from attacking man, they fly from his presence." 
 
 The beneficent provision by which the teeth are kept at 
 all times in full order for their appointed functions, is not less 
 complete or effectual than in the Shark (p. 226) or the 
 Serpent (p. 261) : a successive series of new teeth is ever 
 growing throughout the entire period of life ; each grows 
 through the central portion of its predecessor, which is partly 
 
 * Swaiuson.
 
 EEPTILES. 
 
 271 
 
 absorbed and finally thrown off. It was supposed by one 
 writer that the Crocodile had so many teeth as there are 
 days in the year. Professor Owen* remarks that the number 
 of teeth developed by a Crocodile, throughout its entire life, 
 would doubtless exceed even this liberal allowance. But with 
 regard to those which are in use at any given time, the 
 number is now well ascertained : the Crocodile of the Nile has 
 sixty-eight; the common Alligator (A. lucius), seventy -six ; 
 and the great Gavial (Gavialus Gangeticus), one hundred and 
 eighteen. 
 
 This notice of saurian reptiles, however slight, cannot be 
 closed without some reference to the strange forms and gigantic 
 proportions of the fossil species discovered in these countries. 
 
 Fig. 230. ICHTHYOSAURUS. 
 
 One of them, the Ichthyosaurus (Fig. 230), or Fish-lizard, 
 received that name from some resemblance of the vertebrae to 
 those of fishes. Seven or eight species are now known, ex- 
 hibiting singular combinations of structure, such as are no 
 longer found united in any living animal. Some of these 
 individuals were not less than thirty feet in length. They 
 were marine reptiles, preying upon fishes, whose scales and 
 bones, found in hardened masses in the interior of the skele- 
 tons, and strewed elsewhere in great abundance, unfold a talc 
 respecting the former inhabitants of the ancient ocean from 
 which these islands were upheaved. 
 
 Fig. 231. PLESIOSACRCS. 
 
 Another genus is that of the Plesiosauruslr (Fig. 231). 
 " To the head of a Lizard is united the teeth of a Crocodile ; 
 
 * Odontogrnphy, p. 286. 
 
 f From two Greek words, meaning "near to" and a "Lizard."
 
 272 HfTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 a neck of enormous length, resembling the body of a Serpent; 
 a trunk and tail having the proportions of an ordinary quad- 
 ruped; the ribs of a Chameleon, and the paddles of a 
 Whale."* 
 
 The Plesiosauri appear to have lived in shallow seas and 
 estuaries, and to have breathed air like the Ichthyosauri, or 
 like the Whale and the Porpoise. The most remarkable 
 character is the extraordinary extension of the neck, to a 
 length nearly equalling that of the body and tail together, and 
 surpassing, in the number of its vertebrae (thirty-three), that 
 of the Swan. It is supposed to have " swum upon or near 
 the surface, arching back its long neck like the Swan, and 
 occasionally darting it down at the fish which happened to 
 float within its reach." 
 
 The Pterodactyles^ (ffiff- 232) constitute another genus. 
 
 Fig. 232. PTKBODACTTLK. 
 
 About eight species are now known, the size varying from 
 that of a Snipe to that of a Cormorant. They were consi- 
 dered by Cuvier the most extraordinary of all the extinct 
 animals that had fallen under his observation ; and such as, if 
 we saw them restored to life, would appear most unlike to 
 anything that exists in the present world. 
 
 These flying reptiles resembled, in some degree, our modern 
 
 * Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise. We use the words of that elo- 
 quent writer, so far as our limited space will permit. 
 
 f From two Greek words, signifying "wing-fingered," some of the 
 finger-joints being of such a length as to have served as the supports for a 
 membranous wing. The dotted lines in the figure (232) indicate the sup- 
 posed outline of this wing, and of the skin of other parts of the body.
 
 EEPTILES. 273 
 
 Bats. Most of them had the nose elongated, like the snout 
 of a Crocodile, and the mouth armed with conical teeth. 
 Fingers, furnished with long hooks, gave them the means of 
 climbing trees, or hanging in the manner of the Bat and the 
 Vampire. The eyes were of enormous size, apparently as a 
 provision for nocturnal flight. From the remains of insects 
 found with the bones of Pterodactyles near Oxford, some 
 confirmation of the conjecture is derived, that their food was 
 insects ; but the larger species of Pterodactyle had head and 
 teeth so much larger and stronger than such prey required, 
 that they may possibly have fed on fishes, darting down upon 
 them from the air. It is probable, therefore, they possessed 
 the power of swimming ; and thus qualified for all services 
 and all elements, they realized Milton's description : 
 
 ' The fiend 
 
 O'er bog or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare, 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 
 
 PARADISE LOST, Book ii. line 947. 
 
 OBDEB IV. TESTUDINATA.* TOKTOISES. 
 
 " And in his needy shop a Tortoise hung, 
 An Alligator stuffed, and other skins 
 Of ill-shaped fishes." SHAKSPEAKK. 
 
 LET it not excite surprise that, in the passage just quoted, the 
 word " fishes'" should be applied to reptiles. It is still used 
 by the uneducated in speaking of warm-blooded mammalia, 
 which, like the Whale, live in the sea. And let us not look 
 with scorn upon those fallacies ; for ever, as our own know- 
 ledge increases, we should become more sensible of its limited 
 extent, and more indulgent towards the errors of others. 
 Tortoises are distinguished from all other reptiles by having 
 
 * Latin Testudo, a Tortoise. The Greek chelys signifies a Water Tortoise ; 
 the term chekmian reptiles, which is hence derived, is applied both to land 
 and to water species.
 
 274 
 
 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the body enclosed between two shields, with apertures for the 
 head, the tail, and the four legs. The jaws are horny and 
 without teeth. 
 
 If we look upon one of the common Land Tortoises, slowly 
 pacing along, and clad in its unyielding armour, we are in- 
 clined to ask, " Why should it be called a vertebrate animal ? 
 Where are the vertebrae and the ribs ? " 
 
 If we examine the under side of the shield that covers 
 the back of the animal (Fig. 233), the question may with 
 ease be answered. The structure of that shield or, as it 
 is termed, the carapace reveals the vertebrae and ribs, but 
 
 Fig. 233. SKELETON OF TORTOISE.* 
 
 Fig. 233. SKELETON OF LAND TORTOISR with the plastron or lower shell re- 
 moved. vc, cervical vertebrae ; </, dorsal vertebrae ; r, ribs ; sr, sternal ribs, or mar- 
 ginal pieces of the carapace; o, scapula; d, clavicle; co, coracoid bone; p, pelvis; 
 f, femur; t, tibia;/, fibula.
 
 BEPTILES. 
 
 275 
 
 strangely altered. The vertebrae have become immovable, 
 and the ribs so widened as to touch each other throughout 
 their entire length. Still the anatomist can trace, under these 
 and other modifications of structure, the parts with which 
 he is familiar in other animals. In the lower shell, or plastron 
 (Fig. 236), he can, in like manner, recognize tae breast-bone 
 (sternum), modified in its structure, so as to form a large oval 
 plate. 
 
 The number of species at present known is sixty-nine ; and 
 these, arranged according to their habits, may be conveniently 
 spoken of as 
 
 Land Tortoises, of which there are 15 species. 
 
 Freshwater Tortoises 46 
 
 Turtles, or Marine Tortoises, 8 
 
 The animals of this order are, more than any other reptiles, 
 limited to the warmer portions of the globe ; yet three of the 
 marine species, having at different times been borne by the 
 waves and currents to different parts of the shores of these 
 countries, are, according to established custom, entitled to rank 
 with our indigenous animals. 
 
 Among the species thus 
 added to our Fauna is the 
 Hawk's-bill Turtle* (Chdo- 
 nia imbricata, Fig. 234). 
 The one best known to epi- 
 cures is the Green Turtle 
 (Chelonia mydas) ; but the 
 former species is that which 
 supplies the valuable Tor- 
 toise-shell of commerce, and 
 to it our observations must 
 be restricted. 
 
 "The structure of the 
 whole family is admirably 
 adapted to their marine 
 habits. The body is flattened 
 so as greatly to facilitate 
 their progress through the water ; the feet are formed into 
 the most perfect oars, by means of which they are propelled 
 
 * The other two species are the Coriaceous Turtle Spkangis coriacea 
 arid Chdonia caouana. 
 
 Fig 231 HAWK'S-BILL TCETLE.
 
 276 DfTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 with considerable force and velocity."* "The Green and 
 Hawk-billed in particular," says Audubon, "remind you, by 
 their celerity, and the ease of their motions, of the progress 
 of a bird in the air." They feed on sea- weeds, fishes, mol- 
 lusca, and Crustacea. The jaws are strong and firmly arti- 
 culated; the horny beak, which bears some resemblance to 
 the bill of a Hawk, is very hard, and the edge sharp. 
 
 The annual resort of the various species of marine Turtles 
 to the land, for the purpose of depositing their eggs, is one of 
 the most interesting points of their history. On the island of 
 Ascension, on the shores of the Gulf of Florida, and in many 
 other places, innumerable multitudes arrive for this purpose 
 during the early part of the summer. The eggs, amounting 
 to one hundred and fifty or two hundred, are laid in a hole 
 scraped on the beach, they are then covered with sand ; and 
 the Turtle, having accomplished the object of her mission, 
 retreats with all speed to the water, f 
 
 As the flesh of this species is not considered very palatable, 
 the Tortoise is pursued and captured solely for the value of its 
 shell. It is taken on the west coast of New Guinea, at Cuba, 
 and at various other localities ; but the Tortoise-shell which 
 comes from the Pacific Ocean is considered much more valu- 
 able than that of the Atlantic. 
 
 The Biver Tortoises (Trionycidce) are exclusively carnivo- 
 rous, and eat their food in the water. They are without 
 scales, and are hence called "soft Tortoises." In the Ganges 
 they are very numerous, and prey like the Gavials on the 
 bodies of the natives floating down the stream.J The feet 
 are webbed. The Marsh Tortoises (Emydce) are found about 
 lakes, ponds, and small rivers, and swim with considerable 
 
 * Bell's British Reptiles, p. 2. 
 
 f The description given by the poet is too appropriate to be omitted: 
 " The pregnant Turtle, stealing out at eve, 
 
 With anxious eye and trembling heart, explored 
 
 The loneliest coves, and in the loose warm sand 
 
 Deposited her eggs, which the sun hatched ; 
 
 Hence the young brood, that never knew a parent, 
 
 Unburrowed, and by instinct sought the sea ; 
 
 Nature herself, with her own gentle hand, 
 
 Dropping them, one by one, into the flood, 
 
 And laughing to behold their antic joy, 
 
 When launched in their maternal element." 
 + Swainson, p. 116. MONTGOMERY'S "PELICAN ISLASD"
 
 REPTILES. 
 
 277 
 
 facility. In them also the feet are webbed. The food con- 
 sists of Fishes, Amphibia, Insects, Mollusca, and carrion. 
 Some which inhabit the waters of Carolina and South America 
 are called Alligator Tortoises, and are remarkable for their 
 activity and for the great strength of their jaws. 
 
 The Land Tortoises (Testudinidce) are entirely herbivorous; 
 the feet are blunt, and furnished with short claws. The 
 species best known in this country is the Testudo Grceca 
 (Figs. 235, 236). When at liberty, it buries itself towards 
 
 TORTOISE. 
 
 235. Upper Surface. 
 
 236. Lower Surface. 
 
 the beginning of winter, and remains in its dormitory until 
 spring. 
 
 The great longevity of these creatures seems to be one of 
 the most remarkable circumstances in their history. One is 
 recorded as living at Peterborough whose age must have been 
 about 220 years. " Bishop Marsh's predecessor in the see 
 of Peterborough had remembered it about sixty years, and 
 could recognize no visible change. He was the seventh bishop 
 who had worn the mitre during its sojourn there."* The 
 weight of this animal was 13^ Ibs. yet it moved with apparent 
 ease, though pressed by a weight of eighteen stone. 
 
 Mr. Darwin mentions the great abundance of Tortoises in 
 all the Islands of the Galapagos Archipelago. These creatures 
 sometimes grow to an immense size ; he had been told of some 
 so large that six or eight men were required to lift them from 
 
 * Extracted from Murray's " Experimental Researches, " as quoted in 
 a foot-note to Sir William Jardine's edition of " White's Selborne."
 
 278 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the ground. They are fond of water, travel great distances 
 for it to springs on the elevated grounds, and drink large 
 quantities. From this circumstance it occasionally happens 
 that the inhabitants of the lower district, when overcome with 
 thirst, will kill a Tortoise for the sake of the contained water. 
 " They believe," says Mr. Darwin, " that these animals are 
 absolutely deaf; certainly they do not hear a person walking 
 close behind them. I was always amused, when overtaking 
 one of these great monsters as it was quietly pacing along, to 
 see how suddenly, the instant I passed, it would draw in its 
 head and legs, and, uttering a deep hiss, fall to the ground 
 with a heavy sound, as if struck dead. I frequently got on 
 their backs, and then, upon giving a few raps on the hinder 
 part of the shell, they would rise up and walk away ; but I 
 found it very difficult to keep my balance."* 
 
 Were we to give full credence to the authority of Pliny, 
 we could not doubt, notwithstanding what has just been 
 mentioned, that Tortoises have sadly dwindled .from their 
 former amplitude ; for he expressly informs us, " there be 
 found Tortoises in the Indian Sea, so great, that only one 
 shele of them is sufficient for the roufe of a dwelling-house, "f 
 Exaggerated as this statement may appear, if applied to 
 existing species, it is literally true respecting some which lived 
 in remoter periods another instance of how the light of 
 Fiction " pales her ineffectual fire" before the brightness of 
 Truth. 
 
 The fact to which we advert may be briefly told. In the 
 north of India, and from the Sewalik Hills, which from a 
 lower chain of the Himalaya Mountains, great numbers of the 
 fossil remains of vertebrate animals were discovered by Dr. 
 Falconer and Major Cautley. Among these were numerous 
 fragments of a gigantic fossil Tortoise, which after their arrival 
 in London were exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological 
 Society, J and are now in the British Museum. From the 
 relative size of the bones, and portions of the shell of this 
 extinct reptile, as compared with the corresponding parts of 
 recent species, it was estimated that the lower shell (plastron) 
 had been nine feet four inches long, and the upper shell or 
 buckler (carapace) twelve feet three inches; eight feet in 
 
 * Journal, p. 464. The species spoken of is the Testvdo fndicvs. 
 f Pliny's Natural History. London, 1634. Vol. ii. p. 431. 
 j Vide Proceedings, 26th March, and 14th May, 1844.
 
 HEPTILES. 279 
 
 diameter, and six feet in height. The foot of the animal 
 when living must have equalled in size that of the largest 
 Rhinoceros. The entire length of the Tortoise, from the most 
 careful admeasurement, was inferred to have been about 
 eighteen feet, and its height more than seven. 
 
 These remains were collected during a period of eight or 
 nine years, along a range of eighty miles of hilly country. 
 From the circumstances under which they were met with, in 
 crushed fragments, contained in elevated strata which have 
 undergone considerable disturbance, no perfect " shell," nor 
 anything approaching to a complete skeleton, was found. In 
 1835, when the first of these fossil remains were discovered, 
 there was no record of any colossal reptiles of this order ; and 
 it became a question, " To what animal could these enormous 
 bones have belonged?" Vain, for a long time, was all 
 research and all conjecture ; the problem was still unsolved, 
 and the interest attached to its solution continued daily to 
 increase. At length a small Land Tortoise furnished to the 
 investigators .the data for its solution. One of its diminutive 
 leg bones resembled in form one of the immense fossils. And, 
 as in the " Castle of Otranto " the helmet which filled the 
 court-yard, the gigantic foot, the colossal hand, and the sword 
 which required a hundred men to carry it, were all associated 
 together ; so, when the creature which had borne this pon- 
 derous fossil had been discovered, the mystery was revealed, 
 and no difficulty was felt in assigning to every other bone its 
 proper place.* 
 
 The researches of geologists have shown that several species 
 of both Land and Freshwater Tortoises lived, in former times, 
 in these countries ; and the remains of the marine species dis- 
 covered have been so numerous as to prove that our own seas 
 were at one period more abundantly provided with Turtles, of 
 different kinds, " than the same extent of ocean in any of the 
 warmer parts of the earth at the present day."f 
 
 Having presented the Tortoise to our readers under so many 
 
 * The name bestowed on this fossil Tortoise was Colossochelys A tlas : the 
 first term literally, "Colossal Tortoise" having reference to its size; the 
 second to an Indian tradition, of the world having been placed on the back 
 of an elephant, which was sustained on a huge tortoise; the creature thus 
 performing the duty of Atlas, who, according to classic fable, supported the 
 world on his shoulders. 
 
 f Professor Owen, in a paper read before the Geological Society, 1841
 
 280 INTEODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 different aspects, we cannot conclude better than by exhibiting 
 his behaviour when in love ! The words are those of Professor 
 Edward Forbes : 
 
 " Among Lycian reptiles the Tortoise is the most conspi- 
 cuous and abundant. The number of these animals straying 
 about the plains, and browsing on the fresh herbage in spring, 
 astonishes the traveller. In April they commence love-making. 
 Before we were aware of the cause, we were often surprised, 
 when wandering among ruins and waste places, at hearing a 
 noise as if some invisible geologist was busily occupied close 
 by, trimming his specimens. A search in the direction of the 
 noise discovered the hammer in the shape of a gentleman tor- 
 toise, who, not being gifted with vocal powers, endeavoured to 
 express the warmth of his affection to his lady-love by rattling 
 his shell against her side."* 
 
 * Travels in Lycia, by Lieut Spratt, K.N., and Professor Edward Forbes, 
 vol. ii. p. 67. The species were Testudo Grceca and margmata.
 
 281 
 
 CLASS III. 
 
 AVES. BIRDS. 
 
 "Birds, the free tenants of land, air, and ocean 
 Their forms all symmetry, their motions grace." 
 
 JAMES MONTGOMERY. 
 
 WE have arrived at a new region, of a character altogether 
 different from any that we have hitherto traversed. At other 
 times, on crossing the line of boundary, we found the aspect 
 of the country unchanged, and the inhabitants nearest to the 
 frontier so like those from whom we had just parted, that at 
 first sight they seemed members of the same fraternity. But 
 such is not the case here ; the cold-blooded reptiles can never 
 be mistaken for the warm-blooded birds. We have reached 
 a new land ; we have come among a strange people. Let us 
 observe their ways, and ask how they have been described by 
 those who have made them an especial object of study. 
 
 Birds are oviparous animals ; in other words, they are pro- 
 duced from eggs. They breathe by lungs, have warm blood, 
 and a heart with four cavities namely, two auricles and two 
 ventricles. The body is covered with feathers, and is fur- 
 nished with two wings and two feet. 
 
 Connected with this higher organization, we see in birds the 
 power of flight in its fullest development. This alone would 
 separate them from any other class of vertebrate animals. It 
 is displayed in their long migrations, in the rapidity of their 
 course, and in the force with which the Eagle, " towering in 
 his pride of place," swoops upon his quarry. 
 
 This power of flight is, of itself, a singular and interesting 
 subject, connected with the feathered tribes. It is one of 
 those wonders which may be viewed every day, would we but 
 open our eyes to see and our minds to consider them. 
 
 Let us, for a few moments, endeavour to divest ourselves 
 of our familiarity with the phenomenon. "Let us," to use 
 the words of the Bishop of Norwich,* " suppose a person to 
 
 * Familiar History of Birds, voL i. Introduction, p. 3.
 
 282 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 have grown from infancy to manhood, without ever having 
 heard of a bird. He sees that the light snow-flake is unable 
 to remain suspended in the air ; that the still lighter thistle- 
 down, when no longer supported by the breeze, has a tendency 
 to fall to the ground ; and yet he is told that there are tenants 
 of the air, countless as those of earth and water ; that some, 
 of considerable size and weight, can journey on their way 
 above the clouds, and with a facility and speed far exceeding 
 that of the swiftest-footed animal. He may, indeed, from 
 observing that cork and light bodies, when plunged in water, 
 rise to the surface, conceive the possible existence of a lighter 
 substance than air, capable, by the same laws of nature, of 
 rising above the earth ; if a philosopher, he may even discover 
 the inflammable and lighter gas by which a balloon ascends, 
 with the weight of a man attached ; but how shall he lift a 
 substance heavier than the air and how guide its progress 
 through the air ? Show him the weighty body of an Eagle 
 or a Swan ;* tell him their living history, and he may reason- 
 ably doubt your fact, and deny that these things could be." 
 
 To understand the nature of the mechanism by which flight 
 is effected, let us attend, in the first instance, to the structure 
 of the skeleton of birds ; and next, to the peculiarities con- 
 nected with their respiration. 
 
 Skeleton. The neck of birds is, in general, longer and 
 more moveable than that of quadrupeds. As it is by means 
 of the beak that their food is picked up from the earth, the 
 neck, or cenrical part of the vertebral column, is longer in pro- 
 portion as the bird is more elevated by the length of its legs. 
 In swimming birds, which, like the Swan, plunge their head 
 into the water to take their prey, the length of the neck sur- 
 passes that of the trunk. The number of vertebrae differs 
 much, according to the different species of birds. It is com- 
 monly twelve or fifteen ; but in the Sparrow it is only nine, 
 while in the Swan it reaches the extraordinary number of 
 twenty-three. It is to this bountiful provision that this bird 
 owes much of its grace and elegance : and this characteristic 
 feature is therefore justly noticed by the poet : 
 
 -" The Swan, with arched neck 
 
 Between her white wings, mantling proudly, rows 
 Her state with oary feet." PARADISE LOST, Book vii. 
 
 The Wild Swan weighs about 25 Ibs.
 
 BIRDS. 283 
 
 The joints of the neck are not only numerous, but are made 
 to work on each other with great ease and freedom, and are 
 furnished with numerous projections, to which the muscles 
 are attached. Some of these are shown in the annexed figure 
 (Fig. 237). 
 
 Fig. 237. SKKLETOR OF THE OSTRICH. 
 
 For the vertebrae of the back a different arrangement is 
 required ; strength, not flexibility, is the object ; and, accord- 
 ingly, in most birds they are united together, and are 
 consequently immovable. They thus serve not merely as 
 supports for the ribs, but have the solidity which is needful to 
 furnish points of support for the wings also. So beautifully, 
 however, are those structures modified, that in birds which 
 do not fly, the consolidation of the joints of the back-bone 
 does not take place, and some degree of movement is thereby 
 secured.
 
 284 
 
 1NTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 This is exemplified in the Ostrich (Figs. 237, 249), and in 
 the Cassowary (Fig. 238). 
 
 Fig. 23a CASSOWABT. 
 
 Another peculiarity prevails in the birds just mentioned. 
 The breast-bone (sternum, Fig. 239) never presents the pro- 
 jecting ridge, or keel, which 
 fc we notice on the birds used 
 
 as food in these countries. 
 This k'eel serves an impor- 
 tant office, as it increases 
 
 c the power of action in the 
 muscles by which the wing 
 is moved. It is large in 
 
 r proportion to the power of 
 flight ; but in birds which 
 cannot possibly fly, and have 
 only the rudiments of wings, 
 the keel is altogether want- 
 ing. 
 
 . 239. STEBSUM, OR BBBAST-BOJJK.* 
 
 * , sternum ; sc, scapula ; f, clavicle ; k, keel ; c, coracoid ; r, sternal ribs.
 
 BIEDS. 285 
 
 On each side of the well-known bone which is called the 
 " merry-thought" (furculum), is one of a less symmetrical form, 
 one extremity being thin and flat, while the other is spread out 
 into a stronger and broader shape. If these bones be examined 
 with reference to their uses in the framework of the bird, we 
 find that the thinner side of the last mentioned is, in fact, one 
 bone,* the broader side another bone,t constituting the great 
 support of the shoulder ; and that the " merry-thought" is com- 
 posed of two joined together,;}; forming a figure like that of 
 the letter V, the whole being so many buttresses to keep the 
 shoulder joint firm and steady. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to contrast the skeleton of the 
 strich (Fig. 237) with that of the Vulture (Fig. 240), and to 
 
 Fig. 240. SKELETON OF THK VULTUKK. 
 
 observe the difference they exhibit in the bones of the wing, 
 and several other particulars. 
 
 The bones of birds are not, however, remarkable only for 
 their form or arrangement, but also for a peculiarity of struc- 
 
 * The Scapula. f The Coracoid. t Th e Clavicles. 
 
 vc, cervical vertebrae ; ft, sacral vertebrae ; vq, caudal vertebras ; it, sternum : 
 cl, clavicles; A, humerus; o, bones of the fore-arm ; ca, carpus; ph, phalanges; /, femur ; 
 t, tibia; ta, tarsus.
 
 286 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 ture by which great lightness is combined with strength, and 
 the hollows of the bones in the adult birds are filled not with 
 marrow, but with air. This remark is inapplicable to aquatic- 
 birds like the Penguin, which are unable to fly, but refers to 
 those which, like the Eagle or the Swift, have the power of 
 flight in its full development. In them, the bones, even to the 
 extremities of the body, can, at the pleasure of the bird, be 
 filled with air, the buoyancy of which is increased by the high 
 temperature of the interior of the body. Thus we observe 
 the opposite qualities of great strength and great lightness so 
 admirably combined, that the greatest architects or engineers 
 would here find their utmost skill surpassed, and learn how 
 imperfect is human mechanism, compared with that evinced in 
 the structure of every individual of those countless myriads by 
 which the air is traversed. 
 
 Temperature. The circulation of the blood in birds need 
 not here be dwelt upon ; its leading features are shown in the 
 accompanying figure (Fig. 241); but it is worthy of remark, 
 that the temperature of their bodies is, in some instances, 
 several degrees higher than that of man. The blood heat of 
 the human body is 98, and a thermometer held in the hand 
 will not reach to within two or three degrees of that tempera- 
 ture ; but, placed under the wings of different birds, it will rise 
 to upwards of 100, and sometimes even to 110. This great 
 amount of internal warmth gives to birds a power of enduring 
 cold which, to our ideas seems incompatible with their habits. 
 As an instance of this, we may mention that, on the bleak 
 shores of Terra del Fuego, Humming-birds were seen during 
 a snow-shower, hovering over the expanded blossoms of a 
 Fuchsia.* What a strange sight ! The Humming-birds and 
 the snow the representatives of the Tropic and the Arctic 
 regions united in the same picture. 
 
 Respiration. The lungs of birds (Fig. 242) do not fill the 
 cavity of the chest ; they adhere to the ribs and have many 
 openings through which tubes pass, conveying the air to the 
 numerous air-cells distributed throughout the body. By means 
 of this apparatus every part of the body can be inflated, the 
 bones themselves rendered buoyant, and air propelled even into 
 
 * I owe the knowledge of this fact to the kindness of my valued friend, 
 Captain Thomas Graves, R.N., H.M.S. Volaye, who at the time was 
 one of the officers in the expedition under command of Captain King, in 
 whose " Voyages" it is also recorded.
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 287 
 
 the quills of the feathers. In the case of a wounded Heron, 
 respiration was carried on for an entire day through a broken 
 portion of the wing-bone.* 
 
 Covering. Feathers, the peculiar and appropriate vesture 
 of birds, present every variety of texture and of tint that the 
 eye could desire, and far more than the imagination could 
 
 Lingual artery. 
 
 Trachea. 
 
 External carotid artery. 
 
 Carotid artery. 
 
 A orta. 
 
 Renal 
 arterv. 
 
 Ischiatic 
 artery. 
 
 Subclavian 
 artery. 
 
 Mammary 
 artery. 
 
 Femoral 
 artery. 
 
 Sacral artery. 
 
 Fig. 241. ARTERIAL SYSTEM OF A BIRD. 
 
 conceive. We see them in the Eagle compact and firm, in 
 
 the Ostrich loose and curling, in the Penguin reduced to rudi- 
 
 * Linnxan Transactions, voL xi. p. 11.
 
 288 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 ments, resembling the scale-like covering of a fish, rather than 
 that of a bird. The poet, in his description of their plumage, 
 has in no way " o'erstepped the modesty of nature : " 
 
 " In plumage delicate and beautiful, 
 Thick without burthen, close as fishes' scales, 
 Or loose as fiill-blown poppies to the breeze ; 
 With wings that might have had a soul within them, 
 They bore their owners by such sweet enchantment." 
 
 MONTGOMERY'S " PELICAN ISLAND 
 
 t- 
 
 Fig. 242. LUHGS OF A BIRD.* 
 
 By man, in a rude state of society, feathers were used for 
 trimming his arrows, for decorating his person, and on all 
 occasions of unusual ceremony and state. At present, they 
 are no less valued. Wanting them, the most splendid pageants 
 would lose much of their effect, and "the plumed troop " be 
 shorn of a grace which no other part of its panoply could supply. 
 We must at present consider feathers rather in relation to 
 the birds themselves than to the purposes of use or ornament 
 to which they are applied by man. One obvious advantage 
 to the birds is that of maintaining the warmth of their bodies, 
 or that of their eggs at the time of incubation. All their 
 uses, however, we can but faintly imagine ; we know not in 
 
 t, trachea ; p, pulmonary vessels : o, one of the orifices of the bronchial tubes. 
 The lung v, at the left hand side of the figure, is shown in its natural state ; that on 
 the other side is represented as partly laid open, so as to exhibit the bronchial tubes 
 b I/, by which its substance is traversed.
 
 BIBD8. 289 
 
 how many ways their difference of structure and of colour 
 may cause them to be acted on hy the absorption or radiation 
 of heat, the action of light, or of electricity. Viewed merely 
 as a covering for the body, we find in aquatic birds a wise 
 provision to convert them into efficient non-conductors of heat, 
 by rendering them impervious to the water. Certain glands, 
 situated near the tail, secrete an oily matter, which is spread 
 by the bird over its feathers, and constantly renewed. By 
 this means the plumage remains unwet, even in the water 
 and the stratum of air between the body of the bird and the 
 surface of the feathers being a bad conductor of heat, the vital 
 warmth of the body is not dissipated. Limiting our con- 
 sideration to another of their most obvious uses, let us view 
 them as portions of the wings. The feathers of the wing are 
 named according to the part 
 from which they have their 
 origin, and the bones are re- 
 garded as representing those 
 of the fore-leg of quadrupeds, 
 or the arm of man. Those 
 feathers that grow on the t s 
 
 part which corresponds to Kg- 243. WINQ OF FALCOS.* 
 
 our hand are called the primaries (Fig. 243) ; those on what 
 may be called the fore-arm the secondaries ; and those on the 
 part analogous to that between our elbow and our shoulder 
 (humerus) are named the tertiaries. 
 
 Every one has noticed the quickness with which the wings 
 can be closed or expanded, and the compact space in which 
 they are shut up when not in use ; but, regarded merely as a 
 piece of mechanism, their perfection is, perhaps, still better 
 evidenced by the number of hours during which they can con- 
 tinue in active operation, without fatigue to the bird by whose 
 exertions they are moved. The Swallow forms a good and 
 familiar illustration of this remark. During the time this bird 
 is employed in building its nest, or catering for its young, its 
 activity is ceaseless, and is interrupted only by the brief in- 
 tervals of rest attendant on the delivery of the material or of 
 the food. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking illustration of long-sustained 
 powers of flight is afforded by the Frigate or Man-of-war - 
 
 p, primaries; s, secondaries; /, tertiaries.
 
 290 
 
 IKTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 bird (Fig. 244), which abounds both in the Atlantic and 
 Pacific Oceans. The extent of wing is, probably nine or ten 
 feet, though twelve, and even fourteen feet have been stated. 
 With these ample pinions it fearlessly wings its way over the 
 
 Fig. 244 FRIGATB-BIBD. 
 
 ocean, and is frequently found leading a life of ceaseless rapine 
 at a distance of more than a thousand miles from the nearest 
 shore. Its support is derived exclusively from the sea, yet it 
 is never known to rest upon its surface. " Supported in its 
 unlimited flights by the strength and expansion of its wings, 
 and aided by the singular mechanism of its tail, and the 
 buoyant nature of the inflated sac which distends its throat, it 
 seems to be an inhabitant of the air rather than of the land, 
 where it resorts alone for the duties of its nest, or of the water, 
 over which it only hovers for its prey."* 
 
 When navigators give us detailed accounts of the habits of a 
 bird which even the naturalist describes as an inhabitant of the 
 air rather than of the land or of the water, it is not surprising 
 that the idea was at one time current, that in the sunny islands 
 of the East there were birds whose lives were passed upon the 
 wing, and to whom, as they never perched, feet would have 
 been unnecessary appendages. We allude, of course, to the 
 Birds of Paradise, more fully noticed hereafter. 
 
 * Vigors in Linn. Trans., voL xiv. p. 419.
 
 BIKDS. 
 
 291 
 
 The elaborate provision made for the buoyancy of birds is 
 so remarkable a characteristic of their structure, that we shall 
 bring forward another example of its perfection in the Gannet 
 or Solan Goose (Sula bassana, Fig. 245), of our own shores. 
 
 Fig. 245. GASNET. 
 
 This bird is very abundant in Norway and in the Hebrides ; 
 and, farther south, the Craig of Ailsa, the island of St. Kilda, 
 and the Bass Eock in the Firth of Forth, are favourite 
 breeding-places. So great are their numbers that the inhabi- 
 tants of St. Kilda, according to Martin, consume annually 
 22,000 young birds of this species as food, besides an immense 
 quantity of the eggs.* In more remote localities, the birds are 
 not less numerous. 
 
 The Gannet, when searching for food, flies a short way 
 above the suface of the water, and, on seeing a fish, rises into 
 the air, and descends with such rapidity and force as to secure 
 its prey. Some idea of the power of its descent may be formed 
 from a circumstance related by Pennant. One of these birds, 
 flying over Penzance, saw some pilchards spread out upon a 
 
 * Buchanan, in his View of the Fishery of Great Britain, conjectures that 
 the Gannets of St. Kilda destroy, annually, one hundred and five millions of 
 herrings. In Sir Walter Scott's " Antiquary," this bird is mentioned 03 
 "the relishing Solan Goose, whose smell is so powerful that he is never 
 cooked within doors." The figure of this bird (Fig. 245), and that of the 
 Diver (Fig. 281), are copied from Yarrell.
 
 292 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 fir plank about an inch and a-half thick, and which was used 
 in the curing of the fish, and darted down with such violence 
 that it struck its bill quite through the board, and broke its 
 neck. Pennant adds, that these birds are sometimes taken at 
 sea by a similar deception, a fish being fastened for the purpose 
 to a floating plank. 
 
 But perhaps a juster estimate of the impetus of the descent 
 may be formed from the depth to which it propels the bird in 
 the water. Respecting this we possess the means of accurate 
 information ; for Gannets are not unfrequently found entangled 
 in fishing-nets, and the depth at which these nets are fixed is 
 ascertained. Thus, at Ballintrae, on the west coast of Scot- 
 land, and not remote from the Craig of Ailsa (which has been 
 mentioned as one of their haunts), the Gannets are not un- 
 frequently taken in nets sunk to the depth of from nine to 
 twenty fathoms, and sometimes to that of thirty fathoms.* 
 On one occasion, so many as 128 of these birds were thus 
 captured at one time, and in their struggles brought the nets 
 with their sinkers and fish to the surface. 
 
 The Gannet swims high in the water, buoyant as the foam 
 which crests the wave on which it rides. Its flight and its 
 swimming evince its extreme lightness ; its force of descent 
 no less establishes its possession of a certain degree of density. 
 How are these opposite qualities united in the same individual? 
 On this point we are not left to conjectures, but can appeal to 
 facts which anatomists have made known from a careful exami- 
 nation of its structure. Thus, a Gannet which died in the 
 Zoological Gardens of London was examined by Professor 
 Owen, f chiefly with reference to the air-cells, which, in this 
 bird, as in the Pelican, have a most extensive distribution. 
 By means of a gentle but continued inflation through the wind- 
 pipe, the integuments of the whole of the lateral and inferior 
 parts of the body rose, and the air-cells seemed completely 
 filled, especially that which is situated in front of the merry- 
 thought. Further investigation showed that a free communi- 
 cation existed among these, with the exception of that in front 
 of the breast. This cell was found to be of a globular form, 
 about four inches in diameter, and communicating directly with 
 the lungs themselves. Numerous strips of muscular fibre 
 
 * A fathom is six feet. The facts are recorded by Mr. AVm. Thompson, 
 Magazine of Natural History, vol. ii. No. 13. 
 f Proceedings of Zoological Society, 1831.
 
 BIRDS. 293 
 
 passed from various parts of the surface of the body, and 
 were attached to the skin ; and a beautiful fan-shaped muscle 
 was also spread over the anterior surface of the large air-cell 
 just mentioned. " The use of these muscles appeared to be 
 to produce instantaneous expulsion of the air from these ex- 
 ternal cells, and by thus increasing the specific gravity of the 
 bird, to enable it to descend with the rapidity necessary to the 
 capture of a living prey, while swimming near the surface of 
 the water." 
 
 This is one of those beautiful adaptations of means to an 
 end which Natural History records in every department. 
 " The descent of the Gannet on its prey has been, not inaptly, 
 compared to that of an arrow, the beak of the bird forming 
 the arrow head, and the body and wings the feathered shaft of 
 the weapon we here have the secret of its heavy fall ; the 
 same machinery restores the buoyancy at the proper moment, 
 and the bird rises with its fish aloft." 
 
 Moulting. The plumage of birds is periodically renewed, 
 and the process of this change of feathers is termed " moult- 
 ing." The aspect of the bird, in many instances, changes, not 
 only with age, but also with the season ; the summer dress, as 
 we shall have occasion to mention, is often very unlike that of 
 the winter. The changes in the plumage of birds have been 
 investigated with great care by Mr. Yarrell ; and, in the opin- 
 ion of that able zoologist, the different appearance which it 
 presents may be explained, 
 
 1st. By the feather itself becoming altered in colour ; 
 2nd. By the birds obtaining a certain addition of new fea- 
 thers, without shedding any of the old ones ; 
 3rd. By an entire or partial moulting, at which old feathers 
 are thrown off, and new ones produced in their 
 places ; and, 
 
 4th. By the wearing off of the lengthened lighter-coloured 
 tips of the barbs of the feathers on the body, by 
 which the brighter tints of the plumage underneath 
 are exposed. 
 
 In spring, the change which takes place prior to the pairing 
 season is to be attributed to the first two modes ; and at that 
 time, also, there is a partial moulting of old feathers a laying 
 aside, as it were, of a portion of the warm garments of winter. 
 The entire moulting is that absolute change of feathers which 
 takes place in autumn.
 
 IXTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Digestive Organs. If, quitting for a moment the considera- 
 tion of the feathered tribes, we cast our eyes on those of the 
 next and highest division of vertehrated animals, we find the 
 mammalia subsisting on a great variety of food on grasses, 
 grain, fruit, seeds, and herbage on insects, worms, and mol- 
 lusca on the flesh of various reptiles, fishes, birds, and on 
 that of animals of their cwn class ; and, if we examine the 
 structure of their mouths, we find that they are furnished with 
 teeth so especially adapted for the several varieties of food, 
 that the habits of the animal can with certainty be predicted 
 from a glance at these efficient organs. Had we never seen a 
 bird, and were required to describe the structure necessary to 
 enable a race of feathered, two-legged animals to subsist on the 
 like variety of food, we would probably consider a supply of 
 teeth, resembling those of the mammalia, but less in size, as 
 the very first requisite. These teeth would require to be fixed 
 in jaws of corresponding strength and weight, and these jaws 
 to be worked by muscles of sufficient power an arrangement 
 inconsistent with the lightness which is absolutely essential. 
 This problem we have supposed has already received its solu- 
 tion. The organs we would have thought most needful are 
 altogether omitted, and their functions are performed by an 
 apparatus so unlike in structure, and yet so efficient in its 
 working, that it declares, on the part of its Artificer, an amount 
 of skill, of knowledge, and of power alike unlimited. 
 
 The bill, being the instrument by which food is taken, first 
 demands our examination. It is, externally, of a horny tex- 
 ture, and exhibits great variety in its form, and no less in the 
 uses to which it is subservient. In 
 some tribes, it is simply an organ for 
 prehension, used in picking up grains 
 or worms. In others, it is employed 
 to separate the seeds from the husks. 
 In the Ibis (Fig. 278), it is long and 
 bent downwards ; in the Avocet (Fig. 
 246), it is long, and curved upwards ; 
 in the Snipe it is a probe; in the 
 ng. 246.-BIU, OF AVOCET. Swallow, a fly-trap; in the Duck, a 
 shovel, and at the same time a strainer ; 
 
 by the parrot it is used as a help in climbing ; by the Vulture 
 (Fig. 255) as a carving knife for his gory feast. 
 
 But, supposing the food to be procured, it is needful, in
 
 BIBDS. 
 
 295 
 
 the next place, that there should be some convenient receptacle 
 into which it can be instantaneously transferred, until wanted. 
 In some birds, which, like the Swift, live upon insect prey, 
 seized when on the wing, the upper part of the throat is so 
 large as to answer for this purpose. In the Pelican, a peculiar 
 pouch is attached to the lower jaw (Fig. 247), and in this a 
 goodly store of fish can be carried about. In the Cormorant, 
 the gullet itself is dilated, so that it is not unusual, when the 
 bird has got a fish too large to be swallowed at once, to see 
 the tail hanging for a time out of its mouth. But the plan 
 which is most usual, is that which may be exemplified in the 
 
 Fig. 247. PBLICAS. 
 
 digestive system of a common fowl (Fig. 248) . The gullet, 
 (oesophagus) is suddenly expanded, forming a bag or chamber, 
 known as a crop. Beneath this there is a slighter expan- 
 sion, which forms the second or membranous stomach, in 
 which the food is softened by the action of what is called 
 the gastric juice. From this the food passes on to the 
 third stomach, in which the process of digestion is com- 
 pleted. In flesh-eating birds, this stomach is thin and mem- 
 branous ; but in those which feed on grain, the sides of it 
 are of considerable thickness, and, being moved by powerful 
 muscles, act as a mill in grinding down the food. Many who 
 see the gizzard of a fowl at table know that it serves in the 
 economy of the bird as a grinding machine ; but comparatively
 
 296 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 few know that the gizzard is actually the stomach itself, 
 which, thickened in its coats, performs the same office as the* 
 teeth of the graminivorous quadrupeds. 
 
 Fig. 248. DIGE&TIVK APPARATUS or A FOWL.* 
 
 The action of the gizzard is expedited hy small pebbles 
 and other hard substances swallowed by the fowl. In the 
 Ostrich (Fig. 249), this instinctive action prevails to such an 
 
 * , oesophagus; C, crop; , ventriculus succenrnriatns ' <7, gizzard; /, liver; 
 gb, gall-bladder; b, bile-ducts; />, pancreas ; rf, duodenum; e,'cceca; *, small intes- 
 tine; L, large intestine: 0, oviduct
 
 BIED3. 
 
 297 
 
 extent, that in the stomach of one were found pebbles sufficient 
 to fill a large glass bottle ; and as the Ostrich will swallow 
 metals with equal readiness, popular credulity, in former times, 
 went so far as to assign to it the power of digesting these 
 substances ; and many are the allusions in the older writers 
 to this supposed power of "the iron-eating Ostrich."* 
 
 Fig. 249. AFUICAS OSTRICH. 
 
 Senses. The two senses which appear to be developed in 
 the highest degree in birds are those of sight and of smell. 
 The arrangements connected with the eye, regarded as an 
 optical instrument, are, in all their details, replete with evi- 
 dence of design. It has to perform a variety of functions, 
 and demands a corresponding variety in the adjustment of its 
 several parts. It must be fitted for vision at the altitudes to 
 which birds of prey soar, and equally fitted for vision near at 
 
 * Mr. Bennett, in " Gardens and Menageries," quotes the following lines, 
 as illustrative of the prevalence of the belief. The author is Skelton, a 
 laurelled poet of the reign of Henry the Eighth : 
 
 " The Estridge that will eate In the steacle of meat ; 
 
 An horsehowe 1 so greate, Such fervent heat 
 
 i Horse-shoe. His stomake doth freat."
 
 298 INTEODUCTTON TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 hand. It must be adapted for rays of light passing through 
 media of very different densities, and of different degrees of 
 transparency. Conditions have, therefore, to be fulfilled with 
 regard to the eye of birds, which are not required in the best 
 optical instrument of human construction ; and, at the same 
 time, it is needful that the focal distance, fitted for near or for 
 distant vision, should be adjusted with a rapidity very different 
 from the " rack and pinion" adjustments of our most skilful 
 opticians. Details connected with this subject would here be 
 out of place, and must be sought for in works of a less ele- 
 mentary character.* 
 
 One obvious peculiarity may, however, be mentioned : birds 
 possess, not two, but three eyelids. The third, termed the 
 nictitating membrane, lies in the inner angle of the eye when 
 not in use. By the action of powerful muscles, it can in a 
 moment be swept over the surface of the eye, and then by its 
 own elasticity spring back to its former place. It is mem- 
 branous, and somewhat transparent; and some authors who 
 describe the Eagle as gazing on the sun, assert that he does so 
 by means of the protection which this membrane affords.f 
 
 Smell. The sense of smell in birds has been subjected to 
 various experiments, to ascertain the extent to which it exists ; 
 and the development of the olfactory nerves in more than one 
 species has been examined by Professor Owen.^ A Vulture, 
 which formed the subject of one of his investigations, was the 
 Turkey Buzzard ( Vultur aura), a bird extremely abundant in 
 Jamaica, where it is known by the familiar name of " John 
 Crow." It feeds on carrion, and its services are considered 
 so valuable, that the killing of one within a certain distance 
 of the principal towns is an offence punishable by fine. The 
 notes of Professor Owen prove the existence in this Vulture of 
 a well-developed organ of smell. The same fact is established 
 by the observations of Mr. Sells. It is to be recollected that, 
 in hot climates, the burial of the dead commonly takes place 
 in about twenty-four hours after death, on account of the 
 rapidity with which decomposition takes place. " On one 
 
 * Jones's " Outline," p. 609. Yarrell's " Birds," 1st edition, voL i. p. 11, 
 14, and 138. 
 f The poet thus refers to the popular belief: 
 
 " Nay, if thou be the princely Eagle's bird, 
 Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun." 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part iii. Act ii. scene 1. 
 J Proceedings of Zoological Society, March, 1837.
 
 BIEDS. 299 
 
 occasion," says he, "I had to make a post-mortem exami- 
 nation of a body within twenty -four hours after death, in a 
 mill-house completely concealed ; and while so engaged, the 
 roof of the mill-house was thickly studded with these birds"* 
 (the Turkey Buzzards) . On another, " the family had to send 
 for necessaries for the funeral to Spanish Town, distant thirty 
 miles, so that the interment could not take place until noon 
 of the second day, or thirty-six hours after his decease ; long 
 before which time and a most painful sight it was the 
 ridge of the shingled roof of his house, a large mansion of but 
 one floor, had a number of these melancholy-looking heralds 
 of death perched thereon, besides many more which had 
 settled in the vicinity. In these cases, the birds must have 
 been directed by smell alone, as sight was totally out of the 
 question, "f 
 
 The obtuseness of the sense of smell, in another species, 
 seems to be no less clearly established. Mr. Darwin saw, at 
 Valparaiso, between twenty and thirty Condors, which were 
 kept in a garden there, and fed once each week. The Con- 
 dors were tied, each by a rope, in a long row at the bottom 
 of a wall ; he was thus enabled to try the following experi- 
 ment : having folded up a piece of meat in white paper, he 
 walked backwards and forwards, carrying it in his hand, at 
 the distance of about three yards ; but no notice whatever was 
 taken. He then threw it on the ground, within one yard of 
 an old cock bird, which looked at it for a moment with atten- 
 tion, but then regarded it no more. Mr. Darwin pushed it 
 closer and closer with a stick, until the Condor touched it with 
 his beak ; the paper was then instantly torn off with fury, 
 and, at the same moment, every bird in the long row began 
 struggling and flapping its wings. J 
 
 The controversy between some authors, as to whether 
 Vultures are guided to the carrion on which they feed by the 
 sense of sight or that of smell, is like the combat of the two 
 knights, as to whether the statue bore a shield of gold or of 
 silver. It was composed of both. And, in like manner, there 
 seems no good reason for doubting that both senses are made 
 
 * Penny Cyclopaedia, article Turkey Buzzard. 
 
 f Zoological Proceedings, March, 1837. The same evening on which 
 Professor Owen's communication on the development of the olfactory nerves 
 was read. 
 
 J Journal, p. 222. Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle.
 
 300 
 
 INTBODUCTIOX TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 to contribute to the welfare of the birds, by directing them to 
 their prey. The far-sighted eye sees it from" the clouds, and 
 the characteristic flight of the Vulture, as it descends to the 
 feast, reveals to its brethren the fact that a repast is spread 
 for them ; and from all quarters they hasten to participate. 
 And, again, when near at hand, under the screen of cliffs, or 
 the thick-tangled vegetation of tropical forests, the sense of 
 smell reveals the hidden carcase, and tempts around it those 
 who act an important part as agents for its removal. Different 
 species may be supposed to possess these powers in varying 
 degrees of perfection, so that each may most efficiently per- 
 form its allotted duty. 
 
 The Vultures are not the only 
 birds by which the removal of 
 decaying animal matter is carried 
 on ; it is shared by those be- 
 longing to other orders. Thus, 
 in India, there is another whose 
 services are no less valuable, and 
 whose appearance is altogether 
 different. It is a gigantic Crane, 
 called the Adjutant (Fig. 250). 
 This bird, and a species found 
 in Senegal, furnish the valuable 
 marabou feathers. It is called 
 the Pouched Adjutant, from a bag 
 or pouch on the middle of the 
 neck, and which pouch has been 
 likened by Cuvier to " a large 
 sausage." Its utility as a sca- 
 venger is so great, that the bird 
 is not only permitted to remain 
 unmolested, but is held in great 
 estimation, and, from superstitious 
 feelings, even regarded with reverence. It is a voracious 
 feeder, and gulps down its food whole. It has been known 
 to swallow a leg of mutton, five or six pounds weight ; and 
 Sir Everard Home states, that in the stomach of one a Land 
 Tortoise ten inches long, and a large black Cat, were found 
 entire. 
 
 Removal of Decaying Animal Matter. We would wish 
 here to call attention to the provision so abundantly made for 
 
 Fig. 250. POUCHED ADJUTANT.
 
 BIRDS. 301 
 
 the removal of putrefying substances, which would soon taint 
 the atmosphere, and spread disease and death around. Many 
 birds, besides those we have named, share in this labour, con- 
 verting into nourishment that which would otherwise prove 
 baneful. Among the mammiferous animals, we find some 
 that prey upon the helpless and the dead ; and thus the carni- 
 vorous tribes, both of birds and quadrupeds, carry into effect 
 the same beneficent provision. But they are not the sole, 
 though they are the most powerful, workers ; there are others, 
 both on land and water, whose diminutive size is more than 
 compensated by their countless numbers. Let us reverb to 
 some of the invertebrate animals, whose habits have been 
 briefly noticed, and see how numerous are these labourers, 
 how different their structure, yet how effectually they all work 
 together. Even in the brief space to which we have been 
 restricted, we have enumerated, as devourers of organized 
 matter in a state of decay, Infusoria, Star-fishes, Earth- 
 worms, Crustacea, Insects, Mollusca, Fishes, Crocodiles, and 
 we now add Birds and Mammals. Each individual acts for 
 himself alone ; yet all unconsciously co-operate in carrying out 
 one harmonious design. Without the ceaseless efforts of these 
 heterogeneous labourers, the air, the rivers, and the seas would 
 alike become loaded with impurities, and the earth would 
 soon be converted into one great charnel-house. The wisdom 
 by which a comprehensive scheme for preventing this result 
 has been formed, and the providence by which it has been 
 sustained, speak alike of HIM by whom these animated tribes 
 have been called into existence, and have been gifted with 
 their several capacities. 
 
 Migration. At the approach of winter, there are various 
 birds which make their appearance pretty nearly at the same 
 time each year, and leave us early in the spring. They have 
 arrived from regions farther north, and have made our islands 
 the southern limit of that periodical change of residence to 
 which we give the term " migration." There are others whose 
 appearance in spring we welcome, not only because of the 
 beauty of their flight or their plumage, or the cheerfulness of 
 their notes, but because we know from experience that these 
 feathered visitants are the harbingers of brighter skies and 
 renovated verdure. These lovely heralds of the spring stay 
 with us during tne summer, and then wing their way to the 
 south. The British Islands constitute the northern limit of
 
 302 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 their migration. It is now ascertained, that the greater 
 numher of these summer birds leave these kingdoms for the 
 north and west of Africa,* whence they return annually, with 
 such punctuality, that their appearance is looked for with 
 confidence within a day or two of the particular time. 
 
 These few simple facts are nearly all that we can be said 
 to know with certainty on the mysterious subject of migration. 
 It has been asserted that birds change their quarters because 
 of inclement seasons, scarcity of food, and other evils, which 
 are avoided by their change of residence. But if these sup- 
 posed explanations be scrutinized, they will be found un- 
 satisfactory. The truest philosophy is candidly to avow our 
 ignorance of the subject, and to regard birds as acting under 
 an impulse implanted in their constitution by the Creator. 
 Observation only corroborates, that " the Stork in the heavens 
 knoweth her appointed times, and the Turtle, and the Crane, 
 and the Swallow observe the time of their coming." f 
 
 Several observers have stated, that migratory birds, when 
 in confinement, though plentifully supplied with food, show 
 evident symptoms of restlessness when the period arrives at 
 which their fellows take their departure. So powerful is this 
 migratory instinct, that birds will forsake their young and 
 leave them to perish, rather than not accompany their com- 
 panions. This proceeding, so contrary to all that we see of 
 the devoted attachment of the parent birds to their offspring, 
 was first observed by Mr. Blackwall, who states J that, in the 
 spring of 1821, a pair of House-martins, after taking posses- 
 sion of a nest which had been constructed in the preceding 
 summer, drew out the dried bodies of three nearly full-fledged 
 nestlings which had perished in it. About the same time, 
 another pair of House-martins, being unable to dislodge the 
 young, closed up the aperture with clay. This suggested 
 
 * Several British species were observed, on their migration northward, 
 by Mr. W. Thompson, when on his passage from Malta to the Morea, in 
 H.M. S. Beacon, in April, 1841. Annals Nat. Hist., vol. viii. p. 125. 
 f The lines of Pope are highly descriptive and appropriate : 
 " Who bid the Stork, Columbus-like, explore 
 Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 
 Who calls the council, states the certain day, 
 Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ? 
 God in the nature of each being sounds 
 Its proper bliss, and sets the proper bounds." 
 J In his Researches in Zoology.
 
 BIRDS. 303 
 
 examination in future years, after the Martins and Swallows 
 had taken their departure ; and, each time, several nests were 
 found containing dead nestlings which had been abandoned 
 by the parents. Upon these interesting facts Mr. Thompson 
 remarks: "In the instances above alluded to, the young 
 broods and eggs were deserted late in the season, and I should 
 suppose at the migratory period. The paramount object 
 would then seem to be migration ; and, when favourable 
 weather and wind prevail, the love of offspring yields to the 
 stronger impulse, and the parents take their departure. Had 
 this favourable time been long enough protracted, they would 
 have continued to tend their offspring, and bring them to 
 maturity."* 
 
 Affection for their Young. The instances just mentioned 
 are the exceptions to that ardent attachment to their young 
 which birds evince. If danger threaten, the most timid 
 becomes bold, and is ready to give battle to the assailant.f 
 In the cold-blooded vertebrate animals, the mother, in most 
 cases, is satisfied with depositing the spawn in a suitable 
 situation, or the eggs in what seems a place of security. With 
 this her care for the future progeny is ended, and she ex- 
 periences nothing of the actual cares or pleasures of maternity. 
 But the proceedings of birds, prior to the exclusion of the 
 young from the egg, and afterwards in regard to the attention 
 bestowed upon them, is in every respect so sedulous, so 
 unceasing, and so replete with tenderness, that it is not in the 
 power of language to convey a picture of affectionate solicitude 
 beyond that which is employed in reference to their ordinary 
 habits. I The exertions made by the parent birds to procure 
 for their helpless young the supply of the requisite food, are 
 so unceasing, and are carried on with such entire forgetfulness 
 of self, as to excite the admiration even of the most incurious. 
 When, therefore, the poet recounts the simple facts which 
 Annals of Natural History, vol. ix. p. 378. 
 
 f " The poor Wren, 
 
 The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 
 Her young ones in the nest, against the Owl." 
 
 SHAKSPEAKE. 
 
 J The reader will recall to mind, as an example of this, the memorable 
 words " Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! which killest the prophets, and stonest 
 them that are sent unto thee : how often would I have gathered thy chil- 
 dren together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her winys, and ye 
 would not ! ' ' LUKE xiii. 34.
 
 304 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 observation reveals, he wakens into activity some of our purest 
 sympathies ; nor can the naturalist present a picture more 
 faithful than that which is arrayed iii the garb of verse : the 
 truth and the poetry are one. 
 
 " Some sought their food among the finny shoals, 
 Swift darting from the clouds, emerging soon 
 With slender captives glittering in their beaks ; 
 These in recesses of steep crags constructed 
 Their eyries inaccessible, and trained 
 Their hardy brood to forage in all weathers. 
 Others, more gorgeously apparelled, dwelt 
 Among the woods, on Nature's dainties feeding 
 Herbs, seeds, or roots ; or, ever on the wing, 
 Pursuing insects through the boundless air ; 
 In hollow trees or thickets these concealed 
 Their exquisitely woven nests, where lay 
 Their callow offspring, quiet as the down 
 On their own breasts, till from her search the dam 
 With laden bill returned, and shared the meal 
 Among her clamorous supplicants all agape ; 
 Then, cowering o'er them with expanded wings, 
 She felt how sweet it is to be a mother." 
 
 MONTGOMERY'S " PELICAN ISLAND." 
 
 Nests. We turn from the young birds to those singular 
 habitations in which they are hatched. The smallest amount 
 
 of observation 
 makes manifest 
 to every one, the 
 great diversity 
 of their situa- 
 tion, structure, 
 and materials. 
 As examples, 
 we may mention 
 the exposed nest 
 of the Sky -lark, 
 __ built upon the 
 
 ^jj^j^F^^ 4 * ground, com- 
 
 pared with the 
 globular edifice 
 of the Wren, 
 constructed in 
 sheltered situa- 
 tions, and in- 
 geniously concealed from view ; or the neat and elaborately 
 
 Fig. 251. NEBT OF GOLDFINCH.
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 305 
 
 finished nest of the Goldfinch (Fig. 251) contrasted with the 
 coarser edifice of the Rook or the Magpie. 
 
 But, regarded merely as a work of art, some of the nests 
 from foreign countries appear more ingenious and more artisti- 
 cal, though, of course not hetter adapted to the wants of their 
 respective occupants. Thus the nests of the Baya, a bird of 
 Hindostan, are formed of long grass woven together in the 
 shape of a bottle (Fig. 252), and suspended " to the extremity 
 of a flexible branch, the more effectually to secure the eggs 
 and young brood from serpents, monkeys, squirrels, and birds 
 of prey. These nests contain several apartments, appropriated 
 to different purposes."* The entrance is at the lower part, so 
 that the parent birds reach it only when on the wing. 
 
 Another species, called, with great justice the Tailor-bird 
 (Sylvia sutoria), collects from the cotton-plant fibres of cotton, 
 
 Fig. 2-52. XLST OF THE BATA. fig. 253. NEST OF THE TAILOB-BIKD. 
 
 and with them sews two leaves together, the bill being used as 
 a needle. The nest is concealed in the space between the two 
 leaves (Fig. 253). 
 
 * Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, voL L p. 48.
 
 306 INTBODFCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 In the former part we mentioned (p. 137), that some Cater- 
 pillars spin a snow-white canopy, and dwell together in social 
 communities. Among birds we have an example of their 
 united efforts heing, in like manner, employed in the construc- 
 tion of a common covering. This is observable in the Sociable 
 Grosbeak (Loxia soda), a species found about the Cape of 
 Good Hope. These birds construct a roof of grass matted 
 together ; and beneath the eaves of the shed thus formed by 
 their joint labour, the individual nests are built (Fig. 254). 
 Some idea of the size and solidity of these structures may be 
 formed from the fact mentioned by Yaillant,* that having 
 'observed one of enormous size, he despatched some men with 
 a waggon to bring it, and on its arrival he cut it to pieces with 
 a hatchet. 
 
 Fie. 254. XBST OF SOCIABLE GROSBEAK. 
 
 Organs of Voice. The period when birds are about build- 
 ing their nests, and engaged in attending to the callow young, 
 is that in which our groves become "prodigal of harmony." 
 This may, therefore, be a fitting place to make some remarks 
 on the organs of voice. In birds they consist of a wind-pipe, 
 which divides at the lower part into the two branches called 
 the bronchial tubes one leading to each lung (as shown in 
 * Travels, second series, vol. iii.
 
 BIEDS. 307 
 
 Fig. 242). At the upper part of the wind-pipe is an organ 
 (the glottis, or superior larynx) by which the size of the aper- 
 ture seems to be regulated. At the lower part is placed the 
 true organ of voice in birds (the inferior larynx); and, in all 
 those which possess the vocal powers in the highest perfection, 
 this part is furnished with five pair of nerves. " The tube of 
 the wind-pipe," says Mr. Yarrell, " is composed of two mem- 
 branes, enclosing between them numerous cartilaginous or bony 
 rings, forming a cylinder more or less perfect from end to end."* 
 The tube differs in its length, its diameter, and its substance, 
 in different species ; and in some it exhibits convolutions which 
 modify its powers. " The principle upon which the organs of 
 voice in birds is founded, is that which prevails in wind instru- 
 ments generally; the notes in the ascending scale being pro- 
 duced by a corresponding contraction of the diameter or the 
 length of the tube, and vice versa." 
 
 Such is the description given by physiologists of the mecha- 
 nism which produces the loud note of the Wild Swan, the 
 booming of the Bittern, the cawing of the Rook, the hooting 
 of the Owl, and the wild screams which, heard amid the native 
 haunts of the sea-fowl, harmonize with the surging sea. 
 Birds, as we all know, can be taught to imitate the tones of 
 the human voice ; nor is this limited to the Parrot ; the power 
 is enjoyed, among our native birds, by the Raven, the Magpie, 
 the Jay, and the Starling. So distinctly have Ravens been 
 taught to articulate short sentences, that one living at Chatham, 
 " in the vicinity of the guard-house, has more than once turned 
 out the guard, who thought they were called by the sentinel on 
 duty."f 
 
 The power of imitation reaches, perhaps, its highest per- 
 fection in the Mocking-bird of America. So perfect is his 
 performance, that not only the experienced ear of the fowler is 
 deceived, but even birds themselves are imposed upon. In a 
 domesticated state he finds equal scope for the versatility of 
 his powers, and his doings have been most graphically recorded 
 by Wilson, in his American Ornithology : " He whistles for 
 the dog ; Caesar starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his 
 master. He squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the hen 
 hurries about, with hanging wings and bristled feathers, cluck- 
 ing to protect its injured brood. The barking of the dog, the 
 
 * British Birds, vol. ii p. 71. 
 
 t Quoted by Mr. Yarrell, from Swainson and Richardson. 
 X
 
 308 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow, 
 follow with great truth and rapidity." 
 
 Distribution. To one who regarded only the powers of 
 flight which birds possess, it might seem easy for beings so 
 endowed to change their abode at pleasure, and not, like the 
 more slow-moving mammalia, be restricted to certain regions ; 
 but here, as in every other department of Zoology, the laws of 
 geographical distribution are more potent than the mandate of 
 the king who placed his chair upon the beach, and forbade the 
 approach of the waves " Thus far shalt thou come, and no 
 further." 
 
 The number of species is supposed to be about four times 
 greater than that of quadrupeds ; and, with the exception of 
 fishes, they are more widely distributed than any other class 
 of vertebrated animals. Mammalia and reptiles are, to a 
 great extent, limited to the warmer regions ; but birds are 
 found in every part of the earth, from the equator to the 
 poles. 
 
 The number of species is greatest towards the equator, 
 except among the aquatic tribes. Europe is regarded as re- 
 markably rich in the number of its birds, the species amount- 
 ing, according to a catalogue* published in 1840, t to 490. 
 arranged in thirty-four families, and one hundred and sixty-four 
 genera. It is interesting to observe the comparative numbers 
 belonging to the leading groups : 
 
 Rapacious Birds 54 species. 
 
 Perching and Climbing Birds . . . 209 
 
 Scraping Birds 28 
 
 Wading Birds 87 
 
 Swimming Birds 112 
 
 TOTAL . . . 490 species. 
 
 Classification. The number of species at present known to 
 naturalists is in some degree doubtful, for the same bird has 
 frequently appeared under more than one name, in the works 
 of successive authors. Lesson has enumerated 6,266 species ; 
 but Mr. Strickland is of opinion that 5,000 species are pro- 
 
 * This and all other information on the subject of distribution is derived 
 from Berghaiis's and Johnston's Physical Atlas : a highly valuable work, 
 which has been referred to on the distribution of reptiles. 
 
 f By Keyserling and Blasius.
 
 BIBDS. 309 
 
 bably all that can be said to be accurately known.* This 
 number is divided into about a thousand genera, and the names 
 and limits of these genera have, from time to time, undergone 
 considerable modification. This will not seem surprising when 
 it is borne in mind that genera are merely contrivances adopted 
 by writers for the purpose of conveniently grouping together 
 those species which most nearly resemble each other. The 
 word "species" is applied to ''such individuals as are sup- 
 posed to be descended from a common stock, or which might 
 have so descended."t A species has a real existence in nature. 
 A genus is an abstract idea, a creation of the mind, liable to be 
 overthrown or upreared, contracted or expanded, according to 
 the mutability of human knowledge. 
 
 In this little book we do not purpose entering upon the 
 comparative merits of different systems of classification. That 
 system is the best which is founded, not upon any one set of 
 characters, but upon an intimate knowledge of all. The only 
 true foundation on which it can be reared is that which is 
 afforded by the anatomical structure. Each change of external 
 character is accompanied by a corresponding change of inter- 
 nal organization. " The external parts afford an index to the 
 internal." J The shape of the organs by which the food is 
 taken indicates the form and structure of those by which it 
 is swallowed and digested. Hence, " if we find a bird 
 having a short-beaked bill and curved claws, we shall not 
 be wrong in inferring that it has a wide oesophagus (gullet) 
 and a large membranous stomach." But our information 
 is incomplete, and our classification imperfect, unless to a 
 knowledge both of external and internal structure, we add 
 that which is to be acquired by the study of the living objects 
 seen in their native haunts. Thus only can we ascertain 
 to what extent each modification of structure is accompa- 
 nied by a corresponding change of habit : and until this be 
 done, with regard to foreign as well as to native species, 
 we must not suppose that our classification is perfect and 
 unchangeable. 
 
 * Vide his excellent " Report on the Recent Progress 'and Present State 
 of Ornithology," Report of British Association, 1844. 
 
 t Archbishop Whately's Logic, book iv. chap v. 
 
 J Macgillivray's British Birds. 
 
 Idem. This work contains an instructive and interesting series of 
 plates, exhibiting the modifications of the several parts of the alimentary 
 canal in a large number of native birds.
 
 310 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Such are the principles which seem now to be generally 
 recognized, even when there exists considerable difference of 
 opinion as to the details by which they can most successfully 
 be reduced to practice. The following arrangement is that 
 which has been adopted by some of our leading British orni- 
 thologists : 
 
 Order I. RAPTOEES Birds of Prey, as Vultures, Eagles, Owls. 
 II. INSESSOEES Perchers, as Sparrows, Linnets, Crows. 
 III. RASOBES Scraping Birds, as Pheasants, Fowls. 
 IV. GBALLATOBES Waders, as Herons, Bitterns. 
 V. NATATOBES Swimmers, as Geese, Divers, Gulls. 
 
 According to the general plan we have pursued, we should 
 commence with the swimming birds, and gradually ascend to 
 that group which contains the Falcons and the Eagles, which 
 are regarded as the nobles and the kings of the feathered 
 tribes ; but the birds usually placed lowest in the scale, such 
 as Gulls and Terns, do not present the slightest resemblance 
 to the creatures which rank highest, and were the last men- 
 tioned in the preceding class. Between certain mollusca and 
 fishes we found so great a resemblance, that a question had 
 arisen as to whether a certain species should be regarded as a 
 mollusk or a fish : between fish and reptiles, again, a similar 
 difficulty occurred ; but between reptiles and birds, or between 
 birds and mammalia, there can be no such question. The 
 separation is so well marked, that there is no debateable 
 ground, no border territory. The birds stand out apart from 
 the groups on either side, distinctly isolated. No advantage, 
 therefore, accrues from placing the lowest of the birds next to 
 the reptiles, nor those regarded as the highest next to the 
 quadrupeds. Such an arrangement is also open to the ob- 
 jection, that by most writers the different classes are treated 
 of in the order in which they have been here enumerated ; 
 and it is desirable that the learner should be accustomed to 
 the same succession of family and genera, in this elementary 
 work, that he will meet with in those of a higher character. 
 For these reasons we have resolved on following the course 
 that is most generally pursued, and beginning with the birds 
 of prey.
 
 BIRDS. 311 
 
 We can notice only the leading groups, and even these with 
 great brevity. This must be apparent, when it is recollected 
 that the number of species at present known is perhaps 
 between five and six thousand (p. 308) ; and that those oc- 
 curring even in the British Isles amount to between three 
 and four hundred.* We shall therefore only attempt to state 
 what are the points of structure by which the principal 
 divisions are characterized, and bring forward a few of the 
 individuals belonging to each, as exemplifying the habits or 
 economy of their respective families. 
 
 ORDER I. RAPTORES. BIRDS OF PREY. 
 
 THE Raptorial Birds are distinguished by a strong hooked 
 bill and stout muscular legs. Three of the toes are directed 
 forward, and one backward ; they are rough below, and 
 armed with powerful, sharp, curved, retractile talons. They 
 are arranged in three families the Vultures, the Falcons, and 
 the Owls. 
 
 I. VTTLTURID^E. VULTTJKES. 
 
 " Above, the mountain rears a peak 
 Where Vultures whet the thirsty beak ; 
 And theirs may be a feast to-night 
 Shall tempt them down ere morrow's light-"f 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 The Vultures have the claws, in general, less curved than 
 either the Falcons or Owls, the feet generally naked, and the 
 head in a greater or less degree divested of feathers. None 
 of them are indigenous in these countries ; yet as two have 
 been taken here, they are of course included in our Fauna. 
 
 * The Irish species, according to Mr. W. Thompson's Report, published 
 .in 1840, were then about 230 ; and fourteen or fifteen have since been 
 added. 
 
 f " Whet the thirsty beak.' ' The idea of whetting the beak, though 
 current, is erroneous.
 
 312 
 
 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 One of these is the Griffon Vulture, of the Alps and Pyre- 
 nees ( Vultur fulvus, Fig. 255), caught Bear Cork Harbour, 
 in 1843.* The food of this species is carrion, on which it 
 gorges to repletion, rarely quitting the prey while a morsel of 
 
 Fig. 255. GRIFFON VULTUKB. 
 
 flesh remains ; so that it is not uncommon to see it perched 
 upon a putrefying corpse for several successive days. It 
 never attempts to carry off a portion, even to satisfy its young, 
 but feeds them by disgorging the half-digested morsel from its 
 maw. It frequents the North of Africa, as well as Europe, 
 and congregates in considerable numbers when the carcase of 
 some large quadruped forms the banquet.f 
 
 The other is the Egpytian Vulture 
 (Neophron percnopterus, Fig. 256), one 
 of which is recorded by Mr. Selby to 
 have been shot in Somersetshire, in 1825. 
 It is this species which Mr. Bruce men- 
 tions as frequent in Egypt and about 
 Cairo, where it is called by Europeans 
 " Pharaoh's Hen." These birds are never 
 molested by the natives, but encouraged 
 and protected, because of their services in 
 clearing away filth and offal. " Every group of the natives 
 has a pair of these Vultures attached to it. The birds roost 
 
 * Thompson, in Annals of Natural History, voL xv. 
 f Bennett. 
 
 Fig. 256. NBOPHEON.
 
 BIRDS. 313 
 
 on the trees of the vicinity, or on the fences which hound the 
 enclosures formed for their cattle."* They differ in size and 
 other particulars from the true or typical Vultures, such as 
 that just mentioned. 
 
 The Condor (Sarcoramphus gryphus) represents another 
 group remarkable for the "caruncles" or fleshy appendages 
 of the neck (Fig. 257), somewhat akin to those seen on the 
 Turkey-cock. Beneath is a white ruff 
 of downy feathers, forming the line of 
 separation between the naked skin 
 above and the true feathers covering 
 the body below. At the early part of 
 this century, such exaggerated ideas, 
 respecting the size of this bird, were 
 current, even among naturalists, that 
 it was compared to the Roc of eastern 
 fable. It was reserved for Humboldt 
 to destroy these exaggerated ideas, rig . 257. CON-JOR. - 
 and to reduce its powers and dimen- 
 sions to their true limits. The extent of the wings, when 
 expanded, is usually from nine to eleven feet. Humboldt did 
 not himself see any which exceeded nine : one shot by Mr. 
 Darwin f measured only eight and a half; but it is still said 
 that some attain so great a size as fourteen feet.J Borne on 
 these wide-spreading pinions, the Condor may be seen soaring 
 at an elevation of from ten to fifteen thousand feet above the 
 level of the ocean. One is stated to have been seen by Hum- 
 boldt so high as twenty-two thousand feet. "These birds 
 generally live by pairs ; but among the inland basaltic cliffs 
 of St. Cruz," says Mr. Darwin, " I found a spot where scores 
 most usully haunt. On coming suddenly to the brow of the 
 precipice, it was a fine sight to see between twenty and thirty 
 of these great birds start heavily from their resting-place, and 
 wheel away in majestic circles." He describes their flight as 
 beautiful ; the Condors moving in large curves, sweeping in 
 circles, descending and ascending without once flapping their 
 wings. 
 
 The species of Vulture which seems to form the connecting 
 link between this family and the Eagle, is that which the 
 
 * Yarrell, vol. i. 
 
 f Patagonia. Journal, p. 220. 
 
 I Bennett, " Gardens and Menageries."
 
 314 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 natives of the German Alps name the Lammergeyer, or Lamb 
 Vulture. It resembles the Eagle in its confident and upright 
 bearing, and is the largest of European birds of prey, measur- 
 ing, when fully grown, upwards of four feet from beak to tail, 
 and in the expanse of its wings no less than nine or ten.* 
 Jt frequents the highest mountain chains in both Asia and 
 Africa. Of its audacity Bruce relates a striking instance. 
 While that celebrated Abyssinian traveller and his servants 
 were at dinner in the open air, with several dishes of boiled 
 goats' flesh before them, one of these Vultures came flying 
 slowly along the ground, and sat down close to the meat, with- 
 in the ring which the men had made round it. " There were 
 two large pieces, a leg and shoulder, lying upon a wooden 
 platter ; into these he trussed both his claws and carried them 
 off." He was shot on his return for a further supply. 
 
 II. FALCONID^E. FALCONS. 
 
 -"^Scaling yonder peak, 
 
 I saw an eagle wheeling near its brow, 
 O'er the abyss; his broad expanded wings 
 Lay calm and motionless upon the air, 
 As if he floated there without their aiJ, 
 By the sole act of his unlorded will, 
 That buoyed him proudly up." 
 
 J. SHERIDAS RXOWLES' "WILLIAM TELL.' 
 
 This group is distinguished from the preceding by the sharp 
 curved claws, and by the head being in all cases covered with 
 feathers. It includes the Eagles, Falcons, Kites, and Buzzards. 
 
 In entering upon this subject, there is one source of error 
 we should sedulously avoid. It is that which invests with 
 human feelings and passions the inferior animals ; which makes 
 us prone to regard one as brave, noble, generous, and humane, 
 and another as cowardly, base, selfish, and unpitying. Tried 
 by such a standard, the Eagle embodies all that is great, the 
 Vulture all that is despicable. We forget that both are birds 
 of prey, destined to fill important, though different, parts in 
 the scale of being, and both alike destitude of those higher 
 motives which the use of such phraseology on our part would 
 imply. With this brief caution, we shall not hesitate to avail 
 
 * Bennett.
 
 BIBD8. 315 
 
 ourselves of the language of the poet, nor seek to deaden the 
 warm tints which glow upon his pictures. 
 
 Two species of Eagle the Golden and the White-tailed 
 are known as permanent residents in these countries. The 
 addition of another to our Fauna was an occurrence of some 
 interest to ornithologists. This third species is an inhabitant 
 of the Apennines, and other mountains of central Europe, and 
 is known as the Spotted Eagle (Aquila ncevia). Mr. R. Davis, 
 of Clonmel, states * that it was shot in the month of January, 
 1845, on the estate of the Earl of Shannon, county of Cork, 
 and was at the time in a fallow field, devouring a rabbit. 
 Another bird, similarly marked, but reported to have been of 
 a lighter shade of brown, was shot at the same place within a 
 few days afterwards, but was not preserved. 
 
 Fig. 258. GOLDEN EAGLE. 
 
 The White-tailed, or Cinereous Sea Eagle (HaH/zetus 
 albicilld), is somewhat less in size than the Golden Eagle. It 
 is much more abundant, and it seems in its habits to approach 
 more nearly to the Vultures. We shall, therefore, convey a 
 better idea of the habits of "the wide ruh'ng Eagle," by 
 appropriating our limited space to the Golden Eagle (Aquila 
 chrysaetos, Fig. 258). 
 
 * In a letter to Mr. Yarrell r ide British Birds.
 
 316 INTEODUCTIOK TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 This species, though occasionally taken in England, haunts 
 more especially the mountainous districts of Scotland, and of 
 the north and west of Ireland. In Mr. Selby's splendid illus- 
 trations of British Ornithology, are two figures of this bird. 
 These have suggested to a reviewer * of that work a descrip- 
 tion so vivid, that it enables the reader at once to realize, in 
 his own mind, many of its characteristic features. 
 
 " The Golden Eagle leads the van of our birds of prey, 
 and there she sits in her usual carriage when in a state of 
 rest. Her hunger and her thirst have been appeased her 
 wings are folded up in dignified tranquillity her talons, 
 grasping a leafless branch, are almost hidden by the feathers 
 of her breast her sleepless eye has lost something of its 
 ferocity and the Royal Bird is almost serene in her solitary 
 state on the cliff. 
 
 " But, lo, the character of the Golden Eagle when she has 
 pounced and is exulting over her prey! With her head 
 drawn back between the crescent of her uplifted wings, which 
 she will not fold until that prey be devoured eye glaring 
 with cruel joy neck plumage bristling tail feathers fan- 
 spread, and talons driven through the victim's entrails and 
 heart there she is new alighted- on the edge of a precipice, 
 and fancy hears her yell and its echo." " The week-old 
 Fawn had left the Doe's side but for a momentary race along 
 the edge of the coppice a rustle and a shadow, and the 
 burden is borne off to the cliffs of Ben Nevis." 
 
 The power of vision in this tribe is very extraordinary. 
 This fact has been long known ; so long, indeed, that the 
 classical reader will at once remember that it is mentioned by 
 Homer, in his description of Menelaus : 
 
 "The field exploring, with an eye 
 
 Keen as the Eagle's, keenest-eyed of all 
 That wing the air, whom, though he soar aloft, 
 The Lev' ret 'scapes not, hid in thickest shades, 
 But down he swoops, and at a stroke she dies." 
 
 ILIAD, COWPER'S TRANSLATION, xvii. 674. 
 
 Fawns, Lambs, and Hares, with smaller quadrupeds and birds 
 of various kinds, constitute the food. It generally kills its 
 own game, but not invariably. Mr. Thompson t records the 
 
 * Blackwood's Magazine, Nov., 1826. 
 
 ( Papers on the Birds of Ireland, in the Magazine of Zoology and Botany 
 and Annals of Natural History. To this series, with permission of the author, 
 we make frequent reference.
 
 BIBDS. 317 
 
 capture of three of these birds at Glenarm Park, County- 
 Antrim, the bait employed in each instance being the body of 
 a Duck or a Lamb. So great is the quantity of food they 
 collect, when rearing their young brood, that a poor man in. 
 the county of Kerry * got a comfortable subsistence for his 
 family, during a time of famine, by robbing an Eagle's nest. 
 A similar occurrence took place at Glenariff, county of Antrim, 
 in the early part of the present century. " One of a pair of 
 Eaglets, taken from a nest there, was so placed that during 
 the summer its parents supplied it with Rabbits and Hares in 
 such abundance, that its owner obtained a sufficiency of animal 
 food besides for himself and family. "t 
 
 When intent on following his game, the Eagle evinces great 
 boldness. On one occasion an Eagle appeared above a pack 
 of hounds, as they came to a fault on the ascent of Devis, the 
 highest of the Belfast mountains, after a good chase. " As 
 they came on the scent again, and were at full cry, the Eagle 
 for a short time kept above them, but at length advanced, 
 and carried off the Hare when at the distance of three to four 
 hundred paces before the hounds." J With similar audacity 
 he dashes down among a " pack " of Grouse, and so " puzzles 
 and confuses the birds, that he seizes and carries off two or 
 three before they know what has happened, and in the very 
 face of the astonished sportsman and his dogs." || 
 
 It may be observed, that the prey is invariably seized with 
 the talons, the beak being used for the purpose of tearing it 
 up. This is contrary to popular belief; and the error deserves 
 to be pointed out, as we find it pervading the descriptions of 
 some of our most gifted poets ; as for example, in the mag- 
 nificent simile employed by Byron : 
 
 " Even as the Eagle overlooks his prey, 
 And for a moment, poised in middle air, 
 Suspends the motion of his mighty wings, 
 Then swoops, with his unerring beak." 
 
 MAKING FALIERO. 
 
 * Smith's History of Kerry. 
 
 f Thompson. 
 
 } Idem. 
 
 The little assemblages of birds, consisting of the parents and full- 
 fledged young, are indicated by sportsmen by names which differ accord- 
 ing to the particular birds spoken of, as a ccvey of Partridge, a pack of 
 Grouse. 
 
 y St. John's Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands, p 84.
 
 318 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 From the small number of Eagles we possess, compared 
 with that of most other native birds, we consider ourselves 
 fortunate in having, on one occasion, come suddenly upon 
 . four Eagles, amid their own wild haunts. It was in September, 
 1833, when ascending Mangerton mountain, at the Lakes of 
 Killarney, near to the little lake called the " Devil's Punch- 
 bowl," we found four of them preying on a full-grown sheep. 
 They rose majestically into the air as we approached. The 
 people who were with us supposed the sheep, being perhaps 
 sickly, had been killed by the Eagles. The flesh of the neck 
 was completely removed, although that of every other part 
 was untouched. We were assured that two Eagles will 
 occasionally pursue a Hare, one flying low, coursing it along 
 the ground, the other keeping perpendicularly above the 
 terrified animal. When the lowest Eagle tires, they change 
 places, and pursue the same system of tactics, until the Hare 
 is completely wearied out. We were told the same circum- 
 stance a few days afterwards, near Tralee, and again near 
 Monasterevan 4 . Our informant, in every instance, stated the 
 fact as having fallen under his own knowledge, and not as a 
 matter of hearsay. 
 
 The nest or eyrie of the Eagle is associated in our minds 
 with highly poetic imagery;* but it is regarded in a different 
 light by those who live in the vicinity, and suffer by the 
 predatory habits of its inmates. By them it is viewed as the 
 abode of the spoiler, and the nursery of a future race of aerial 
 tyrants. Various means for its destruction are accordingly 
 resorted to ; among others, that of lowering a lighted brand 
 into the nest. This was the plan pursued on one occasion at 
 Roshen, County Donegal: the nest was consumed, three 
 unfortunate Eaglets fell scorched and dead to the ground, 
 
 -" I was born so high, 
 
 Our aiery buildeth on the cedar's top, 
 
 And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun." 
 
 RICHARD III. Act i. scene 3. 
 
 " The Eagle and the Stork 
 
 On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build." 
 
 PARADISE LOST, Book vii. 
 
 " When the proud name on which they pinnacled 
 Their hopes is breathed on, jealous as the Eagle 
 Of her high aiery." 
 
 MARINO FALIERO, Act v. scene 1.
 
 BIKDS. 319 
 
 and the old birds from that time deserted the mountain.* 
 A similar mode of destruction has been resorted to at times 
 in other localities ; and this, no doubt, suggested to Campbell 
 the splendid description of the burning eyrie, in the Wizard's 
 prophetic warning to Lochiel.f 
 
 The true Falcons are distinguished by the 
 upper mandible of the bill being strongly 
 toothed (Fig. 259) ; by the short, strong 
 legs ; the feet with retractile claws of nearly 
 equal size ; and the relative proportions of 
 the principal quill-feathers of the wing, the 
 second being the longest. Six species are 
 recorded as British : J we shall select for description that 
 which is the most celebrated, the Peregrine Falcon (Falco 
 peregrinus). It breeds in rocky districts, and has a wide 
 geographical range. In the British Islands it is found in 
 Scotland, in Wales, in Devonshire and Cornwall ; and in other 
 localities where there are high rocks adjacent to the coast. 
 In some parts of Ireland it is not uncommon. "In the four 
 maritime counties of Ulster it has many eyries ; and in Antrim, 
 whose basaltic precipices are favourable for the purpose, seven 
 at least might be enumerated. " But notwithstanding its 
 predilection for the coast, this bird frequents occasionally 
 more inland localities ; and Sir J. Sebright states, that num- 
 bers of them take up their abode at Westminster Abbey, and 
 
 * Thompson. 
 
 f We subjoin a portion of the passage referred to: 
 
 " Ha ! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn ? 
 Proud bird of the mountain, thy plume shall be torn ! 
 Say, rush'd the bold Eagle exultingly forth, 
 From his home in the dark- rolling clouds of the north? 
 Lo ! the death-shot of foemen outspeeding, he rode 
 Companionless, bearing destruction abroad : 
 But down, let him stoop from his havoc on high ! 
 Ah ! home let him speed for the spoiler is nigh. 
 Why flames the far summit ? why shoot to the blast 
 Those embers like stars from the firmament cast ? 
 'Tis the fire shower of ruin, all dreadfully driven 
 From his eyrie that beacons the darkness of heaven." 
 
 I They are the Jer Falcon, Peregrine Falcon, the Hobby, the Orange- 
 legged Hobby, the Merlin, and the Kestrel. The last, Mr. Thompson 
 remarks, " is common and resident in Ireland, and is of more frequent 
 occurrence than any of the Falconida." 
 
 Thompson.
 
 320 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 other churches in the metroplis, and make great havoc among 
 the flocks of tame pigeons in the neighbourhood.* 
 
 The Peregrine Falcon is the species which, in former times, 
 was most used in these countries for the amusement of hawking. 
 This arose from the docility of the bird, and from its being 
 much more numerous, and, therefore, more easily procured 
 than the Jer Falcon. " The length of the adult Peregrine 
 Falcon is from fifteen to eighteen inches, depending on the 
 size and age of the bird." t The female bird is of much 
 greater size and strength than the male, and to her, in the 
 language of Falconry, the term " Falcon," was exclusively 
 applied. The male was the "Tiercel," or "Tassel;" the 
 reclaimed male the "Tassel gentle." J The female was 
 flown at Herons, or Ducks ; the male at Partridges, Magpies, 
 and Rails. The full-grown birds in the wild state, or while 
 unreclaimed, were called " Haggards." 
 
 In the training of the Falcons, great care, skill, and patience 
 were expended. They were taught to come at the " call," or 
 attend to the " lure " of the keeper. || They were carried to 
 the field upon "the fist," a thick and often a highly orna- 
 mented glove being used to prevent the hand from receiving 
 injury from the strength and sharpness of the claws. At such 
 times, their eyes were covered, or " hooded," with a leather 
 covering, usually surmounted by a small ornamental plume of 
 feathers. Bells of brass or silver were attached to the legs ; 
 and through small rings, likewise fixed there, leathern or 
 silken strings were passed, and wound round the hand of the 
 
 * Observations on Hawking. 
 
 t Yarrell. 
 
 j " Oh, for a falconer's voice to lure this Tassel gentle back again !" 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET. 
 " As coy and wild as Haggards of the rock." 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHIXG. 
 || To this Shakspeare alludes: 
 
 " Jly Falcon now is sharp and passing empty; 
 And, till she stoop, she must not be full gorged, 
 For then she never looks upon her lure. 
 Another way I have to man my Haggard, 
 To make her come, and know her keeper's call." 
 
 TAMIXG OF THE SHREW. 
 
 Any one who has read the " Abbot," will remember the quarrel between 
 Roland Graeme and Adam Woodcock, about the feeding of a Hawk. In 
 another of Sir Walter Scott's Tales, " The Betrothed," there is a spirited 
 description of a Hawking-matcb, in which two Falcons are flown at a 
 Heron.
 
 BIEDS. 321 
 
 Falconer until the time for " casting off" the bird. When the 
 " quarry"* was seen, the hood was pulled off, the jesses drawn 
 from their rings, and the Falcon at the same time launched 
 into the air. It tried in all cases to soar above and pounce 
 upon the prey, which it transfixed with its powerful talons. 
 
 Old records show the great value which was placed in former 
 times upon these birds, and the high prices at which they 
 were occasionally sold. In several places in the " Domesday 
 Book," ten pounds is made the optional payment instead of 
 finding a Hawk. It is said that in one instance, about two 
 hundred years ago, so much as a thousand pounds were paid 
 for a pair. By the 34th Edward III., it was made felony 
 to steal a Hawk ; and to take its eggs, even on a person's 
 own grounds, was punishable with imprisonment for a year 
 and a day, besides a fine at the king's pleasure. Thus prized 
 and protected, and used only by the wealthy and the noble, 
 these birds became the appendage of their state as well as of 
 their pastime. 
 
 References to Hawking, and its details, are of constant oc- 
 currence in our old ballads. t Shakspeare, who so invariably 
 "holds the mirror up to nature," hesitates not to introduce 
 the language of Falconry, in giving utterance to the perturbed 
 'and distracting meditations of Othello: 
 
 " If I do prove her haggard, 
 
 Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, 
 I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind 
 To prey at fortune." 
 
 The rapid flight of the Falcon is very remarkable. An 
 instance is recorded of one belonging to Henry IV., King of 
 France, which traversed the distance between Fontainebleau 
 and Malta, not less than 1,350 miles, in twenty-four hours. 
 In this case, supposing it to have been on the wing the whole 
 time, its rate of flight must have been nearly sixty miles an 
 hour ; but, as Falcons do not fly by night, it was probably not 
 more than sixteen or eighteen hours on the wing, and its rate 
 must, therefore, have been seventy or eighty miles an hour. 
 
 * The bird flown at by a Hawk was so named. 
 
 f Vide the Gay Goshawk, and the Broomfieldhill, in Minstrelsy of 
 the Scottish Border. Sometimes the epithet, " gay Goshawk," is ap- 
 plied figuratively; thus, in the ballad of Fause Foodrage, in the same 
 collection : 
 
 " And ye maun learn, my gay Goshawk, 
 Right weel to breast a steed."
 
 322 
 
 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 The Peregrine Falcon resembles the Golden Eagle in the 
 indifference evinced occasionally towards sportsmen and dogs. 
 An instance of this is thus narrated by Mr. Thompson : 
 " Mr. Sinclaire, when once exercising his dogs on the Belfast 
 mountains, towards the end of July, preparatory to Grouse- 
 shooting, saw them point ; and, on coming up, he startled a 
 male Peregrine Falcon off a Grouse (Tetrao Scoticus) just 
 killed by him ; and very near the same place my friend came 
 upon the female bird, also on a Grouse. Although the 
 sportsman lifted both the dead birds, the Hawks continued 
 flying about ; and on the remainder of the pack, which lay 
 near, being sprung by the dogs, either three or four more 
 Grouse were struck down by them, and thus two and a-half 
 or three brace were obtained by means of these wild birds, 
 being more than had ever been procured out of a pack of 
 Grouse by his trained Falcons." 
 
 We record, from the same source, another illustrative 
 anecdote : " In October, 1833, a female Peregrine Falcon of 
 Mr. Sinclaire's a bird of that year, and, consequently, but a 
 
 few months old 
 got loose in the 
 hawk - yard, and 
 killed a male of 
 her own species, 
 a year or two older 
 than herself, and 
 which had the 
 power of moving 
 at least a yard 
 from his block. 
 She had nearly 
 eaten him when 
 a person entered 
 the yard to feed 
 them, which he 
 did once daily, at 
 a regular hour. 
 This female bird 
 was ' full fed ' the day before, and had never got more 
 than one meal in the day." 
 
 The Hawks, as distinguished from the true Falcons, have 
 the legs more slender, the wings shorter, the fourth quill the 
 
 Fig. 260. GOSHAWK.
 
 BIEDS. 323 
 
 longest, and the middle toe much longer than the lateral ones. 
 There are but two British species, the Goshawk (Fig. 260) 
 and the Sparrowhawk. 
 
 The Goshawk (Astur pcdumbarius) is equal in size to the 
 
 largest of the Falcons. Its flight is low, and it was formerly 
 
 flown at Hares, Babbits, Grouse, and Partridges. Its prevailing 
 
 tint is greyish ; hence the line in one of the Border Ballads : 
 
 " The boy stared wild, like a yrey Goshawk." FAUSE FOODRAGE. 
 
 The Sparrow-hawk (Accipiter fringittarius) has been well 
 characterized by Mr. St. John as a "bold little freebooter," 
 and he thus records examples of its audacity : " A Sparrow- 
 hawk pursued a Pigeon through the drawing-room window, 
 and out at the other end of the house through another window, 
 and never slackened his pursuit, notwithstanding the clattering 
 of the broken glass of the two windows they passed through. 
 But the most extraordinary instance of impudence in this bird 
 that I ever met with, was one day finding a large Sparrow- 
 hawk deliberately standing on a very large Pouter-pigeon, on 
 the drawing-room floor, and plucking it, having entered in pur- 
 suit of the unfortunate bird through an open window, and killed 
 him in the room."* 
 
 The Kite (Milxiu 
 Ictinus, Fig. 261) 
 " is readily distin- 
 guished among the 
 British Falconidce, 
 even when at a dis- 
 tance on the wing, by 
 its long and forked 
 tail," and by its easy 
 
 l a- i,J- F!g. 261. KITE. / 
 
 and graceful night. 
 
 " It has now become comparatively rare in England." t In 
 Ireland, according to Mr. Thompson, the bird is extremely 
 rare, though the name is applied to other species of the family, 
 and particularly to the Common Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris). 
 The Honey Buzzard, a native of the south of Europe, and of 
 eastern climes, has been shot on several occasions in England, 
 and has, in one instance, occurred in the vicinity of Belfast. J 
 The Harriers form the remaining group of " the Falcon 
 
 * Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands, 
 f YarrelL J Thompson. 
 
 T
 
 324 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 family." One of them, the Hen- Harrier, is a most skilful 
 rat-catcher. " Skimming silently and rapidly through a rick- 
 yard, he seizes on any incautious Eat that may be exposed 
 to view ; and, from the habit this Hawk has of hunting very 
 late in the evening, many of these vermin fall to his share. 
 Though of so small and light a frame, the Hen-Harrier 
 strikes down a Mallard without difficulty, and the marsh and 
 swamp are his favourite hunting-grounds."* We may here 
 remark, that the whole of the predaceous birds have the power 
 of rejecting from their stomach, in the form of oblong balls, 
 the undigested portions of their food, consisting of bones, hair, 
 and feathers. 
 
 III. OWLS. STRIGIDJE. 
 
 " The Owl shriek'd at thy birth : an evil sign." SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 KING HENRY VI. Part iii. Act v. scene 6. 
 
 The nocturnal birds of prey form the third and last 
 
 division of the present order, 
 and constitute the well- 
 marked family of the Owls 
 (Fig. 262). In the dusk of 
 the evening they sally forth, 
 with eyes eminently adapted 
 for the diminished light, and 
 with wings whose movement 
 is so inaudible, that, to use the 
 words of an eloquent writer, 
 " a flake of snow is not win- 
 nowed through the air more 
 softly silent." Their strange 
 appearance, grotesque atti- 
 Fi. 262. OWL. tudes, discordant screams or 
 
 continuous hootings, have made them be regarded by the 
 uneducated as birds of ill omen.f The progress of know- 
 ledge dispels these idle fears, and converts a source of terror 
 into one of the countless rills of poetry and tradition. 
 
 * St John's Wild Sports of the Highlands. 
 
 f Thus among the prodigies which portended the death of Caesar: 
 
 " Yesterday, the bird of night did sit, 
 
 Even at noonday, upon the market-place, 
 
 Hooting and shrieking." JULIUS CAESAR, Act L scene 3.
 
 BIEDS. 325 
 
 Owls differ much in dimensions, some even approaching in 
 size to the Eagles. Among these the Snowy Owl stands 
 conspicuous ; it is a native of high northern latitudes, hut has 
 been taken on many occasions in these countries. The species 
 most common in England and Ireland is the White or Barn 
 Owl (Strix flammea). They frequent not barns only, but 
 .tmoccupied buildings of any kind. The " ivy-mantled tower " 
 is a congenial abode. They leave their retreat about an hour 
 before sunset, to hunt for mice, which form the principal food 
 of themselves and their young ; and in doing so they " beat 
 the fields over like a setting dog."* The numbers of mice 
 destroyed by a breeding pair of Owls must be enormous, and 
 the service they thus perform very great, to the farmer, the 
 planter, and the gardener. " I knew an instance," continues 
 Mr. St. John, f " where, the Owls having been nearly de- 
 stroyed by the numerous pole-traps placed about the fields for 
 the destruction of them and the hawks, the rats and mice 
 increased to such an extent on the disappearance of these 
 their worst enemies, and committed such havoc among the 
 nursery -gardens, farm-buildings, &c., that the proprietor was 
 obliged to have all the pole-traps taken down ; and the Owls 
 being allowed to increase again, the rats and mice as quickly 
 diminished in number." 
 
 Mr. Thompson mentions that a pair of White Owls had 
 their nest and young in a loft appropriated to Pigeons in the 
 town of Belfast. On the shelf beside the young Owls, the 
 number of dead mice and rats observed remaining after the 
 night's repast, varied from six to fifteen. No attempt was 
 ever made by the Owls to molest either the Pigeons or their 
 young ; and there is strong reason to believe that it is only 
 in the dearth of other prey that this Owl attacks any of the 
 feathered tribe. 
 
 In this particular it differs from the Eagle Owl, a species 
 which inhabits the north of Europe, and has occasionally been 
 taken in these countries. A Swedish gentleman, who lived 
 near a high mountain on which a pair of these birds had built 
 their nest, was witness of the following instance of their 
 affectionate solicitude for their young : One of the young 
 birds, which had quitted the nest, was taken by his servants, 
 and shut up in a hen-coop. " On the following morning a 
 
 * Natural History of Selborne. 
 f WUd Sports of the Highlands.
 
 326 INTBODUCTIOIT TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 fine young Partridge was found lying dead before the door of 
 the coop. It was immediately concluded that this provision 
 had been brought there by the old Owls, which, no doubt 
 had been making search in the night-time for their lost young 
 one. And such was, indeed, the fact ; for night alter night, 
 for fourteen days, was this same mark of attention repeated. 
 The game which the old ones carried to it consisted chiefly of 
 young Partridges, for the most part newly killed, but some- 
 times a little spoiled."* In South America there are Owls 
 which live in burrows excavated by themselves, or by a little 
 quadruped allied to the Babbit. 
 
 OBDEE II. INSESSOEES. PEBCHTNG BIRDS. 
 
 " The ousel-cock,t so black of hue, 
 
 With orange-tawny bill : 
 The throstle, with his note so true ; 
 
 The wren, with little quill ; 
 The finch, the sparrow, and the lark ; 
 
 The plain-song cuckoo grey." SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 THE " Perchers," or, to use the scientific term which has the 
 same meaning, the Insessores, are those birds which are not 
 predaceous like the Falcon ; which do not scrape the ground 
 like the barn-door fowl ; which are not wading birds like the 
 Heron, nor swimming birds like the Duck. The tribe may be 
 thus indicated by a series of negatives; and it embraces a 
 great variety of birds, differing widely in structure and habits. 
 Even within the narrow limits of our islands, above a hundred 
 species belonging to the present order are enumerated. 
 
 It is obvious that these birds have no exclusive claim to be 
 regarded as Perchers ; for Owls, Eagles, and other birds, perch 
 also. But this habit, taken in connexion with peculiarities 
 of structure, suggests a term which, though not strictly appli- 
 cable to them alone, is a very convenient one, and not likely 
 to mislead. It naturally suggests a question " How do birds 
 perch?" by what especial contrivance are they enabled to 
 maintain a firm hold even in sleep, at which time, we know, 
 
 * Familiar History of British Birds, vol. i. p. 192. 
 
 f The Blackbird is sometimes called by this name, and is the species here 
 referred to. Vide Yarrell, note on Ring OuzeL
 
 BIEDS. 327 
 
 I 
 
 our hands so soon relax in their power of grasping ? The 
 mechanism is, at the same time, the most simple and the 
 most effectual. Every one h^as probably seen the lower part 
 of the leg of a Turkey when cut off,* preparatory to the fowl 
 being cooked ; and, if so, may have, when a boy, amused 
 himself by pulling the tendons, which, acting upon the claws, 
 enabled him to make them contract or open at pleasure. 
 What he has done by pulling the tendons is done in the 
 perching birds by the bending of the leg, and, by this simple 
 act, the bird, without effort, retains its hold, and does so 
 securely, even on one leg. The placing of the head under 
 the wing brings the centre of gravity more nearly over the 
 feet, and thus gives additional stability. 
 
 From the number of species comprised in the Insessores, it 
 is convenient to divide the order into four groups, which are 
 again subdivided into families, genera, and species. The four 
 groups are established on very obvious characters, connected 
 principally with the form of the beak or of the foot. Some, 
 as for example the Thrush and the Kobin, have on the upper 
 mandible of the bill, a notch or tooth, 
 somewhat similar to that of the Falcons 
 (Fig. 263). These constitute the group 
 of tooth-billed birds ; but the man of 
 science, instead of the English term, 
 which would only be understood here, 
 employs a compound Latin term (Denti- Flg - 26a 
 
 rostres t), which means the same thing, and is understood by 
 men of science in every part of the world. The Sparrow has 
 a bill of a different shape (Fig. 264) ; it 
 is conical. Hence the Sparrow belongs 
 to another group, those with cone-shaped 
 bills (Conirostres) . The third consists of 
 those birds which are remarkable for their 
 powers of climbing. In them the toes are 
 most usually arranged in pairs, two turned 
 forwards and two backwards, as may be ""Tig. 
 
 * It may here be remarked that the true leg of a bird is the part to 
 which that name is given when a fowl is brought to table. The part called 
 the leg in the living bird lies between the leg, properly so called, and the 
 foot, and is analogous to that part of our foot which lies between the ankle 
 and the toes. 
 
 f Latin Dens, a tooth ; rostrum, a beak.
 
 328 IlfTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 seen in the foot of the Cuckoo or the Woodpecker (i^. 272). 
 The term applied to the group is that of Scansores or 
 climbers. The fourth is composed of those birds whose beaks 
 are so wide and gaping that they appear as if cleft ; hence they 
 are named Fissirostres. The Swallow or Swift, in chase of 
 their insect prey, are familiar examples 
 of this structure. A much maligned 
 bird, that also feeds upon insects, exhi- 
 bits this peculiarity. We allude to the 
 Goatsucker (Caprimulgus Europeans, 
 Fig. 265), which popular credulity has 
 accused in Italy of sucking goats, and 
 here of sucking cows, and inflicting a fatal distemper upon 
 weaning calves. We have thus four tribes of perching 
 birds : 
 
 I. Tooth-billed, Dentirostres. 
 II. Conical-billed, Conirostres. 
 
 III. Climbers, Scansores. 
 
 IV. Gaping-billed, Fissirostres. 
 
 We shall now notice some well-known individuals of each 
 of these tribes, though necessarily with great brevity, devoting 
 our space principally to those which are natives, in preference 
 to the more brilliant inhabitants of foreign climes. 
 
 TEIBE I. TOOTH-BILLED BIRDS. DENTIROSTRES. 
 
 " Brisk Robin seeks a kindlier home ; 
 Not like a beggar is he come, 
 But enters as a looked-for guest, 
 Confiding in his ruddy breast, 
 As if it were a natural shield 
 Charged with a blazon on the field, 
 Due to that good and pious deed, 
 Of which we in the ballad read." WORDSWORTH, 
 
 Laniadce.* The Shrikes or Butcher-birds bear some resem- 
 blance in habit, and in the curved projection of the upper 
 part of the bill, to the birds of prey. "The Grey Shrike," 
 says Mr. Yarrell, " feeds upon mice, shrews, small birds, frogs, 
 lizards, and large insects ; after having killed its prey, it fixes 
 
 * Latin Lanius, a butcher.
 
 BIEDS. 329 
 
 the body on a forked branch, or upon a sharp thorn, the more 
 readily to tear off small pieces from it. It is from this habit 
 of killing and hanging up their meat, which is observed also 
 in other Shrikes, that they have been generally called Butcher- 
 birds. They are not plentiful in these countries. 
 
 Passing by the Fly-catchers (Muscicapidce), of which there 
 are only two native species, we come to that of the Thrushes 
 (Merulidce) . . To this family belongs the Water Ouzel (Gin- 
 das aquaticus), a bird which frequents rocky streams, and the 
 banks of rapid rivers in mountainous districts. " With the 
 romantic and picturesque in scenery," says Mr. Thompson, 
 " this bird is associated, frequenting the stream only so far as 
 it can boast of such charming accompaniments ; whenever it 
 descends to the lowlands to move sluggishly through the plain 
 the Water Ouzel forsakes it, to continue in its upland haunts." 
 
 A question has arisen in reference to the habits of this bird* 
 whether it can or cannot walk underneath the water. Mr- 
 St. John, the latest writer upon the question, expressly states > 
 in opposition to Mr. Waterton, that on two or three occasions 
 he has seen the Water Ouzel walk deliberately down into the 
 water, and run about on the gravel at the bottom, scratching 
 with his feet among the small stones, and picking away at all 
 the small insects and animalcules which he could dislodge.* 
 
 The Missel Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) is in England con- 
 sidered only as an early songster, but in Ireland its song may 
 be heard at every season of the year, with the exception of the 
 moulting season. That of the Fieldfare, a migrating Thrush 
 that arrives from the north towards the end of October, and 
 remains in these countries in large flocks during the winter, 
 is described as soft and melodious. But the present genus 
 contains two species, which bear away the prize in minstrelsy 
 from any of their associates the Song Thrush (Turdus 
 musicus), and the Blackbird (T. merula), "The Mavis and 
 Merle" of the Border Ballads. The poet has in one line 
 characterized both the song and the haunts of the one last 
 mentioned : 
 
 " The Blackbird whistles from the thorny brake." 
 
 THOMSON'S SEASONS. 
 
 The Thrush usually haunts woods and small plantations, but 
 we have heard its song poured out on one of the wildest 
 
 * Wild Sports of the Highlands.
 
 330 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 mountain tracts in the County of Antrim, the singer being 
 perched upon a ragweed. Mr. Thompson records an instance 
 in which one of these birds built five nests in the course of 
 one season, and reared seventeen young. We have already 
 adverted (p. 181) to the tantalizing proof we experienced of 
 its partiality for one of our most beautiful land shells, or rather 
 for its occupant, as food. 
 
 Sylviadce. The family we have next to mention is the 
 most musical in Europe, and some of its members have 
 attained the highest reputation as vocalists. Among those 
 best known may be mentioned the Redbreast, Sedge- Warbler, 
 Nightingale, Blackcap Warbler, and Willow Wren. The brief 
 notice we can give shall be bestowed upon the Eedbreast and 
 the Nightingale. 
 
 We have been taught to love the Eobin Eedbreast (Sylvia 
 rulecula), associated as it is with recollections which the 
 wear and tear of after life can never efface.* Those who have 
 lived in this country have seen him during the summer feeding 
 on earth-worms, caterpillars, berries, and fruits ; and in winter 
 presenting himself to receive from the hand of man the food 
 which the frozen earth withholds. His habits, when he first 
 ventures into the cottage to pick up the proffered crumbs, have 
 been truly described by Thomson : 
 
 " Then hopping o'er the floor, 
 
 Eyes all the smiling family askance, 
 
 And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is." 
 
 "The sprightly air of this species," says Mr. Yarrell, 
 "the full dark eye, and the sidelong turn of the head, give 
 an appearance of sagacity and inquiry to their character, 
 which, aided by their confidence, has gained them friends ; 
 and the Eobin has accordingly acquired some familiar domestic 
 name, in almost every country of Europe." 
 
 The bird seems at times to have indulged in some whimsical 
 fancies as to the situation of his nest. " A pair took up their 
 abode in the parish church of Hampton, in Warwickshire, and 
 affixed their nest to the church Bible, as it lay on the reading- 
 
 * Shakspeare mentions the bird by the old Saxon name the Ruddock, 
 and refers to its performance of the same office as that attributed to it in the 
 well-known ballad : 
 
 " The Ruddock would, 
 
 With charitable bill, bring thee all this, 
 
 Yea, and furred moss besides, when flowers are none, 
 
 To winter-ground thy corse." CYMBELINE, Act iv. scene 2.
 
 BIEDS. 331 
 
 desk. The vicar would not allow the birds to be disturbed, and 
 therefore supplied himself with another Bible, from which he 
 read the lessons of the service."* One pair built repeatedly 
 adjoining a blacksmith's shop ; but neither the noise of the 
 adjacent forge, nor frequent visits disturbed them.f Another 
 constructed the nest in a hole in the timbers of a vessel under- 
 going repairs in the dry dock at Belfast, while the deafening 
 process of driving in what are called the tree-nails was carried 
 forward, occasionally close to the nest.J But a more extra- 
 ordinary selection was made by one which had been frequently 
 expelled from a bird-stuffing room, where the window was 
 kept open, and is thus recorded by Mr. Thompson : " Finding 
 that expulsion was of no avail, recourse was had to a novel 
 and rather comical expedient. My friend had, a short time 
 before, received a collection of stuffed Asiatic quadrupeds, 
 and of these he selected the most fierce-looking Carnivora, 
 and placed them at the open window, which they nearly filled 
 up, hoping that their formidable aspect might deter the bird 
 from future ingress ; but the Redbreast was not to be so 
 frightened from its ' propriety,' and made its entree as usual. 
 Its perseverance was at length rewarded by a free permission 
 to have its own way, when, as if in defiance of the ruse that 
 had been attempted to be practised upon it, the chosen place 
 for the nest was the head of a shark ! " 
 
 The Nightingale (Sylvia 
 luscinia, Fig. 265, A.) stands 
 pre-eminent in all the re- 
 quisites for first-rate song. 
 The volume, quality, and 
 execution of its voice are 
 unrivalled among British 
 birds, and its powers appear 
 still more extraordinary, 
 taken in connexion with 
 the diminutive size of the 
 
 musician. It is a native Fig. 265, A NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 * From the pleasing little volumes to which we have more than once 
 referred, the "Familiar History of Birds," by the Bishop of Norwich, voL ii. 
 p. 35. The fact is given on the authority of a writer in Magazine of 
 Natural History, No. 31. 
 
 t Yarrell, from the Field Naturalists' Magazine. 
 
 J Thompson. The vessel was the Dunlop. YarrelL
 
 332 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 of southern climes, and appears in England in April, the 
 arrival of the males preceding that of the females from ten to 
 fourteen days. It is by no means generally distributed. It 
 does not appear to frequent Cornwall nor Wales, and is rarely 
 heard to the north of Warwickshire ; it is consequently absent 
 from Scotland and the adjoining islands, and is altogether 
 unknown in Ireland. 
 
 The song of woe,* which the poets have attributed to the 
 Nightingale, is entirely fanciful. To the solitary and senti- 
 mental muser, the notes may have seemed plaintive in the 
 extreme, and suggested the idea of the widowed bird mourning 
 for her mate. But the songs of birds are not the vehicle of 
 sorrow, but the expression of joy; and in most cases they 
 proceed from the male bird, either while wooing his partner, 
 or cheering her in the performance of her maternal duties. 
 The song of the Nightingale is the outpouring of joy, and not 
 of sadness, and is due mainly, if not exclusively, to the male. 
 
 The beautiful golden-crested Wren (S. regulus), the various 
 species of Titmice (Pcrrws), the vivacious and attractive 
 Wagtails (Motacilla), can only be mentioned. To them suc- 
 ceed the Pipits (Anthus) frequenting the wood, the meadow, 
 or the coast, according to the different habits and food of the 
 
 several species. They 
 lead by easy stages 
 to the True Larks, 
 which commence the 
 next group those 
 which have the bills 
 conical. 
 
 Before, however, 
 giving attention to 
 them, we would like 
 to pause ior a mo- 
 meut on tropical 
 birds remarkable for 
 their slender bills, 
 and hence spoken of 
 . 266. HUMMISG-BIRD by some writers by a 
 
 " Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, 
 And to the Nightingale's complaining notes 
 Tune my distresses and record my woes." 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VEKONA, Act. v. scene 4.
 
 BIRDS. 333 
 
 term denoting this peculiarity (Tenuirostres) . They cannot be 
 better exemplified than by the Humming-birds (Fig. 266), a 
 tribe which includes some of the smallest and most beautiful 
 of the whole feathered race, combining the richness of flowers 
 and the brilliancy of gems. They take their name from the 
 manner in which they hover over flowers, keeping up a hum- 
 ming-noise by the vibration of their wings, the motion of which 
 at such times is so rapid as to be scarcely visible. Mr. Darwin 
 says they reminded him of the sphinx moths, and considers 
 that insects rather than honey are the objects of their search 
 an opinion which an examination of the stomachs of several 
 specimens which were shot confirmed, as the remains of in- 
 sects were found in all.* 
 
 TEIBE II. CONICAL-BILLED BIRDS. CONIROSTRES. 
 
 " The Daw, 
 
 The Rook and Magpie, to the grey-grown oaks 
 
 * 
 
 * direct their lazy flight." 
 
 THOMSON'S "SUMMER." 
 
 THE first bird we shall mention the Sky-lark does not 
 exhibit that form of bill which gives name to the tribe ; the 
 true representatives of the group must be sought, not upon 
 the outskirts, but towards the centre of the territory. The 
 hinder toe is apparently disproportioned to the others by its 
 great length ; but this peculiarity, which unfits the Lark for 
 perching, enables it to walk with ease upon the grass, and 
 spring upwards ere the wings are expanded for flight. The 
 food consists of seeds, worms, and insects. The bird delights 
 in dusting itself; a process in this as in others resorted to, for 
 the purpose, it is supposed, of freeing themselves from small 
 parasitic insects. In autumn, Larks collect in large flocks, 
 become fat, and in some parts of England are captured by 
 nets in large numbers, and sold as a delicacy. 
 
 But it is not any one of these circumstances, nor all of 
 them together, that gives the Lark its fascinations, when in 
 early spring we listen to the flood of music it pours on the 
 
 * Journal, pages 37, 330.
 
 334 LNTHODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 awakening earth, or hearkeii to the cheerful influence of its 
 song as described by Milton : 
 
 " To hear the Lark begin his flight 
 And singing startle the dull night ; 
 From his watch-tower in the skies, 
 'Til the dappled morn doth rise, 
 Then to come in spite of sorrow, 
 And at my window bid good-morrow." 
 
 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 Calculations as to the usefulness of the bird are lost sight 
 of; and a part from them altogether, men, by universal consent, 
 pay homage to the joy-inspiring minstrel, whose note is ever 
 fresh and ever gladsome. By Thomson he is described as 
 
 Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings, 
 Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts 
 Calls up the tuneful nations." SPRING. 
 
 The Lark is universally distributed over Europe, and 
 descriptions sikin to these are everywhere current. Who then 
 could wish that the Zoologist and the Poet should move in 
 separate paths ? Who would not desire that the Poet should 
 proclaim the truths which the objects around him teach, and 
 lead man to regard them as volumes which the Creator has 
 unfolded for his perusal ? 
 
 FringillidcK.* Associated with the Larks in one extensive 
 family containing nearly thirty native species, are the Buntings, 
 the Finches, Sparrows, Grosbeaks, and some who as songsters 
 are justly prized, as the Goldfinch, the Linnet, and the Bull- 
 finch ; also the singular Crossbill, whose beak would seern 
 deformed and useless, did not a knowledge of the manner in 
 which it is employed in opening the cones of the fir-tree 
 show that it is in reality a most efficient instrument for its 
 destined purpose. 
 
 Sturnida. The Common Starling (Slurnus vulgarisrf Fig. 
 267) is the representative of another family. It is well known 
 for its power of imitating sounds ; and from an early age has 
 in our minds been associated with Sterne's well-known words, 
 
 * Latin Fringilla, a Chaffinch. 
 
 f This figure, and that of the Gull (284) are copied from Bewick.
 
 BIBDS. 335 
 
 "I cannot get out;"* and with the angry resolution of 
 Hotspur, f 
 
 The Starling is a migratory species ; but a difference of 
 opinion prevails among naturalists as to the extent and regu- 
 larity of the migration. The most recent record on the sub- 
 ject is that afforded by Mr. W. Thompson, J relative to the 
 appearance of the Starling in the neighbourhood of Belfast. 
 He informs us that this occurs towards the middle or latter 
 
 Fig. 867. STARLING. 
 
 end of September, and continues for about six or eight weeks ; 
 that the flocks are seen every fine morning coming from the 
 north-east and continuing the same course ; and that each 
 flock consists of from half-a-dozen to two hundred individuals, 
 and arrives generally between eight and ten o'clock. " At the 
 season of their earliest appearance there is daylight between 
 four and five o'clock in the morning, and their not being 
 seen before eight o'clock, leads to the belief that they have 
 
 * " The Captive." 
 
 t " I'll have a Starling shall be taught to speak 
 Nothing but Mortimer." 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part i. Act i. scene 3. 
 J Anuals and Magazine of Natural History.
 
 336 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 left some distant place at an early hour." The greatest num- 
 ber ever seen in one day in their course of flight, amounted to 
 1500 ; and the entire number thus seen during the migratory 
 period, to about 15,000. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell mentions localities in which these birds con- 
 gregate by thousands ; in one case in the vicinity of Bristol, 
 by millions. Their food consists of worms, insects, snails, 
 berries, and grain. They build in ruins, old trees, church- 
 steeples, rocks, and holes about buildings ; and Mr. Ball has 
 remarked, that the celebrated round towers of Ireland are 
 favourite nesting-places. The evolutions of a large body of 
 Starlings before retiring to rest have been so graphically de- 
 scribed in the " Familiar History of Birds," that it would be 
 doing injustice to the learned and right reverend author, not 
 to give the words there employed. 
 
 " At first they might be seen advancing high in the air, 
 like a dark cloud, which in an instant, as if by magic, became 
 almost invisible, the whole body, by some mysterious watch- 
 word or signal, changing their 
 course, and presenting their 
 wings to view edgeways, in- 
 stead of exposing, as before, 
 their full expanded spread. 
 Again, in another moment, 
 the cloud might be seen de- 
 scending in a graceful sweep, 
 so as almost to brush the earth 
 as they glanced along. Then 
 once more they were seen 
 spiring in wide circles on high, 
 till at length with one simul- 
 taneous rush down they glide, 
 with a roaring noise of wing, 
 till its vast mass buried itself 
 unseen, but not unheard, amid 
 a bed of reeds projecting from 
 the bank, adjacent to the 
 wood. For no sooner were 
 they perched than every throat seemed to open itself, forming 
 one incessant confusion of tongues." 
 
 This is perhaps the place where reference may be made to 
 the Birds of Paradise (Fig. 268), which, according to Eastern 
 
 Fig. 268. BIRD OF PARADISE.
 
 BIRDS. 337 
 
 fable, lived upon dew and vapour, and carried on without de- 
 scending to earth all the functions of life, even to the produc- 
 tion of their eggs and young. They have justly heen said, 
 from the extreme beauty of their plumage, to hold the highest 
 rank among the feathered glories of the creation. They are 
 limited to New Guinea, or as it is frequently called, the country 
 of the Papuas, and some of the adjacent islands of the South 
 Pacific Ocean. The natives of these countries, when prepar- 
 ing and drying the skins, were in the habit of removing 
 the feet of the bird. The skins in this state were sold 
 to the Malays, carried into India, and thence conveyed into 
 Europe. Here we have the origin of the superstitious ideas 
 with which these birds were formerly associated, arising from 
 the supposed want of legs. The legend has been commemo- 
 rated by Linnaeus, who applied to the best known species the 
 appellation, " footless ;"* and it has been enshrined in the har- 
 monious lines of the poet : 
 
 " The footless fowl of heaven that never 
 
 Rest upon earth, but on the wing for ever, 
 
 Hovering o'er flowers their fragrant food inhale, 
 
 Drink the descending dew upon its way, 
 
 And sleep aloft while floating on the gale." 
 
 SOUTHEY'S " CURSE OF KEHAMA." 
 
 Corvidoe. The Starling, which has been already noticed, and 
 the Raven, the Magpie, and the Jay, which are members of the 
 present family, possess the power of imitating the human 
 voice in a higher degree of perfection than any other British 
 birds. One example of this has been mentioned in a preced- 
 ing page (p. 307). 
 
 The Raven labours under the misfortune of being regarded 
 as a bird of ill omen.f High rocks and other places, where 
 danger may best be descried, are his favourite haunts. His 
 food is various, emmets, reptiles, birds and their eggs, fish, and 
 carrion ; like other species, he is partial to chickens and young 
 ducks ; and we were assured on one occasion by a credible 
 witness that he had seen a Raven alight among a flock of full- 
 
 * Paradisea apoda, 
 
 t " The Raven himself is hoarse 
 
 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
 
 Under my battlements." MACBETH. 
 
 " Oh, it comes o'er my memory, 
 
 As doth the Raven o'er the infected house, 
 Boding to all ! " OTHELLO.
 
 338 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 grown ducks, give one of them a few blows, throw it on its 
 back, and forthwith begin to tear it up. Such audacity is of 
 extremely rare occurrence. 
 
 It is pleasant to think of birds in connexion with the locali- 
 ties in which they were observed. Our rambles along the shore 
 of the County Antrim have given us frequent opportunities of 
 noticing the Hooded-crows (Corvus cornix) upon the beach: 
 they were not usually in pairs ; three were more frequently 
 seen than two, and five than four. There, too, near the basaltic 
 headlands of that noble coast, we have gazed with pleasure on 
 the Chough (Fregilus graculus), as it sailed above our head, 
 the brilliant red of its legs contrasting beautifully with the 
 glossy bluish-black of the plumage. 
 
 There is, however, no bird of the family so well known 
 throughout all the cultivated parts of the kingdom as the 
 Rook (Corvus frugilegus), and as we prefer dwelling on that 
 which is common rather than on that which is rare, we devote 
 to its habits the space at our command. 
 
 It is a social bird, fond of living about the abodes of man, 
 and even of building in the heart of crowded cities. But it is 
 not with such haunts that its appearance is usually associated, 
 but with time-honoured mansions, and more especially lofty 
 trees, their chosen abodes during successive generations. 
 
 Washington Irving has written respecting these birds, * in 
 his usual agreeable style. "They are," he says, "old estab- 
 lished housekeepers, high-minded gentlefolk, that have had 
 their hereditary abodes time out of mind;" and he goes on in 
 the same amusing manner to describe, what " rather derogates 
 from the grave and honourable character of these ancient gentle- 
 folk, that during the architectural season they are subject to 
 great dissensions among themselves ; that they make no scruple 
 to defraud and plunder each other, and that sometimes the 
 rookery is a scene of hideous brawl and commotion, in conse- 
 quence of some delinquency of the kind." 
 
 Mr. Macgillivray, when visiting a rookery t at night, "was 
 surprised to hear several rooks uttering a variety of soft clear 
 modulated notes, very unlike their usual cry. In the interval 
 I could distinguish," says he, "the faint shrill voice of the 
 newly -hatched young, which their mothers, I feel persuaded, 
 were fondling and coaxing in this manner. Indeed the sounds 
 
 * The Rookery, Bracebridge HalL 
 f British Birds, vol. i. p. 649.
 
 BIRDS. 339 
 
 were plainly expressive of affection, and a desire to please." 
 The young who are the objects of this solicitude suffer greatly 
 in seasons of drought. Mr. Knapp mentions that, in the hot 
 summer of 1825, many perished from want ;* the mornings 
 were without dew, few or no worms could be obtained, and 
 all the young were found dead under the trees, having expired 
 on their roostings. 
 
 The supply of food involves a question of much importance 
 to the farmer ; namely, whether Books do him most good or 
 most evil ? If it were possible to keep a regular account of 
 all their proceedings and their results, which way would the 
 balance lie ? Should he regard the Hooks as friends or as 
 enemies ? The question when considered for a moment ex- 
 pands, and presents itself under a new form, and comprises 
 not Rooks alone, but all those "trooping birds " that live partly 
 upon insects, and partly upon grain and other produce. 
 
 The opinion of those who have most attentively weighed 
 the evidence on both sides is, that the continual benefit which 
 Rooks confer by the destruction of snails, worms, and insects 
 in their several states, far more than compensates for the occa- 
 sional injury they inflict. It is needful at seed-time to guard 
 the newly-sown grain, and the potato " sets " against their 
 depredations ; that being done, offer them no molestation. 
 There are numerous insects that, in the Caterpillar state, eat 
 away the roots of grain or grass crops, while others in different 
 stages make their attacks above ground, and at a later season. 
 The larvae of the Cockchafer,t of the Click Beetles,;}: and of 
 the Harry -longlegs, are all underground feeders ; and some- 
 times when Rooks pull up grass and scatter it about, its roots 
 have been already destroyed by the unseen devastators, for 
 which the birds are searching. " A gentleman," says Mr. 
 Jesse, " once showed me a field which had all the appearance of 
 being scorched as if by a burning sun in dry hot weather. The 
 turf peeled from the ground as if it had been cut with a turfing- 
 spade, and we then discovered that the roots of the grass had 
 been eaten away by the larvae of the Cockchafer, which were 
 found in countless numbers at various depths in the soil.")) 
 The Rooks, which evince remarkable quickness in detecting 
 
 * Journal of a Naturalist. Tipulidae. 
 
 t Melolontha vulgaris. \\ Gleanings of Natural History. 
 
 J Elaterids.
 
 340 
 
 rXTBODUCTIOTT TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 such spots, were in reality benefactors, not destroyers. Nu- 
 merous other examples of a similar kind might he brought 
 forward. To these might be added others no less instructive, 
 in which the Rooks in certain districts have been extirpated, 
 so great an increase of the insect enemies of the agriculturist 
 took place, that the crops, for two or three successive seasons, 
 were utterly destroyed, and the farmers obliged, at some 
 trouble and expense, to reinstate the Rooks in order to save 
 their crops. 
 
 In 1831 or 1832 we noticed great quantities of the skulls 
 and other bones of Eooks lying on the shores of Lough Neagh, 
 and understood that during a dense fog multitudes of these 
 birds had perished in the waters, and that their bodies had 
 afterwards been drifted ashore. After the great hurricane of 
 
 the 7th of January, 1839, 
 many thousands were 
 picked up dead on the 
 shores of a lake some miles 
 in length, in the County 
 of Westmeath, with ex- 
 tensive rookeries on its 
 borders.* 
 
 The wary Magpie, the 
 busy Jackdaw, and the 
 cheerful Jay a bird un- 
 known in the northern 
 parts of Ireland all be- 
 long to the present family; 
 and various are the petty 
 larcenies which have been 
 kid to their charge. One 
 of the most perplexing oc- 
 curred at Cambridge, where 
 the Daws took a fancy to 
 
 Fig. 269 -HOJWBILL. employ in the construction 
 
 of their nests, the wooden 
 
 labels used in the Botanic Garden, for the names of seeds and 
 plants ; and to such an extent did they avail themselves of 
 these materials, that so many as eighteen dozen of labels were 
 
 * This singular fact was communicated to Mr. R. Ball of Dublin, by 
 Dean Vignolles, on whose property it occurred.
 
 BIRDS. 341 
 
 found in the shaft of a single chimney in which these birds 
 were in the habit of building.* 
 
 There are some foreign birds which, in their general habits, 
 approach to the present family. They are remarkable for 
 the excrescence by which the beak is surmounted, and from 
 which they derive their name of Hornbills (Fig. 269). This 
 singular appendage is extremely light, consisting of numerous 
 cells filled with air, which in fact penetrates with great facility 
 every part of their skeleton. The African species are de- 
 scribed as living on small Birds, Mice, Reptiles, and even 
 carrion, and only descending to vegetable diet when better fare 
 is not attainable. The Asiatic species seem more restricted 
 to fruits, and in the Molucca islands live chiefly upon nutmegs. 
 In the great size of the beak, and in the habit of swallowing 
 their food whole, the Hornbills bear a resemblance to the 
 Toucans, a family of climbing birds which inhabit the thick 
 forests of tropical America, and whose principal food is the 
 eggs and the young of birds. 
 
 TBIBE III. CLIMBING BIKDS. SCANSOKES. 
 
 " In gaudy robes of many coloured patches, 
 The Parrots swung like blossoms on the trees, 
 While their harsh voices undeceived the ear." 
 
 MONTGOMERY'S " PELICAN ISLAND." 
 
 WE cannot give better examples of the climbing birds than 
 those furnished by the Parrots, Cockatoos, and Macaws 
 (Fig. 270) of tropical countries ; those beautiful birds, many 
 of which are domesticated in our houses, and which are uni- 
 formly one of the principal points of attraction in our Zoological 
 gardens. The formation of the foot and of the beak qualifies 
 them in a pre-eminent degree to act as climbing birds. 
 
 The Woodpeckers, among British birds, belong to the pre- 
 sent group. Their food consists of insects in different states, 
 for which they search under the bark of trees, digging into 
 
 * Stated by Mr. Yarrell, and by Mr. Jenyns, on the authority of Mr. 
 Denson.
 
 342 
 
 rNTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the wood of such as are decayed. The point of the tongue 
 is furnished with hairs pointing backwards (Fig. 271), and 
 the tongue has a peculiar and very effectual apparatus by means 
 
 of which it is launched 
 at the insect prey. The 
 tail, in conjunction with 
 the two feet, acts as a 
 tripod (Fig. 272), and 
 gives the bird the re- 
 quisite stability while 
 proceeding with its ope- 
 rations. 
 
 A favourite bird, re- 
 markable both for its di- 
 minutive size and for its 
 large family, must not 
 be unnoticed. We allude 
 to the Wren (Troglody- 
 tes EuropcBus). It comes 
 about our dwellings al- 
 most with the confi- 
 dence of the Eobin, and 
 like that bird, has in its 
 favour, the potent re- 
 commendation which 
 clings to the stories 
 and lays of childhood. 
 But perhaps there is 
 
 Fig. 270.-MACAW. no individua l bird what . 
 
 ever whose habits are so peculiar as those of the Cuckoo 
 (Cumulus canorus), and none whose cheerful note in the spring 
 awakens more gladsome feelings. It builds no nest, but drops 
 
 Tongue. 
 
 Fig. 271. SKULL OF WOODPECKER. 
 
 its eggs into the nests of other birds ; one only is supposed to 
 be dropped by the same Cuckoo into the same nest. The
 
 BI11DS. 
 
 343 
 
 nests principally selected are those of the Hedge Sparrow, the 
 Pied Wagtail, and the Meadow Pipit. The young Cuckoo, 
 soon after it has been hatched, throws out of the nest the 
 other young birds, and also the 
 eggs, remaining sole occupant of 
 the place, and securing to its own 
 use the food which the old birds 
 supply. This habit is the more 
 remarkable in our common 
 Cuckoo, as the American Yellow- 
 billed Cuckoo, which has been 
 occasionally taken in these coun- 
 tries, builds a nest and rears up 
 the young in the ordinary way. 
 
 Poets have delighted in offer- 
 ing to the Cuckoo as herald of 
 the spring their melodious tribute. 
 Wordsworth refers to the well- 
 known call of the male when the 
 bird itself is concealed : 
 
 Fig. 272. WOODPECKER. 
 
 " Thrice welcome darling of the spring ; 
 
 Even yet thou art to me 
 No bird, but an invisible thing 
 A voice, a mystery." 
 
 Its cheerful note, and the verdure with which in our minds 
 it is associated, are alluded to, no less happily, by another 
 
 writer : 
 
 " Sweet bird ! thy bower is ever green, 
 
 Thy sky is ever clear ; 
 Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, 
 No winter in thy year." LOGAN.
 
 344 
 
 TRIBE IV. GAPmG-BILLED BIRDS. FISSIBOSTRES. 
 
 " This guest of summer 
 The temple-haunting Martlet, does approve, 
 By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 
 Smells wooingly here ; no jutty, frieze, buttress, 
 Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made 
 His pendant bed, and procreant cradle : where they 
 Most breed and haunt, I have observed the air 
 Is delicate." SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 THE first family of the present group consists of the Bee 
 Eaters (Meropidce), birds of bright plumage, natives of Africa 
 and of Asia Minor, which, as occasional visitors, are ranked 
 among British species. Next to them the Kingfishers 
 (Halcyonida!, Fig. 273), claim our attention. There is but 
 
 one native species (Al- 
 cedo ispida), and in 
 point of brilliant plum- 
 age, it is unquestionably 
 the first of British birds, 
 and not surpassed by 
 many of those belonging 
 to tropical countries. 
 It chooses for the site 
 of its nest some spot in 
 the overhanging bank 
 of a stream, and lives 
 upon small fish and 
 aquatic insects. King- 
 fishers, like many other 
 birds, possess the power 
 of reproducing the con- 
 tents of the stomach at 
 pleasure.* This is of 
 service at times in feed- 
 ng the young, and on other occasions in discharging, as in the 
 case of birds of prey, the indigestible portions of the food. 
 
 It was formerly believed that the Kingfisher, or, as it was 
 then termed, the Halcyon, hatched her eggs in a floating nest, 
 and that, during the time she was thus engaged, the winds 
 
 Yarrell's British Birds, vol. ii., to which the reader is referred for in- 
 formation, drawn from various sources, respecting the fabled Halcyon. 
 
 Fig. 273. KINGFISHER.
 
 BIRDS. 345 
 
 were at rest, and the sea remained smooth and calm. This 
 period was therefore called by Pliny and Aristotle the Halcyon 
 days, and as such is frequently mentioned or referred to by 
 the poets. Thus 
 
 " All nature seemed 
 
 Fond of tranquillity ; the glassy sea 
 
 Scarce rippled the Halcyon slept upon the wave ; 
 
 The winds were all at rest." THE STORM. 
 
 The Goatsuckers (Caprimulgidce), to whose habits reference 
 has already been made (p. 328), form another family of this 
 tribe. Though abundant in certain situations they are not 
 generally diffused; and about Belfast their occurrence is so 
 very rare that we have never seen one alive. We shall there- 
 fore devote all our available space to the remaining family, 
 that of the Swallows (Hirundinidce) . 
 
 " The Swallow," says Sir Humphrey Davy, in his Salmonia, 
 " is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of the Nightingale, 
 for he cheers my sense of seeing as much as the other does 
 my sense of hearing. He is the glad prophet of the year 
 the harbinger of the best season ; he lives a life of enjoyment 
 amongst the loveliest forms of nature ; winter is unknown to 
 him ; and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn 
 for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of 
 Africa." The bird does not winter in Italy;* but in other 
 respects, " this is, in truth," to use the words of Mr. Yarrell, 
 u a brief but a perfect sketch of the history of the Swallow." 
 
 The Swallow (Hirundo rustled) arrives in these countries 
 about the 10th of April, and remains about six months. It 
 builds in the shafts of unused chimneys, and under the shelter 
 afforded by the roofs of out-houses, preferring such situations 
 as are in the vicinity of water, and where its insect prey may 
 be regarded as most abundant. The chesnut and blue of the 
 breast, the black legs and toes, and the larger size distinguish 
 it from the species next to be mentioned. 
 
 The House-martin (H. urbica). In this bird the chin and 
 all the under part of the body is white, and the legs covered 
 with short downy white feathers. It appears a few days later 
 than the Swallow. It is this species which the poet has so 
 beautifully pictured (p. 344); and whose nest every one has 
 
 * " Swallows leaving Italy, which they all do in autumn, go off in the 
 direction of Egypt, and have been seen in Egypt going still farther south." 
 Yarrell, vol. ii.
 
 346 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 seen fixed under the eaves of houses, and the upper angles of 
 windows. They are sometimes placed under the arch of 
 a bridge, and the magnificent headlands of basalt on the 
 county of Antrim coast, are favourite haunts. 
 
 The House-martins return to their old abodes. Mr. Thomp- 
 son records an instance in the neighbourhood of Belfast, in 
 which a pair found their nest occupied by a Sparrow, who 
 seemed determined to keep possession. The Martins departed, 
 returned with about twenty of their kindred, and built up the 
 entrance to the nest, inclosing the offender within. Next 
 morning the pair of Martins commenced the construction of a 
 new nest, against the side of their old one, and in it, undis- 
 turbed, reared their brood. After some time the proprietor of 
 the cottage had the curiosity to pull down both nests, and in 
 that occupied by the Sparrow found its "rotten corpse," 
 together with several eggs. Mr. Thompson suggests that 
 the Sparrow allowing herself to be entombed alive, may pro- 
 bably be explained on the supposition that the eggs were in 
 the last state of incubation, as at such times birds will occa- 
 sionally allow themselves to be lifted in the hand, and when 
 placed again continue to sit as intent upon their hatching as if 
 they had not been disturbed.* 
 
 The Sand-martin or Bank-martin (H. riparia) is smaller in 
 size than either of those mentioned, and is the earliest to arrive 
 in these countries. It has been seen in the neighbourhood of 
 Belfast on the 29th of March. It forms excavations in sand- 
 banks, and in these constructs its nest ; from this habit the 
 name is derived. 
 
 The Common Swift (Cypselus muraritts) is distinguished by 
 its greater expanse of wing, its darker colour, and by having 
 all the four claws of its foot pointing forward, instead of three 
 forward and one backward, as in the Swallow and the Martins. 
 It prefers for its building-sites lofty towers and church steeples, 
 but when these are not to be had, it very wisely contents it- 
 self with more lowly stations, such as the eaves or thatch of 
 dwelling-houses. It also frequents the romantic precipices 
 which are resorted to by the Martiu.f It usually arrives the 
 first week in May, and departs in August, though an occa- 
 sional straggler may be seen after that period. 
 
 * Mag. Annals of Natural History, vol. x. p. 50. References are there 
 given to other notices of similar events, 
 f Thompson.
 
 347 
 OBDEE III. EASOEES. SCRAPING BIEDS. 
 
 
 Fig. 274. GOLDEN rilKASANT. 
 
 THE present order includes the common Barn-door fowl, such 
 as the Cocks, Hens, Pea-fowl, and Turkeys ; also the different 
 kinds of Pigeons, Pheasants, Grouse, and Partridge. They 
 are not in general adapted for rapid flight. They have the 
 body bulky, the wings short, the legs robust, and the feet 
 formed for walking ; the feet are also employed in scratching 
 the ground, and thus exposing to view the seeds or other food 
 on which the birds subsist. It is this habit of scraping or 
 scratching the ground, that gives the name to the order, the 
 Latin word rasores literally signifying " scrapers." Passing by 
 those which are living in a domesticated state, the species 
 known as native in these countries may be arranged in four 
 families Doves, Pheasants, Grouse, and Bustards. 
 
 ColumbidcB. To this family belongs the Ring-dove, or 
 Wood-pigeon (Columba palumbus) ; it is the Cushat of the 
 poets, and the Wood-quest of the North of Ireland. This 
 species frequents woods, and in certain situations is so nume- 
 rous that many hundreds may be seen in a single flock. Great 
 are the complaints made by farmers of the injury they sustain 
 by the quantity of grain consumed by these birds ; and some 
 who have advocated the utility of the Eooks have felt unable 
 to do the same with regard to Wood-pigeons. Not so, how- 
 ever, Mr. St. John. An agricultural friend called his attention 
 on the 6th of March, to an immense flock of these birds busily 
 at work on a field of young clover, which had been under
 
 348 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 barley the last season. " On this," says he, " in furtherance of 
 my favourite axiom, that every wild animal is of some service 
 to us, I determined to shoot some of the Wood-pigeons, that I 
 might see what they actually were feeding on ; for I did not 
 at all fall into my friend's idea that they were grazing on his 
 clover." Eight were accordingly shot as they flew over his 
 head. On being opened, " every Pigeon's crop was as full as 
 it could possibly be of the seeds of two of the worst weeds in 
 the country, the wild mustard and the ragweed, which they 
 had found remaining on the surface of the ground, these plants 
 ripening and dropping their seeds before the corn is cut. Now, 
 no amount of human labour and search could have collected, 
 on the same ground, at that time of the year, as much of these 
 seeds as was consumed by each of these five or six hundred 
 Wood-pigeons daily, for two or three weeks together."* 
 
 The Rock-dove (C. livia) builds in rocky cliffs and caverns, 
 most usually in the vicinity of the sea, but occasionally inland. 
 It is the species from which the varieties of the domestic 
 Pigeon are derived. We cannot here detail the means by 
 which these are preserved and perpetuated ; we prefer limit- 
 ing our brief notice to one of these varieties, the Carrier- 
 pigeon, a bird whose services have been made available not in 
 love affairs only, but in those of the turf, tha mart, the ex- 
 change, and the cabinet ; in all the deep stakes which are won 
 and lost in the chequered pursuits of human life. 
 
 From the rapidity and general certainty with which the letter 
 entrusted to the Carrier-pigeon is conveyed, it would seem at 
 first sight as though the bird were guided by some mysterious 
 instinct ; but our wonder is diminished when we are aware of 
 the care and pains bestowed upon the training of these Pigeons. 
 They soon learn, in their daily excursions with the old birds, 
 to know their own abode, and to distinguish it from all others. 
 They are then brought a short distance from home in a covered 
 basket, and let loose. The distance is increased, until two, 
 four, eight, ten, or twenty miles are gradually attained ; and 
 this is continued until the entire distance they are expected to 
 perform has become familiar to them. When first let loose, 
 the flight is spiral ; when a sufficient elevation has been gained, 
 and some well-known object descried, the bird goes oft' in a 
 direct and unwavering line of flight. 
 
 * Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 119.
 
 BIEDS. 349 
 
 If no unfavourable circumstances occur, such as fog, mist, 
 or a strong opposing wind, the speed with which the journey 
 is accomplished is very remarkable. Of this many well-authen- 
 ticated instances are recorded. On one occasion a Carrier- 
 pigeon flew from Rouen to Ghent, a distance of about 150 
 miles, in an hour and a half.* On another, 23 Irish miles 
 were accomplished in eleven minutes ; or, in other words, at 
 the rate of 125J miles an hour.f 
 
 The Turtle-dove (G. turtur) is a summer visitant, but by no 
 means widely or plentifully diffused. The Passenger-pigeon 
 (C. migratoria) is included, like other stragglers, in the list of 
 British birds. It is a native of America, and ranges over the 
 whole of the vast continent lying between the Rocky Moun- 
 tains and the Atlantic. To the works of Wilson, Audubon, 
 and other writers, we must refer for an account of its habits. 
 We can but notice the amazing numbers in which it sometimes 
 appears, and the quantity of food required for the daily sus- 
 tenance of one of these immense flocks. Estimating its 
 breadth at one mile, which is below the average, and allowing 
 two Pigeons to each square yard, the number in one flock, 
 according to Audubon, would be 1,115,000,000 ; and, as every 
 Pigeon consumes daily half a pint of grain, the quantity re- 
 quired to feed such a flock must amount to 8,712,000 bushels 
 per day.* _ 
 
 PhasianidoB. The common Pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus) 
 represents another family. This beautiful bird has been long 
 naturalized in these countries, but came originally from the 
 banks of the Phasis, a river in Colchis, in Asia Minor. Its 
 splendid congener the Golden Pheasant, is represented in Fig, 
 274. The Grouse belongs to another family (Tetraonidce) ; one of 
 these, the Red Grouse (Tetrao Scoticus),\s peculiar to the British 
 Islands, being unknown in any other part of the world. It 
 inhabits wild extensive heaths, whether moor or mountain, and 
 in some districts of both Scotland and Ireland is very abundant. 
 The Black Grouse is found in both England and Scotland, but 
 not in Ireland. This bird has been known to pair with the 
 Pheasant in a wild state, the hybrids thus produced exhibiting 
 some of the characters of both species. The White Grouse, 
 
 * Yarrell. f Thompson. 
 
 J Audubon's calculation is founded on the supposition that the flock, 
 moving at the rate of one mile per minute, takes three hours to pass by a 
 given spot ; thus forming a parallelogram of 1 80 miles long, by 1 broad.
 
 350 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Fig. 275. PIARMIGAS. 
 
 or Ptarmigan (Lagopvs mulus, Fig. 275), is only found on 
 some of the high mountains of Scotland and the adjacent 
 
 islands. It is celebrated 
 for its change of colour. 
 The legs and toes are 
 so thickly covered with 
 woolly feathers, that they 
 have been compared to 
 the legs of a Hare.* In 
 summer the plumage is 
 speckled, consisting of an 
 ashy brown, with waving 
 blackish lines ; as winter 
 approaches, this becomes 
 changed to the purest 
 white. In the one sea- 
 son the plumage resem- 
 bles in colour that of 
 the surrounding rocks and lichens ; in winter, that of the 
 snowclad mountains. Sir Walter Scott attributes, there- 
 fore, acute powers of vision to Malcolm Graeme, when he 
 says : 
 
 " Trained to the chase, his Eagle eye 
 The Ptarmigan in snow could spy." 
 
 LADT OF THE LAKE. 
 
 The Common Partridge (Perdix cinerea) is another member 
 of the same family ; so that in this one group we have an 
 assemblage of birds possessed of peculiar attractions to the 
 "sportsman." 
 
 To the Quail (Perdix cotumix) a different kind of interest 
 attaches. This bird is believed to be identical in species with 
 that which, under the providence of God, furnished a supply 
 of food to the Israelites in the wilderness. It abounds in 
 countries adjacent to the Red Sea, and migrates in immense 
 multitudes. Temminck says that they arrive in such numbers 
 on the western shores of the kingdom of Naples, that so many 
 as 100,000 are taken in a day. Nor are they less numerous 
 on the shores of Provence. Above three thousand years have 
 rolled by since the Quails " came up and covered the camp of 
 
 * Hence the generic name Lagopus, signifying a " Hare's foot."
 
 BIRDS. 351 
 
 the Israelites," yet the species still survives, and its gregarious 
 and migratory character remains unchanged. 
 
 One of the Grouse tribe the Capercaillie, or Cock of the 
 Woods (Tetrao urogallus), formerly existed hoth in Britain and 
 Ireland, but has, unhappily, been extirpated. This splendid 
 bird attained the size of a Turkey, and by some writers is even 
 spoken of as the Wild Turkey. Attempts for its re-establish- 
 ment are now being made, and with prospects of success. It 
 is found in Sweden and Norway, and other parts of the north 
 of Europe. 
 
 Struthionidce. The Bustards are birds of rare occurrence. 
 The Great Bustard (Otis tarda) has long been extinct in both 
 Scotland and Ireland : in England it is spoken of rather as one 
 which had recently "a local habitation," than as one actually 
 indigenous at the present time. The Little Bustard (Otis 
 tetrax) is an occasional visitant. 
 
 ORDER IV. GRALLATORES. WADING BIRDS. 
 
 " No more thy glassy brook reflects the day, 
 But, chok'd with sedges, works its weedy way ; 
 Along thy glades, a solitary guest, 
 The hollow-sounding Bittern guards its nest ; 
 Amidst thy desert walks the Lapwing flies, 
 And tires their echoes with unvaried cries." 
 
 GOLDSMITH'S "DESERTED VILLAGE." 
 
 THERE are some birds whose legs are so long that the body 
 seems as if mounted on a pair of stilts, and this peculiarity is 
 that which is expressed by the scientific name for the present 
 order Grallalwes a Latin word, literally meaning those 
 who walk on stilts. The lower part of the leg is naked, and 
 from this circumstance, as well as from its length, is especially 
 adapted for wading. Hence, birds of the present order are 
 called " Waders." 
 
 But although this term is very correct as applied to some, 
 it is altogether incorrect with regard to others : thus, the 
 Ostrich (Fig. 249), which lives remote from the sea, and from 
 the banks of rivers, is included : and birds which, like the 
 Plover, are not remarkable for great length of leg, are also
 
 352 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 included. The fact is, that here, as in other great groups, the 
 characteristics must be sought in some which may be looked 
 upon as the types or representatives of the order, and not be 
 rigorously required in every individual that naturalists may 
 place in the same assemblage. 
 
 Cuvier arranges, in one family, all the birds of the present 
 order whose wings are not adapted for flying, as those of the 
 Ostrich (Fig. 249), and of the Cassowary (Fig. 238). Here, 
 also, is placed the Apteryx (Fig. 276), the wingless bird of 
 
 Fig. 27& APTKKTX. 
 
 New Zealand. It is a creature so strange, that no imagination 
 could have fancied a bird without wings or tail, with robust 
 legs, claws suited for digging, and actually used in forming 
 excavations in which this singular bird lays its eggs and hatches 
 its young. When we add that its habits are nocturnal, we 
 have stated the most striking peculiarities of a bird which is 
 now rare, and may possibly become extinct. Dissection shows 
 the existence of the wing-bones, but in a rudimentary state.* 
 This entire division is without any representative among our 
 native birds. 
 
 Charadriadce. The Plover is the true representative of 
 this family, and derives its name from the French " Pluvier," 
 a term given because the bird appears in large migrating 
 flocks in the rainy weather of spring and autumn. The Golden 
 Plover (Charadrtus pluvialis) frequents swampy grounds and 
 solitary bogs. It is one of those birds which appear to have 
 a double moult. The real moult, or actual change of feathers, 
 occurs in autumn ; in spring some new feathers appear, and 
 others undergo a change of colour ; so that the aspect of the 
 bird alters twice in the course of the year. The Golden 
 Plover, and still more the species next mentioned, exhibit a 
 
 Professor Owen on the Aptervx, Trans. ZooL Society.
 
 BIBBS. 353 
 
 great variety of devices to draw any intruder away from the 
 vicinity of the nest or young ; feigning lameness, or allowing 
 a wing to droop as if it were broken, and thus tempting the 
 inexperienced visitor to follow in the hope of taking the bird 
 prisoner. 
 
 Besides different species of Plovers, this family contains the 
 Lapwing or Peewit ( Vanellus crisiatus) . To this bird the term 
 " elegant " is peculiarly appropriate, from its figure, its crest, 
 its plumage, and the ease and vivacity of every movement. 
 The English name Lapwing is given because of the slow move- 
 ment of its wings in flight. Its peculiar note has suggested 
 the other name of Peewit. The French convey an idea of its 
 cry by the words dix-huit* It gives life and interest to the 
 wildest moor. The stratagems it employs for the safety of its 
 young are well known, and are mentioned by every observer 
 of its habits. 
 
 Gruidce. The common Crane (Grus cinerea, Fig. 277) is a 
 very rare visitant in England; 
 and in Ireland has been un- 
 known for more than a century .f 
 Mr. Gould says, " Flocks of the 
 birds are seen at stated times 
 in France and Germany, pass- 
 ing northwards and southwards, 
 as the season may be, in mar- 
 shalled order, high in the air, 
 their sonorous voices distinctly 
 heard, even from their elevated 
 course." It is said to winter 
 in Africa. 
 
 Ardeidce. The common 
 Heron (Ardea cinerea) is pro- 
 bably one of the best known 
 birds belonging to the present 
 order. Its motionless attitude 
 as it watches for its prey in the 
 shallow of the river or the sea, 
 cannot fail to have attracted Fig. 277. CKANE. 
 
 attention, adding, as it not unfrequently does, to the pictu- 
 
 * M. Edwards' Elemens, p. 121. 
 
 t Smith, in his History of Cork, states it was seen during the remarkable 
 frost of 1739. Thompson's Report on the Irish Fauna.
 
 354 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 resque effect of the scene. Nor less striking is its appearance 
 on the wing, the long outstretched legs acting as a counter- 
 poise to the head and neck. It is a singular spectacle to 
 behold these birds collecting in spring at their building sta- 
 tions, occupying, like Eooks, the upper branches of high trees, 
 
 and beginning once again the 
 important business of incuba- 
 tion. They do not invariably 
 choose such situations, but oc- 
 casionally select precipitous 
 rocks near the coast, as at the 
 Great Orme's Head. On the 
 Scotch coast, near Cromarty, 
 Mr. St. John describes a he- 
 ronry at which some of the 
 nests were built in clusters of 
 ivy, and others on the bare 
 shelves of the rocks . * It seems 
 strange, when possessed of 
 
 Fig. 278. BITTERN. ample power to range and 
 
 choose at pleasure, that the 
 same bird should select situations so very dissimilar. 
 
 The Common Bittern (Botaurus stellaris, Fig. 278) is no 
 longer a common bird, and is every year, as waste lands are 
 reclaimed, becoming more rare. During the breeding season 
 it utters a loud booming or bellowing noise,t to which some 
 of our poets have alluded. 
 
 "But the Lark's shrill fife shall come 
 At the day-break from the fallow, 
 And the Bittern sound his drum, 
 Booming from the sedgy shallow." 
 
 LADY OF THE LAKK. 
 
 Thomson, in his notice of the bird, has embodied an erro- 
 neous but current opinion, as to the manner in which the 
 booming noise is produced : 
 
 " So that scarce 
 
 The Bittern knows his time, with bill ingulph'd, 
 To shake the sounding marsh." SPRING. 
 
 Living remote from human haunts, on the marsh, the bog, 
 
 * Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 123. 
 
 t This bellowing may have suggested the term Eotaurus, meaning a 
 Bull
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 355 
 
 and the quagmire, it continues to this day the emblem of deso- 
 lation and solitude, as it was at the time when the Prophet 
 proclaimed against Babylon the awful denunciation : " I will 
 also make it a possession for the Bittern, and pools of water ; 
 and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the 
 LORD of hosts." 
 
 The Stork (Ciconea alba) is another member of the same 
 family th at must not be passed by without mention. Those who 
 have travelled in Holland and 
 other parts of the continent, 
 know the favourable light 
 in which it is regarded, and 
 the arrangements made for 
 its accommodation and pro- 
 tection. The affection of 
 the Stork for its young, is 
 one of the most remarkable 
 traits in its character ; it is 
 only needful to refer to the 
 female, which at the con- 
 flagration of Delft, after 
 several unavailing attempts 
 to remove her young, chose 
 to remain and perish with 
 them, rather than leave 
 them to their fate. Among 
 
 the ancient Egyptians the Stork was regarded with reverence 
 inferior only to that which was paid to the Sacred Ibis 
 (Fig. 279).* The Ibis itself is a member of the present 
 family ; one species, the Glossy Ibis (Ibis falcinellus) , has 
 been taken both in England and Ireland. 
 
 Scolopaciflce. This family comprises the Curlews, Sand- 
 pipers, Snipes, and other well-known birds. It may be 
 well represented by the Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), 
 a migratory species, ranging from Africa to Scandinavia. 
 It flies by night, and seems in these countries to feed 
 principally on the common Earthworm. The fact is now- 
 established, that all the Woodcocks do not leave these 
 islands, but that a small, though gradually increasing number 
 are permanently resident, and regularly lay their eggs and 
 
 Fig. *79. IBIS. 
 
 Vide Bennett's Gardens and Menageries, p. 20. 
 2A
 
 356 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 bring forth their young. This is mainly attributed to the 
 shelter afforded by the increased extent of plantations.* 
 
 RaLlidoe. Of the Land and Water Kails, the best known 
 individual is the male bird, whose peculiar yet not unpleasing 
 "crake" is heard from our meadows in spring and the early 
 part of summer, and has gained for the species the name of 
 "Corn-crake." To the same family belong the active Water- 
 hen (Gallinula chloropus) and the, common Coot (Fulica 
 atra). Respecting the habits of both of these, the Bishop of 
 Norwich relates many pleasing particulars, to which we refer 
 our readers,f as the space to which we are restricted forbids 
 their introduction here. There is a marked difference in the 
 foot of the two species. In the Water-hen the toes are 
 long, and are fringed on each side by a narrow membrane. 
 In the Coot the membrane is increased in size, assumes the 
 form of rounded lobes, and unites the toes towards the base, 
 thus indicating an approach to the complete webbed foot, 
 which is characteristic of the swimming birds, which constitute 
 the next order. 
 
 OEDEE V. NATATOKES. SWIMMING BIRDS. 
 
 " Some sought their food among the finny shoals, 
 Swift darting from the clouds, emerging soon 
 With slender captives glittering in their beaks." 
 
 MONTGOMERY'S "PELICAN ISLAND." 
 
 IN the birds of this order the bill is variously shaped. The 
 legs short; often placed far behind, adapted for swimming. J 
 The feet using that word in the ordinary sense differ in 
 form, and in the extent to which the toes are webbed ; the 
 part above the foot is much narrower in front than at the 
 sides, and hence offers less resistance to the movement of the 
 foot when the bird is swimming. 
 
 Here, as in other instances, a doubt may exist as to whether 
 
 Full information on many points of interest in the habits of this bird, 
 may be found in a paper by Mr. W. Thompson, Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. 
 January, 1839. 
 t Familiar History of British Birds, voL ii. 
 
 J Jenyn's Manual.
 
 BIBDS. 357 
 
 a particular species should rank in the group under considera- 
 tion, or in one to which it is allied by striking peculiarities 
 of structure. In the Flamingo (Fig. 280) we have the long 
 
 Fig. 280. FLAMMOO. 
 
 legs of the Waders combined with the webbed feet of the 
 Swimmers ; and, accordingly, a different place has been assigned 
 to it by different naturalists, as they attributed a greater or 
 less degree of importance to certain characters. Such points 
 we pretend not to determine ; we would rather mention that 
 the generic name (Phcenicopterus) means, literally, "wings 
 of flame ;" and African travellers describe the appearance ot 
 the birds, when assembled in ranks, in a manner which bears 
 out the accuracy of the picture presented by the poet : 
 
 " Flamingoes in their crimson tunics, stalk'd 
 On stately legs, with far exploring eye ; 
 Or fed and slept in regimental lines, 
 Watched by their sentinels, whose clarion-screams 
 All in an instant woke the startled troop, 
 That mounted like a glorious exhalation, 
 And vanished through the welkin far away." 
 
 MONTGOMERY'S " PELICAN ISLAND.''
 
 358 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 From the great extent of .coast and the varied character 
 of the British Islands, the birds of the present order are so 
 numerous as to constitute more than one-fourth of the entire 
 of the native species. They are arranged in five families, 
 according to the form and structure of the bill, the wings, the 
 toes, and the position of the legs. 
 
 Anatidce.* The first of these comprises Geese, Swans, 
 Ducks, and allied species. Most of the Wild Geese are 
 winter visitants to these countries ; and the long strings in 
 which they are seen to fly, changed at times into a wedge- 
 shaped figure like that of the letter <3, cannot be looked on 
 without admiration. 
 
 The two best known species are the Bean Goose (.4 . segetum) 
 and the White-fronted Goose (A. albifrons), and of these the 
 Bean Goose is much the more common. These birds are re- 
 markable for their watchfulness, not only at night, but during 
 the time of feeding. Before alighting for this purpose on a 
 field of new-sown grain, they make several circling flights, to 
 see if all be safe, and then commence feeding. They take the 
 precaution, however, to plant a sentry, who, as Mr. St. John 
 informs us,t " either stands on some elevated part of the field, 
 or walks slowly with the rest never, however, venturing to 
 pick up a single grain of corn, his whole energies being 
 employed in watching. When the sentry thinks lie has 
 performed a fair share of duty, he gives the nearest bird to 
 him a sharp peck. I have seen him sometimes pull out a 
 handful of feathers if the first hint is not immediately attended 
 to, at the same time uttering a querulous kind of cry. This 
 bird then takes up the watch, with neck perfectly upright, 
 and in due time makes some other bird relieve guard." 
 
 The Bernicle Goose (A. bernicla) and the Brent Goose 
 (.4. brenta) are regular winter visitors, and abound in certain 
 localities. The Brent Goose is killed during the season in 
 great numbers, being esteemed for table use. In Belfast Bay 
 it is always called the " Barnacle." 
 
 The appearance and habits of the Swan are so well known, 
 that it is needless to dwell upon them. There are, however, 
 two species of Wild Swan which visit these countries in 
 winter, and present some interesting peculiarities. If the 
 skater, in the midst of his evolutions on the ice, should chance 
 
 * Latin, Anas, a Duck. This family is now subdivided, 
 t Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 157.
 
 BIEDS. 359 
 
 to hear a loud hooping cry, and notice a flight of birds of 
 large size, and of powerful pinions, passing over his head at 
 a great elevation, he will not fail to remember the Hooper or 
 Whistling Swan (Cygnus ferus). In entire contradistinction 
 to this species, the one which is domesticated is termed the 
 Mute Swan ((7. olor); yet it is respecting this bird that the 
 fable became current, that it foretold its own death, and sung 
 with peculiar sweetness at its approach. Thus Shakspeare : 
 
 -" I will play the Swan, 
 
 And die in music." 
 
 But, although the voice of the Swan is but little noticed, the 
 bird is not really mute, as its name would imply ; the notes 
 are soft and low, and are described as " plaintive, and with 
 little variety, but not disagreeable."* The classical scholar 
 will call to mind the well-known line, in which the existence 
 of a Black Swan is spoken of in a manner which implies the 
 utter disbelief in the existence of such a bird ; yet, among the 
 strange creatures which New Holland has sent to us, are 
 Black Swans ; these are now distributed over many parts of 
 these kingdoms where aquatic menageries are established, and 
 form, by their dusty hue, a striking contrast to the snowy tint 
 of their congeners. 
 
 Fig. 281 EIDEE DUCK. 
 
 The Sheldrake, the various species of Wild Ducks, with the 
 Teal and Widgeon, we must pass by. The Eider Duck 
 (Somatcna mollissima, Fig. 281) deserves especial notice, as 
 
 * Yarrell.
 
 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 it supplies the valuable eider-down of commerce. The bird 
 is a very rare visitant to the Irish coast, but is permanently 
 resident in some places on the northern shores of Britain. Its 
 great haunts, however, are the coasts of Norway, Lapland, 
 Iceland, and other localities still farther north. The down is 
 plucked by the female from her breast, and spread over the 
 eggs. The fowlers, to whom the districts frequented by the 
 Eider Duck become a valuable property, carry off both eggs 
 and down, the eggs being used by them as food. The Duck 
 again lays, and her nest in like manner is again despoiled. 
 She lays a third time, the male supplying such of the down as 
 she can no longer furnish, and she is then allowed to rear her 
 young without molestation. 
 
 Colymbidce. The Grebes and the Divers constitute the 
 present family ; and a glance at the annexed figure of the 
 
 Fig. 283 GRFAT NORTHEHN DITEK. 
 
 Great Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialis, Fig. 282), will 
 convey a better idea of the different aspect of the members of 
 this and the preceding group, than any description. The Divers, 
 as their name implies, are remarkable for their diving powers, 
 thus pursuing their prey and evading their enemies. The bird 
 figured belongs to a species which may be said to live upon the 
 water, except during the time devoted to the rearing of the 
 young. It is a winter visitant to both the British and Irish
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 361 
 
 coasts, and has occasionally been met with in summer. Like 
 the Gannet, it is sometimes entangled in the nets of the fisher- 
 man ; and Mr. W. Thompson has related to us one instance in 
 which a Diver, when thus taken, was found to have swallowed 
 a hook, having doubtless been attracted by the tempting ap- 
 pearance of the fish-bait. 
 
 Alddce. The Guillemots resemble in many respects the 
 Divers. We pass them by to notice the Puffin (Alca arctica), 
 a bird common round our coasts during the summer months. 
 Its most striking peculiarity is 
 the bill, which has gained for 
 it the titles of "Sea-parrot," 
 and "Coulter-neb." To this 
 family belongs the Penguin 
 (Fig. 283), whose singular 
 plumage has been already no- 
 ticed (ante, p. 287). The 
 wings, so powerless for flight, 
 are, however, most efficient as 
 fins. When at sea and fishing, 
 it comes to the surface, for the 
 purpose of breathing, with such 
 a spring, and dives again so 
 instantaneously, that no one 
 could at first sight be sure it 
 was not a fish leaping for sport.* The Penguin is not defi- 
 cient in courage. At one of the Falkland Islands, Mr. Darwin 
 placed himself between one of these birds (Aptinodytes de- 
 mersa) and the water. " It was," says he, " a brave bird ; 
 and till reaching the sea, it regularly fought and drove me 
 backwards."t Similar intrepidity was evinced by some Pen- 
 guins met with by Captain Ross in the late Antarctic expedi- 
 tion. The birds, from their great size, were named the " king " 
 and the " emperor," for there were two species. But both, 
 however, evinced equal hardihood, and showed their determi- 
 nation to do battle for their land of nativity, even when op- 
 posed to British seamen. 
 
 Pelecanidce. The name of this family implies that it may 
 be represented by the Pelican. We have but three native 
 species, of which the most common is the Solan Goose (ante, 
 p. 291). The other two belong to one genus, and are known 
 
 Fig. 283, PEXGCIX. 
 
 * Darwin's Journal, p. 257. 
 
 t Idem, p. 256.
 
 362 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 to every one by character, if not by appearance ; for to eat like 
 a Cormorant has become almost the simplest mode of express- 
 ing great voracity. The common Cormorant (Phalacrocorax 
 carbo), when gorged with food, is to human eyes so unattrac- 
 tive that it is under this form Milton describes Satan, after he 
 had gained admission into Paradise 
 
 " Up he flew, and on the tree of life 
 
 Sat like a Cormorant devising death 
 To them that lived." 
 
 The Chinese employ the Cormorant in fishing. A ring is 
 placed round the neck of the bird to prevent the prey being 
 swallowed, and as soon as a sufficient number has been obtained 
 for its master the ring is removed, and the bird allowed to fish 
 on its own account. 
 
 Larldce. The Terns, Gulls, and Petrels belong to the pre- 
 sent family. The Terns are also called Sea-swallows,* a term 
 expressive of ease and rapidity of flight, and of some resem- 
 blance in other respects, among which the long-forked tail 
 is perhaps the most striking (Fig. 284). They live upon small 
 
 Fig. 284-. TEHN. 
 
 fish, and flying some yards above the water, dart down with 
 such quickness and precision as rarely to miss the object of 
 their aim. 
 
 The Gulls are, however, better known than either of the 
 other tribes. The mariner finds them in all seas ; and the 
 landsman who visits the coast cannot fail to remark their grace- 
 * Ilironddles de mer of the French authors.
 
 BIEDS. 363 
 
 ful flight, the buoyant ease with which they ride upon the 
 waves, and the animation which they give to the scene. Per- 
 haps few ordinary occurrences are more striking than what is 
 termed a " play of gulls ;" when the birds, having discovered a 
 shoal of young fish, are swimming among them, hovering over 
 them, uttering wild screams of joy, plunging down into the 
 midst of the shoal, and gorging their pre}' with riotous delight. 
 This, however, is not their only food. The carrion and the 
 offal of the beach are not less acceptable ; and two of our 
 largest native species* attack wounded birds, and will even 
 carry them off, before the shooter by whom they have been 
 struck, can reach the spot. "When," says Mr. St. John, "I 
 have winged a duck, and it has escaped and gone out to sea, I 
 have frequently seen it attacked and devoured almost alive by 
 these birds."f 
 
 Their voracious appetite occasionally brings them into peril. 
 Thus the Kittiwake and other Gulls are taken at Ballantrae, 
 in Ayrshire, by hooks baited with the liver of the cod-fish, and 
 are sold for the sake of their feathers. In other localities the 
 Gulls seek to diversify their fare in spring-time by visiting the 
 fields, and picking up the grubs and worms which the plough 
 brings to the surface ; and at Horn-head, in the county Done- 
 gal, the Herring Gull (L. argentaf.us) is said to destroy young 
 rabbits. J 
 
 The precipitous cliffs, and the low lying ledges of rocks, on 
 which the various species of Gulls build their nests and bring 
 forth their young, are, in many respects, interesting objects 
 for contemplation. At first sight all seems confusion, and the 
 nests indiscriminately mingled ; but a little further examina- 
 tion shows that order prevails amid the apparent disorder, and 
 that each kind of Gull apparently gives a preference to a cer- 
 tain situation. But these are not their only breeding haunts ; 
 the little island in a retired mountain lake, and other island 
 localities of a similar kind, are favourite places of resort. In 
 Norfolk, at a distance of thirty miles from the sea, thousands 
 of the Black-headed or Eed-legged Gull (L. ridibundus, Fig. 
 
 * The Great Black-backed (Larus marinus), and the Herring Gull (Z,. er- 
 tjentatus). 
 
 t Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 216. 
 
 J The principal points of information in this paragraph are derived from 
 the MS. Notes of Mr. W. Thompson, which have been most kindly placed at 
 our disposal.
 
 364 EfTEODTJCTIOy TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 285) annually take possession of an island about thirty acres 
 in extent, and build their nests.* In Ireland, the Black-headed 
 Gulls frequent, for the same purpose, the gravelly beach of a 
 portion of Ram's Island in Lough Neagh ; and so closely are 
 the nests placed over the ground, that Mr. W. Thompson 
 
 Fig. 235. BLACK-HEADED Gcix. 
 
 informs us, that he and some friends, when visiting the place, 
 had to use great circumspection in putting down their feet, 
 that they might not do injury to the nests or eggs. This spe- 
 cies, as stated by the gentleman just mentioned, is that which 
 is most abundant in Belfast Bay, and not the one to which the 
 name of "Common Gull" (L. canus) is applied. Their evolu- 
 tions are extremely varied and beautiful, exhibiting both power 
 of wing and grace of movement. 
 
 Of the Petrels, the best known species ia that which is 
 the smallest of British web-footed birds, the Stormy Petrel 
 (Thalassidroma pelagica). They crowd round vessels before 
 and during stormy weather, partly for the sake, it is supposed, of 
 shelter, and partly for that of food. Sailors regard them with 
 superstitious feelings, and have long given them the name of 
 " Mother Carey's Chickens," from some hag of the olden time, 
 whose name would have passed into oblivion had it not been 
 
 * Bishop of Norwich's Familiar History of Birds, vol. ii. p. 24G.
 
 BIEDS. 365 
 
 associated with those harmless little birds. Their dusky 
 plumage, diminutive size, their habit of running upon the 
 surface of the water, and the circumstances under which the 
 mariner sees them, account very naturally for the feelings with 
 which he regards them. Very differently are they viewed at 
 St. Kilda, one of the northern islands of Scotland. There the 
 birds are regarded as benefactors, giving the means of light 
 throughout the long nights of winter ; for so full of oil is the 
 body, that a wick passed through it will burn as if fed from 
 the oil-reservoir of a lamp. The usual practice of the inha- 
 bitants, however, is to collect the oil by itself. Mr. John 
 Macgillivray, who visited the Hebrides in 1840, states,* 
 "the bird sits very close upon the nest, from which it will 
 allow itself to be taken by the hand, vomiting on being 
 handled a quantity of pure oil, which is carefully preserved 
 by the fowlers, and the bird allowed to escape." A larger 
 species, the Fulmar Petrel (Procellaria glacialis) is even more 
 valuable to the inhabitants of St. Kilda. "This bird," 
 says Mr. J. Macgillivray, " exists here in almost incredible 
 numbers, and to the natives is by far the most important of 
 the productions of the island. It forms one of the principal 
 means of support to the inhabitants, who daily risk their lives 
 in its pursuit. The old birds, on being seized, instantly 
 vomit a quantity of clear and amber-coloured oil, which im- 
 parts to the whole bird, its nest and young, and even to the 
 rock which it frequents, a peculiar and very disagreeable 
 odour." Within the last few years only, according to Mr. 
 W. Thompson, has the Fulmar been known to visit the Irish 
 coast. The Stormy Petrel, on the contrary, is at all times to 
 be met with on the western shores, and breeds on several of 
 the islands which are washed by the Atlantic.f Mr. George 
 C. Hyndman, who visited Tory Island, off the north coast of 
 the County Donegal, found the Stormy Petrel living com- 
 fortably in the Babbit burrows, and there bringing out its 
 young. After the hurricane of the 7th of January, 1839, 
 Petrels were found not only in the central parts of Ireland, but 
 even in the extreme east, having been driven across the island 
 by the violence of the gale, J 
 
 * Edinburgh New Phil. Journal. 
 f W. Thompson's Report on the Fauna, 1840. 
 
 j W. Thompson, Note on the Effects of the Hurricane on the Lower 
 Animals. Annals of Natural History.
 
 366 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Mr. Darwin, in speaking of another species (Puffinus 
 cinercus), which is common to Cape Horn and the Coast of 
 Peru, as well as to Europe, remarks, " I do not think I ever 
 saw so many birds of any other sort together, as I once saw 
 of these behind the Island of Chiloe (off the west coast of 
 Patagonia) ; hundreds of thousands flew in an irregular line 
 for several hours in one direction. When part of the flock 
 settled on the water, the surface was blackened, and a noise 
 proceeded from them as of human beings talking in the dis- 
 tance. At this time the water was in parts coloured by clouds 
 of small Crustacea."* 
 
 Of the multitude of birds of one species that occasionally 
 assemble together, examples have been given in the Starling 
 (p. 336), the Passenger Pigeon (p. 349), and the Quail (p. 350) ; 
 we have here another instance of the same remarkable fact, 
 the birds themselves belonging to a different order, inhabiting 
 a different region, and seeking their appointed food on the sea 
 instead of the land. 
 
 If we turn from the birds now living, to the consideration 
 of those that are extinct, we find their remains are much less 
 numerous than those of fishes, reptiles, or quadrupeds. " Their 
 powers of flight," as Mr. Lyell remarks, "insure them against 
 perishing by numerous casualties to which quadrupeds are 
 exposed during floods ; and, if they chance to be drowned, or 
 die when swimming on the water, it will scarcely ever happen 
 that they will be submerged so as to be preserved in a sedi- 
 mentary deposit, "f This is easily accounted for when we 
 consider, that, from the tubular structure of the bones, and 
 the quantity of feathers, their bodies are extremely buoyant, 
 and most generally float on the surface of the water until they 
 rot away or are devoured. Yet, among the fossils of the 
 London clay, and of the Paris basin, are those of several birds, 
 specifically different from any that now exist. 
 
 There is one species recently extinct, but known by the 
 descriptions of navigators about two centuries ago, by parts 
 of the body preserved in different collections, and by paintings 
 in the British Museum and elsewhere. It was called the Dodo, 
 and was a native of the Mauritius. Its figure was massive ; 
 its weight, perhaps, forty-five or fifty pounds, and its wings 
 so short as to be useless for flight. Much difference of opinion 
 
 * Journal. t Principles of Geology, vol. iii.
 
 BIEDS. 367 
 
 has existed among naturalists as to the tribe of birds to which 
 the Dodo should be referred. From the bulky figure some 
 thought it resembled the Turkey; while, from its hooked bill, 
 it was thought by others to have belonged to the birds of prey. 
 A recent examination of the bones composing the skull and 
 foot, now in the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, has, however, 
 proved that it is allied to the Pigeons, a tribe with which it was 
 not supposed to have had any connection. Other birds allied 
 in character to the Dodo inhabited the neighbouring islands of 
 Bourbon and Eodriguez, all of which appear to have been 
 sought for with uncalculatiug eagerness by the early colonists, 
 and thus were speedily extirpated.* 
 
 We have mentioned (p. 257) that a gigantic reptile had 
 left its foot-prints on the moist beach of the ancient sea. 
 Similar testimony has made known the existence in former 
 times of birds which have left no other trace behind. These 
 foot-prints have been noticed in England, but mora abundantly, 
 and of larger size, in America, suggesting the idea of birds 
 possessed of dimensions far beyond those attained by any living 
 species. The impress of the human footstep on the beach of 
 that island which Robinson Crusoe believed to be his own 
 solitary domain, was scarcely more startling. Yet here, as in 
 other instances, the marvel of the truth surpassed that of the 
 conjecture. 
 
 Numerous bones were transmitted from New Zealand to 
 England, which, on examination by Professor Owen, were 
 found to belong to wingless birds of nine different species,f 
 some of them of gigantic size. They were referred by him to 
 the same genus, under the name Dmornis.% 
 
 The annexed outline (Fig. 286) exhibits the figure of one 
 of these birds, and that of a man, the relative proportions of 
 both being preserved ; it thus furnishes an easy mode of esti- 
 mating their comparative dimensions. 
 
 The number of wingless birds, and the vast stature of some 
 of the species peculiar to New Zealand, have suggested the 
 idea, that the present island may be but the remnant of a 
 larger tract or continent, over which they formerly ranged. 
 
 * Natural History and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and other extinct 
 birds, by H. E. Strickland, Esq., and Dr. Melville. 
 
 f Professor Owen's Memoirs on the genus Dinornis. Transactions of the 
 Zoological Society, parts 3 and 4, vol. iii. 
 
 $ Literally, " enormously large bird."
 
 368 
 
 rSTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 "One might almost be disposed," says Professor Owen, "to 
 regard New Zealand as one end of a mighty wave of the 
 unstable and ever-shifting crust of the earth, of which the 
 opposite end, after having been long submerged, has again 
 risen with its accumulated deposits in North America, show- 
 ing us, in the Connecticut sandstones, the foot-prints of the 
 gigantic birds which trod its surface before it sank ; and to 
 surmise that the intermediate body of the land-wave, along 
 which the Dinornis may have travelled to New Zealand, has 
 progressively subsided, and now lies beneath the Pacific 
 Ocean."* 
 
 Fig. 286. DISOBNIS t 
 
 * Memoir on Dinornis, part 4, vol. iii. p. 328. 
 
 f This outline is copied, with the kind permission of Professor Ansted, from 
 his Picturesque Sketches of Creation ; a highly attractive and interesting 
 volume. VAN VOOBST.
 
 369 
 
 CLASS IV. 
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 WE have now reached the class which ranks as the highest of 
 the animal kingdom ; and to which man himself belongs. 
 Here only do we find organs especially adapted for supplying 
 to the young, during the prolonged period of helpless infancy, 
 that fluid nutriment, to which we give the name of milk. 
 This organization is so characteristic, that from the Latin 
 word mammce, signifying paps or teats, is derived the term 
 mammalia, the scientific appellation by which the class is dis- 
 tinguished. Every animal that suckles its young may, from 
 that circumstance, be referred to the present class. 
 
 Circulation. The blood is warm, and the heart, as in birds, 
 consists of four compartments. The general arrangement of 
 the arteries through which the aerated blood in man is pro- 
 pelled, is shown in the annexed figure (287) which may be 
 compared with Fig. 241, exhibiting the arterial system in the 
 preceding class. 
 
 " Neither the circulation nor the respiration are quite so 
 active, nor is the animal heat quite so great as in the class of 
 birds."* 
 
 Respiration. All the mammalia breathe by lungs. These 
 are not attached to the ribs as in birds, but are suspended in 
 a cavity at the upper portion of the trunk (thorax). They 
 are divided into a multitude of minute cells into which air is 
 conveyed by the branches of the windpipe. In the annexed 
 
 * Owen.
 
 370 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Fig. 287. ARTERIAL SYSTEM OF MAN. 
 
 Fig. 287. ARTERIAL SYSTEM OF MAX a, temporal artery; 6, carotid artery: 
 c, aorta; d, renal artery; e, iliac artery;/, femoral artery; g, anterior tibial artery; 
 h, artery of foot; t. vertebral artery; j, subclavian artery; *, axillary artery; t, bra- 
 cliial artery; m, cccliac artery; n, radial artery; o, posterior tibial artery; p, pcroneul 
 artery.
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 371 
 
 representation (Fig. 288) these air-tubes are shown at one side, 
 and the lung in its natural con- 
 dition on the other. The reader 
 is thus furnished with the means 
 of comparing these important 
 organs in man, with those which 
 have been already exhibited (Fig. 
 242) as existing in birds. 
 
 Covering. While scales form 
 the characteristic covering of 
 fishes, and feathers of birds, hair 
 may be said to be that of the 
 mammalia. It is not invariably 
 present, and it undergoes many 
 modifications in its appearance. 
 We term it wool upon the sheep ; 
 the same material becomes spines 
 upon the Hedgehog, and " quills 
 upon the fretful porcupine" (Fig. 
 289). It even assumes an aspect 
 still more extraordinary, and is 
 converted into bony plates in the 
 
 Fig. 288. AIR-TUBES, AND 
 LUNGS OF MAX. 
 
 Fig. 289. POKCUPINE. 
 
 defensive covering of the Armadillo (Fig. 311) 
 
 2B
 
 372 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Skeleton. By far the greater number of the animals be- 
 longing to this class move on the ground by the action of 
 four feet, from which circumstance the name quadruped has 
 been restricted to them. It is occasionally used in a more 
 general sense, as synonymous with the scientific term mam- 
 malia. The outline of the skeleton conveys, in most cases, 
 an idea of that of the body ; but occasionally, as in the hump 
 of the Camel (Fig. 290), there exists in the living animals 
 
 Fig. 290. SKELETON OF CAMEL.* 
 
 some peculiarly striking feature, which is not represented in 
 the bony framework. The hump, in the present instance, 
 consists of fatty tissue, and is well known to diminish in size, 
 and nearly to disappear when the animal is exposed to long- 
 continued privation. 
 
 The possession of four feet used for the purposes of loco- 
 motion, though general in the mammalia, is by no means 
 
 * Fig. 290. Skeleton of the Camel on a black ground, exhibiting an outline of the 
 animal; tc, cervical vertebrae; vd, dorsal vertebrae; c/, lumbar vertebra;; vs, sacral 
 vertebrae; vg, caudal vertebras; e, ribs; o, scapula; A, humerus; cu, bone of forearm; 
 ea, carpus; me, metacarpus; pf>, phalanges; /e, femur; ro, patella; fi, tibia; ta, tarsus; 
 mt, metatarsus. In fig. *91, the corresponding parts are indicated by the same letters us 
 in fig. 290.
 
 MAMMALIA. 373 
 
 universal. In the true Monkeys, all the extremities are 
 shaped like hands, and are used for prehension as well as for 
 locomotion. In the Bats, that part of the anterior extremities 
 which corresponds to the fingers of the human hand, is 
 enormously developed, and forms the bony framework of the 
 wings (Fig. 334). In the Seals (Fig. 291), the extremities 
 are converted into paddles ; and there are some warm-blooded 
 herbivorous animals inhabiting the sea, in which the hinder 
 legs are altogether wanting. 
 
 Fig. 29!. SKELETO* OP SEAL. 
 
 The number of vertebrae or joints in the spinal column 
 varies much in the several tribes, the difference depending 
 principally upon the presence or absence of the tail, and the 
 varying number of its parts. A remarkable uniformity pre- 
 vails in the structure of the neck. The short thick neck of 
 the Elephant, and the long slender neck of the Giraffe, contain 
 precisely the same number of vertebrae, namely, seven. This 
 is the invariable number, though there are a few apparent 
 exceptions. The mammalia present in this respect a singular 
 contrast to birds (ante, p. 282), and show how in the mechan- 
 ism of the animal frame, similar results may be attained by 
 the most opposite arrangements. 
 
 Head. The head differs greatly, not only in size and form, 
 but also in what may be regarded as its appendages. The 
 Tapir, an animal allied in many respects to the Hog, has the 
 snout prolonged into a fleshy proboscis (Fig. 292), which is 
 
 * For description, vide foot-note, p. 372.
 
 374 
 
 IXTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 capable of extension or contraction, but does not act as an 
 instrument of prehension. The Elephant, on the contrary 
 (Fig. 322), is furnished with an organ 
 remarkable for its varied powers of 
 action, combining in the highest de- 
 gree delicacy and strength. In both 
 these instances the proboscis is a pro- 
 longation of the muscular fibre and 
 covering, and not a distinct appen- 
 Fig. 292.-HEAD OF TAPIR. dage rpjjg Rhinoceros (Fig. 293) has 
 a weapon which is found adhering to the skin, not growing 
 
 Fig. 293 RHINOCEROS. 
 
 from the skull ; it is regarded as hair growing in a mass, and 
 presenting the appearance of a solid 
 horn. The Giraffe has bony protu- 
 berances, the rudimental representa- 
 tives of the curved or branching horns 
 with which other tribes of ruminat- 
 ing animals are furnished. In the 
 Stag the horns have at first a hairy 
 skin ; when this has worn away and 
 the horns have remained bare for a 
 time, they are thrown off, and their 
 place is supplied by others. In 
 structure they resemble solid bone, 
 
 Fig. 294. HEAD OF RRIXDEER.
 
 MAMMALIA. 375 
 
 from which circumstance the animals of the Deer tribe are 
 
 termed Solid-horned Ruminants. The quantity of bony matter 
 
 thus annually secreted is very remarkable. In the large 
 
 extinct species, popularly known as the " Irish Elk," the 
 
 Antlers weighed from 60 to 70 Ibs. and as in the existing 
 
 males, were the growth of 
 
 a single year. In the Ox 
 
 and the Goat (Fig. 295), 
 
 these organs are formed of 
 
 the elastic substance which 
 
 we call horn, and which is 
 
 analogous to that of the hair 
 
 and hoofs. They are hollow 
 
 within, cover the bony axis 
 
 like a sheath, and " continue 
 
 to grow throughout life, but Fig. 295. HEAD OP GOAT. 
 
 only at intervals, depending 
 
 upon the season of the year, the age of the individual, and 
 the supply of food."* To these animals the name of Hollow- 
 horned Ruminants has been applied ; the bony core of the 
 horns is formed of cells, which communicate with the nose, 
 and are thus filled with air. By this arrangement lightness 
 is added to strength. 
 
 The tusks of the Elephant, though appendages exterior to 
 the head, are in reality a part of the dental system of the 
 animal, and are the representatives of those teeth which in 
 man are known as the cutting or incisors. "They not only 
 surpass all other teeth in size, as belonging to a quadruped so 
 enormous, but they are the largest of all teeth in proportion 
 to the size of the body."t Tusks of the Mammoth, an extinct 
 species of Elephant, have been found from nine to eleven feet 
 in length, and one has been known to weigh so much as one 
 hundred and sixty pounds. The importance of these tusks as 
 an article of commerce may be estimated from the fact, that 
 in 1737, an account was published of the Mammoth's bones 
 and teeth found in Siberia ; and of the uses to which the 
 tusks were applied ; and " from that time to the present there 
 has been no intermission of the supply of ivory furnished by 
 the tusks of the extinct Elephants of a former world."J 
 
 * Ogilby. Monograph of the Hollow-horned Ruminants. Transactions 
 of the Zoological Society of London. 
 
 f- Owen's Odontography. \ Idem.
 
 376 
 
 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Another appendage to the head, and of great value in a 
 commercial point of view, is that which is popularly, though 
 not very correctly, termed " whale-bone." It is not bone, but 
 a series of horny plates, the substitutes of the true teeth, which 
 in the whale are altogether wanting. The position of these 
 plates is shown in the annexed figure (Fig. 296) ; they form 
 
 a complete fringe suspended 
 from the margin of the upper 
 jaw, and when the whale 
 closes its enormous mouth, they 
 act as a seive, permitting the 
 water to pass through, and 
 enabling the animal to retain 
 the small gelatinous and mol- 
 luscous creatures on which it lives. The " Baleen" or Whale- 
 bone, is so important an article of trade, that hundreds of tons 
 are annually brought into Britain, won by her intrepid mariners 
 among the perils of the Arctic seas. 
 
 Teeth. We now pass on to the teeth, viewed as instruments 
 for the mastication of food. In man they are thirty-two in 
 number, when the series is complete ; and the number is the 
 same both in the Orang and Chimpanzee.* They are of three 
 
 Fig. 297. TEBTH OF MAS. 
 
 Fig. 296. SKULL or WHALE. 
 
 Molurs. 
 
 Premolars. Canine. Incisors. 
 
 kinds, the incisor or cutting teeth, the canine, which attain a 
 large development in the Dog and carnivorous animals, and 
 hence derive their name ;t and the molar or grinding teeth. 
 
 * Owen's Odontography. 
 f Latin, caw's, a dog.
 
 MAMMALIA. 377 
 
 There are eight on each side of the upper, and also of the 
 lower jaw ; thus amounting in all to thirty-two.* 
 
 A few species of mammalia, as the Ant-eaters, are entirely 
 devoid of teeth ; in others there is a great diversity as to their 
 number. The female Narwhal has two teeth, and both are 
 concealed in the substance of the jaw. The Australian Water- 
 rats have twelve. Most gnawing animals have twenty ; but 
 the Hares and Rabbits have twenty-eight. The Porpoise has 
 between eighty and ninety, and the true Dolphins from one 
 hundred to one hundred and ninety .f 
 
 It is found that the arrangement of the teeth varies, accord- 
 ing as the food is to consist of animal or vegetable substances, 
 of soft flesh or horny covered insects ; of tender herbs, or wood 
 of greater or less degree of hardness. Hence it is possible, 
 merely by an inspection of the teeth, to determine, with con- 
 siderable certainty, the diet, the habits, and even the general 
 structure of most of the mammalia. 
 
 We never meet in nature with an incongruous union of 
 parts. A Lion with the hoof of a Horse, could not subsist ; 
 
 Fig. 298. SKHIJ. OP A GHAWXSG Asm AL. Fig. 299. SKCTJ, OF A BOAR. 
 
 it would die of hunger from inability to seize and retain its 
 prey. In like manner, a Horse, with the teeth of a Lion, 
 would starve in the midst of the finest pastures, from being 
 unable to crop and triturate its food. 
 
 * Zoologists have adopted a formula for expressing the number of teeth 
 possessed by different animals at each side of the month, distinguishing those 
 in the upper jaw from those in the lower jaw. The dental formula of man 
 is written thus : 
 
 22 11 22 33 
 
 Incisors ; Canines ; Premolars ; Molars ; = 32. 
 
 22 11 22 33 
 
 t Owen's Odontography. 
 j M. Edwards' Elemens.
 
 378 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Bearing these facts in mind, let any one but look at the re- 
 presentations here given of the skulls and teeth of three of the 
 most common quadrupeds, and he will at once be struck with 
 the diversity of form and arrangements they exhibit, and the 
 modifications of internal structure they indicate. 
 
 Fig. 300. SKULL of A HORSE. 
 
 We are desirous, even at the risk of some repetition, that 
 this matter should be clearly understood. The researches of 
 the zoologist and the comparative anatomist, have proved the 
 perfect dependence of one part of the animal form upon another. 
 To this there is no exception ; all living beings testify the same 
 truth, and establish the unity of plan evinced by their organiz- 
 ation. The geologist, in bringing to light the remains of the 
 animals that in former ages were monarchs of the earth, adduces, 
 amid all their diversity of form, no example that is not in ac- 
 cordance with the same great truth. 
 
 Hence, it is obvious that if there are structural laws, to 
 which all are subject, the comparative anatomist may from 
 portions of the 1'rame infer the size, the structure, and the 
 functions of all the rest, and describe the conditions under 
 which the animal had lived. 
 
 To the genius of Cuvier we are indebted for pointing out 
 this mode of investigation, and showing the important results 
 to which it leads. The path which he thus opened has been 
 successfully explored, and has revealed much that was pre- 
 viously unknown. It has brought to light forms and propor- 
 tions too strange for Fancy to imagine, but not for Science to 
 delineate. The fossil bone has in the hands of the zoologist 
 become instinct with life, and told the tale of its existence. It 
 has furnished him with a spell more potent than the " open 
 sesame" of the eastern tale, and unlocked the portals within 
 which the history of a former world lay recorded. 
 
 The necessary dependence of one part of the animal frame
 
 MAMMALIA. 379 
 
 upon another, is a principle that should ever he kept in view, 
 and with which the mind of the learner should become familiar. 
 We have seen, that, according to the nature of the food, there 
 is an adaptation of parts both internal and external ; these are 
 accompanied by corresponding habits. Hence the organs needful 
 for the providing of food or in other words, the teeth and 
 the extremities furnish, so far as external characters are con- 
 cerned, a sound basis for classification ; and as such they were 
 regarded by Cuvier. 
 
 While, however, the system laid down by that distinguished 
 naturalist, in the last edition of his Regne Animal, is here 
 adopted, it is not implicitly followed in every particular. 
 Since the publication of that work, vast accessions to our 
 knowledge of animals have been received, and impose the 
 necessity of some changes in the classification. It would be 
 contrary to the spirit of Cuvier not to concede what is thus 
 demanded.* 
 
 The following distribution of the inferior animals into ten 
 orders, is that which is sanctioned by the writings of two 
 British naturalists, whose opinion on such matters is entitled 
 to the highest respect. t Man is also included under the dis- 
 tinctive term applied to that of which he is the sole represen- 
 tative, thus making eleven orders in all. 
 I. Bimana (two-handed) Man. 
 
 II. Quadrumana (four-handed) Monkeys. 
 
 III. Cheiroptera (finger-winged) Bats. 
 
 IV. Insectivora (insect-eating) Hedgehog, Shrew. 
 V. Carnivora (flesh-eating) Lion, Tiger, Bear. 
 
 VI. Cetacea (whale-like) Whale, Porpoise. 
 
 VII. Pachydermata (thick-skinned) Elephant, Ehinoceros. 
 
 VIII. Euminantia (ruminating') Ox, Deer. 
 
 IX. Edentata (toothless) Sloth, Ant-eater. 
 
 X. Eodentia (gnawing Eat, Hare, Squirrel. 
 
 XI. Marsupiata (pouched) Opossum, Kangaroo. 
 
 It is quite impossible in any linear arrangement such as the 
 
 * The principal change is the separation of the Bats (Cheiroptera) and 
 the Hedgehogs, &c. (hisectivora), from Cuvier' s order of " Camassiers," 
 or flesh-eating animals, and the elevation of those groups from the ranks of 
 Families to that of distinct Orders. There are also changes with regard to 
 the Marsupial animals. 
 
 f Professor Owen, in Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology; and G. 
 R. Waterhouse, Esq., in Magazine and Annals of Natural History.
 
 380 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 above, where the several orders follow each in regular succes* 
 sion, to convey an idea of the affinities which sometimes con- 
 nect families that belong to orders widely separated in the scale. 
 The same difficulty presents itself in every extensive assemblage 
 of animals, showing, as has already been remarked (p. 28), that 
 " the chain of beings of which the poet has sung, has no real 
 existence in nature." 
 
 The number of animals belonging to the class mammalia, 
 has been variously estimated, from 1149 to 1500 ; the latter 
 number is that adopted by the learned authors of the " Phy- 
 sical Atlas," as the basis of their calculations respecting the 
 proportionate number of the species. The species described 
 as British,* amount to between eighty and ninety, and those 
 recorded as Irish, to little more than one-third of that 
 number.f 
 
 In the limited space to which we are restricted, we shall not 
 attempt to introduce those anecdotes illustrative of the habits 
 of the Elephant, the Tiger, the Reindeer, &c., which are scat- 
 tered throughout elementary works in general use. Our object 
 shall rather be to point out how the different orders are char- 
 acterized, and in what manner they are distributed. 
 
 With the laws affecting their geographical distribution, 
 we are as yet but imperfectly acquainted. One of the most 
 obvious causes which limit the growth of vegetables, and the 
 range'of animals within certain bounds, is temperature. Heat 
 and moisture stimulate the growth of plants, and wherever 
 vegetation is most luxuriant, there the land animals are most 
 abundant. They are confined within certain limits by the 
 intervention of seas and of continuous ranges of mountains. 
 But even when such obstacles do not exist, animals appear 
 subject to certain climatic conditions, and pass not the limits 
 which the Author of the Universe has fixed as the bounds of 
 their habitation. Thus in North America, Sir Charles Lyell 
 observes there are " several distinct zones of indigenous mam- 
 malia, extending east and west on the continent, where there 
 are no great natural boundaries running in the same direction, 
 such as mountain ridges, deserts, or wide arms of the sea, to 
 check the migration of species. The climate alone has been 
 sufficient to limit their range. The mammiferous fauna of New 
 York, comprising about forty species, is distinct from that of 
 
 * Professor Bell's British Quadrupeds. 
 
 t Thompson's Report on the Fauna of Ireland.
 
 MA.MMALIA. 381 
 
 the arctic region, six hundred miles north of it, and described 
 by Dr. (now Sir John) Richardson. It is equally distinct from 
 that of South Carolina and Georgia, a territory about as far 
 distant to the south."* 
 
 Our notice of the several orders of mammalia shall be com- 
 menced with those which are lowest in the scale, and gradually 
 ascend to man, gifted as he has been with dominion " over 
 every living thing that moveth upon the earth." 
 
 OBDEB MARSUPIATA. MAESUPIAL OB POUCHED 
 ANIMALS. 
 
 " Deform' d, unfinished, sent before my time 
 Into this breathing world, scarce half made up." RICHARD III. 
 
 THE greater number of the mammalia are nourished prior to 
 birth, by a network of blood-vessels named the placenta.^ 
 This is altogether wanting in the group now under considera- 
 tion. While others do not come into the world until they are 
 provided with all their organs, these are brought forth in an 
 extremely imperfect state. The female in most instances is 
 furnished with a peculiar pouch (Latin, marsupium, a purse or 
 bag), whence the scientific name for the order. In this pouch 
 the immature young are received and nourished, and to it they 
 afterwards retreat on the approach of danger. Certain bony 
 projections, termed the Marsupial bones, are found in both 
 sexes, even in those species in which the characteristic pouch 
 does not exist. 
 
 " The order Marsupiata," says Mr. Waterhouse, " embraces 
 a large assemblage of quadrupeds, amongst which are those 
 animals familiarly known as Opossums and Kangaroos. At 
 
 * Travels in North America, vol. i. p. 172 The extract is given in 
 Berghaiis and Johnston's Physical Atlas, from which all our information on 
 the numbers and distribution of species is derived. 
 
 f The mammalia which are thus nourished are termed placenta!; the 
 others the non-placental. Some naturalists regard this distincticn of so 
 great importance, that they consider the two divisions should rank as distinct 
 classes.
 
 382 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the present period the great metropolis of the order is Australia ; 
 certain species of the group, however, are found in the Molucca 
 Islands, and one genus, containing many species," (the Opos- 
 sums) " is peculiar to the New World." Their remains have 
 been found in a fossil state in Europe, as well as in Australia 
 and South America.* 
 
 This order " presents a remarkable diversity of structure, 
 (and consequently habits) containing herbivorous, carnivorous, 
 and insectivorous species ; indeed, we find among the Marsu- 
 pial mammals analogous representations of most of the other 
 orders of mammalia." Its most striking peculiarity is the pre- 
 mature birth of the young, and consequently the imperfect 
 state of their development at that period. Professor Owen 
 examined the young of the great Kangaroo, twelve hours after 
 birth, and found its whole length from the nose to the end of 
 the tail did not exceed one inch and two lines.f The corre- 
 sponding measurement of a full-grown male would be between 
 eight and nine feet.J 
 
 " An animal so little advanced at the time of its birth as the 
 young Marsupial, requiring a constant supply of food, and so 
 ill fitted to bear the exposure which the more advanced young 
 of other mammalia are subject to, must, it would appear, 
 perish, were not some peculiar provision made for its safety. 
 In the pouch of the female we find this provision." Here the 
 young remain firmly attached to the nipple of the mother, and 
 supplied without effort and in perfect security, with the nutri- 
 ment it requires. " This pouch, when the animal is very 
 young, has its orifice closed, and glued as it were, to the body 
 of the parent by a peculiar secretion. When the young animal 
 is more advanced, this secretion disappears, and the young fre- 
 quently leave the pouch to return at will." 
 
 It has long been a question among naturalists in what man- 
 ner is the young transferred to the pouch ? On this point, an 
 observation made on one of the female Kangaroos, at Knowsley, 
 the seat of the Earl of Derby, gives the first precise informa- 
 
 * Our information is derived from a valuable work now in course of 
 publication, Natural History of the Mammalia, by R. G. Waterhouse, 
 Esq., and when practicable, we give the words of the original, marked by 
 inverted commas. 
 
 { A line is the twelfth part of an inch. 
 
 j The body, measured from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, 
 being, according to Mr. Waterhouse, 63 inches, and the tail 42 inches.
 
 MAMMALIA. 383 
 
 tion. Immediately on the birth of the young one, the mother 
 took it up in her fore-paws, opened the pouch with them, and 
 deposited the young within. " In five minutes she was jump- 
 ing about the place as if nothing had happened." * 
 
 Above one hundred and twenty species of Marsupial animals 
 have been recorded, forming about one-twelfth of the entire 
 number of mammalia. In size there is great diversity, ranging 
 from a diminutive Opossum, which is little larger than the 
 common Mouse, to the great Kangaroo t already mentioned ; 
 and the disparity in size is still greater if we extend our view 
 to extinct species, as Professor Owen, from the fossil remains 
 of one brought from Australia, is of opinion that the animal 
 must, when living, have been of bulk superior to that of the 
 Rhinoceros. 
 
 Some Marsupial animals are so inferior in certain structural 
 peculiarities to the rest, and approach so much in these points 
 to birds and reptiles, that they form a distinct section bearing 
 a distinct name (Monotrematci) .J To this division belong the 
 
 Fig. 301. OBNITHORYSCUS. 
 
 * Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 12th Nov., 1844. Letter from 
 the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Derby, President of the Society. In the instance 
 referred to, the period of Utero-gestation was under one month. 
 
 f Didelphys pusilla. f Signifying one orifice or outlet.
 
 384 INTBODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Echidna and the Ornithoryncus * (Fig. 301). The former is 
 a little ant-eating animal, hearing externally some resemblance 
 to a Hedgehog ; the latter, a creature so anomalous, that when 
 the first specimens of it arrived in Europe, and naturalists 
 saw the body of a quadruped joined to the bill of a bird, 
 they naturally suspected that the union was an artificial one. 
 The real animal was in fact more wonderful than that which 
 any dealer in " strange beasts," would have ventured to fabri- 
 cate. 
 
 The Ornithoryncus is about eighteen inches long, and is 
 called by the natives of Australia the water-mole. It frequents 
 tranquil waters, seeking its food among aquatic plants, arid 
 excavating its burrows in the steep and shaded banks. The 
 motions of its mandibles when procuring food are similar to 
 those of a duck under the same circumstances.f 
 
 The Kangaroos of Australia, form the family (Macropodida^ 
 best known to Europeans. " They are vegetable-feeding ani- 
 mals, browsing upon herbage like the Ruminants, and it appears 
 that in some cases they chew the cud like those animals. Some 
 are of great size, being nearly as tall as a man when in their 
 common erect position ; others are as small as the common 
 Hare, and indeed greatly resemble that animal in general ap- 
 pearance.'^ About the beginning of the present century, but 
 three species of the present group were known. They are now 
 regarded as a family, subdivided into many genera, and con- 
 taining numerous species. 
 
 We have a very vivid recollection of a scene we once wit- 
 nessed at the Surrey Zoological Gardens. On the abdomen of 
 a large bluish-grey coloured Kangaroo, we noticed two appen- 
 dages, which a second glance told us were the fore-feet of the 
 young one. In another moment the head peeped out, and the 
 young creature began gazing around. The mother then bent 
 down, and with great tenderness, began licking its face and 
 head. These endearments being finished, the young one came 
 out, and was amusing itself on the ground, when alarmed by a 
 sudden noise, it jumped into the pouch, and was seen no more, 
 leaving us as much astonished, as when, in our boyish days, we 
 
 * From two Greek words, the one signifying a bird, the other a beak- 
 It is sometimes called the " Duck-billed Platypus," (flat-foot.) 
 
 f A most interesting account of its habits is given by Mr. George Bennett 
 in the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol.i . 
 
 f The generic term Macropus, signifies long-footed. Waterhouse.
 
 MAMMALIA. 385 
 
 first saw Harlequin escape from his pursuers by jumping 
 through a picture. 
 
 Passing by the family (Phalangistidce) which includes the 
 " Flying Squirrel," we come to that of the Opossums (Didel- 
 pkidce). The Opossums are peculiar to America, and are 
 found diffused from the southern border of Canada to Chili and 
 Paraguay. " The largest known species scarcely equal in size 
 the Common Cat, and by far the greater number, approaching 
 more nearly to that of the Common Rat." " Their food con- 
 sists chiefly of insects ; but small reptiles, as well as birds and 
 their eggs, are attacked by the larger species." The feet are 
 shaped like hands, and the hinder feet are furnished with op- 
 posable thumbs.* 
 
 Some of the Opossums have no pouch,t or at least this 
 receptacle for the young is found only in a very rudimentary 
 condition in certain species, and the young, which at first re- 
 main firmly attached to the nipples, are subsequently carried 
 upon the back of the parent. Such is the case in the species 
 represented in the annexed figure. (Fig. 303). It might puzzle 
 us to imagine by what means the young could retain their 
 places, while the mother was rapidly changing her position 
 
 * Waterhouse's Mammalia. 
 
 f From this circumstance they are included by Mr. Ogilby in the same 
 order as the Monkeys, and regarded as belonging to that division to which he 
 has given the name Pedimana.
 
 386 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Fig. 303. MKMAX'S OPOSSCM.' 
 
 among the branches of a tree. But the young Opossums 
 adopt a ready mode of guarding against the danger of a fall, 
 by entwining their long tails round the tail of their mother. 
 
 OEDEE KODENTIA.f EODENTS OB GNAWING 
 ANIMALS. 
 
 THE preceding order was composed exclusively of animals be- 
 longing to foreign countries. The present is well represented 
 among our native quadrupeds, as the British species amount to 
 fourteen in number, and are illustrative of some of the most 
 important families. The characteristics of the group are so 
 well developed in the Rat and the Mouse, that the family to 
 which they belong is regarded as typical of the order. 
 
 In the precise language of Mr. Jenyns the order is thus 
 defined : " Incisors two in each jaw, large and strong, remote 
 from the grinders ; tusks none ; toes distinct with small coni- 
 cal claws. "J The total number of species is six hundred and 
 four, being two-fifths or nearly one-half of the entire number 
 of mammalia known at the present time. 
 
 " Fig. 303. Didelphyt dorsigera, a native of Surinam, described and 
 figured by Madame Merian, in the year 1719. 
 
 $ From the Latin rodere, to gnaw ; rodens, gnawing. The term glires is 
 also applied to the present order, from the Latin glis t ffliris, a Dormouse. 
 
 } Manual of British Vertebrate Animals. 
 
 G. R. Waterhouse, Esq , in Berghaiis and Johfli>ton's Physical Atlas.
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 387 
 
 i'ig. 304. SQUIKBEL. 
 
 Geographical Distribution. On this subject Mr. Waterhouse 
 remarks, that " species of the same group most frequently have 
 a wide range in the same, or nearly the same parallels of lati- 
 tude; but when the 
 species are inhabitants 
 of the high ridges of 
 mountains they will 
 follow the course of 
 the mountains, though 
 that course may be in 
 the opposite, or north 
 and south direction." 
 We learn from the same 
 authority that the fa- 
 mily of the Squirrels 
 (Sciuridce, Fig. 304) 
 contains no less than 
 153 species. Few are 
 found in South Ame- 
 rica; they are chiefly 
 natives of the northern 
 parts of that continent. 
 Two, or perhaps three species occur south of the equator, but 
 on the eastern side of the Andes only. They also become 
 rare in the southern parts of the eastern hemisphere. The 
 family (Muridae) to which the Rats and Mice belong, contains 
 30(5 species, and has the greatest geographical range. That to 
 which the Porcupine is referred (Hyslricidce) is, on the con- 
 trary, essentially American. "Out of about eighty-seven 
 species appertaining to this family, seven only are found out 
 of the South American province, and these belong to the most 
 highly organized divisions of the family." The groups of 
 islands comprehended under the term Polynesia, have no re- 
 presentatives of the present order, except such as there is 
 reason to believe have been introduced by shipping. 
 
 If instead of considering the Rodentia with reference to the 
 great divisions of the globe, we limit our view to their distri- 
 bution within the British Isles, we shall find that, out of four- 
 teen species enumerated by Professor Bell, seven, or one half 
 of the entire number, are absent from Ireland. This is a 
 singular fact when we consider how small an arm of the sea 
 separates the two countries. The annexed figure (305) repre- 
 
 2c
 
 3S8 
 
 rNTBODUCTIOX TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 seats one of the Yoles, little animals, which in many points 
 exhibit a greater affinity to the Beaver than to the Mouse, 
 with which in popular language they are associated. Of 
 these there are in England three species ; yet the genus (Arvi- 
 cola) to which they belong, is altogether unrepresented in 
 Ireland.* 
 
 Fip. 305. SHOBT-TAILED FIELD MOUSE. 
 
 Teeth. We torn from the geographical distribution of the 
 Eodentia to the most striking characteristic of the order, the 
 structure of the teeth. The Molar or grinding teeth, have 
 
 Fig. 306. MOI.AK TKKTH OF THE 
 ABVICOLA. 
 
 Fig. 307. MOLAR TEETH OF THE 
 BEAVER. 
 
 ridges of enamel variously arranged (Fig. 306, 307), which 
 keep up the inequality of surface, as they wear less rapidly 
 than the other portions. The incisor teeth, with their chisel- 
 shaped edges, are, however, more remarkable. If a carpenter 
 
 * The number actually recorded in the History of British Quadrupeds 
 is fifteen ; but since the publication of that valuable and beautifully illus- 
 trated work, Mr. W. Thompson has taken one from the number, by showing 
 that the Irish and the Alpine Hare, instead of being distinct, are one species. 
 To the " Report " of the latter gentleman on the Fauna of Ireland, we are 
 indebted for the means of enumerating the British species which are not 
 indigenous in Ireland. They are 
 
 (Sriurvs vulgarti). 
 
 (Myoxus atelktnarius). 
 (?) (J/us messorius). 
 
 (Arricola amphibius). 
 
 (Arricola agrestii). 
 
 1. The Squirrel 
 
 2. The Dormouse 
 
 3. The Harvest Mouse 
 
 4. The Water Vole 
 
 5. The Field Vole 
 
 6. The Bank Vole 
 
 7. The Common Hare. 
 
 (Arricola pratensis). 
 (Lepus timidvs).
 
 MAMMALIA. 389 
 
 could lay hold of the wishing-cap of the fairy tale, and desire 
 to possess a chisel which would never wear out, and would 
 never become blunt, we might suppose that the handle of such 
 a tool would have in itself the means of secreting the iron 
 and the steel of which the blade is formed, of welding them 
 together, and of giving them at the same time the needful 
 polish and smoothness. And as such a gift would not partake 
 of the imperfections of human workmanship, the new material 
 would be deposited just in proportion as the old wore away, 
 and the temper of the chisel would be neither too hard nor too 
 soft, so that the edge would not be liable either to break or to 
 turn, but remain at all times in working order. Such in reality 
 is the mode of growth in the incisor teeth of the Rodentia 
 (Fig. 298). New matter is ever added at the base, the tooth 
 is ever growing, the enamel is deposited on the outer edge, 
 the softer or inner portions of the teeth wear away, and thus 
 the bevilled or sloping edge of these most efficient tools, is in- 
 variably preserved. 
 
 Knowing these facts, we cannot examine the teeth of the 
 Rabbit, nor of the common Mouse, without being struck with 
 the amount of design they exhibit, the care for the wants of 
 the animal which they manifest, and the perfection in which 
 the continual growth compensates for the constant wearing 
 away. And these ideas become more vivid, and the convic- 
 tions to which they lead more indelible, if we observe what 
 takes place in cases where the usual order of things is inter- 
 fered with. "When," to use the words of Professor Owen, "by 
 accident an opposing incisor is lost, or when by the distorted 
 union of a broken ja\v, the lower incisors no longer meet the 
 upper ones, as sometimes happens to a wounded Hare, the 
 incisors continue to grow until they project like the tusks of 
 the Elephant, and the extremities, hi the poor animal's abor- 
 tive attempts to acquire food, also become pointed like tusks : 
 following the curve prescribed to their growth by the form of 
 their socket, their points often return against some part of the 
 head, are pressed through the skin, then cause absorption of 
 the jaw-bone, and again enter the mouth, rendering mastica- 
 tion impracticable, and causing death by starvation." * 
 
 Hibernation. We have in this order several examples of 
 animals which hybernate, or pass the winter in a greater or less 
 
 * Odontography, p. 411, vide also plate 104, Fig. 5, in same work.
 
 390 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 complete state of torpidity. Thus the Marmot (Fig. 308) of the 
 Alps and Pyrenees dozes away the winter, until the sunshine 
 
 Fig. 80S. MAKMOT. 
 
 and the showers of April rouse it from slumber. The Ham- 
 ster of the North of Europe, lays up in its winter quarters a 
 plentiful store of grain, which it 
 conveys from the fields in its 
 capacious cheek pouches. The pro- 
 vident instincts of both the Squirrel 
 and the Dormouse of England, need 
 only be referred to. The Jerboa, 
 or Jumping Eat of ~Egypt(Fig. 309), 
 although it does not hybernate, esta- 
 blishes maga- 
 zines of grain ; 
 and thus "pro- 
 videth her 
 meat in the 
 summer, and 
 gathereth her 
 food in the 
 harvest." 
 
 Utility. The annoyance, and occasionally the serious 
 injury inflicted by some members of the present group, is 
 universally admitted. On the other hand we should consider 
 that substances which would soon be decaying and offensive, 
 are removed by their agency ; that the fur of some is much 
 valued, and forms an extensive branch of trade, and that man 
 himself, and many carnivorous beasts and birds, derive from 
 different species of these animals an important supply of food. 
 
 Fig. 309. JERBOA.
 
 MAMMAT.TA. 391 
 
 If we should be inclined to question which is greater, the 
 good or the evil of which they are the unconscious instruments, 
 we must not limit our attention to one species, one country, 
 or one period, but let our views be wide, comprehensive, and 
 unprejudiced, ever bearing in mind, that after all, we only 
 "know in part," and "see as through a glass darkly." And 
 this considered, we shall probably arrive at the conclusion, 
 that here, as in all other departments of nature, so far as we 
 are capable of observing, there springs 
 
 " From partial evil universal good." 
 
 In concluding our notice of Rodent animals, we may briefly 
 refer to one or two well-known species. Professor Bell 
 remarks, in treating of the Common Squirrel of England 
 (Sciurus vulgarts) : " The form and habits of this elegant 
 and active little creature combine to render it one of the most 
 beautiful and entertaining of our native animals." In Ireland 
 we are debarred from the opportunity of witnessing its gam- 
 bols ; for in that country it is not now indigenous. There is a 
 tradition that the Squirrel was common in Ireland before the 
 destruction of the native woods. " It was re-introduced a few 
 years ago into the county of Wicklow, where it is said to be 
 fast increasing in number;"* and it abounds in some places 
 in the counties of Longford and Westmeath.f 
 
 The fur of the English and Scotch Hare is well known as 
 valuable to the hatter, while that of the Irish Hare is worth- 
 less. It is only of late years that it has been ascertained 
 that the difference is not confined to the fur, but that the two 
 animals are specifically distinct ;J and still more recently, 
 Mr. W. Thompson has arrived at the conclusion that the 
 Hare of Ireland is identical with that known as the Alpine, 
 or varying Hare of the Scotch mountains, notwithstanding 
 the great difference in locality and habits. In this opinion 
 Mr. Waterhouse concurs ; so that it may now be regarded 
 as an established fact, there are in reality but two species of 
 Hares in these islands. 
 
 The Beaver (Fig. 310) is an animal associated in our minds 
 with the wondrous labours and social instincts which it mani- 
 
 * Thompson's "Report." 
 
 f My authority for this fact was the late Miss Edgeworth or to use that 
 name by which her memory is endeared to the young, "Maria Edgeworth." 
 
 J Bell's British Quadrupeds. Thompson on the Irish Ilare. Transactions 
 of the Royal Irish Academy, voL xviiL
 
 392 lOTBODTJCTKXS TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 fests, in the solitudes frequented by the North American 
 hunters. Professor Owen has, however, proved from historic 
 and legendary evidence, the former existence of a species 01 
 
 Kg. 310. BEAVBR. 
 
 Beaver (Castor Europ&us) in the British Islands ; besides 
 the still more conclusive proof afforded by the remains of that 
 animal associated with those of other denizens of the forest, 
 the Wild Boar, the Deer, and the Wolf.* 
 
 ORDER EDENTATA. TOOTHLESS ANIMALS. 
 
 A FEW of the animals belonging to the present order are 
 destitute of teeth. In this respect they resemble the Ant-eater 
 of South America, whose long cylindrical tongue, covered 
 with glutinous saliva, furnishes the means of entrapping its 
 insect prey. But with few exceptions the Edentata cannot 
 be described as toothless, the true characteristic is the absence 
 of teeth from the front part of the jaw, where in the preceding 
 group they were so fully developed. 
 
 The present order is composed entirely of foreign species, 
 and has been divided into three groups, one represented by the 
 Ant-eater, a second by the Armadillo (Fig. 311), and the 
 third by the Sloth (Fig. 312). 
 
 The Armadillos (Dasypus) are peculiar to the New World ; 
 no animals encased in a similar bony covering are found in 
 
 * History of British Fossil Mammalia and Birds.
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 393 
 
 any other part of the globe. They extend from the banks of 
 the Orinoco, through the whole of South America, and occupy 
 the lower regions of 
 the Andes, to the 
 same elevation as the 
 Sloths, about 3000 
 feet.* Their food is 
 partly of animal and 
 partly of vegetable 
 substances and fruits. HJJHiiil|IHtlt|P!IMlllilffl!l" !:! 
 One species known as Fig. SIL ARMADILLO. 
 
 the Giant Armadillo, 
 
 is more than three feet in length. The others are small in 
 size, and compared with the remains of an extinct species,f 
 now in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, London, are 
 as diminutive as the existing Tortoises, contrasted with the re- 
 mains of that colossal species already mentioned (ante, p. 278) 
 from the Himalayan mountains. 
 
 The Sloths (Bradypus), of which there are only four 
 species, are found from the southern limits of Mexico to Rio 
 de Janeiro.^ Their food consists exclusively of leaves and 
 fruits. The Sloth has been spoken of by naturalists of high 
 reputation as disproportioned in its parts, grotesque, imperfect, 
 to whom existence must be a burden. Such opinions have 
 been exploded by a better knowledge of the habits of the 
 animal. It is not destined to live upon the earth, but among 
 the branches of trees, and not on them like the Squirrel, but 
 under them. These things being known, its supposed defects 
 turn out in reality to be perfections ; and all its structural 
 peculiarities but so many new adaptations of the animal frame 
 to new functions, each declaring how presumptuous is man, 
 who in his ignorance dares to question the consummate wisdom 
 and perfection displayed in all the works of Nature. 
 
 We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. R. Ball, the zealous 
 
 * Berghaiis and Johnston's Atlas. 
 
 t It is fully described by Professor Owen in a separate memoir, and named 
 Glyptodon, from the Greek Glyptos, sculptured; odous, tooth. Dasypus, from 
 the Greek dasys, hairy; povt, a foot. 
 
 I Bradypus, Gr. bradys, tardy, slow; potts, a foot, being nearly the same 
 as the Latin term Tardigradus, slow- paced. 
 
 Some of the flesh-eaters being in the habit of rooting for their food, have 
 been termed Effbdientia, or diggers. These terms are not in all cases 
 descriptive of the habits.
 
 394 
 
 INTEODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 secretary of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, for the 
 accompanying figure (Fig. 312). It represents the Unau, or 
 two-toed Sloth,* the first ever seen alive in these countries, 
 and is copied from a prize drawing belonging to that Society. 
 
 Fig. 312. UNAD, OK TWO-TOKD SLOTH. 
 
 "The Sloth," Mr. Waterton remarks, "is the only known 
 quadruped that spends its whole life suspended by his feet from 
 the branches of trees. The Monkey and the Squirrel seize a 
 branch with their fore-feet, and pull themselves up, and rest 
 or run upon it ; but the Sloth, after seizing it, still remains 
 suspended ; and, suspended, moves along under the branch 
 till he can lay hold of another." The rapidity of the move- 
 ment is well illustrated by Mr. Waterton in the following 
 anecdote : " One day as we were crossing the river Esse- 
 quibo, I saw a large two-toed Sloth on the ground upon the 
 bank. How he got there nobody could tell ; the Indian said 
 he never had surprised a Sloth in such a situation before ; he 
 could hardly have come there to drink, for both above and 
 below the place the branches of the trees touched the water, 
 and afforded him an easy and a safe access to it. Be this as 
 it may, though the trees were not twenty yards from him, he 
 
 * This animal formed the subject of a highly interesting Lecture, delivered 
 by Mr. Ball at one of the evening meetings of the Society. It was published 
 in Saunders's News-Letter, April 15, 1844, and gives a general view of the 
 Sloths, recent and fossil.
 
 MAMMALIA. 895 
 
 could not make his way through the sand time enough to 
 escape before we landed. As soon as we got up to him he 
 threw himself upon his back, and defended himself in gallant 
 style with his fore legs. ' Come, poor fellow,' said I to him, 
 ' if thou hast got into a hobble to-day, thou shalt not suffer for 
 it. I'll take no advantage of thee in misfortune. The forest 
 is large enough both for me and thee to rove in. Go thy 
 ways up above, and enjoy thyself in these endless wilds ; it is 
 more than probable thou wilt never have another interview 
 with man. So fare thee well.' On saying this I took a long 
 stick, which was lying there, held it for him to hook on, and 
 then conveyed him to a high and stately mora tree. He 
 ascended with wonderful rapidity, and in about a minute he 
 was almost at the top of the tree. He now went off in a side 
 direction, and caught hold of the branches of another tree, 
 proceeding in this manner towards the heart of the forest. I 
 stood looking on, lost in amazement at this singular mode of 
 progress. I followed him with my eyes till the intervening 
 branches closed in between us, and then I lost sight for ever 
 of the two-toed Sloth." 
 
 Among the extinct animals of the present order, is one whose 
 massive skeleton has procured for it the expressive appellation 
 of Megatherium.* Its length, including the tail, must have 
 been more than fourteen feet, and its height upwards of eight 
 feet. The thigh bone was twice the thickness of that of the 
 largest Elephant ; the fore-foot must have measured more than 
 a yard in length, and more than twelve inches in width, arid 
 was terminated by an enormous claw. The width of the upper 
 part of the tail could not have been less than two feet.f Other 
 extinct quadrupeds allied to this in many points of structure 
 have been discovered, and the group deriving a name from its 
 colossal leader, is spoken of as that of the Megatherioid animals. 
 Their structure and general habits are most ably treated of by 
 Professor Owen, in a memoir upon one species (Mylodori\. ro- 
 bttstus'), of which the skeleton is now in the splendid museum 
 of the College of Surgeons, " set up " in the attitude shown in 
 the annexed figure (Fig. 313). 
 
 In the course of this volume examples have been adduced 
 of the exercise which the study of natural history gives to the 
 
 * Gr. Mega, great ; therion, a beast. 
 
 t Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise. Tide also Penny Cyclopaedia. 
 
 J Gr. myle, a mill; odous, a tooth.
 
 396 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 observant faculties, the habits of arrangement which it requires, 
 the generalizations to which it leads, the inexhaustible pleasures 
 which it affords, and the devotional feelings with which it is 
 associated. We would now wish the reader to regard it in a 
 new light, as affording for the reasoning powers a field for their 
 exertion not less beneficial than other departments of science, 
 
 Fig. 313. 
 
 whose claim to be admitted into our schools and colleges have 
 long since been recognized. As an instance of inductive 
 reasoning, we now bring forward Professor Owen's admirable 
 memoir on the Mylodon.
 
 MAMMALIA. 397 
 
 " From the structure of the teeth he infers that hoth the 
 Megatherium and Mylodon must have heen phyllophagous, or 
 leaf-eating animals ; * whilst from their short necks, the very 
 opposite extreme to the Camelopard, they never could have 
 reached the tops of even the lowest trees. Cuvier had sug- 
 gested that they were fossorial or digging animals. Dr. Lund, 
 a Danish naturalist, had considered the Megatherium to he a 
 scansorial or climbing animal ; in short, a gigantic Sloth. 
 After a multitude of comparisons, Professor Owen rejects the 
 explanation of all his predecessors. He shows that the 
 monstrous dimensions of the hinder parts of the hody, and the 
 colossal and heavy hinder legs, could never have heen designed 
 either to support an animal which simply scratched the earth 
 for food, or one which fed by climbing into lofty trees, like 
 the diminutive Sloth ; and he further cites the structure of 
 every analogous creature, either of burrowing or climbing 
 habits, to prove, that in all such, the hinder legs are com- 
 paratively light. What then was the method by which 
 these extraordinary monsters obtained their great supplies of 
 food?" 
 
 The bones which correspond with those termed in the 
 human body the hip-bones, were of enormous size, and were 
 conjoined with muscular masses of unwonted force. " Pro- 
 fessor Owen supposes that the animal first cleared away the 
 earth from the roots with its digging instruments, and that 
 there seated on its hinder extremities, which, with the tail,t 
 are conjectured to have formed a tripod, and aided by the 
 extraordinary long heel as with a lever, it grasped the trunk 
 of the tree with its fore-legs. Heaving to and fro the stateliest 
 trees of primaeval forests, and wrenching them from their hold, 
 he at length prostrated them by his side, and then regaled 
 himself for several days on their choicest leaves and branches, 
 which till then had been far beyond his reach. "J 
 
 * They form the family Gravigrada, "heavy paced," of Owen. 
 
 t There is scarcely a doubt, that the tail of the Mylodon was supplied 
 with an arrangement of arteries similar to that which is known to exist in 
 the arm of the Sloth, and which serves to enable the animal to maintain 
 without fatigue his position, when suspended from the branch of a tree. 
 This is confirmed by the discovery by Dr. Allman, of a similar arrangement 
 in the tail of the Armadillo ; and it is known that this animal can stand for 
 a short time tripod-like, upon the tail and hind-legs. Mr. Ball, in the 
 lecture referred to, regards this arterial arrangement as typical of that which 
 must have existed in the Megatherioid animals. 
 
 J The substance of Professor Owen's Memoirs on the Mylodon has been
 
 398 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 The theory thus proposed is, as Professor Owen remarks 
 "strictly in accordance with, as it has been suggested by, the 
 ascertained anatomy of -the very remarkable extinct animals, 
 whose business in a former world it professes to explain ;" 
 and he sums up his reasoning in the following words : " All the 
 characteristics which exist in the skeleton of the Mylodon and 
 Megatherium, conduce and concur to the production of the 
 forces requisite for uprooting and prostrating trees, of which 
 characteristics, if any one were wanting the effect would not be 
 produced." 
 
 ORDER RUMINANTIA. RUMINATING ANIMALS. 
 
 " Mightiest of all the beasts of chase, 
 
 That roam in woody Caledon, 
 Crashing the forest in his race, 
 
 The mountain Bull comes thundering on. 
 
 " Fierce on the hunter's quiver'd band, 
 He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow, 
 Spurns with black hoof and horn, the sand, 
 And tosses high his mane of snow." 
 
 SCOTT'S "CADTOW CASTLE." 
 
 " THE order Ruminantia is distinguished from all the other 
 orders of mammalia, by the existence of four stomachs, 
 arranged for the act of ruminating or chewing the cud. These 
 animals are essentially herbivorous, and are all possessed of 
 the cloven hoof ; and it is only among them that species are 
 met with whose foreheads are armed with horns. This order, 
 which is one of the most natural and best defined* of all the 
 primary groups into which the mammalia have been divided, 
 is principally represented by the Ox, the Sheep, the Goat, and 
 the Deer ; but it is usual also to classify with them the Giraffe, 
 Camels, Antelopes, Llamas, &c. They are subdivided into nine 
 genera, comprising in all one hundred and forty -eight species, 
 
 so ably abstracted by Sir R. I. Murchison, in his Address as President of the 
 Geological Society, 1843, that we have, as far as possible, availed ourselves 
 of the language employed by that eminent geologist. 
 
 * This opinion, though expresssd by Cuvier, and generally received, has 
 been called in question by Professor Owen, from evidence principally 
 afforded by his researches into the structure of extinct species of Ruminantia 
 and Pac/tydermata.
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 399 
 
 forming about one-tenth of all the mammalia.* Following 
 the general law of distribution, the Kuminantia are most 
 numerous in equatorial regions ; but, as if created expressly 
 for the use of the human family, they are distributed over all 
 latitudes in the northern hemisphere, at least from the equator 
 to the regions witbin the arctic circle ; so that, wherever 
 man is found, he is accompanied by those animals most 
 necessary for the supply of his wants and comforts, and most 
 
 Fig. 314. IlKIN-DEEE-t 
 
 * The following table is extracted from that given by Mr. Waterhouse in 
 Berghaiis and Johnston's Phyiical Atlas : 
 
 1. (Camelus) ...; Camels 2 
 
 2. (Auchenia) Llamas 3 
 
 3. (Mvsckus) Musk Deers 7 
 
 4. (Cervus) .... Deers 38 
 
 5. (Camelopardalis) ."... Giraffes 2 
 
 6. (Antilope) Antelopes 48 
 
 7. (Copra) Goats 14 
 
 8. (Ovis) Sheep 21 
 
 9. (Bos) Oxen 13 
 
 Total number of species, 148 
 
 128 species belong to the Old World; 23 only to the New. 
 t Remains of the Rein-deer have been discovered near Dublin, associated with those
 
 400 
 
 INTEODTTCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 conducive to his progress in arts and civilization. From them 
 he derives a considerable portion of his food and clothing, 
 whether in a savage or a civilized state of society. Their milk, 
 their flesh, their wool, hides, horns, and hoofs, are all con- 
 verted to his uses ; whilst from many of them he derives the 
 most valuable assistance in the labours of the field, and in the 
 transport of commodities. Thus the Rein-deer (Fig. 314), 
 as is well known, forms the chief comfort and the principal 
 means of subsistence to the Laplander ; and the Yak or Kash- 
 gow, confers similar benefits on the inhabitants of Thibet and 
 Pamir." 
 
 From this general distribution of the Ruminating animals, 
 the continent of Australia must be excepted ; among the pecu- 
 liar Fauna of that country, as well as in Madagascar, New 
 Guinea, and the greater number of the South Sea Islands, no 
 species of this order has yet been 
 discovered. 
 
 Whether the foot is cloven as 
 in the Deer (Fig. 315), and other 
 animals of the present order, or 
 encased in a solid hoof as in 
 the Horse (Fig. 316), it is equally 
 unfitted to assist in the capture 
 of living prey, and the food con- 
 sequently consists of vegetables. 
 The molar teeth, as might be 
 expected, are so formed as to 
 be peculiarly efficient instruments 
 for the mastication of such sub- 
 stances ; and we learn from 
 . RgTsie. Professor Owen, that, "not only 
 
 orders and genera, but even species, are characterized by the 
 various patterns which result from the various forms, direc- 
 tions, and proportions in which the enamel and cement alternate 
 with the dentine," or substance of the teeth, in the crowns of 
 the complex molars.* 
 
 In the brief notice here given of the ruminating animals, 
 the facts relating to their geographical distribution are given 
 on the authority of Mr. Waterhouse, and occasionally in his 
 words. Some well-known example is adduced of each of the 
 nine groups enumerated by that eminent naturalist. 
 * Odontography, p. 527.
 
 MAMMALIA. 401 
 
 I. (Camelus.) " The Arabian Camel (Djemal of the Arabs), 
 from which the Dromedary is only distinguished by higher 
 breeding and finer qualities both being possessed of only one 
 hump* is a native of Asia, where, from the earliest ages to 
 the present day, it has formed the chief means of communica- 
 tion between the different regions of the East. Its present 
 geographical distribution extends over Arabia, Syria, Asia 
 Minor, to the foot of the Caucasian chain, the south of Tartary, 
 and part of India. In Africa, it is found in the countries ex- 
 tending from the Mediterranean to the Senegal, and from 
 Egypt and Abyssinia to Algiers and Morocco. It is also very 
 abundant in the Canary Islands." 
 
 "After the conquest of Granada, the Arabian Camel was 
 introduced into Spain, by the Moors, and at that time it was 
 abundant in the southern provinces, but as a species it is now 
 extinct. The only place in Europe where this Camel is now 
 reared is at Pisa." 
 
 II. (Atichenia.) The Llamas, which have been justly 
 termed the "Camels of the New "World," differ from the 
 former from being of smaller size, and in the absence of the 
 hump. They belong exclusively to South America, and 
 chiefly to the western part of the great chain of the Andes. 
 Unlike their Old World relatives who inhabit "Araby the 
 blest," and other sunny regions, the Llamas are found amid 
 the bleak and rocky precipices bordering on the limit of 
 perpetual snow. Owing to the low temperature of Patagonia, 
 they approach the vicinity of the sea. " From this they 
 spread over the elevated regions of the Andes, and in large 
 herds attain, on Chimborazo, the limit of perpetual snow, 
 which there reaches a height of 15,800 feet. " 
 
 III. (Moschus.) The Musk Deer are so called from the 
 species whence the substance called " musk" is derived. They 
 are all distinguished by the absence of horns. Their habitat 
 is the mountains of Central and Southern Asia. 
 
 IV. (Cei~vus.) The Deer combine in the highest degree 
 the characteristics of elegance of form, grace, and fleetness. 
 The Elk or Moose Deer of America (Alces palmata) exceeds 
 in size any species now living. It was, however, much sur- 
 passed by that extinct species known as the "Irish Elk,"f 
 
 * The Camel with two humps is regarded only as a variety, not as a dis- 
 tinct species. 
 
 f It now forms the representative of a distinct sub-genus, and is named 
 Megaceros Hibernicus, from the Greek mega, great ; keras, a horn.
 
 402 
 
 TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 and especially as regards the size of the antlers. In the 
 Moose, the span of the antlers between the extreme tips is 
 four feet ; in the extinct Irish species, it is eight feet, and 
 the vertebrae of the neck are proportionally larger, so as to 
 bear the weight of the head and its massive appendages. The 
 name of Irish Elk is objectionable, as the animal was not an 
 Elk but allied to the Fallow Deer ; and also as the remains 
 are not peculiar to Ireland. They have been met with both 
 in the Isle of Man and in England. In the latter country they 
 are found associated with the fossil remains of a Mammoth, 
 
 fig. 317. GlKAFFK.
 
 MAMMALIA.. 403 
 
 a Rhinoceros, and other extinct mammalia of which they had 
 been cotemporaries.* 
 
 Of the three species of Deer which are at present living in 
 these countries, the Fallow Deer (Cervus damd) is that 
 which is the common denizen of the parks. The Red Deer 
 (C. elaphus), which is the largest species, still exists in numbers 
 amid the solitude of the Scottish mountains, and is not quite 
 extinct in some retired localities in Ireland.f The Roebuck 
 (C. capreolus), which is smaller than either of the other two, 
 is unknown in Ireland and rare in England, but is yet to be 
 found enjoying a wild life among some of the wooded moun- 
 tains of Scotland. 
 
 V. (Camelopardalis) The Giraffe or Camelopard (Fig. 
 317), of which only two species are known, is confined to the 
 continent of Africa. It browses upon the foliage and tender 
 shoots of trees, and has a tongue so constituted as to serve as 
 an instrument for pulling them down, as would be done by the 
 proboscis of the Elephant. 
 
 VI. (Antilope.} The traveller among the Alps or the 
 Pyrenees describes one species of this group, the Chamois, 
 and the poets of eastern countries have celebrated the praises 
 
 of another, the Gazelle (Fig. 318). J They 
 may be regarded as holding their head- 
 quarters in Africa. That continent alone 
 has thirty-four species of Antelopes, while 
 Asia has ten, Europe two, and America 
 only one. The Deer and the Antelopes 
 together, comprise more than half of all the 
 existing species of ruminating animals. 
 Fig. sis. GAZKLLE. VII. (Capra.) The Goats also are in- 
 habitants of Alpine regions ; but while in 
 this respect they agree with the Antelope, their favourite 
 tracts are in a different quarter of the globe, for the greatest 
 number of species is found hi Asia. 
 
 VIII. (Ovis.) "Sheep, the most ancient of our domestic 
 
 * Owen on British Fossil Mammalia. 
 
 f Thompson's Report on the Fauna of Ireland. 
 
 J " Her eye's dark charm 'twere vain to tell, 
 
 But gaze on that of the Gazelle, 
 
 It will assist thy fancy well; 
 
 As large, as languishingly dark." BYRON. 
 2D
 
 404 IXTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 animals, may be traced originally to the countries of Wes- 
 tern Asia. They herd in flocks in a wild state on the 
 inaccessible mountainous districts of Asia, Europe, Africa, and 
 America." 
 
 The elevation at which some of these creatures habitually 
 live is very remarkable, and to the zoologist a subject of 
 philosophic interest. The Chamois is found between the 
 upper limit of the trees, and the line of perpetual snow, which 
 in the Alps is 8,900 feet; and is 700 feet less on the northern 
 than on the southern declivities of these mountains. The Goat 
 of Cashmere browses on the comparatively naked table-lands 
 of Thibet, at the height of from 10,000 to 13,000 feet above 
 the level of the sea. The Pamir Sheep, or Bass (Ovis polii), 
 lives at the still greater height of 15,600 feet in the table- 
 land of Pamir, eastward of Bokhara ; and the Burrhel (Ovis 
 bwrhel) inhabits the highest ridges of the Himalayan chain, 
 where it is described as " bounding lightly over the incrusted 
 snows, at an altitude where its human pursuers find it difficult 
 to breathe." 
 
 Fig. 319. Bisox. 
 
 IX. (Bos.) The present group may be represented by our 
 domestic Oxen, which have ever been associated with the 
 field labours and the domestic comforts of man. But the 
 species most celebrated are probably the ferocious Buffalo of 
 Southern Africa, and the Bison (Fig. 319), which roams in 
 vast herds over the trackless prairies of America. 
 
 The extinct animals of this tribe afford another example of 
 the manner in which the historian and the naturalist may at 
 times assist each other's researches. The Eomans, when they
 
 MAMMALIA. 405 
 
 first penetrated the wilds and forests of uncivilized Europe, 
 discovered two kinds of gigantic oxen. That which they 
 distinguished by its shaggy coat and mane, may be recognized 
 in the still untamed Aurochs of Lithuania. The other is de- 
 scribed by Caesar as being " not much inferior to the Elephant 
 in size, and though resembling the common Bull in colour, 
 form, and general aspect, yet as differing from all the domestic 
 cattle in its gigantic size, and especially in the superior ex- 
 panse and strength of its horns."* 
 
 Remains of both these speciesf have been found in England 
 in the same deposits and localities ; and it is most satisfactory, 
 as Professor Owen remarks, " to find such proof of the general 
 accuracy of the brief but interesting indications of the primitive 
 mammalian fauna of those regions of Europe which may be 
 supposed to have presented to the Roman cohorts the same 
 aspect as America did to the first colonists of New England." 
 
 PACHYDERMATA. THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS. 
 
 " Beside him stalks to battle 
 
 The huge earth- shaking beast 
 The beast on whom the castle 
 
 With all its guards doth stand ; 
 The beast who hath between his eyes 
 The serpent for a hand." 
 
 MACAULAT'S " LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME."]: 
 
 THE animals of the present order are, in their general habits, 
 herbivorous. One of their most obvious characteristics is the 
 toughness and great thickness of the skin, as manifested in the 
 Hippopotamus and other species. Hence the name Pachy- 
 dermata, signifying thick -skinned, is that by which they have 
 been designated. 
 
 * Owen's Fossil Mammalia. 
 
 f A third species of smaller size has been found in England (vide Owen, 
 p. 508), it has also occurred in Ireland. R. Ball, " Proceedings of the 
 Royal Irish Academy," January, 1839. 
 
 | The author states in a note that Anguimanu, or snake-handed, is the 
 old Latin name for an Elephant. Lucretius, ii. 538, v. 1302.
 
 406 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 
 
 The order contains but nine genera, divided into thirty-nine 
 or forty species,* and comprises the most gigantic of all living 
 quadrupeds. They are found chiefly in the countries of the 
 torrid zone. No animal whatever belonging to this order is 
 found in Australia. 
 
 The Indian and the African Elephants are distinct species, 
 and these terms point out the countries in which they are 
 indigenous. The Hippopotamus or " River-horse," whose 
 bulk is scarcely inferior to that of the Elephant, is peculiar to 
 Africa, and even to certain districts of that continent. There 
 are no less than seven species of Rhinoceros, which are dis- 
 tributed through both Asia and Africa. Of the group of 
 which the Swine is the representative, the Wild Boar (Fig. 
 320) only is found in any part of Europe. The Wart Hogs 
 
 Fig. 320. WILD BOAB. 
 
 belong solely to Africa, and the Peccaries to America. The 
 Tapirs, which are distinguished from all other animals by their 
 prolonged" and flexible snout (Fig. 292), are common to both 
 the Old and the New World. 
 
 The Horse is universally distributed, either in a wild or a 
 domesticated state. Fossil remains of a species distinct from 
 
 * They are thus enumerated by Berghaiis and Johnston : 
 Elephants, 2 species. Damans, 3 species. Peccaries, 2 species. 
 Hippopotamus, If Swine, 9 Tapirs, 3 
 
 Rhinoceros, 7 Wart Hogs, 3 Horses. 9 
 
 t It is generally considered that there are at least two species.
 
 MAMMALIA. 407 
 
 any now existing have been found both in North and South 
 America. This circumstance has elicited from Mr. Darwin 
 the remark " It is a marvellous event in the history of ani- 
 mals, that a native kind should have disappeared, to be suc- 
 ceeded after ages by the countless herds introduced with the 
 Spanish colonist."* The wild Asses extend from Siberia to 
 Egypt ; and the different species of Zebra (Fig. 321) through- 
 out central and southern Africa, some inhabiting the plains, 
 others selecting the mountains. 
 
 Fig. 321. ZEBRA. 
 
 Having briefly given the geographical distribution of the 
 leading groups of the present order, we turn to the Elephant, 
 the " half- reasoning Elephant," as he has been termed by the 
 poet. We do so, not for the purpose of bringing forward 
 anecdotes illustrative of his strength, docility, or sagacity ; his 
 inoffensive habits, or his utility to man ; but that we may ad- 
 vert to certain peculiarities of structure, and to the interest 
 which attaches to him in reference to species which have passed 
 away, but which have left scattered over Europe the memorials 
 of their former existence. 
 
 The food of the Elephant consists not merely of leaves, but 
 of the twigs and branches of trees. It is needful, therefore, 
 that he should have teeth fitted to grind down the woody fibre, 
 and with some principle of renovation which would make up 
 for the continual wearing away. The teeth are composed of 
 three substances of different degrees of hardness ; the " den- 
 
 * Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. iii. p. 150.
 
 408 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 tine," which constitutes the principal component; the "ena- 
 mel," which is a much harder substance ; and the " cement," 
 which is a softer one, and serves to unite the plates of which 
 the tooth is composed. The unequal density causes the sur- 
 face to wear away in an unequal manner, and hence the pro- 
 perty which makes a mill-stone most valuable is secured. The 
 arrangement to make good what a mechanic would call " the 
 wear and tear" of the apparatus is not less effectual. The 
 teeth are ever growing, not as in the Rodentia (ante, p. 388), 
 
 Fig. 322. INDIAN ELEPHANT. 
 
 by a deposit of new matter at the base, but by the develop- 
 ment of new teeth. We are accustomed to see a new tooth 
 come forth from the mouth of a child from the place where the 
 former tooth had been shed ; but in the young Elephant the 
 plan of development and succession is altogether different. 
 Each tooth is formed in a membranous bag, enclosed in a 
 chamber of bone, forming part of the massive jaw. They are 
 successively developed, so that an Elephant may have in each 
 jaw not less than six of these enormous molar teeth in the 
 course of its life, or twenty-four in all, although never more 
 than two are seen in each jaw at the same time. As the
 
 MAMMALIA. 409 
 
 first tooth wears away, the second tooth is advancing forward ; 
 when the first becomes worn and useless, the second tooth 
 takes its place, its former position being now occupied by the 
 third tooth, which in course of time is carried forward to the 
 front of the mouth, serves its distinct purpose, and when worn 
 down is succeeded by that which was the fourth. 
 
 "There are few examples of natural structures," says Pro- 
 fessor Owen, " that manifest a more striking adaptation of a 
 highly complex and beautiful structure to the exigencies of the 
 animal endowed with it, than the grinding teeth of the Ele- 
 phant. Thus the jaw is not encumbered with the whole weight 
 of the massive tooth at once, but it is formed by degrees as it 
 is required ; the sub-division of the crown into a number of 
 successive plates, and of the plates into sub-cylindrical pro- 
 cesses, presenting the conditions most favourable to progressive 
 formation."* Another advantage is pointed out by the same 
 high authority: " The tooth in front, which is partially worn 
 down, is fitted for the first coarse grinding of the branches of 
 a tree ; the transverse enamelled ridges of the succeeding 
 part of the tooth divide the food (as it passes on towards the 
 throat) into smaller fragments, and the posterior islands and 
 tubercles of enamel pound it to the pulp fit for deglutition." 
 
 It may readily be supposed that the number and thickness 
 of the plates, the shape of the teeth, and the different patterns 
 in which the enamel is arranged, form characters by which the 
 teeth of the same species in different stages of maturity may be 
 recognized, and that they also furnish the means of separating 
 those of the African from the Asiatic Elephant ; and both of 
 these from that extinct species known as the Mammoth (Ele- 
 phas primigenius) . 
 
 The teeth of the Mammoth, which are thus easily distin- 
 guishable, are found in the superficial unstratified deposits of 
 the continent of Europe ; and with them are associated the 
 remains of two other animals, belonging to the present order, 
 and now found only in warmer latitudes-^ the Hippopotamus 
 and Rhinoceros. 
 
 When such statements were first made by Cuvier, it was no 
 wonder they were received with incredulity; and that even 
 when they were admitted, reference should be made to the 
 Elephants introduced by Pyrrhus in the Roman wars, and to 
 
 * On British Fossil Mammalia.
 
 410 INTBODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 the stranger quadrupeds from conquered countries, as explana- 
 tory of their occurrence. But their abundance proved that 
 such a cause was insufficient for the effect ; and when it was 
 shown that they were equally plentiful in England, where 
 many living Elephants were not likely to have been introduced, 
 and that they had also occurred in Ireland,* where a Koman 
 legion never encamped, there was no alternative but to admit 
 that those huge quadrupeds must have inhabited the countries 
 in which their remains had been discovered. 
 
 Professor Owen, in his work on the fossil mammalia of 
 Britain, gives descriptions and illustrative figures of the remains 
 of the Mammoth, f of a large Hippopotamus, two species of 
 Rhinoceros, and one of a Mastodon, an animal equal in bulk to 
 the Elephant, and, like it, furnished with tusks and a flexible 
 proboscis. These mighty quadrupeds once ranged over tracts 
 which are now occupied by the busy towns, the verdant plains, 
 and 
 
 " The stately homes of England." 
 
 Their bones, too, are sometimes found " full fathom five" in 
 the seas that encircle her shores ; and the trawling net of the 
 fisherman, when it encounters their heavy mass, has been 
 known to break under its burthen. "Such occurrences," as 
 the Professor well remarks, " recall to mind the adventures of 
 the fisherman narrated in the Arabian Nights ; but the fancy 
 of the Eastern romancer falls short of the reality of this haul- 
 ing up, in British seas, of Elephants more stupendous than 
 those of Africa or Ceylon." 
 
 * The occurrence in Ireland of the molar teeth of an Elephant was made 
 known by Neville and Molyneux, in 1715. 
 
 f The entire carcase of a Mammoth was discovered in 1799, among the 
 blocks of ice at the mouth of the river Lena, in Siberia ; and so perfectly 
 had the soft parts of the body been preserved from decay by their icy 
 covering, that the flesh, as it became exposed, was devoured by wolves 
 and bears. It was clothed with a double garment of close fur and coarse 
 hair, some of it sixteen inches in length, and by means of this thick shaggy 
 covering, was specially adapted for living in that climate. The animal 
 was a male, with a long mane on the neck. The skeleton is set up in St 
 Petersburg.
 
 411 
 
 ORDER CETACEA WHALES, DOLPHINS, POEPOISES. 
 
 " Part huge of bulk. 
 
 Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, 
 Tempest the ocean : there Leviathan, 
 Hugest of living creatures, on the deep 
 Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims, 
 And seems a moving land." MILTON. 
 
 IK passing from one order of mammalia to another, the scene 
 changes like that of a panorama. From the Pachydermata, 
 living on the land beneath the burning sun of India or of Africa, 
 we turn to the Cetacea, dwelling in the seas, and fixing their 
 head-quarters 
 
 " In thrilling regions of thick-ribb'd ice." 
 
 These animals are distinguished by their fish-like form their 
 flat horizontal tail and by the anterior extremities being in the 
 form of fins. They were divided by Cuvier into two families, 
 the herbivorous and the carnivorous, according to the nature of 
 their food. The carnivorous Cetacea, to which our attention 
 shall be restricted, are arranged hi three groups, represented by 
 the Dolphin, the Spermaceti Whale, and the Baleen Whale, in 
 all of which the nostrils are situated on the crown of the head, 
 and act as blow-holes. 
 
 Delphinldce. The common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is 
 occasionally met with on our coasts. The very name is asso- 
 ciated with classic fable,* and with the splendid creations of 
 our own Shakspeare ;t and its habits are such as to excite 
 universal interest whenever they are observed. " The exces- 
 
 * Arion, having charmed the Dolphins by his music, was carried by one 
 of them on its back. Amphitrite's car is represented as drawn on the sea by 
 a group of Dolphins. 
 
 f The passage referred to is that in the Midsummer Night's Dream : 
 
 ' ' I sat upon a promontory, 
 
 And heard a Mermaid, on a Dolphin's back, 
 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 
 That the rude sea grew civil at her song."
 
 412 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 sive activity and playfulness of its gambols, and the evident 
 predilection which it e 'inces for society, are recorded by every 
 mariner ; numerous herds of them will follow and surround a 
 ship in full sail, with the most eager delight throwing them- 
 selves into every possible attitude, and tossing and leaping 
 about with elegant and powerful agility, for no other apparent 
 reason than mere pastime."* 
 
 The common Porpoise (Phoccena communis, Fig. 323) is 
 
 Fig. 323. PORPOISE. 
 
 scarcely less playful or less sociable. It is the most common 
 species of Cetacea around our coasts, entering our bays in 
 pursuit of shoals of herrings and other fish, and attracting 
 attention by the manner in which it rolls over, as it comes to 
 the surface to breathe. A herd of them may be sometimes 
 seen, indulging in their unwieldy gambols, and chasing each 
 other in sport. " On the approach of a storm, or even in the 
 midst of the tempest, they appear to revel in the waves, 
 showing their black backs above the surface, and often throwing 
 themselves wholly out of the water in their vigorous leaps." 
 The length of the body is from four to six feet. 
 
 To the same group belongs the Bottle-head Whale (Jly- 
 peroodon), occasionally taken on our shores ; the Round-headed 
 Porpoise or Caaing Whale (Phoccena melas), which appears 
 in herds of several hundreds ; and the Narwhal (Monodon 
 monoceros), whose single projecting tooth, six feet or more 
 in length, has procured for it the name of Sea-Unicorn. 
 
 Physeteridce. "The common Cachalot, or Spermaceti 
 Whale, is well known," says Professor Bell, "as affording 
 that peculiar and useful substance from which it takes its 
 common name. The enormous size of the head, in length 
 very nearly equalling, and in its bulk even surpassing, half of 
 
 * Professor Bell's History of British Quadrupeds. From this work we have 
 enriched our brief notice of the Cetacea with several extracts.
 
 MAMMALIA. 413 
 
 the whole animal, is principally dependent upon the immense 
 quantity of spermaceti, which is contained in a thick dense hag, 
 divided into compartments, and placed in the front part of the 
 head. This substance, which exists in a fluid state in the 
 living animal, is also found along each side of the back, and iu 
 some other parts of the body." 
 
 The Cachalot reaches the length of seventy feet. In its 
 enormous bulk, therefore, it equals or even surpasses the 
 common or Baleen Whale. Its strength is enormous. A single 
 blow of the tail will dash a boat to pieces ; " and there is a 
 well-known authenticated instance on record of an American 
 ship of large size being stove in and foundered by the blow 
 inflicted by the head of an infuriated male Cachalot of large 
 size." Though small fishes have been found in its stomach, 
 its principal food is Cuttle-fish. 
 
 Balcenidce. The common Whale (Balcena mysticetus, Fig. 
 324) feeds, as is well known, on minute Crustacea, mollusca 
 
 Fip. 321. BALEEN WHALE. 
 
 (ante, p. 175), and medusa? (ante, p. 42). It is so greatly 
 reduced in numbers in the Greenland seas, that Baffin's Bay, 
 Hudson's Bay, and other localities made known by the enterprise 
 of British seamen, are now the principal seats of the " fishery" 
 a term we would gladly change, as it tends to keep up the 
 vulgar and erroneous idea that the Whale is a fish. Its affec- 
 tion to its young, its importance to man, and the dangers in- 
 curred in its pursuit, are attractive subjects ; but instead of 
 entering upon their consideration, we prefer devoting our 
 limited space to points of structure exhibited in the Whale, 
 and, with some modifications, found throughout all the animals 
 of the present order.
 
 414 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 The position of the tail in Whales is horizontal ; in fishes 
 it is vertical (ante, p. 204) ; and the adaptation in each 
 instance is admirably fitted to the wants of the animal. For 
 fishes it is used as an instrument for progression in the water, 
 and they may speed onwards in their course at nearly the 
 same uniform depth. But by the very nature of their organi- 
 zation, Whales are compelled to rise to the surface for each 
 respiration ;* and as the tail is horizontal, it acts as an oar of 
 inconceivable power ; its superficial measurement in the larger 
 species being not less than one hundred feet. 
 
 " But if this powerful implement be necessary to raise the 
 Whale into contact with the atmosphere, the immense depth 
 of water from which he is thus raised implies a superincumbent 
 pressure so immense as to require some extraordinary condition 
 of the body to prevent its absolute destruction. The most ob- 
 vious means for meeting this enormous pressure, which in most 
 cases must amount to 154 atmospheres, pr about a ton upon 
 every square inch, is a thickening of the integument, or the 
 production of some incompressible substance, which shall 
 invest the whole animal ; and we find this object to be effected 
 in a manner which must excite the greatest admiration."f 
 Professor Jacob, of Dubh'n,J has shown that the structure in 
 which the oil is deposited, and which is called " blubber," is 
 the true skin of the animal, modified for the purpose of holding 
 this fluid oil, but still the true skin. It consists of an interlace- 
 ment of fibres, crossing each other in every direction, as in 
 common skin, but more open in texture, to leave room for 
 the oil. A soft wrapper of fat, like that of the Hog, would 
 not have answered the purpose. " Though double the thick- 
 ness to that usually found in the Cetacea, it could not have 
 resisted the superincumbent pressure ; whereas, by its being 
 a modification of the skin, always firm and elastic, and in this 
 case being never less than several inches, and sometimes be- 
 tween one and two feet thick, it operates like so much 
 caoutchouc, possessing a density and resistance which the 
 more it is pressed, it resists the more." 
 
 * Some of the larger species can remain under water for a considerable 
 time. Vide Naturalist's Library, rol. viL ; or article "Cetacea," Encyclo- 
 pedia of Anatomy and Physiology. 
 
 f Bell. 
 
 j Dublin Philosophical Journal, i. p. 356, quoted by Bell. 
 
 Naturalist's Library, vol. vii., quoted by BelL Above a year before we
 
 MAMMALIA. 415 
 
 This remarkable structure has another use ; it acts like a 
 blanket, and, being a bad conductor of caloric, prevents the 
 animal heat from being dissipated, thus enabling these warm- 
 blooded inhabitants of the sea to resist the cold of the medium 
 in which they live. Nor does its utility stop even here ; it is 
 specifically lighter than the sea-water, and though its weight 
 sometimes exceeds thirty tons, it does not act as an incum- 
 brance, but in reality renders the animal more buoyant. 
 
 Thus provided, the Rorqual, of ninety or a hundred feet in 
 length, the largest of all Whales, and consequently of all ex- 
 isting animals, can propel its enormous bulk through the water, 
 or float at ease upon the surface. To such a being how ap- 
 propriate and how beautiful are the words of Milton : 
 
 -" That sea-beast, 
 
 Leviathan, which God of all his works 
 Created hugest that swim the ocean stream : 
 Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, 
 The pilot of some small night founder'd skiff, 
 Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 
 With fixed anchor in his scaly* rind, 
 Moors by his side under the lee, while night 
 Invests the sea, and wished morn delays." 
 
 PARADISE LOST, Book 1 
 
 met with this extract, we bad an opportunity of examining a Hyperoodon 
 or Bottle-head Whale, taken in Belfast Bay. One of the captors had 
 inflicted a wound on the back with a hatchet, and the dark skin and light 
 coloured blubber underneath we could compare to nothing but a newly-cut 
 cake of caoutchouc. In firmness and elasticity, when pressed by the finger, 
 the resemblance seemed not less perfect, 
 
 * It is almost needless to say that the skin is not "scaly." In the 
 works of Gesner, 1588, there is the figure of a vessel anchored to a Whale; 
 sn that the poet has given expression to what was at one time the current 
 belief.
 
 416 
 
 ORDEB CAKNIVOKA. FLESH-EATING ANIMALS. 
 
 Fig. 325. LEOPABD. 
 
 -" The Tiger, darting fierce 
 
 Impetuous on the prey his glance has doom'd : 
 
 The lively-shining Leopard, speckled o'er 
 
 With many a spot, the beauty of the waste; 
 
 And scorning all the taming arts of man." THOMSON. 
 
 Iff this order Cuvier included insect-eating animals, whether, 
 like the Bat, they pursued their prey in the air, or, like the 
 Hedgehog, sought for it on the earth. But each of the animals 
 just named is now the representative of a distinct order, and 
 the term carnivora is restricted to those which live principally 
 upon the flesh of other vertebrate animals, and in popular lan- 
 guage are termed beasts of prey. 
 
 Taking the family of the Tiger as that in which the charac- 
 teristics of the order are most fully developed, we find strong 
 retractile claws, and teeth eminently fitted for cutting and 
 tearing flesh. In that of the Bear, the light elastic step has 
 given place to a heavy gait,* and the teeth are adapted for a 
 
 * They walk upon the sole of the foot; and the term Plantigrade, Lat. 
 planta, a sole ; gradus, a step, has therefore been applied to all which progress
 
 MAMMALIA. 417 
 
 diet consisting partly of flesh and partly of vegetables. In the 
 seals, which are aquatic carnivora, the body is fish-shaped, and 
 the extremities are modified in form, and present the appearance 
 of paddles, fitted to propel the animals with velocity through the 
 water, in pursuit of their finny prey. 
 
 The order presents, therefore, great diversity of form among 
 its members, and includes a considerable number of species. 
 They amount, according to Berghaiis and Johnston, to 239, 
 which are widely distributed, but are in general most abundant 
 in tropical countries. They have been arranged in five families. 
 
 I. Phocidce.TliQ first is that of the Seals (Fig. 326). 
 
 Fig. 326. SEAL. 
 
 Like the cetacea, they are warm-blooded mammalia, living in 
 the sea ; but they are at once distinguished from them by the 
 absence of the broad, flat, horizontal tail, the presence of the 
 four fin-shaped feet, and other peculiarities. Their great haunt 
 is the sea of the arctic regions, and the fishery, for so it is 
 termed, is one of great value, both for the oil and the skins. 
 The number of Seals annually taken has been estimated at the 
 extraordinary number of one million.* 
 
 Four species are known on the coasts of these countries.f 
 The most common (Phoca vitulina) appears to be of a docile 
 and gentle disposition ; its most usual length is from four to 
 five feet. Other species are said to attain a length of fourteen 
 or fifteen feet. 
 
 in that manner. The cat and others -walk on the extremities of the toes, and 
 are hence grouped under the term Digitigrade, Lat digitus, a finger ; gradus, 
 a step. 
 
 * Berghaus and Johnston's Physical Atlas. 
 
 f For details respecting their appearance and habits, vide Professor 
 Bell's British Quadrupeds : R. Ball on the Phocidae of the Irish Seas. 
 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1838. We would add Maxwell's 
 Wild Sports of the West. Those who have read Sir Walter Scott's 
 Antiquary do not require to be reminded of the encounter of Hector 
 M'Intyre and the " Phoca."
 
 418 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 II. Ursidce. The Bears are remarkable for their great 
 strength, their ponderous body, and their peculiar gait. The 
 food of the American Black Bear is principally vegetable ;* 
 that of the Polar Bear is flesh, mostly that of the Seals. The 
 Brown Bear (Fig. 327) is found in the mountainous parts of 
 
 Fig. 327. BROWS BEAK. 
 
 the Continent of Europe, and was formerly a native of Britain. 
 The remains of two other species have been discovered in Eng- 
 land, as well as in other parts of Europe, in a fossil state ; one 
 of them, the Great Cave Bear, must have been of gigantic size. 
 The Badger (Mdes taxus) is, in these countries, the only 
 surviving representative of the present family. Fossil remains 
 of the Badger have been found in the same localities as those of 
 the Great Cave Bear above mentioned ; and the species appears 
 to be identical with that existing. There are even grounds for 
 attributing it to a still higher antiquity, and for believing it to 
 
 The fondness of this animal for honey is so well known, that 
 Washington Irving, in his Tour on the Prairies, introduces one of the 
 rangers as expressing himself in the following graphic, though not very 
 elegant phraseology : " The bear is the knowingest varment for finding out 
 a bee-tree in the world. They'll gnaw for days together at the trunk, 'till 
 they make a hole big enough to get in their paws, and theii they'll haul out 
 honey, bees and all."
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 419 
 
 be, to use the words of Professor Owen,* " the oldest species 
 of mammalia now living on the face of the earth." 
 
 III. Mustelidce. The Otter, the Weasel (Fig. 328), and 
 
 Fig. 3-28 WEASEL. 
 
 the Ferret, are so well known that they may be enumerated 
 as giving, by the slenderness and flexibility of their bodies, an 
 idea of the characteristic structure of the group. The Otter, 
 which lives principally upon fish, has been taught to aid the 
 fisherman in his vocation. The Stoat (M. erminea), like the 
 Alpine Hare or the Ptarmigan, changes the colour of its 
 covering in winter to a snowy white. The fur is then in 
 that condition in which it is most valuable, the pure white of 
 the skin contrasting with the deep black colour of the tail. Its 
 unsullied aspect has even become proverbial ; in so much that 
 the "ermined robe of justice" is regarded as symbolical of the 
 mental purity of its wearer. The Ermine has been observed 
 among the Swiss mountains at an elevation of 9,600 feet ; its 
 habitation is above the lower limit of perpetual snow, and in 
 the region of the Alpine shrubs, t 
 
 IV. CanidtP. The various races of the domestic Dog, in all 
 climates the friend and companion of man, belong to this 
 
 Fig. 329. WOLJT. 
 
 British Fossil Mammalia, p. 111. f Berghaiis and Johnston. 
 
 2E
 
 420 
 
 rNTBODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY.. 
 
 family, and also the Fox and the Wolf. The Fox would 
 probably have ceased to exist in these countries, but for the 
 protection afforded to him by the sportsman. The Wolf 
 (Fig. 329), less cunning and more fierce, has long since been 
 exterminated. Professor Bell inclines to the opinion, "that 
 the Wolf is the original source from which all our domestic 
 dogs have sprung."* 
 
 V. FelidcB. The Cat tribe includes the Lion, the Tiger, the 
 Panther, the Leopard (Fig. 325), the Puma, and those other 
 quadrupeds remarkable for their destructive powers. They 
 serve to keep within bounds the excessive multiplication of the 
 smaller mammalia, and are widely distributed. The Wild Cat 
 is now the only representative of the group in these countries. 
 There was a period, however, when a Tiger larger than 
 that of Bengal, and with proportionally larger paws, roamed 
 over Europe. Its remains have been found in England, and 
 Professor Owen speaks of it as the "Great Cave Tiger." 
 To the very Rev. Dr. Buckland, Dean of Westminster, we 
 owe a detailed account of a discovery even more interesting : 
 that of a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, which had been in- 
 habited by Hyaenas.t These animals are now met with only 
 
 in Asia and Africa ; the 
 species represented in the 
 figure (Fig. 330), is found 
 at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 They live principally upon 
 carrion, thus presenting the 
 same analogy to the Tiger 
 that the Vulture does to 
 the Eagle. They also de- 
 vour the remains left by 
 other beasts of prey, and 
 crunch the bones, which 
 they are enabled to do by the great strength of their jaws. 
 The teeth of Hyaenas found in the cave at Kirkdale, give 
 evidence, Dr. Buckland states, of the existencd of two or 
 three hundred individuals. They belong to an extinct species 
 first made known by Cuvier, and exceeding in size the 
 largest species of Tiger. The whole extent of the floor of the 
 Kirkdale cavern was strewed with bones of different animals, 
 
 Fig. 330. SPOTTED HY.SNA. 
 
 * British Quadrupeds, p. 200. 
 
 | Reliquiae Diluvians.
 
 MAMMALIA. 421 
 
 broken and splintered, and bearing evidence of the action of 
 jaws which, even in the more diminutive species at present 
 existing, are known to be sufficiently powerful to bite off the 
 leg of a dog at a single snap. From the facts which his 
 researches elicited, Dr. Buckland infers, that the cave must 
 have been for a long series of years the residence of Hyaenas, 
 and that they dragged into its recesses the other animal 
 bodies, the remains of which are found mixed indiscrimi- 
 nately with their own. 
 
 It is a strange tale that within the caves of Yorkshire, and 
 other English localities, those powerful beasts had dwelt, and 
 at night had roamed abroad and sought their prey; and no 
 less strange are the facts brought to light by the examination 
 of the remains of those animals on which they fed. They 
 consisted of the Great Cave Bear and Tiger, the Mammoth, 
 Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, the "Irish Elk,"wild oxen of colos- 
 sal size, and other mammalia belonging to an extinct Fauna.* 
 
 We speak of the brevity of life, but our language applies to 
 the life of an individual. Let us expand our thoughts, and 
 reflect on the brevity of life assigned, not to an individual, 
 but to a species. Here several quadrupeds are named, all 
 large and powerful, yet not one of them has left a descendant 
 among living tribes.f They lived their appointed time, per- 
 formed their allotted work, then passed away, and have been 
 succeeded by other species whose structure is no less perfect, 
 and who fulfil no less efficiently what is given them to do. 
 
 The question naturally arises, how the various members of 
 the ancient Fauna came into one small island? The answer 
 given by those who have most attentively studied the evidence 
 bearing upon the subject is, that these countries were not at 
 that time separated from the continent of Europe. The 
 geological structure, the fossil remains, and the existing Flora, 
 all testify the same fact, and render the conclusion irresistible. J 
 
 * Of what geologists call "the newest tertiary and drift periods." 
 t Mr. Lyell was the first to make known the remarkable fact, that 
 the " longevity of the species in the mammalia is, upon the whole, in- 
 ferior to that of the testacea." Principles of Geology, vol. iv. 
 
 J On this subject we would refer to the original and valuable Essay 
 of Professor Edward Forbes, in the first volume of the Memoirs of the 
 Geological Survey of Great Britain ; to the Introduction to Professor 
 Owen's Fossil Mammalia ; and to an able review of the state of our know- 
 ledge upon the subject, in the anniversary address of the President of 
 the Geological Society, Leonard Homer, Esq. F.R.S.,19th Feb. 1847.
 
 422 
 
 ORDER INSECTIVOEA. INSECT-EATING ANIMALS. 
 
 Fig. 331. SHBEW.* 
 
 " Pray you tread softly that the Blind Mole may not 
 Hear a foot fall." SHAKSPEAKE. 
 
 THE teeth of the Insectivora, raised into pointed and conical 
 summits, furnish another example of the adaptation of the 
 teeth to the nature of the food 
 on which they are designed to act. 
 This order is represented among 
 British animals by the Shrew, the 
 Hedgehog, and the Mole. 
 
 Soricidce. The general appearance 
 of the Shrew (Fig. 331), is well in- 
 dicated by its popular name of 
 " Shrew Mouse." It frequents the 
 field and the garden, rooting with its long and tapering snout 
 for insects and worms. The Water Shrew is not found in Ireland. 
 Erinaceadce. The common Hedgehog (Erinaceus Euro- 
 pceus, Fig. 332) is, as its scientific name imports, widely distri- 
 buted over Europe. 
 It is unable to defend 
 itself by force, or tc 
 seek safety in flight ; 
 yet by its peculiar 
 covering it is " en- 
 dowed with a safe- 
 guard more secure 
 and effectual than 
 the teeth and claws 
 of the Wild Cat, or 
 
 the fleetness of the Hare. " Idle stories of its robbing orchards, 
 and carrying off the apples upon its spines, are yet current in 
 Ireland. At the time we last heard the tale, the innocent object 
 of the slander was in the house, crunching, with much apparent 
 relish, the Common Bandel Snail (Helix nemoralis), in its 
 shell a group of merry children having collected from about 
 the hedgerows a large plateful of the Snails as a supper for 
 their prickly favourite. 
 
 Talpidce. The Mole (Talpa vulgaris, Fig. 333) is not 
 
 * The species represented is the Musaraiyne of the French authors, and, ac- 
 cording to Professor Bell, identical with the common Shrew of England (Sorex 
 Aramus). The common Shrew of Ireland is the Sorex rusticus of Jenyns.
 
 MAMMALIA. 423 
 
 found in any part of Ireland. It has no external ears, and 
 the eyes are so extremely minute that in popular language 
 it is always spoken of as " blind."* The broad forefeet with 
 the palms turned outwards, and so admirably adapted for dig- 
 ging., are the most striking characteristic. The food consists 
 of insects and worms, though vegetable matters are occasion- 
 ally found in the stomach, because Moles gnaw the roots of 
 plants for the purpose of extracting larvae and worms. They 
 do not become dormant during the winter, so that the necessity 
 of exertion to obtain the needful supply of food is continual 
 
 Fig. 333. MOLE. 
 
 To the superficial observer, the Mole " blind, awkward, 
 and shapeless," condemned to a life of toil in subterranean 
 darkness is an object of pity. To the naturalist it affords 
 another proof " of the wisdom and beneficence of the Creator, 
 which can render a life so apparently incompatible with 
 comfort, in reality one of almost incessant enjoyment." 
 
 "Its feeding and its habitation, its wanderings and its re- 
 pose, its winter retreat, and the nest in which its young are 
 brought forth and nourished, are all so many calls for the 
 most laborious and enduring toil ; but on the other hand, that 
 toil is so amply provided for in the whole structure of the ani- 
 mal, so exactly balanced by the strength and conformation of 
 its limbs, that it cannot be considered as exceeding the health- 
 ful, aud even pleasurable, exercise of its natural powers." 
 
 The words we have just quoted are those of Professor 
 Bell. We use them because we would wish to introduce to 
 the reader the complete and interesting exposition of the 
 habits and economy of the Mole, given by that eminent 
 zoologist, in his History of British Quadrupeds: from that 
 work, by the k'.nd permission of its author, our representa- 
 tion of the animal has been copied. 
 
 * There is another species, T. cceca, in which the eyelids are closed ; 
 both are inhabitants ot Europe.
 
 424 
 OBDER CHEIROPTERA. BATS. 
 
 "The bat that with hook'd and leathery wings 
 Clung to the cave root" SOUTHEY'S "THALABA," book ix. st. 30. 
 
 WHEN we see the Common Bat (Vespertilio pipistrellus) flit- 
 ting about after its insect prey in the dusk of the summer 
 evening, we at once recognise it as an insectivorous animal, 
 adapted for capturing its food in the air instead of on the 
 earth. We then are naturally led to inquire by what means 
 
 Fig. 334. SKELETON or BAT. 
 
 " Fig. 334. SKELETON OF A BAT. cl, clavicle ; A, humerus; cv, ulna; ca, carpus; no, 
 thumb; me, metacarpus; p/i, phalanges; o, scapula; /, femur; ti, tibia. The several 
 bones are indicated by the same letters as in the skeleton of the Camel, Fig. 289
 
 MAMMALIA. 425 
 
 is this effected what is the mechanism by which the power 
 of flight is given to the Bat? It is furnished with wings. 
 Do they resemble those of the bird? They are altogether 
 unlike, differing not only in the absence of feathers, but in 
 their entire structure. In birds the feathers are principally 
 attached to bones which correspond with those of our arm. 
 But to compare the bones of the Bat's wing with those of the 
 human frame, let us suppose the skeleton of a man with the 
 fore-arm gently prolonged, and the fingers about a yard and 
 a-half in length. The bones would then form a framework 
 analogous to that of an umbrella, and capable like it of being 
 shut up or expanded. Let us suppose this bony framework 
 covered with some light and pliant material, which is con- 
 tinued between the legs and down to the ankles, and we 
 would then have a figure resembling in the organs of flight 
 that which is in reality possessed by the Bat, and which is 
 represented in the accompanying figure (Fig. 334). The 
 bones of the fingers constitute the framework of the wing, 
 and hence the term Cheiroptera,* or " hand-winged," is that 
 by which the order is designated. The thumb does not 
 partake of this extraordinary development; it remains free, 
 and is furnished with a hooked nail. 
 
 If a Bat be placed on the smooth surface of a table, its 
 awkward attempts at walking (Fig. 335), give an idea of 
 helplessness akin to that which was suggested to naturalists 
 when the Sloth was seen upon the ground. Yet compassion 
 in both cases would be alike misplaced. Each animal is gifted 
 with powers of locomotion adapted to its wants. The Bat can 
 climb with ease the rugged and perpendicular surface of a 
 tree, or can wheel its flight in the air, though burthened with 
 one or two young adhering to its teats. 
 
 The use of the wings 
 does not seem to be 
 limited to that of flight. 
 They appear to be endued 
 with a most delicate sense 
 of touch, a sense so ex- 
 quisitely fine as to be af- 
 fected by the slightest dif- 
 ference in the vibrations 
 of the air. By the cruel s- SSS.-BAT 
 
 * From the Greek words meaning "a hand" and "a wing."
 
 426 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 experiments of Spallanzani, it was proved that Bats deprived 
 of sight could fly without striking against walls or other 
 objects, and were even able to avoid coming into contact with 
 threads placed across the apartments in various directions. 
 Many tribes of Bats have curious leaf-like appendages upon 
 the nose (Fig. 336), and these are supposed to be organs of 
 
 a sense of smell not less sus- 
 ceptible. The presence or 
 absence of this leaf-like organ, 
 and its various modifications, 
 supply naturalists with a good 
 external character for distribu- 
 ting these animals into different 
 groups. In the true Bats which 
 are common in these countries 
 these foliated appendages are 
 altogether wanting. 
 
 Only three species of Bats 
 have as yet been recorded as 
 natives of Ireland;* while 
 eighteen are known in the 
 sister country. In tropical countries the number is much 
 more considerable, some species living upon insects, and 
 some on fruits. There are in all 219 species. 
 
 The teeth of the Vampire Bat are exhibited in the annexed 
 figure (Fig 337); and with such weapons it is easy to imagine 
 
 Fig. 336 HEAD OF VAMPIRE. 
 
 Fig. 337. SKCLL AND TEETH OF THE VAMPIBK BAT.f 
 
 how they can inflict a wound and suck the blood. But their 
 powers seem to have been much exaggerated. Mr. Darwin says, 
 in speaking of the Vampire Bat of South America, which bites 
 the horses on their withers " The injury is generally not so 
 
 * Thompson's Eeport. A fourth is said to have been since obtained, 
 t Fig. 337 a, profile of the head ; b, front view of incisor and canine teeth.
 
 MAMMALIA. 427 
 
 much owing to the loss of blood as to the inflammation 
 which the pressure of the saddle afterwards produces."* 
 
 Some Bats are of considerable dimensions. There is one 
 species in the island of Java (Pteropus Javanicus), the ex- 
 panse of whose wings is so much as five feet. It is probable 
 that some of the large Indian Bats, with their predatory 
 habits and obscure retreats, may have suggested to Virgil 
 the idea of the Harpies, " which fell upon tie hastily-spread 
 tables of his hero and his companions, and polluted, whilst 
 they devoured, the feast from which they had driven the 
 affrighted guests, "f 
 
 ORDER QUADKUMANA MONKEYS. 
 
 " Meddling Monkey busy Ape." SHAKSPEAEE. 
 
 THOSE who have visited a zoological garden, or a well-stocked 
 menagerie, cannot fail to have been amused at the freaks and 
 gambols of the monkeys ; and after watching for a time their 
 agile movements and grotesque attitudes, must have been 
 struck with the peculiar formation of the extremities, both of 
 the feet and of the paws. The feet are not shaped like ours, 
 but resemble hands, being furnished with fingers and with 
 thumbs. In fact, they do not perform the functions of feet 
 only, but of hands also. Hence that order to which the 
 Monkeys belong is termed quadrumana, or four-handed. 
 
 We are not, however, to suppose that every individual 
 belonging to this group possesses both on hands and feet a 
 thumb which can be applied or opposed to each of the fingers. 
 The American Monkeys, for example, are by this single cir- 
 cumstance distinguished at once from those of the Old World. 
 They have the full power of using the thumbs which are on 
 the feet, but not those which are on the anterior extremities. 
 By such differences, and by those in the dentition, the pre- 
 sence or absence of cheek pouches, and other peculiarities, 
 the order is subdivided into families, genera, and species. 
 
 We shall briefly notice the Lemurs of Madagascar, the 
 Monkeys of America, and those of the Old World. 
 
 * Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. iii. p. 25. 
 t Bell's Quadrupeds, p. 9.
 
 428 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 " The Lemurs," says Mr. Bennett, " are all natives of 
 Madagascar, and one or two smaller islands in its neighbour- 
 hood. We know but little of their habits in a state of nature ; 
 but they are said to live in large bands upon the trees, feeding 
 principally upon fruits ; and their conformation renders this 
 account extremely probable. They are almost equally agile 
 with the Monkeys, but are much more gentle and peaceable 
 in their dispositions."* It will be seen, from the accom- 
 panying figure (Fig. 338), that both extremities are furnished 
 
 Fig. 338. WHITB-KKOMBD LKMCR AND ITS Torso. 
 
 with a thumb, which acts in a direction opposite to that of 
 the fingers. 
 
 * Gardens and Menageries, vol. i. p. 147.
 
 MAMMALIA. 429 
 
 In this respect they contrast with the Marmozet or Oustiti, 
 one of the American Monkeys, whose thumb, as exhibited in 
 the annexed figure (Fig. 339), acts in a line with the other 
 
 Fig. 339. OUSTITI. 
 
 fingers, and whose nails are particularly sharp and crooked. 
 Its principal habitat is Brazil. Other species, known as 
 Howlers, Spider-monkeys, Weepers, and similar names ex 
 pressive of peculiarities of structure or habit, are scattered 
 throughout the warmer portions of the American continent. 
 In the midst of the trackless forests lying between the Oro- 
 noko and the Amazon, they are particularly numerous, dwell- 
 ing amid the branches of the trees, and adding insects, lizards, 
 the eggs and young of birds, to their usual food of fruits and 
 vegetables. In many of them the tail becomes an instrument 
 of prehension (Fig. 340), by the aid of which they can pass 
 in security from tree to tree, or swing in full activity suspended 
 from the branches. For all animals which have opposable 
 thumbs upon the feet, but not on the anterior extremities, 
 Mr. Ogilby proposes the term Pedimana, or "foot-handed." 
 
 The Monkeys of the OldWorld, like those of the American 
 continent, are limited to the torrid regions, and are therefore 
 natives of Asia and of Africa. To this there is only one 
 exception, a colony of the Barbary Baboon (Papio inuus), 
 occupying a part of the rock of Gibraltar, and appearing to 
 flourish in the elevated solitude of that mighty fortress. 
 
 In Asia there are species which are not only free from 
 molestation, but which have been deified by the Hindoos. 
 " Splendid and costly temples are dedicated to these animals ; 
 hospitals are built for their reception when sick or wounded ; 
 large fortunes are bequeathed for their support; and the laws
 
 430 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 of the land, which compound for the murder of a man by a 
 trifling fine, affix the punishment of death to the slaughter 
 of a Monkey."* The species thus referred to, the Entellus, 
 
 Fig. 310. WHITK-THROATED SAJOC. 
 
 or Hoonuman, though a native of the hot plains of India, 
 is found on the Himalaya Mountains, so far as the wood 
 extends, or to the height of thirteen thousand feet.f 
 
 The Monkeys (Simiadcn} of the Old World are distin- 
 guished, in common phraseology, by the names of Apes, 
 Monkeys, and Baboons: "a division which has the rare ad- 
 vantage, seldom attendant upon mere popular classifications, 
 of being in perfect accordance with scientific principles, 
 founded upon the structure and habits of the animals." 
 
 The Baboons have capacious receptacles, or cheek pouches, 
 in which they stow their food. They have on the hinder 
 extremities hard places, or, as they are termed, callosities, 
 which are not covered with hair ; the tails are short, or re- 
 
 * Library of Entertaining Knowledge. Natural History of Monkeys, 
 Opossums, and Lemurs, vol. i. A most entertaining and valuable 
 work, to which we refer the reader for details which are incompatible 
 with our limited plan. 
 
 f Berghalis and Johnston.
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 431 
 
 duced to tubercles, and destitute of all muscular power. The 
 Baboons go on all-fours, live among rocks and mountains, and 
 in some cases, when they associate in troops, are more than a 
 match for the fiercest beasts of prey. " They are arranged 
 in two genera (Papio and Cynocephalm), respectively confined, 
 with one or two exceptions, to the continents of Asia and 
 Africa." " The lofty mountains of Abyssinia and of South 
 Africa are tenanted by numerous troops of these animals 
 (Cynocephals), which even appear to prefer the more rigorous 
 climate of these elevated regions to the hot and sultry forests 
 of the lower plains." 
 
 The Monkeys also have cheek pouches and callosities, but 
 their tails are long and muscular, and they are pre-eminently 
 a sylvan race. They walk on all-fours, and their long tails 
 become powerful and efficient instruments in guiding their 
 movements, and in maintaining, like the pole of the rope- 
 dancer, their equilibrium during their rapid and varied evo- 
 lutions. The face presents indifferent species a great diversity 
 of colour, being white or black, blue or red, flesh or copper- 
 coloured ; and, added to their grimaces and imitative pro- 
 pensities, gives to them in our 
 eyes the fantastic appearance 
 that has become proverbial. 
 
 The Apes have neither tails 
 nor cheek pouches; and the 
 callosities mentioned exist only 
 in a rudimentary form, or are 
 altogether wanting. Their pace 
 is semi-erect, and in their 
 native woods they walk on two 
 legs even along the branches, 
 their long arms compensating 
 for the want of a tail in steadying 
 and directing their motions. 
 With the exception of the 
 Chimpanzee of Western Africa 
 (Fig. 341), they are limited to 
 the great islands of the Indian 
 Archipelago. The various anec- 
 dotes which are related of the 
 Chimpanzee and the Orang 
 Outan evince on the part of Fig. MI. -CHIMPANZEE.
 
 432 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 these animals a superior degree of intelligence and docility. 
 In them the philosopher will find the nearest approach to 
 man, both in mental characteristics and bodily configuration, 
 which the lower animals are permitted to attain; yet vast 
 and impassable is the barrier of separation. 
 
 The Monkeys, so far as they are known at the present time, 
 contain in all 170 species, forming the one-ninth of all 
 mammalia. Their fossil remains have been found in France, 
 in India, and in South America. They have also occurred 
 in England; so that there is no doubt that when the climate 
 was suitable for the Crocodiles and Turtles, whose remains 
 occur in the London clay, and for the growth of the cocoa- 
 .nuts and spices found in the Isle of Sheppy, it was suffi- 
 ciently warm for these four-handed mammalia* to enjoy 
 their arboreal life among the branches. 
 
 To the classical scholar the present order is deserving of 
 notice, as having given origin to the ancient fiction of satyrs, 
 pygmies, and other supposed tribes of human monsters. 
 
 OEDEB BIMANA. MAN. 
 
 " Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, 
 Godlike erect, with native honour clad, 
 In naked majesty seem'd lords of all ; 
 And worthy seem'd; for in their looks divine 
 The image of their glorious Maker shone." 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 MILTON, in these lines, has described with the truthfulness of 
 real poetry one of the most striking external characteristics 
 of man his erect gait. The zoologist points to the human 
 hand as presenting another mark of distinction. In man only 
 can the thumb be applied with such precision and power to 
 each of the fingers as to seize the most minute objects. So 
 much superior is it to the anterior extremity in Monkeys, 
 that Sir Charles Bell remarks, "We ought to define the 
 hand as belonging exclusively to Man."f Of all animals, the 
 term Bimana, or two handed, is applicable to Man alone. He 
 
 * Owen's Fossil Mammalia, p. 1. 
 t Bridgewater Treatise, p. 18.
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 433 
 
 Fig. 342. NEUVOL'S SYSTEM OF MAS,
 
 434 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 
 
 stands in the scale of the animal creation apart and unap- 
 proachable, gifted with dominion over " the beasts of the field, 
 the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever 
 passeth through the paths of the sea." 
 
 It forms no part of our design to enter into the natural his- 
 tory of Man. We would only point to the place he occupies, 
 to the external characteristics by which he is distinguished, 
 and to the hidden wonders in his bodily frame which the skill 
 of the anatomist has revealed, in the structure of the lungs 
 (Fig. 288), the circulation of the blood (Fig. 287), and the 
 arrangement of the nervous system ( Fig. 342). We leave it 
 to the philosopher to speak of the triumph of mind in con- 
 ferring on inanimate objects powers surpassing those of the 
 fabled genii of the East ; conveying the interchange of ideas 
 with a speed outstripping that of the winds ; and unveiling to 
 the eye in the starry heavens glories to which the highest ima- 
 ginings of the poet had never soared. We presume not to 
 enter on the still nobler province of the moralist or the divine. 
 But we would remark that, in proportion to the high privi- 
 leges with which Man has been endowed, is the responsibility 
 to employ aright the talents committed to his trust. And 
 among the fitting and proper uses of his powers, the endeavour 
 to know something of the works of creation by which he is 
 surrounded should hold a foremost place. 
 
 The study of the living tribes by which the earth and the 
 waters are peopled, forms one department of that course of 
 mental culture, to which every man, in every condition of life, 
 should be subjected. Such study trains our perceptive facul- 
 ties to action ; leads us to compare, to discriminate, to gene- 
 ralize, and to make the acquisition of one truth, the means of 
 ascending to another still more comprehensive. It supplies 
 pleasant and profitable companions amid the solitude of the 
 shore, the dell, or the mountain ; brings us a rich heritage of 
 cheerful thoughts and healthful occupations ; and, above all, it 
 teaches us to see the beneficence of the GREAT FIRST CAUSE 
 even in the humblest of the creatures which HE hath made.
 
 GLOSSARY, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 THE NAMES OF THE SUB-KINGDOMS, 
 GLASSES, AND ORDERS, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 SCIENTIFIC TERMS OCCURRING IN THIS WORK.* 
 
 ACALE'PH^E, an order of rayed animals, well known by the name 
 
 of Sea-nettles. They are remarkable for their gelatinous 
 
 structure and their stinging powers. From the Greek 
 
 dkalephe, a nettle. 
 ACANTHOPTERY'GII, an order of fishes, in which the dorsal fins 
 
 are supported in part by spinous rays. Gr. acanthos, a spine, 
 
 ptrryx a wing or fin. 
 ACE'PHALA, a group of molluscous animals which, like the 
 
 Oyster and Scallop, are destitute of a head. Gr. a, without; 
 ..kephale, the head. 
 AERATED, a term applied to water or other liquids when im- 
 
 ..pregnated with air. 
 AEKIAL RESPIRATION, breathing which belongs to the air, and 
 
 is carried on by lungs, as distinguished from that which has 
 
 reference to water, and is effected by gills. 
 AFFI'NITIES, a term used to denote the close relationship in 
 
 points of structure existing between different animals or 
 
 groups of animals. Lat. affinis, allied to. 
 AGGLI/TINATED, having the one part united to another as if glued 
 
 together. Lat. ad, to, gluten, glue. French, atjglutiner. 
 AGGREGATED, collected together. Lat. aggregare, to gather to- 
 gether. 
 ALBU'MEN, a thick glairy substance like the white of an egg. 
 
 Lat. albus, white. 
 
 * Some words, which strictly speaking are not scientific terms, have, by the 
 advice of some experienced teachers, been introduced in the Glossary. And for 
 the same reason the Greek words, whence the terms are in many cases derived, 
 are given, not in the Greek characters, but in the ordinary Italic letters, the 
 Greek upsilon being throughout represented by the letter y. 
 
 2F
 
 436 GLOSSARY. 
 
 ALIMENTARY CANAL, that part of the intestine through which 
 the food passes, yielding its nutritive portions to the action 
 of certain vessels termed "absorbents." Lat. alimcntum, 
 nourishment. 
 
 AMBULA'CRA, a term applied to the rows of apertures in the 
 Star-fishes and Sea Urchins, from a fancied resemblance 
 to the straight alleys or avenues to old mansions. Lat. am- 
 bulacrum, an alley, a walk. 
 
 AMMONI'TES, a group of chambered shells, belonging to the 
 Cuttle-fish tribe, and now extinct. They bear some resem- 
 blance to coiled snakes wanting the head, and take their 
 name from a similarity in then* form to that of the horns on 
 the statues of Jupiter Ammon. 
 
 AMPHI'BIA, an order of Reptiles, which, by the possession of both 
 lungs and gills at the sams time, or at different periods, are 
 fitted to live either on land or in water. Gr. amphibios^ 
 having a double manner of life. 
 
 ANALOGOUS, a term used in Zoology to denote a resemblance 
 between two objects, or groups of objects, as distinguished 
 from the real structural relationship denoted by affinity. 
 
 ANALOGUE, a term employed to denote the resemblance that 
 exists between animals in a fossil state and species still 
 living. The recent shell is said to be the analogue of the 
 fossil. 
 
 ANALYSIS, the separation of a compound body into the several 
 parts of which it consists. From a similar Greek word, 
 signifying "unloosing." 
 
 ANATOMIST, one who cuts up or dissects portions of the animal 
 frame, for the purpose of either acquiring, or communicating 
 to others, a knowledge of their structure. 
 
 ANIMAL'CULES, those extremely small animals which are in- 
 visible to the naked eye. See INFUSORIA. 
 
 ANNELLA'TA, a class of articulated animals in which the body, 
 like that of the Earth-worm, is composed of a number of 
 rings. Lat. anmdus, a ring. 
 
 AN'NELIDS, the members of the above class. The name has 
 the same origin. 
 
 ANNULOSE ANIMALS, those with the body formed of successive 
 rings. Lat. annulus, a ring. 
 
 ANOMOI/RA, a section of crustaceous animals, distinguished, like 
 the Hermit Crabs, by the irregular form of the tails. Gr. 
 anomos, irregular, and oura, a tail. 
 
 ANTERIOR, Lat. that which goes before. 
 
 ANTEN'NJE, the horns or feelers attached to the heads of insects 
 and Crustacea. 
 
 A'PODA, without feet applied to fishes which, like Eels, have 
 no ventral fins. Gr. a, without, pous, podos, a foot. 
 
 APPARATUS, the means or instruments for effecting a certain 
 end. Lat. apparo, I prepare. 
 
 AP'TERA, an order of insects including all those which, like the 
 Flea, are destitute of wings. Gr. a, without, pteron, a wing.
 
 GLOSSARY. 437 
 
 AQUATIC, belonging to or inhabiting the water. Lat. aqua, 
 water. 
 
 ARACH'NIDA, a class of articulated animals, including Spiders, 
 Scorpions, and Mites. Gr. arachne, a spider, eidos, form. 
 
 ARBOREAL, belonging to or connected with trees. Lat. arbor, 
 & tree. 
 
 ARBORESCENT, growing like a tree. Lat. arborescens, same 
 meaning. 
 
 ARTICULA'TA, one of the great groups into which the animal 
 kingdom is divided. It includes all those orders which are 
 distinguished by their jointed or articulated structure, such 
 as Worms, Crabs, Insects, and Spiders. Lat. articulus, a 
 joint. 
 
 ASCIDIOI'DA, an order of Zoophytes, so named from their resem- 
 blance in some points of structure to the " ascidia," a genus 
 of molluscous animals with a horny covering or tunic. 
 
 ASSIMILATED, converted into the same nature as another thing. 
 Lat. assimilare, to become like. 
 
 ASTEROI'DA, an order of Zoophytes. The polypes, when ex- 
 panded, exhibit a star-like figure. Gr. aster, a star, and 
 eidos, form. 
 
 A'TROPHY, wasting from starvation. 
 
 AURICLES, two of the muscular cavities of the heart of man 
 and other mammalia. Thetr form bears some resemblance 
 to an ear; hence the name, from the Latin auris, an ear. 
 
 AVES, birds; they constitute one of the classes of the vertebrate 
 animals. 
 
 BALEEN, the substance commonly known as "whalebone." 
 Lat. balcena, a whale. 
 
 BARNACLE, a common name for one tribe of the articulated 
 animals, termed cirripeda, which are found adhering to 
 floating timber and the bottoms of ships. The common 
 name is derived from the Saxon, beam a child, and aac, an 
 oak, " child of the oak," thus expressing the belief as to their 
 origin. 
 
 " BASIN " of Paris, " Basin " of London. " Deposits lying in a 
 hollow or trough, formed of older rocks, and sometimes used 
 in geology almost synonymously with 'formations,' to 
 express the deposits lying in a certain cavity or depression 
 in older rocks. LYELL. 
 
 BATRACHIA, an order of reptiles, including the Toad and Frog. 
 Gr. batrdchos, a frog. 
 
 BILIARY DUCT, in anatomy, a canal or vessel through which 
 the bile flows. 
 
 BI'MANA, the order of mammalia of which man is the sole 
 representative. Lat. bis, twice, and mantis, the hand, mean- 
 ing two-Jianded. 
 
 BIVALVE SHELLS are those, like the Oyster and Cockle, which 
 are formed of two parts. Lat. bis, twice, valvce, doors. 
 
 BRACHIO'PODA, "arm-footed," a class of bivalve molluscous 
 animals, with long ciliated arms. Gr. brachion, an arm, and 
 pous, a foot.
 
 438 GLOSSARY. 
 
 BRACHYU'RA, a group cf crustaceous animals, distinguished like 
 the Crab by the shortness of the tail. Gr. brachys, short, 
 and aura, a tail. 
 
 BRAN'CHLE, the gills or respiratory organs of fishes and other 
 aquatic animals. 
 
 BRANCHIAL, of or belonging to the gills. 
 
 BRANCHIAL SAC, a chamber in the tunicated mollusks; so 
 termed because the blood is there exposed to the action of 
 the air contained in the sea- water, which circulates over the 
 interior surface of the cavity. Lat. branchia, a gill. 
 
 BRONCHIAL TUBES, the small branches of the wind-pipe. Gr. 
 brogchos (pronounced bronchos), the wind-pipe. 
 
 BYSSUS, the silken fibres or " beard " seen in the Mussel and 
 other bivalve shells. Gr. byssos, fine flax. 
 
 CADUCIBRAN'CHIATE, a term applied to that group of reptiles 
 in which (like the Frog) the gills are not permanent. Lat. 
 caducus, perishable, branchice, the gills. 
 
 CALCAREOUS, composed in a greater or less degree of lime. 
 
 CALLOW, unfledged; a term applied to the young birds while 
 without feathers. Lat. calvus, bare or bald. 
 
 CALORIC, heat. Lat. color. 
 
 CANINE TEETH, the two sharp-edged teeth which are largely 
 developed in the dog and other carnivorous animals. Lat. 
 cams, a dog. 
 
 CARAPACE, the vaulted shield or shell that protects the upper sur- 
 face of the body of the Tortoises, or chelonian reptiles. This 
 term is also applied to the upper covering of the Crustacea. 
 
 CARBONATE OF LIME, the chemical union of carbonic acid and 
 lime, as exhibited in limestone or chalk. 
 
 CARBONATED, combined with carbon. 
 
 CARMINE, a colouring substance of a brilliant red. 
 
 CARNI'VORA CARNIVOROUS, terms applied to those animals 
 which, like the Tiger, have teeth peculiarly adapted for the 
 mastication of flesh. Lat. caro, carnis, flesh, voro, I devour. 
 
 CARTILAGINOUS, consisting of cartilage or gristle ; applied to 
 fishes that have the skeleton of cartilage, not of bone. 
 
 CAUDAL, belonging to the tail. Lat. cavuia, a tail. 
 
 CELLULAR, composed of very minute cells. Lat. cellula, a 
 little cell. 
 
 CEMENT, a substance employed in uniting bodies together. 
 Lat. ccementum. 
 
 CEPHALO'PODA, an order of molluscous animals which have 
 their organs of locomotion arranged round the head, as in 
 the Cuttle-fish. Gr. kephale, a head, and pous, a foot. 
 
 CERVICAL, belonging to the neck. Lat. cervix, the neck. 
 
 CETACEA, one of the orders of the mammalia; it includes the 
 Whales, Dolphins, and allied animals. Gr. kutos, a whale. 
 
 CHEIROP'TERA, the name of the order of mammalia comprising 
 the various species of Bats. The term is suggested by the 
 peculiar structure of the wings, which consist of a membrane 
 extended over bones corresponding to those of the fingers. 
 Gr. cheir, a hand, pleron, a wing.
 
 GLOSSARY. 439 
 
 CHEMICAL, anything relating to Chemistry that science which 
 
 determines' the constituents of bodies, and the laws which 
 
 regulate their combinations. 
 CHRY'SALIS, the second or pupa state of an insect. Some species 
 
 exhibit at this time brilliant metallic tints; hence the origin 
 
 of the term, from Gr. chrysos, gold. Chrysalids is used as 
 
 an English noun in the plural number, to denote more than 
 
 one chrysalis. 
 CILIA, minute hair-like organs, which in the infusoria and 
 
 polyps become important organs for locomotion, and for the 
 
 capture of food by means of the currents caused by their 
 
 vibration. Lat. cilia, eye-lashes. 
 CILIOBRACHIA'TA. an order of polyps, in which the tentacula or 
 
 arms, surrounding the mouth, are covered with cilia. Lat. 
 
 cilium, an eye-lash, brachia, the arms. 
 CILIOGRADE, a group of rayed animals, like the Beroe, in which 
 
 the cilia become the organs of locomotion. Lat. cilium, an 
 
 eye-lash, gradior, 1 advance. 
 CIRRI, the filaments attached to the jaws of certain fishes. 
 
 Lat. cirrus, a tendril or curl. 
 CIRRI'PEDA, an order of articulated animals, comprising the 
 
 Barnacles and Acorn-shells. Lat. cirrus, a curl, and pes, a 
 
 foot. 
 COCOON, the case or covering formed by an insect prior to its 
 
 change into the perfect state. 
 COLEOP'TERA, an order of insects. It comprises the various 
 
 tribes of Beetles, many of which have membranous wings 
 
 concealed under the wing-covers or elytra. Hence the origin 
 
 of the term, koleos, a sheath, and pteron, a wing. 
 COMMINUTED, broken or ground down into small parts. Lat. 
 
 comminuere, to crumble into small pieces. 
 COMPLICATED, involved or formed of many parts. 
 CONCHOLOGY, the department of science which treats of shells. 
 
 Gr. kogche (pronounced conche), a shell, and logos, a dis- 
 course. 
 CONCRETE, particles united or coagulated into one body. 
 
 Lat. concrescere, to coalesce into one mass. 
 CONCENTRIC, having one common centre. 
 CONGEALED, hardened or frozen into ice. Lat congelare, to freeze. 
 CONGENER, one of the same genus, but of a different species. 
 CONGLOMERATE, OR PCDDINGSTOXK, a rock composed of water- 
 worn fragments of rocks and shells cemented together. Lat. 
 ccmglomerare, to heap together into a ball. 
 CONTRACTILE, having the power of drawing itself into small 
 
 dimensions. Lat con, together, traho, I draw. 
 CONVOLUTED, Lat. convolutus, rolled together. 
 CORIACEOUS, resembling leather. Lat. coriaceus, leathern. 
 CORNEA, the anterior transparent part of the globe of the eye. 
 COROLLA, the blossom or coloured petals of a flower. Lat 
 
 corolla, a little crown. 
 CORUSCATION, a flash or sudden gleam of light Lat coruscare, 
 
 to flash, to twinkle.
 
 440 GLOSSARY. 
 
 CRANIUM, the skull. Gr. kranion. 
 
 CREPUSCULA'RIA, a term applied to the Hawk-moths and other 
 lepidopterous insects that fly in the twilight. Lat. crepus- 
 culum, twilight. 
 CRINOID, a family of Star-fishes which have a resemblance to 
 
 the form of a lily. Gr. krinon, a lily, and eidos, form. 
 CRUSTACEA, the class of articulated animals which includes the 
 Crah, Lobster, and others possessed of a similar covering. 
 Lat. crusta, & shell or hard covering. 
 
 CTENOID, a term applied to a group of fishes which have the 
 edges of the scales shaped like the teeth of a comb, as in the 
 Perch. Gr. kteis, ktenos, a comb, and eidos, form. 
 CYCLOBRANCHIA'TA, an order of molluscous animals of the class 
 Gasteropoda, distinguished by having the gills placed round 
 the lower edge of the body, as in the limpet. Gr. kyklos, a 
 circle, and branchice, gills. 
 
 CYCLOID, a term applied to a gronp of fishes which have the 
 scales with circular or smooth edges, like those of the Her- 
 ring. Gr. kyklos, a curve, and eidos, form. 
 CYCLOS'TOMI, an order of cartilaginous fishes, which, like the 
 Lampreys, have a circular mouth capable of acting as a 
 sucker. Gr. kyklos, a circle, and sterna, a mouth. 
 CYSTIC ENTOZOON, an internal parasite resembling a delicate 
 
 cyst or bladder. Gr. kystis, a bladder. 
 
 DECAPITATION, the act of beheading. Lat. decap'itare, to behead. 
 DECA'PODA, that division of the Crustacea which includes the 
 Crab, Lobster, Crawfish, and others having ten feet. Gr. 
 deka, ten, and potts, a foot. 
 
 DEGLUTITION, the act of swallowing. Lat. glutio, I swallow. 
 DENTINE, the bony substance forming the principal component 
 
 of the teeth. Lat. dens, a tooth. 
 DIBRANCHIA'TA, a numerous family of Cuttle-fish (cephalopoda) 
 
 comprising all species which are furnished with two gills. 
 DIP'TERA, an order of insects composed of two-winged Flies. 
 
 Gr. dis, two, pteron, a wing. 
 DIUR'NA, a term applied to lepidopterous insects which fly by 
 
 day, as Butterflies. Lat. diurnus, belonging to the day. 
 DORSAL, belonging to the back. Lat. dorsum, the back. 
 DORSIBRANCHIA'TA, a tribe of Annelids which have the gills 
 placed on the back. Lat. dorsum, the back, branchice, gills. 
 ECHINODER'MATA, one of the orders of radiated animals: it 
 includes the Star-fishes and Sea-Urchins. The term is 
 expressive of the appearance of their integument. Gr. 
 echinos, a hedge- hog; and derma, a skin or covering. 
 EDENTA'TA, an order of mammalia, which comprises the Sloth 
 and Ant-eater, animals which are either destitute of teeth, 
 or have no incisors or cutting teeth. Lat. edentatus, without 
 teeth. 
 EFFETE, barren, worn out. Lat. e/oetus, or e/etus, decayed, 
 
 past work. 
 
 ELY'TRA, the sheaths or wing-covers of coleopterous insects 
 (Beetles). Gr. elytron, a sheath.
 
 GLOSSARY. 441 
 
 ENAMEL, in anatomy, the smooth and very hard substance 
 
 which in various forms is seen on the crown of the teeth. 
 ENCEPH'ALA, the group of molluscous animals which (like the 
 Snail) are furnished with a head. The name refers to this 
 
 distinguishing characteristic. 
 ENCRINITE, a name given to the " Stone-lilies," or fossil remains 
 
 of the crinoid Star-fishes. Gr. krinon, a lily. 
 ENTOMOLOGIST, one conversant with Entomology or the 
 
 branch of science treating of insects. Gr. entoma, insects, 
 
 and logos, a discourse. 
 ENTOMOS'TRACA, a term given to the minute freshwater crus- 
 
 tacea and others having a flexible horny shell. Gr. entoma, 
 
 insects, ostrakon, a shell. 
 ENTO'ZOA, an order of radiated animals composed of what are 
 
 called intestinal worms. Gr. entos, within, zoon, an animal. 
 EPIDERMIS, the transparent membrane that forms the covering 
 
 of the skin. Gr. epi, upon, derma, the skin. 
 EPIZOA, external parasites; an order of Crustacea which par- 
 ticularly infest fishes. Gr. epi, upon, and zoon, an animal. 
 ERRAN'TES, a tribe of Annelids; their name denotes their wan- 
 dering habits. 
 ERRATIC, wandering, irregular; not stationary nor fixed. Lat. 
 
 erro, I stray or wander. 
 ESCULENT, eatable; that which may be used as food. Lat 
 
 esculenta, meat. 
 EUPHONIOUS, having a sound that is pleasing to the ear. Gr. 
 
 eu, good or fine, and phone, sound. 
 EXHUMATION, the disinterrnent of that which has been buried. 
 
 Lat. ex, out of, and humus, the ground. 
 EXUDATION, the discharge of moisture from a living body, by 
 
 the pores of the skin. Lat. ex, out, and sudo, I sweat. 
 Exuvi.iE, the cast skins or shells of animals. Lat. exuo, I cast off. 
 FARINA, the pollen, or fine impregnating dust of the anthers of 
 
 flowers. 
 
 FASCI'CULI, Lat. little bundles. 
 FAUNA, the animals that are indigenous to a certain country 
 
 or district. The term is derived from the Fauni, or rural 
 
 deities in Roman mythology. 
 FILAMENT, a thread or fibre; a long thread-like process. Lat. 
 
 filum, a thread. 
 FISSION, that spontaneous division of the body which prevails 
 
 in some of the infusory animalcules. 
 FISSIPAROUS, reproduction by continual division of the body. 
 
 It is observed among some of the Infusoria. Lat. jissus, 
 
 divided, pario, I produce. 
 
 FLORA, the plants belonging to a certain country or district 
 FOLIATED, having leaves. Lat. folium, a leaf. 
 FOSSILS, the remains of animals and plants found in different 
 
 geological formations. Lat. fossilis, anything that may be 
 
 dug out of the earth. 
 
 FROND, a term applied to that part of flowerless plants resem- 
 bling true leaves. Lat. frons, a leaf.
 
 442 GLOSSARY. 
 
 FRUGFYOROUS, feeding on fruits, seeds, &c. Lat. fruges, fruits 
 
 or corn, and voro, I eat. 
 FUR'CULUM, the bone of a fowl known as the " merry-thought." 
 
 Lat. fwcula, a little fork. 
 GANGLION, a knot or centre of nervous matter. An original 
 
 Greek word. 
 
 GANOID, a term applied to a group of fishes, remarkable for 
 the shining appearance of their scales. Gr. ganos, splen- 
 dour, and eidos, form. 
 
 GASTERO'PODA, a class of mollusca, which (like the common 
 Snail) have the lower surface of the body expanded into a 
 muscular disc, that serves as an instrument for progression. 
 Hence the term " belly-footed." Gr. gaster, the belly, and 
 pous, the foot. 
 
 GELATINOUS, resembling jelly. 
 GEMMI'PAROUS, producing buds or gems. Lat. gemma, a bud, 
 
 and pario, I produce. 
 
 GEMMULES, little gems or buds. Lat. gemma, a bud. 
 GENUS plural, genera. Lat. A section consisting of one 
 species, or a group of species of an indeterminate number, 
 agreeing in some common characteristic. 
 GEOMETRIC, in accordance with the rules or principles of 
 
 geometry. 
 GERMS, the apparent commencement or very early stage of 
 
 existence in animal bodies. 
 GLOBULE, a little globe. Lat. globulus. 
 GLOTTIS, an organ situated at the upper portion of the larynx, 
 
 and at the base of the tongue. Gr. glotta, the tongue. 
 GRALLATO'RES, an order of birds known as "waders," and 
 remarkable in general for the length of their legs, which 
 gives them the appearance of being mounted on stilts. Lat 
 grallce, stilts. 
 GRAMINIVOROUS, subsisting on grass. Lat. gramen, grass, and 
 
 voro, I devour. 
 
 GRAPHICAL, well delineated ; described so as to convey to the mind 
 
 a picture of a certain scene or incident. Gr. grapho, I paint. 
 
 GREGARIOUS, having the habit of living together in a flock or 
 
 herd. Lat. grex, gregis, a flock. 
 GYRATION, a turning or whirling round. Lat. gyro, I turn 
 
 round. 
 HABITAT, the locality or situation in which an animal habitually 
 
 lives. 
 
 HELIANTHOI'DA, an order of Zoophytes, in which the animals in 
 their expanded state resemble compound flowers, like the 
 sun-flower and marigold. Gr. heUos, the sun, anthos, a 
 flower, and eidos, form. 
 
 HEMIP'TERA, an order of four-winged insects, comprising the 
 Field-Bugs, the Cicada, and others. The wings are partly 
 membranous, and partly of a tougher material, a pecu- 
 liarity which has suggested the name. Gr. liemi, half, and 
 pteron, a wing.
 
 GLOSSARY. 443 
 
 HERBI'VOROUS, living upon herbs. The Herbivora are those 
 animals that feed on herbaceous plants. Lat. herba, an 
 herb, and voro, I eat. 
 HETEROGENEOUS, of a different kind or nature. Gr. heteros^ 
 
 different, and genos, a kind. 
 HEXAGONAL, having six sides and six angles. Gr. hex, six, 
 
 ff&nia, an angle. 
 
 HU'MERUS, the bone between the elbow and shoulder. 
 HUMOURS OF THE EYE, the transparent portions consisting of 
 what are termed the " watery," the " crystalline," and the 
 "vitreous" humours. 
 
 HYBER'NATE, to retire into close quarters during the winter 
 season. The Dormouse and the Marmot furnish familiar 
 examples of hibernation. Lat. hybernus, belonging to 
 winter. 
 
 HYDROI'DA, an order of Zoophytes ; so called from their resem- 
 blance in some particulars to the fabled Hydra. 
 HY'DROGEN, a gas forming one of the component parts of water 
 and of atmospheric air. Gr. hydor, water, and gennao, I 
 produce. 
 
 HYMENOP'TERA, an order of insects comprising Bees, Wasps, 
 and Ants: they are furnished with four membranous wings. 
 Gr. hymen, a membrane, and pteron, a wing. 
 HYPO'THESIS, a supposition. 
 ICTHYO'LOGY, the department of natural history treating of 
 
 fishes. Gr. icthys, a fish, and loqos, a discourse. 
 IMA'GO, a term applied to Butterflies and other insects, when 
 their transformations are completed, and they assume the 
 appearance of the species in its perfect state. 
 IMPETUS, the force by which a body is impelled. 
 INCISORS, the front or cutting teeth. Lat. incisores, a cutting. 
 INCUBATION, the act of sitting as birds do on eggs, to develope 
 
 the contained embryo. Lat. incubo, I sit. 
 INDI'GENOUS, produced" naturally in a country; not exotic. 
 IN'DURATED, having become hardened. Lat. indurare, to make 
 
 hard. 
 INDUCTION, an inference or general principle drawn from a 
 
 number of particular facts. 
 
 INFEROBRAN'CHIATA, an order of molluscous animals, having 
 the gills placed under the projecting margin of the mantle. 
 The term simply means, having the gills below. 
 INFUSO'RIA, the class of animalcules so called from their abound- 
 ing in certain animal and vegetable infusions. 
 INSECTA, insects. They form one class of articulated animals. 
 INSECTI'VORA, an order of mammalia, the individuals of which, 
 like the Mole or the Hedgehog, feed on insects and worms. 
 Lat. insecta, insects, voro, I devour. 
 INSESSO'RES, the order of perching birds. Lat. sedere, to sit, 
 
 to rest upon. 
 INTEGUMENT, that which naturally invests or covers another 
 
 thing. Lat. intego, I cover. 
 INTERSTICES, the spaces between objects. Lat. interstitiwn.
 
 444 GLOSSARY. 
 
 INVER'TEBRATE, without vertebrae. The term is applied to all 
 
 those animals which in common language are destitute of a 
 
 skull and backbone. 
 IRIDES'CENT, having colours like the rainbow. Lat. iris, the 
 
 rainbow. 
 
 ISOLATED, detached, Italian, isola. Lat. insula, an island. 
 LA'BIUM, in entomology, the lower lip. The labial palpi in 
 
 insects are the feelers attached to the lower lip. 
 LA'BRUM, hi entomology, the upper lip. 
 LAGOON, a term applied to a small lake or pond of water; the 
 
 word is derived from the Spanish laguna. Lat. lacuna. 
 LAMELLA, Lat. a thin plate or scale. 
 LAMELLIBRANCHIA'TA, a class of mollusca including the Oyster 
 
 and other well-known Bivalves, in which the gifls are in the 
 
 form of membranous plates. 
 
 LARVA, the caterpillar state of an insect. Lat. larva, a mask. 
 LARYNX, in the higher vertebrate animals, the organ of voice, 
 
 situated at the upper portion of the windpipe. 
 LENS, properly a small roundish glass, shaped like a lentile or 
 
 bean. Lat. lens, & bean or lentile. The word is applied to 
 
 both concave and convex glasses. 
 LEPIDOPTERA, an order of insects to which the Moths and 
 
 Butterflies belong. The wings are covered with a mealy 
 
 substance composed of minute scales. Gr. If pis, a scale, 
 
 and pteron, a wing. 
 
 LIGAMENTS, the bonds or organs by which the various articu- 
 lations of the body are held together. Lat. ligamentum, a 
 
 band or tie. 
 LOBES, the roopded divisions on the edge of a leaf, and applied 
 
 to portions of the animal frame of a similar form. 
 LOCOMOTION, the act of moving from place to place. Lat. locus, 
 
 a place, and motio, a moving. 
 LOPHOBRANCHII, an order of fishes, in which the gills are 
 
 arranged (as in the Pipe-fishes) in small tufts. Gr. lophos, 
 
 a crest, and branchiae, gills. 
 MACROURA, a section often-footed Crustacea, distinguished (like 
 
 the Lobster and Cray-fish) by the length of the tail. Gr. 
 
 makros, long; and oura, a tail. 
 MAGNESIAS LIMESTONE, limestone which contains a portion of 
 
 the earth magnesia. 
 MALACOPTERYGIL, one of the great sections into which the 
 
 osseous fishes are divided. The rays of the fins are soft, 
 
 and in general branched. Gr. malakos, soft, and pteryx, a 
 
 wing. It is subdivided into three orders, Abdominales, Sub- 
 
 brachiales, and Apodes. 
 MAMMALIA, the class of vertebrate animals: it includes all those 
 
 that suckle their young. Lat. mamma, a teat. 
 MAMMLFEROUS, having breasts or teats for the nourishment of 
 
 the young by means of milk. Lat. mammae, teats; aud/ero, 
 
 I bear. 
 MANDiiiuLJi. or MANDIBLES, organs for chewing. Lat. mando, 
 
 I chew. Applied to the upper jaws of insects
 
 GLOSSARY. 445 
 
 MARINE, belonging to the sea. Lat. mare, the sea. 
 
 MARSUPIA'TA, an order of mammalia containing the marsupial 
 or pouched animals. Lat. marsupium, a pouch. 
 
 MAUSOLEUM, a sepulchral building. The name is derived from 
 one of extraordinary magnificence erected 353 B. c. to the 
 memory of Mausoleus, king of Caria. 
 
 MAXILLA, the jaws, in entomology, the term is applied to the 
 lower jaws of insects. 
 
 MEDULLARY, resembling marrow. Lat. medulla, marrow. The 
 term is used in speaking of the substance that unites the 
 various parts of the sertularian Zoophytes into one living 
 mass. Vide " Sertularian." 
 
 MEGATHERIOID ANIMALS, a group consisting of extinct species 
 of the order Edentata. The name is derived from one of 
 colossal size, the Megatherium. Gtr.megas, great, and therion, 
 a beast. 
 
 MEMBRANOUS, consisting of membrane. 
 
 METAMORPHOSIS, transformation; change of shape. The word 
 is taken from the Greek. 
 
 MICROSCOPIC, visible only by means of a microscope or mag- 
 nifying glasses. 
 
 MIGRATION, change of residence; removal from one locality to 
 another. The term is applied to those periodical changes of 
 abode observable in many species of birds and other animals. 
 
 MILLIPEDES, insects possessed of numerous legs, and belonging 
 to the order Myriapoda. 
 
 MILT, the soft roe or spawn of the male fish; it is used to fecun- 
 date the pea or roe of the female. 
 
 MOLARS, the grinding teeth. Lat. molaris, grinding. 
 
 MOLECULES, a term derived from the French, and expressing 
 very minute particles of matter. 
 
 MOLLUSCA, one of the great groups into which the animal 
 kingdom is divided. It contains the soft-bodied animals 
 popularly known as " shell-fish." Lat. mollis, soft. 
 
 MONAD, an atom that admits of no further subdivision. Gr. 
 manas, a unit. 
 
 MONOGRAPH, a written description of a single thing, or class 
 of things. Gr. monos, one, and grapho, I write. 
 
 MOULTING, the periodical change that takes place in the plu- 
 mage of birds. 
 
 Mucus, slime, or slimy matter. 
 
 MULTIVALVE, a term applied to shells which (like the Chiton) 
 consist of more than two valves. 
 
 MTRIA'PODA, an order of insects consisting of those which (like 
 the Centipede and Millipede) have numerous feet. Gr. 
 myroi, ten thousand, innumerable, and p&us, a foot. 
 
 NATATO'RES, the order of swimming birds. Lat. nato, I swim. 
 
 NEUROPTERA, an order of four-winged insects, in which what 
 are termed the " nervures " of the wings are so disposed as to' 
 form a kind of network (as in the Dragon-fly). Gr. neuron, 
 a nerve, and pteron, a wing.
 
 446 GLOSSARY. 
 
 NEUTERS, a name given to the working Bees, to distinguish 
 
 them from the males and females of the hive. 
 NICTITATING MEMBRANE, that which is called the third eyelid 
 
 in birds. 
 
 NUDIBRANCHIATA, an order of mollusks in which the gills are 
 naked or exposed (as in Eolis, Fig. 164.) Lat. nudus, naked, 
 
 branchice, gills. 
 
 OCELLI, little eyes. Lat. oceUus, a liltlo eye. 
 (ESOPHAGUS, the gullet. 
 OLFACTORY, smelling, or having the sense of smell. Lat. 
 
 olfacere, to smelL, 
 OMNIVOROUS, eating food of every kind. Lat. omnis, all, and 
 
 voro, I devour. 
 OPHUHA, that order of reptiles under which all serpents are 
 
 included. Gr. ophis, a snake. 
 ORGANIC, consisting of parts made to co-operate with each 
 
 other, as in those which constitute the bodies of plants or 
 
 animals. 
 
 ORGANIC REMAINS, the remains of animals or plants (organized 
 . bodies) found in a fossil state. 
 ORGANS, the parts or instruments by which certain objects are 
 
 effected. Lat. organum, a machine or instrument. 
 ORTHOCE'RATITES, a name given to a group of large chambered 
 
 fossil shells, which are straight and tapering. Gr. ortkos, 
 
 straight, and keras, a horn. 
 ORTHOP TERA, an order of four-winged insects, in which the 
 
 wings are longitudinally folded when at rest, as in the 
 
 Cricket and Grasshopper. Gr. orthos. straight, and pteron, 
 
 a wing. 
 OSSEOUS FISHES, those that have the skeleton of bone. Lat. 
 
 os, a bone. 
 OTOLTTES, the ear-bones of fishes. Gr. ous, otos, the ear. 
 
 A V receptacles for the eggs or ova. 
 
 OYI'GEROUS VESICLES, the little bladders or cells in which the 
 ova or germs of some Zoophytes are observed. Lat. ova, 
 eggs, and gero, I bear or carry. 
 
 OVIPAROUS ANIMALS, those whose young are produced from 
 eggs. Lat. ovum, an egg, and pario, I bring forth. 
 
 OVIPOSITOR, the instrument by which eggs are deposited. It 
 is remarkable for its great length in some species of insects. 
 
 OVO-VIVIPAROUS ANIMALS are those in which the egg is rup- 
 tured in the act of deposition, and the youug are brought 
 forth alive. 
 
 OXYGEN, a gas which is one of the constituent parts of water, 
 and of atmospheric air; it is essential to animal lit- 1 . 
 
 PACHYDERMATA, an orderof quadrupeds, including the Elephant, 
 
 4 and other animals distinguished by having thick skins. 
 Gr. pachys, thick; and derma, the skin or hide. 
 
 PALPI in insects, the organs popularly termed "feelers." Lat. 
 palpum, a gentle touch or pat
 
 GLOSSARY. 447 
 
 PAPILL.E, small projections or protuberances which resemble in 
 
 form the nipple or the teats of animals. Lat. papilla, a 
 
 nipple. 
 PARASITA, animals that are parasitic, or draw their support 
 
 from the bodies of other animals to which they attach them- 
 selves. Lat. parasitus, a parasite or hanger-on. 
 PECTINATED, shaped like a comb. Lat. pecten, a comb. 
 PECTINIBRANCHIATA, an order of mollusks in which (as in the 
 
 -Bttccinum and the Murex) the gills are shaped like the 
 
 teeth of a comb. Lat. pecten, a comb, branchiae, gills. 
 PECTORAL, belonging to the chest. Lat. pectus, pectoris, the 
 
 chest. 
 PEDI'MANA, "foot-handed" a term applied to some of the 
 
 monkey tribes that have opposable thumbs on the feet, but 
 
 not on the anterior extremities, or, as they are usually 
 
 termed, " the hands." 
 PEDUNCLE, in Botany, the stalk that supports the flower; in 
 
 Zoology, it is employed as is also the word Pedicle to 
 
 denote a small stalk or stem ; thus many of the Crustacea 
 
 have eyes mounted on foot-stalks or peduncles. Lat. pes, 
 
 a foot. 
 
 PEDUNCULATED, having a stem or foot-stalk. 
 PERENNIBRANCHIATE, that group of amphibious reptiles in 
 
 which the gills are permanent. Lat. perennis, permanent 
 
 or lasting, and branchiae, gills. 
 PETALS, the leaves composing the corolla or blossom of a flower. 
 
 Gr. petalon, a leaf. 
 PETRIFIED, converted into stone. Lat. petra, a stone, and^rt, 
 
 to become. 
 
 PHARYNX, the upper portion of the windpipe. 
 PHENOMENON, literally that which may be seen; generally used 
 
 to imply some striking or remarkable appearance. Gr. 
 
 phaino mat, I appear. 
 PHOSPHORESCENCE, the light caused by phosphorus; very 
 
 conspicuous and brilliant in some of the soft-bodied marine 
 
 animals. 
 PHYLLO'PHAGOUS, "leaf-eating" a term applied to the Sloths 
 
 and other animals of the same order. Gr. phyllon, a leaf, 
 
 and phago, to eat. 
 PHYSIOLOGIST, one conversant with the laws of animal economy, 
 
 orthat knowledgewhich isdenoted bythe word "Physiology." 
 
 Gr. physis, nature, and logos, a discourse. 
 PIGMENTAL CELLS, those which contain the colouring materials 
 
 or pigments which give to the skin its peculiar tints. 
 PINNAE, wings or pinions. The term is applied to the wing-like 
 
 expansions of certain Zoophytes. " Pinnated," hi Botany, 
 
 means leaves that grow in pairs or like wings, from the 
 
 leaf-stalk, as in the Ash or the Rose; and ha Zoology, it is 
 
 used to denote a wing-like appearance. 
 PISCES, fishes one of the classes of vertebrate animals. 
 PLACENTA, a network of blood-vessels by which the young of 
 
 most mammalia are nourished prior to birth.
 
 448 GLOSSARY. 
 
 PLACOID, a term applied to a group of fishes having scales 
 of a broad flat form. Gr. plax, a broad flat surface, and 
 eidos, form. 
 
 PLAGIO'STOMI, the order of cartilaginous fishes which includes 
 the Sharks and Rays. Gr. plagios, slanting, and stoma, 
 a mouth. 
 PLASTRON, a term applied to the shell or plate that covers the 
 
 lower surface of the body of the Tortoise. 
 PLECTOGNATHI, an order of osseous fishes in which the jaws are 
 united, as in the Globe-fish and Trunk-fish. Gr. plektos, 
 plaited, and gnathos, the jaws. 
 POLLEN, the farina or fine dust contained in the anthers of 
 
 flowers. 
 
 POLTGA'STRICA, one of the great divisions of the Infusory ani- 
 malcules, characterised by the possession of a number of 
 sacs or stomachs for the reception of food. Gr. polys, many, 
 gaster, the belly. 
 POLYGONAL, having many angles and sides. Gr. polys, many, 
 
 and gonia, an angle. 
 
 POLYPES, rayed animals which were formerly supposed to par- 
 take of the nature of both plants and animals. The tenta- 
 cula when expanded bear some resemblance to the arms of 
 Cuttle-fishes, known to the ancients as Polypi; hence the 
 origin of the name. 
 
 POLVPIDOM, the horny sheath with which the soft body of the 
 Polypes is invested. Lat. polypus, a polyp, and domus, a 
 house. 
 
 PREHENSILE, having the power of seizing. \ Lat. prehendere, to 
 
 PREHENSION, the act of seizing. / take, seize, or catch. 
 
 PRIMARIES, the terminal feathers of the wings of birds. They 
 
 grow on the parts which correspond to the bones of our 
 
 hands. 
 
 PRISMATIC COLOURS, the beautiful rainbow tints produced by 
 
 the refraction of a ray of light by means of a prism. 
 PRI ME'VAL, belonging to the first or earliest ages. Lat. primum 
 
 cevum, the first time. 
 PROBOSCIS, a fleshy prolongation of the snout, as seen in the 
 
 Tapir, or in the trunk of the Elephant. 
 
 PROCESS, an anatomical term meaning a projecting portion. 
 In this sense, it has a different signification from the same 
 word as used in arts and manufactures. 
 
 PROPAGATION, the continuance of species; the generating of 
 young individuals from the parent stock. Lat. propagare, 
 to multiply or increase. 
 
 PRO'TOTYPE, the first or original form or model. Gr. protos 
 first, typos, impression. In Zoology, the term is applied to 
 a species in which the characteristics of the group to which 
 it belongs are well developed. 
 
 PTERO'PODA, a class of mollusca which have two membranous 
 expansions like fins or wings, and are hence spoken of as 
 " wing-footed." Gr. pteron, a wing, and pous, a foot. 
 PULMONARY, pertaining to the lungs. Lat. pulmo, a lung.
 
 % GLOSSARY. 449 
 
 PULMONATA, the order of mollnsks which breathe by lungs; the 
 common Slugs and Snails are well known examples of the 
 tribe. 
 
 PULMO'XIGRADES. the numerous tribes of Medusae or Jelly-fishes, 
 
 which move by the contraction and expansion of the disc, 
 
 and respire by the effects of the same movement. Lat. 
 
 pulmo, a lung, and gradior, I walk or advance. 
 
 PuPwE, insects in that state which immediately precedes their 
 
 appearance in their perfect or Imago form. 
 QUADRU'MAJI A, the order of mammalia which includes the Apes 
 and Monkeys. Quadras, a derivation of the Latin word for 
 four, and manus, a hand, as the four feet of these animals 
 may in some degree be used as hands. 
 
 QUADRUPEDS, four-footed animals quadrus, from quatuor, 
 four, pes, pedis, a foot. The term is restricted to those 
 that suckle their young; or, in other words, to the class 
 mammalia. 
 
 QUARRY, the prey at which a hawk is flown. 
 RADIAL LINES, those which extend from the centre of the 
 Spider's web to the circumference, thus forming the radii of 
 the circle. 
 
 RADIA'RIA, that division of the Rayed animals in which the 
 radiated structure is most conspicuous, as in the Star-fishes 
 and Jelly-fishes. 
 
 RADIATED ANIMALS, or JRadiata, one of the primary groups 
 into which the animal kingdom is divided. In them the 
 nervous system, so far as it has been observed, presents a 
 rayed or radiated arrangement. 
 
 RAMIFICATION, extending or branching out in the manner of 
 the branches of a tree. Lat. ramos facere, to make branches 
 or boughs. 
 
 RAPTO'RES, an order of birds which includes the Falcons, Owls, 
 and other birds of prey. Lat. raptor, one who seizes, drags, 
 or takes away by force. 
 
 RASO'RES, the order of " scraping birds." It includes the Hen, 
 the Turkey, and other barn-door fowl. Lat rasor, one who 
 scrapes. 
 RETICULATED, presenting the appearance of network. Lat. 
 
 rete, a net. The wing of the Dragon-fly is of this kind. 
 RETRACTILE, capable of being drawn back. Lat. retrahere, 
 
 part, retractum, drawn or pulled back. 
 
 RODENTIA, the order of mammalia known as the "gnawing" 
 animals, including the Hare, the Rat, and the Squirrel. 
 Lat. rodere, to gnaw. 
 
 ROE or PEA, the name given to the mass of the ova of fishes. 
 ROTI'FERA, one of the two great divisions of the infusory ani- 
 malcules. Their name is derived from certain appendages 
 which present an appearance resembling that of wheels in 
 rapid motion. Lat. rota, a wheel, and fero, I bear. 
 RUMINAN'TIA, that order of mammalia which includes the Ox, 
 the Sheep, and other animals that chew the cud. Lat. 
 ruminare.
 
 450 GLOSSARY. 
 
 SACCHARINE, sugary; having the properties of sugar. Lat. 
 saccharum, sugar. 
 
 SAURIA, an order of Reptiles, comprising the various tribes of 
 Lizards. Gr. saura, a lizard. 
 
 SCANSORIAL, climbing. Lat. scandere, to climb. 
 
 SCUTIBRANCHIA'TA, an order of molluscous animals which have 
 the gills protected by a shield. Lat. scutum, a shield, 
 branchiae, gills. 
 
 SECONDARIES, the feathers belonging to the wings of birds, and 
 which grow on the bones corresponding to those of the fore- 
 arm, or that part between the wrist and the elbow. 
 
 SECONDARY ROCKS, " an extensive series of the stratified rocks 
 which compose the crust of the globe, with certain charac- 
 ters in common, which distinguish them from another series 
 below them, called primary, and from a third series above 
 them, called tertiary." LYELL. 
 
 SEDENTARY, remaining at rest, motionless, inactive. Lat. 
 sedentarius, from sedere, to sit. 
 
 SERTULARIAN ZOOPHYTES, those which bear a resemblance to 
 miniature plants or flowers. Lat. sertula, a little nosegay, 
 wreath, or chaplet of flowers. 
 
 SESSILE, sitting; used sometimes in contradistinction to pedun- 
 culated: thus the eyes of some Crustacea are sessile, while 
 those of others are said to be pedunculated, or on foot- 
 stalks. 
 
 SILEX, the earth entering into the composition of flints. 
 
 SILICEOUS, flinty; principally composed of the earth silex. 
 
 SPIRACLES, Lat. spiracutum, a breathing-hole. 
 
 STERNUM, the breast-bone, or the flat bone occupying the front 
 of the chest. 
 
 STRATA, STRATUM. " The term stratum, derived from the Latin 
 verb sterno, to strew or lay out, means a bed or mass of 
 matter spread out over a certain surface by the action of 
 water, or in some cases by wind. The deposition of suc- 
 cessive layers of sand and gravel in the bed of a river, or in 
 a canal, affords a perfect illustration both of the form and 
 origin of stratification." LYELL. 
 
 STREPSIP'TERA, an order of insects consisting of the family of 
 the Stylops. The term is derived from the Greek strepho, 
 to twist, and pteron, a wing ; the first pair of wings being 
 absent, and represented by twisted rudiments. 
 
 STURIONES, the family of cartilaginous fishes comprising the 
 Sturgeons. 
 
 SUB-CAUDAL, a term descriptive of the situation of the pouch 
 of the Pipe-fishes, which is at the lower part of the body 
 and near to the tail. It is of course applicable to any other 
 object similarly situated. 
 
 SUCTORIAL, sucking. Lat. suctus. The word is applied to 
 those tribes of insects that obtain then 1 food by suction. 
 
 SUPERINCUMBENT, Lat. super, above, incumbens, lying or 
 leaning upon: a geological term used in describing the 
 position of stratified rocks.
 
 GLOSSARY. 451 
 
 TECTIBRANCHIA'TA, an order of mollusks, in which the gills are 
 concealed under the fold of a mantle, as in the Aplysia or 
 Sea-hare. Lat. tectus, covered or protected, and branchiae, 
 gills. 
 
 TENTACULA, retractile organs surrounding the mouth, and used 
 by many aquatic animals for seizing their prey. 
 
 TERRESTRIAL, connected with or relating to the earth. Lat 
 terra, the earth. 
 
 TERTIARIES, the feathers in the wings of birds which grow on 
 the humerus, or bone corresponding to that between the 
 elbow and the shoulder. 
 
 TERTIARY ROCKS, " a series of sedimentary rocks with charac- 
 ters which distinguish them from two other great series of 
 strata the secondary and the primary which lie beneath 
 them." LYELL. 
 
 TESSELATED, divided into squares. The term is applied to a 
 pavement formed of square- shaped stones, often of different 
 colours. Lat. tessera, a square tile. 
 
 TESTACEA, mollusks with a shelly covering, such as the Snail, 
 the Whelk, the Oyster. Lat. testa, a shell. 
 
 TESTUDINA'TA, that order of Reptiles which includes the Tor- 
 toises. Lat. testudo, a tortoise. 
 
 THORAX, the chest. In the true insects, the organs of locomo- 
 tion, whether wings or legs, are attached to the thorax. 
 
 THYSA'NOURA, an order of apterous or wingless insects, which 
 have the tail fringed with numerous minute hairs. Gr. 
 thysanoi, fringes, and oura, the tail. 
 
 TORPIDITY, that state of rest observable in the hybernating 
 animals, in which they remain without exerting any of the 
 powers of active life, and with diminished animal heat and 
 respiration. In many cases the word implies benumbed with 
 cold. 
 
 TRACHE'A, the wind-pipe. 
 
 TRANSFORMATION, the changes which animals undergo in then- 
 progress from the ovum or egg state, until they assume the 
 appearance of the perfect animal. 
 
 TRANSITORY, continuing but a short time. 
 
 TRANSLUCENT, permitting the light to pass through. Lat. 
 translucere. 
 
 TRANSVERSE, across, being in a cross direction. Lat. trans- 
 versus, from transvertere, to turn across. 
 
 TRILO'BITES, a tribe of extinct crnstaceous animals, so called 
 from the body being composed of three lobes. 
 
 TRIPOLI, a powder used for polishing metals and stones, first 
 imported from Tripoli. It is composed in a great degree of 
 the flinty cases of Infusoria. 
 
 TRIPOD, with three feet, or resting on some support of an analo- 
 gous kind. Gr. treis, three, and pous, a foot. 
 
 TRIRADIATE, arranged in the manner of three radii, or lines 
 proceeding from the same centre. 
 
 TUBERCLES, small pimples, or similar excrescences, giving a 
 rough or warty appearance to the surface.
 
 452 GLOSSARY, 
 
 TUBULIBRAXCHIA'TA, an order of moliusks, to which the Yerme- 
 tus belongs. Tlie gills in some of the species are arranged 
 in a somewhat tubular form, and follow all the windings of 
 the conyoluted shell. 
 
 TUNICA'TA, a class of molluscous animals, having a leathery 
 or a membranous covering, instead of one formed of shelly 
 matter. In many other respects their structure is very re- 
 markable and peculiar. Lat. tunica, a tunic. 
 
 TYPICAL, that which is regarded as the type or representative 
 of a particular group. 
 
 UNDULATION, a movement in curved or arching lines resembling 
 that of a wave. Lat. undulatm, from unda, a wave. 
 
 UNIQUE, singular, single, one only. French, unique. 
 
 UNIVALVE, a term applied to a shell which, like that of the 
 whelk or the limpet, consists of only one piece. 
 
 VACUUM, a space unoccupied by matter most usually employed 
 to denote a space from which the air has been exhausted. 
 
 VENTRAL, belonging to the belly. Lat. venter, vcntris, the belly. 
 
 VENTRICLE, a term applied to one or to two of the cavities in 
 the heart of the vertebrate animals. 
 
 VERMIFORM, worm-shaped. Lat. vermis, a worm. 
 
 VERMIGRADE, moving like a worm. Lat. vermis, a worm, and 
 gradior, I advance. 
 
 VERTEBRAL COLUMN. " Vertebral, as consisting of segments of 
 the skeleton which turn one upon the other, and as being 
 the centre on which the whole body can bend and rotate ; 
 from the Latin, verto, vertere, to turn." OWJJN. 
 
 VESICLE, a small enclosed space like a little bladder. Lat 
 vesicula. 
 
 VIBRATILE, possessing the power to vibrate. Lat. vibrare, to 
 shake. 
 
 VITALISED, with the power of sustaining life. The term is ap- 
 plied to water containing atmospheric air, and which is 
 thereby fitted for the respiration of aquatic animals. Lat 
 vita, life. 
 
 VIVIFIED, endued with life. Lat vivere, to live vivificare, to 
 cause or give life. 
 
 VIVI'PAROUS, producing the young alive. The word is used in 
 opposition to oviparous, already mentioned. 
 
 WEALDEN FORMATION, a geological term applied to a fresh- 
 water deposit in the South of England. It belongs to the 
 upper part of the secondary series of rocks, and attests the 
 former existence in that region of a large river. 
 
 ZOOLOGY, that department of science that treats of the struc- 
 ture, habits, and classification of animals. Gr. zoon, an 
 animal, and logos, a discourse. 
 
 ZOOLOGIST, one who has acquired a knowledge of Zoology. 
 
 ZOOPHYTES, a class of radiated animals, formerly supposed to 
 partake of the nature of both animals and plants. Ur. zoon 
 an animal, and ply ton, a plant
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 PATTERSON'S ZOOLOGY FOE SCHOOLS, 
 
 PART I. INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. P. 1. 
 
 What is the meaning of the word "Zoology?" What is the 
 first thing to be done in attempting a classification of animals ? 
 The bat flies in the air; why is it not classed with birds? The 
 whale swims in the sea ; why is it not a fish ? What must form 
 the basis of classification? What is the object of it? What 
 division was proposed by Lamarck ? What was taught by Cuvier ? 
 Into how many principal groups did he divide the animal king- 
 dom ? What are the names of those groups ? 
 
 RADIATA. P. 3. 
 
 To what kind of animals is the term applied ? What is the 
 arrangement of their nervous system ? Into how many classes 
 are they divided? 
 
 CLASS I. INFUSORIA. P. 4. 
 
 To what creatures is the term applied? What is the origin of 
 the term ? What is their size compared with that of the globules 
 of our blood? What is Ehrenberg's calculation? Where are 
 they found? Into what orders are they divided? Explain the 
 meaning of these two terms. 
 
 POLTGASTRICA. How did Ehrenberg find they had a number of 
 stomachs? How do they move ? What is the meaning of cilia? 
 
 KOTIFERA. What is their structure? How do they feed? 
 What experiments were made by Fontana? What modes of 
 reproduction have been observed among the infusoria ? How do 
 they conduce to the purity of the atmosphere ? "What is said of 
 their silicious shells? How many were calculated to be in a 
 cubic inch of tripoli? What effects are now occurring from 
 similar deposits ? 
 
 NOTE. The organisms by which those silicious shells are deposited, having 
 been more minutely examined, are of late regarded as more properly belonging 
 to the vegetable than to the animal kingdom.
 
 CLASS II. EXTOZOA. P. 11. 
 
 What is the meaning of the term ? How many species infest 
 the human body 1 In what situations are they found ? What 
 is the mode of reproduction in the tape- worm? What is the 
 estimated number of ova in another species ? 
 
 CLASS HI. ZOOPHTTA. P. 14, 
 
 What is the meaning of the term ? Who was the discovere 1 " 
 of the true nature of these creatures ? When did this occur 1 
 Wherein is the radiated structure shown ? Meaning of tentaeula ? 
 Of polypi f 
 
 ORDER I. HYDROIDA. P. 15. Whence the name ? Describe 
 the Hydra. What power is possessed by the tentacvla? How 
 are the young produced? By whom was the Hydra made 
 known ? When did he live ? What did he say of its vitality ? 
 What other particulars does he recount ? What is the name of 
 the next family of Zoophytes ? Describe the Tvbularia. What 
 is said of their reproduction ? How do the young use their ten- 
 taeula? Name the next family. Meaning of the term? How 
 are the polypes connected with the stem ? What does the repe- 
 tition of any organ indicate? Give examples of this in other 
 orders. Where are the germs produced ? How are they diffused ? 
 How developed ? What number of polypes may be found on a 
 single plume ? What number on a polypidom ? What is said 
 of their transitory existence? Do they possess any luminous 
 property ? When is it exhibited ? 
 
 ORDER II. ASTEROIDA. P. 20. Meaning of the term ? Where 
 do those animals live ? What is the Virgularia 9 Where found ? 
 What is the Gorgonia? How is it flexible ? What difference of 
 structure is seen in the Isis 9 What is said of the red coral ? 
 
 ORDER UL HELLAUTHOIDA. P. 22. Meaning of the term? 
 What is the aspect of the Sea-anemone ? Where found on our 
 coast ? Meaning of Actinia ? On what does it feed ? How long 
 was one kept alive by Sir J. Dalyell ? To what use has a French 
 philosopher proposed their being applied ? What is said of their 
 power of bearing mutilation? What anecdote is told by Dr. 
 Johnston ? To what order do the coral-building polypes belong ? 
 What is the extent of some of the coral reefs ? How are they 
 preserved and increased? What is Darwin's theory of their 
 formation ? 
 
 ORDER IV. ASCTDIOIDA. P. 27. What is the origin of the term ? 
 Where are such polypes found? What is their distinguishing 
 peculiarity of structure ? To what Zoophytes is the term "flustra" 
 applied? What is Dr. Grant's calculation? To what higher 
 organised animals do they bear the closest affinity ? 
 
 CLASS IV. KADIARIA. p. 29. 
 
 How are these animals distinguished from any previously treated 
 of ? Into what groups are they divided ? What situations do 
 they respectively occupy t What is tho Integument of each ?
 
 ORDER L ACAICTTTJE. P. 80. Meaning of the term ? What is 
 said by Owen ? What of their structure ? Their distribution f 
 Peculiarity of Diphya? Of Physalia? Of VeleUa? Where taken? 
 Size and form of Cydippaf Meaning of CiUogradesf Of Beroe ? 
 Their movements? Tentacula and their uses? Their food? 
 Their vitality ? What is said of a different species ? How many 
 species of Medusae or jelly-fishes? What differences do they 
 exhibit ? How do they move ? How do they breathe ? Mean- 
 ing of Pulmonigrades f Size ? Colours ? Structure of Rhizostoma ? 
 OfCyaneaf varies of Cyaneaf Growth of the young ? Describe 
 its changes. Give proof of the small quantity of solid matter in 
 a Cydippe. In a Medusa. Phosphorescence of Acakphce. Lumi- 
 nosity of the sea to what owing ? Cause of colour in the Green- 
 land Sea ? Scoresby's calculation of their numbers ? State the 
 concluding observations. 
 
 ORDEB. IL ECHIXODERMATA. P. 42. Meaning of the term? 
 Where do animals of this class live ? How are the young pro- 
 duced ? By what means are they diffused ? What changes do 
 they undergo ? What is said of the Cribella* What of the simi- 
 larity or dissimilarity in the appearance of the animals of this 
 group ? Into how many families are they divided ? 
 
 First Family. Meaning of Crinoideoe* Their English appella- 
 tion? Were they more or less abundant formerly than now? 
 What English names have been given to the detached verte- 
 bras? What opinion prevailed prior to 1823 respecting these 
 animals ? What was announced in 1826 ? By whom ? What 
 observations were made in 1840? How many arms has this 
 species? What is its colour? What tinge does it impart to 
 fresh water ? 
 
 Second Family. Meaning of OpUuridce? English appellation, 
 and why given ? What is their size ? What is said of a speciei 
 of Ophiura f 
 
 Third Family. Derivation of Asteriada? Describe the " Five^ 
 fingers." Explain the use and mode of employing the suckers. 
 What occurs if an arm be broken off ? What opinion do oyster- 
 fishermen hold respecting it ? How does it appear to overpower 
 the oysters ? What specific name has been applied to a species 
 of Luidia ? Explain why this name is appropriate. 
 
 Fourth Family. What is meant by Eckinidcet What is the 
 general form of these animals ? How do they move ? How is 
 the " shell" or covering enlarged ? How many suckers have been 
 estimated in a sea-urchin of moderate size ? How many spines? 
 How is respiration effected ? What took place when one was cut 
 in two ? What is meant by the " lanthorn of Aristotle" ? What 
 does Professor Jones say of these jaws ? Describe the appearance 
 of a boring species. 
 
 Fifth Family. The scientific name ? The English name ? How 
 do they move ? What is said of their power of reproducing lost 
 parts ? To what use have they been applied ? What English 
 name was given to a Cornwall species ? 
 
 Sixth Family. What do these animals resemble ? Where are 
 they found ? What does Professor Forbes remark of the British 
 species of this order ?
 
 ARTICULATA. P. 57. 
 
 What are the characteristics of this division as distinguished 
 from, the preceding ? Into how many classes are the articulated 
 animals divided? State the name of each class, and give 
 examples of the animals comprised in it. 
 
 CLASS L ANXELLATA. P. 69. 
 
 What is the meaning of the term ? By what peculiarity of 
 structure are leeches distinguished ? How do they move ? How 
 do they breathe ? Is the medicinal leech a native o'f Ireland ? Is 
 it of England ? From what countries is the supply derived ? How 
 can the leech draw blood ? How is it stored up ? In what sense 
 was the word "leech" formerly used? How is the winter passed 
 by the horse-leech ? Give an instance of this. In what respects 
 does the body of the earth-worm differ from that of the leech ? 
 How does the earth-worm move ? When do they go abroad ? 
 How are they produced ? What is the colour of their blood ? On 
 what do they feed ? What are their uses ? What is stated by 
 Mr. Darwin ? What is said by Dr. Carpenter as to the body being 
 cut in two ? What experiments were made by a French natu- 
 ralist ? What peculiarity of reproduction is observed in the Nais? 
 How is respiration carried on in the "lob-worm ?" How in the 
 Terebella? How in the Serpuia? What are the Errantes f What 
 are their dimensions ? What is the covering of the "sea-mouse ?" 
 What are its colours ? Name the four tribes of Annelids now 
 enumerated. Where is the hair-worm found ? What is its length ? 
 What error respecting it is still current ? Give examples of the 
 different meanings in which the word "worm" has been used. 
 Are any of these animals luminous? Where have they been 
 observed? Does any species inhabit rock-pools? How is its 
 presence manifested ? 
 
 CLASS II. CIBEIPBDA. P. 68. 
 
 What tradition is told of the Barnacles ? What scientific name 
 commemorates the error ? What are the metamorphoses of the 
 Lepas ? What of the Balanus ? How were the shells of 
 animals formerly classed ? What simple experiment is mentioned ? 
 
 CLASS III. CEUSTACEA. P. 72. 
 
 What is the meaning of the term ? What are the uses of a hard 
 covering to animals of this class ? Of what material is it com- 
 posed ? Where do the Crustacea live ? What is said of their 
 form ? What are the characteristics of the class ? How is the 
 size of integuments made to keep pace with the growth of the 
 animal ? What is said of their power of reproducing an injured 
 limb ? How is respiration carried on in the common crab ? How 
 in the Phyllopoda, or "gill-footed?" How in the Oniscusf How 
 in the land-crabs ? Why are land-crabs drowned by long immer- 
 sion in water? What is meant by "pedunculated" eyes ? What 
 by "sessile?" What is the structure of the eye in Daphniaf 
 What is it as shown in a fossil species (A$aphu&f) What are
 
 Trilobites? What inferences have been deduced from the 
 structure of their eyes? Are Crustacea born alive or produced 
 from ova? Do they undergo any metamorphoses? What was 
 the former opinion on this point ? By whom was the true state- 
 ment first brought forward ? What were his observations ? To 
 what animal had the term Zoea been applied ? Are any land- 
 crabs found in Europe ? What does Col. Sykes say of some Indian 
 species ? What is said by Bishop Heber ? What line of march is 
 pursued by those of the Antilles? For what purpose is this un- 
 dertaken 1 How are Crustacea classified ? Why are ' ' spider-crabs' ' 
 so called ? What observation was made on one of them by Mr. 
 Thompson ? How is the large edible crab captured ? What weight 
 does it attain ? Is the smaller species used as food ? To what 
 use are they applied by fishermen ? What are pea-crabs ? Where 
 found? In what numbers? Why are hermit-crabs so called? 
 For what purpose is a shell necessary ? How is it selected ? What 
 is the structure of the tail of the lobster? How are lobsters 
 captured? What dimensions are attained by the spiny lobster? 
 What is said to be the longevity of the cray-fish ? How are the 
 young supplied with food ? In the event of capture, how do the 
 parents act ? What appearance is presented by the cast-off shell ? 
 What is said by Mr. Ball on this subject ? Is the shrimp common 
 on all parts of the coast ? Is the prawn ? In what situations are 
 the smaller Crustacea found? Why is the Cyclops so called? 
 What does Jurine say of its fecundity ? What of its cannibalism ? 
 What is the appearance of the Daphne? How are its ova pro- 
 tected during winter ? What are the habits of the Limnoria ? Do 
 any of these animals possess luminous powers ? What are the 
 Epizoa ? What is said of their numbers ? State the remarks of 
 Mr. J. V. Thompson. 
 
 CLASS IV. IXSECTA. P. 92. 
 
 What is the origin of the term ? Into how many parts is the 
 body divided? What is the structure of the heart? What is 
 said of its pulsations, and of the circulating fluid ? How is respi- 
 ration effected? What is the structure of the trac/icce.? What 
 are the antennae f What are their supposed functions? Have 
 insects the sense of smell ? What instance is given by Mr. Kuapp ? 
 Have they that of hearing? Give an example. Are the eyes 
 sessile or otherwise? What is the most usual number? How 
 many eyes has the whirl-gig? What is the most common kind 
 of eyes ? How many lenses have been computed in the eye of a 
 dragon-fly ? Of a gad-fly ? An ant ? A house-fly ? A butter 
 fly? and in that of a species of beetle? For what apparent 
 object are they bestowed in such abundance ? What is meant by 
 the "metamorphoses" of insects? Mention their different states, 
 and the terms used to denote them. What is the nature of the 
 food of insects? Name the several parts of the mouth. Arc- 
 those parts invariably present? What is the number of the 
 wings? What are the elytra? What does Professor Owen say of 
 the wings? On what is the classification of insects founded ' 
 Give the note enumerating the several orders, and examples of 
 them.
 
 8 
 
 ORDER I. COLEOPTERA. P. 107. Meaning of the term ? What 
 is said as to the size of these insects ? Why is the death-watch 
 60 called ? What does its note resemble ? What differences are 
 observable in the male and female glow-worm? Why is the 
 " blind beetle" so called I How does it feign death ? What was 
 the sacred beetle of the Egyptians ? Why does it roll balls of 
 dung ? What axe the habits of the cicindela ? Of the cock- 
 chafer? Of the nut- weevil? Of the burying beetles? How 
 many species of coleoptera are now known ? 
 
 ORDER H. ORTHOPTERA. P. 112. Meaning of the term ? What 
 insects beldfcg to it ? What aie the habits of the mantis ? The 
 house-cricket ? What jgsaid of its song ? What of the note of 
 the field-cricket ? Habfts of the cockroaches ? Of the locusts ? 
 How many species of locusts have been captured in Britain ? 
 
 ORDER HI. NEUROPTERA. P. 1 1 6. Meaning of t he t erm ? What 
 insects belong to it ? What are the characteristics of the order ? 
 Where do dragon-flies pass their larva state ? What is the French 
 term for them ? Where are the eggs of the May-flies deposited ? 
 What is the covering of the larvae What is the ephemera ? 
 
 ORDER IV. HYMBXOPTERA. P. 119. Meaning of the term? 
 Number and structure of the wings ? State the other character- 
 istics. What insects belong to it? Why are the sa.v-flies so 
 called? Mention a well -known species? What are gall-flies ? In 
 what numbers are they found ? What is the true nature of the 
 Dead Sea apples? What are the Ichneumonidcel How many 
 species are known ? What are their habits ? What hypothesis 
 prevailed formerly about them ? How many have been known to 
 issue from one chrysalis ? Why are the wingless ants we usually see 
 included in this order? What is said of males, females, and neuters? 
 What is honey-dew ? In what state do ants pass the winter in 
 these countries? What is the common belief? How has this 
 been confirmed ? What is said by Solomon ? What does Col. 
 Sykes say of an Indian species ? Wasps of what does their com- 
 munity consist ? What is said of their habits ? Of what material 
 is their nests composed ? In what way do the sand-wasps provide 
 for their young ? Into how many groups may bees be divided 
 according to their habits ? In what places do the solitary species 
 make their nests ? Describe the habits of the Zylocopa. Do the 
 same with the mason bees ; also with the leaf-cutter bees. Is there 
 any one circumstance which distinguishes the social bees from 
 the solitary ? Of what kinds is the community composed ? What 
 are the habits of the humble-bees ? To what blind man are we 
 indebted for much of our information respecting the hive-bee ? 
 What are the duties of the workers ? What is done to the males 
 in autumn? What are the habits of the queen ? How is the want 
 caused by the death of the queen supplied ? How is honey col- 
 lected ? How is pollen carried to the hive ? How is wax pro- 
 duced ? What is said of the form of the cells ? What place in 
 Greece was celebrated for its honey ? 
 
 ORDER V. STREPSEPTERA. P. 132. What is said of the size of 
 these insects? What of their length of life? Where do they 
 pass the earlier stages of their existence ? 
 
 ORDER VI. LEPIDOPTERA. P. 133. What are the number and
 
 9 
 
 structure of the wings T What moth might seem to have a 
 greater number ? What is the structure of the mouth ? How is 
 food obtained ? What is the number of these insects ? What 
 are their colours? Into what groups are they divided? Are 
 certain butterflies limited to certain localities? What are the 
 hawk-moths ? What other name is applied to them ? Name the 
 largest European species. What are its dimensions ? Its habits ? 
 Why regarded with terror? How has the word "moth" been 
 used ? What size do some attain ? What proof can be given of 
 the minuteness of some caterpillars ? Why are some called "sur- 
 veyors ?" What is said of the habits of the leaf-rollers and others ? 
 From what source is the supply of silk procured ? What is said 
 of its value in ancient Rome ? What of its abundance in China ? 
 At what time were the eggs brought to Constantinople ? Under 
 what monarch introduced into his dominions ? 
 
 ORDER VII. HEMIPTERA. P. 139. Is the mouth formed for 
 suction or mastication ? What are the number and structure of 
 the wings? What insect of this order was in great repute at 
 Athens ? How is the cuckoo-spit produced ? On what do the 
 Aphides subsist ? What is the most remarkable circumstance in 
 their production? To what family do the scale-insects belong? 
 What is the appearance of the female ? What is cochineal ? 
 Where is it procured ? How many insects may be in a pound 
 weight ? What other insects are mentioned as belonging to this 
 order ? 
 
 ORDER VIIL DIPTERA. P. 143. How man)' wings have the 
 insects of this order ? What is the mouth adapted for ? How 
 many species are known as natives of Ireland? How many 
 European species of the family Musddce ? What is the use of the 
 flesh-flies ? What is said of their powers of increase ? What of 
 annoyance from the house-flies ? Of sufferings from musquitoes ? 
 Of irritation from the gad-flics? Of terror caused by bot-flies? 
 What families are noted for their aerial dances ? What is said of 
 alarm occasioned by these flies ? What phenomenon was observed 
 in 1842 ? Why do they thus congregate ? 
 
 ORDKR IX. APTERA. P. 148. Into how many orders is the 
 Linnrcan order Aptera now divided ? Give the scientific name of 
 each order and its meaning. Give examples of the insects belong- 
 ing to each. 
 
 CLASS V. ARACIIXIDA. P. 150. 
 
 What animals are included in the present class ? What are 
 their characteristic peculiarities ? How many pair of legs have 
 they ? What is said of the eyes ? What of the senses of hearing 
 and smell in the spiders ? How is the poison of the spider con- 
 veyed ? Where is it lodged in the scorpion ? What is said of th 
 compound structure of the spider's thread ? What of the two 
 kinds of thread composing the net of the garden spider ? To 
 what use is one of these applied by the astronomer ? Is the spider 
 cruel ? What is gossamer ? What different modes of life are 
 observable among spiders ? What of their habitations ? What 
 of the affection of the female for her young ? 
 A2
 
 10 
 
 MOLLUSCA. P. 155. 
 
 What is the meaning of the term ? What is the arrangement 
 of the nervous system ? What is remarked of the blood ? Where 
 :ire they found? What is said of their form and colouring? 
 What of the uses to which they are applied ? What of their sizes ? 
 How is the shell secreted ? Of what is it composed ? How is the 
 colouring matter deposited ? Give examples of change of form in 
 shells with their growth, or from other circumstances. What was 
 done by Aristotle in this department of knowledge ? What by 
 Pliny ? What by Linnaaus ? What by Cuvier ? What are the 
 two leading divisions of the Mollusca ? Into how many " classes" 
 arc each of these groups divided ? By what characteristics are 
 these classes distinguished ? Give the name of each, and the 
 meaning of the term. 
 
 CLASS I. TuMCATA. P. 1G3. 
 
 What kind of mollusks arc said to be "tuuicated?" What is 
 best known species ? Describe its appearance and structure. Has 
 any species a transparent covering ? What has been observed 
 respecting the circulation in these animals ? Are the young free 
 or fixed? Do any of them possess a power of budding? What 
 are Botrylli? What is the most striking peculiarity of the Pyro- 
 soma ? What is stated respecting the Salpce ? 
 
 CLASS II. BRACHIOPODA. P. 165. 
 
 What are they? Where are they found? At what depths f 
 What is Professor Owen's remark ? 
 
 CLASS III. LAMELLIBRANCUIATA. P. 166. 
 
 What is the structure of the gills ? What common rnollusks 
 belong to this class ? Where do the ova remain for some time ? 
 What is said of the young ? How is the oyster supplied with food .' 
 Are they sensible of changes of light? Where are the young 
 deposited ? What of their growth ? State the origin of pearls. 
 What has been said of the value of some ? Where is the pearl 
 oyster found ? How long can a diver remain under water ? What 
 revenue was at one time derivable from the pearl fisheries of 
 Ceylon ? How does the large scallop move ? What is meant by 
 the " byssus" of the mussel? What use was made of it at Bide- 
 ford ? To what has that of the Pinna been applied ? Describe 
 the use of the foot of the cockle ? What is its structure ? What 
 was believed to be the weight of limpets used as food at Larne in 
 1887 ? What was the entire weight of "shell-fish" as carried from 
 the beach ? What prices are Carrickfergus oysters compared with 
 pearl oysters? Give examples of certain species used as food, 
 being restricted to certain localities. Mention some of the boring 
 inollusks. State instances of damage done by the Teredo. What 
 is the best defence against them? What example is given of 
 bt-nents derived through their agency ?
 
 11 
 
 CLASS IV. PTKUOPODA. P. 175. 
 
 How are the mollusks of this class distinguished ? What specif-s 
 is abundant in the Arctic seas ? Describe its appendages and 
 suckers. 
 
 CLASS V. GASTEROPODA. P. 176. 
 
 What is the structural peculiarity of this class? How is it 
 divided into orders ? Name the first of these, and explain the 
 meaning of the term. Name the next, and explain it also. The 
 same with each of the others. What are the habits of the Nudi- 
 brancMata ? To what order does the limpet belong ? How is its 
 food procured ? What is the peculiarity of the Chiton ? To what 
 order does the sea-hare belong ? What is said of one when cap- 
 tured ? What tradition was current about it ? To what order do 
 slugs belong ? Do they possess great sensitiveness ? Any repro- 
 ductive power? What safeguard to some extent is enjoyed by 
 the young ? Have any of these animals a rudimental shell ? How 
 many species of Helix are found in Ireland ? What is said of 
 them as food for birds ? Are any species eaten by other animals .' 
 Have any been eaten by man ? To what order does the common 
 whelk belong ? For what is the dog- whelk remarkable ? What 
 was the Tyrian purple ? How was it procured ? 
 
 CLASS VI. CEPHALOPODA. P. 184. 
 
 What are the characteristics of the class ? In wnat points of 
 structure is it superior to the preceding ? Where was the pearly 
 nautilus taken ? What is said of the structure and the number 
 of its gills? What were the Ammonites? The Orthoceratites ? 
 What cuttle-fishes have two gills? What was the Belemnite'! 
 What were its habits ? What opinions were current regarding 
 the argonaut ? What is the true account of its power of moving ? 
 What function is performed by the arms with the membranous 
 disc ? What is the Poulpe ? What is the structure of its arms ? 
 Give an example of its powers of attack and escape. In what 
 respect has it an analog} 1 to the chameleon ? To what use has 
 the ink of the cuttle-fish been applied ? How has the internal 
 bone been used ? Has the flesh been regarded as nutritious or 
 otherwise ? Where has it been sold ? How has the common 
 Loligo been used at Newfoundland? What proof is there of its 
 abundance on that coast ? What does Mr. Bennett say of the 
 numbers of another species? What exaggerations have been 
 current as to the size attained by some of these animals ? What 
 was the actual size of a very large one found by Captain Cook ? 
 . In what are the ova contained ? Are these ova uniformly in clusters 
 or detached ? What remark has Dr. Buckland made respecting 
 fossil species? What is said of the importance of shells in a 
 geological point of view ? What observations have been made 
 on the microscopic structure of shells? What was discovered 
 regarding their distribution as to depth in the JEgean Sea? 
 What as to their geographical distribution ? What is the inference 
 to be drawn from these phenomena ?
 
 12 
 
 PART 1L VERTEBRATE AXIM ALS. 
 
 What are some of the most obvious points of difference between 
 the Vertebrate and the Invertebrate Animals? What are the 
 anatomical characteristics of this division ? What is bone com- 
 posed of? Is it uniform in its structure in different tribes of 
 animals ? Give examples of this. Name the classes into which 
 Vertebrate Animals are divided. Which of these are cold and 
 which are warm-blooded ? 
 
 CLASS L PISCES. P. 213. 
 
 Give definition of fishes. How is the body covered ? How ig 
 respiration carried on ? How are the young produced ? Where 
 are fishes found ? At what temperatures can they live ? What 
 is said of their forms ? What of the Globe-fish ? How is the 
 slime on the body of fishes emitted ? What is its use ? How is 
 the metallic lustre of the scales produced ? What covering diffe- 
 rent from that of scales has been observed ? What are the cirri 
 of fishes? To. what are they analogous? What is said of the 
 sense of taste? Of smell? Of hearing? How does the air- 
 bladder assist this sense? What are the otolitesf What is said 
 of the sense of sight ? What of the blind fishes of the Mammoth 
 Cave ? Have fishes eyelids ? What is the specific gravity of the 
 body compared with that of water? How is it increased or 
 diminished ? What other uses does the air-bladder serve ? Is it 
 found in all fishes? What are the external organs of motion? 
 How does the tail act ? How are the fins named ? What is said 
 of the movements of a Pipe-fish? Does the Flying-fish really 
 fly ? How many cavities are in the heart of a fish ? How does 
 it breathe ? Why does a fish die when kept out of water ? What 
 constitutes the food of fishes ? How is beneficence shown in the 
 arrangement by which fishes prey on fishes ? Give example of 
 the voracity of the Frog-fish. Contrast the teeth of fishes with 
 the organs for prehension in the lower animals. What is said 
 of their size, shape, and numbers? Of their being renewed? 
 What is the use of teeth in the pharynx f Are any fish produced 
 alive? What is the general rule? Why are ponds in India 
 which have been dried up found after the rainy season to con- 
 tain fishes? By what laws are fishes limited in their range? 
 What number of ova do some produce ? What statement, made 
 by Aristotle, has been confirmed? What is said of the Hassarf 
 What of a Stickleback? What mode of concealment is pos- 
 sessed by some flat-fishes ? What mode of escape has the Fly- 
 ing-fish ? What weapon of defence is used by the Skate ? What 
 by the Weever? What by the Spined Dog-fish ? What contri- 
 vance regarding those spines is described by Mr. Ball ? What 
 weapon is used by the common Stickleback ? By the Saw-fish ? 
 By the Sword-fish ? Give example of the force with which this 
 has been used. What defence is employed by the Silurus of 
 the Nile? The Torpedo? The Electric Eel? What is said 
 of the comparative vitality of fishes? Give examples of this. 
 How are Carp fed in Holland ? Regarding errors and traditions, 
 state what is said of the Mackerel Midge. What of the origin 
 of Eels? Of the ear-bones of the Maigre? Of the Opah? Of
 
 13 
 
 the John Dory ? Of the Remora ? On what principle is Cuvier'a 
 classification of fishes founded ? Into what two great groups are 
 they divided ? Name the first Order of osseous fishes and give 
 examples. Name the second group and the Orders into which it 
 is divided. Name the remaining Orders; explain the meaning 
 of the name; give an example belonging to each. Name the 
 three Orders of cartilaginous fishes, give an example belonging 
 to each, and state the difference in the gills and gill apertures. 
 CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. P. 239. 
 
 Petromyzidce. P. 239. The family of the Lampreys. What is 
 the origin of the scientific term ? What small fish of rare occur- 
 rence belongs to this family ? How -was it formerly classed ? 
 What is remarkable in its skeleton? What in the habits of 
 some exhibited at Soxithampton ? 
 
 Squalidce Raiidce. P. 240. In the Sharks and Eays what is 
 the structure of the gills? How are the ova deposited? By 
 what names are the empty egg-cases known ? How are the 
 young nourished? Among the Sharks, which are larger, the 
 males or the females? Give some of their English names. 
 What is the skin used for ? What is said of the small Spotted 
 Dog-fish ? Of the White or the Blue Shark ? Size of the Bask- 
 ing Shark ? What is said of the Blue Shark ? As examples of 
 providential care, state the arrangement for aeration of the 
 blood in the young. Also that regarding the teeth of the Sharks. 
 
 Sttmonidce. P. 243. Family of the Sturgeons. What is re- 
 markable with regard to the surface of the body ? What in the 
 appearance of the tail, as contrasted with that of the Perch? 
 Did this form occur in former ages ? Why a royal fish ? What 
 dimensions ? What is made from it ? 
 
 OSSEOUS FISHES WITH FLEXIBLE EATS. P. 244. 
 
 ORDER PLECTOGNATHI. The Globe-fish and Trunk-fish already 
 mentioned belong to it. 
 
 ORDER LOPHOBR AXCHII. How are the gills arranged ? What fishes 
 belong to it ? Has any fish a marsupial pouch ? What is its use ? 
 
 ORDER MALACOPTERYGII APODES. Family Anguillidce, that of 
 the Eels. Meaning of the term Apodes? What are Sand Eels? 
 What size does the Conger Eel attain ? What error is yet current 
 respecting it ? How many British species of fresh-water Eels ? 
 What is said of the fishery at Toome ? What of the young Eels 
 ascending the river Bann ? Do Eels ever voluntarily leave the 
 water ? What is said of their power of enduring cold ? 
 
 ORDER MAL SUB-BRACHIALES. P. 247. Family Cydopteridce. 
 What is said of the ventral fins of the Lump-sucker? Of its 
 power of adhesion ? What is said of the value of Turbot brought 
 to the London market ? What fishes belong to the family Gadidce 9 
 
 ORDER MAL ABDOMIXALES. Family Clupeidce, that of the Her- 
 ring. What of the White-bait? Importance of the Pilchard 
 fishery? Of the Herring fishery? What does Pennant say of 
 the approach of the Herring ? What is the true explanation of 
 the phenomenon? Family Salmonidce. P. 252. What is said 
 of the Pollan ? Gillaroo Trout, for what remarkable ? Size of 
 the Great Lake Trout ? Difference of colour, how caused ? Mi-
 
 M 
 
 gration ? Falls of Kilmorac, salmon how taken at ? Quantities 
 taken near Coleraine ? How packed ? When do the young go 
 to the sea ? What is the Parr ? Do they return to their native 
 river ? Esocidce. P. 255. The family of the Pike. Instances of 
 its rapacity ? Its former value ? Its longevity ? Weight of 
 some native specimens? Cyprinidce. P. 256. Family of the 
 Carp. What of the Gold-fishes? The Carp as mentioned in 
 1496 ? The Bream as mentioned by Chaucer ? What use is 
 made of the scales of this family of fishes ? 
 
 OSSEOUS FISHES WITH SPINY RAYS. P 257. 
 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYGII. Characteristics of the Order ? Fa- 
 mily Labridce. P. 257. That of the Wrasse. Colours of the 
 fish ? Local names. Mugilidce. P. 257. That of the Mullet. 
 What is said of the distribution on our coasts of the thick-lipped 
 Grey Mullet ? Quantity taken ? Weight of a single fish ? Na- 
 ture of its food ? Habit of springing over the net f What \\m; 
 the weight of a Red Band-fish sent by post? What was its 
 length? What is said of a Riband-fish found on the coast of 
 Antrim in 1836 ? Scomberidce.P. 259. That of the Mackerel. 
 P. 259. The Pilot-fish, why so called? Size of the Tunny? 
 Temperature of its blood ? What is said of the Mackerel fishery 
 in 1821 ? Sparidce.?. 260. The family of the Gilt -head. For 
 what are the Sea Breams remarkable ? For what the Stickle- 
 back and Gurnard? What fish is called the Piper? What is 
 said of a Mediterranean fish ? Percidce. 261. The family of 
 the Perch. What prices were given by the Romans for some of 
 the true Mullets? What is told of the habits of the Perch? 
 What opinions have prevailed as to the place of the Lepidosiren ? 
 Where is it found? What are its habits? What arrangement 
 has been proposed by Agassiz for fossil fishes ? What conclusion is 
 arrived at by a comparison of fossil fishes with those now living ? 
 
 CLASS II. REPTILIA. P. 265. 
 
 What are the characteristics of the Class ? Where are reptiles 
 most numerous ? What is the number of living species ? How 
 were they divided by Cuvier? How many species belong to 
 each Order? How many are inhabitants of Italy ? Of France ? 
 Of Britain ? Of Ireland ? Why is the blood cold ? 
 
 ORDER I. AMPHIBIA. P. 267. How is the Order divided? 
 What strange animals belong to the first group? Describe the 
 metamorphoses of the Frog. On what does it feed? How is 
 the food captured? What are Tree-frogs? How is respiration 
 effected ? Is the Frog considered as formerly indigenous in Ifc- 
 land or as introduced ? Is any species of Toad found in Ireland ? 
 What does popular tradition in Ireland say of the "Mankeepei" ? 
 What in England of the Toad? What evidence is there of the 
 existence in former times of gigantic Batrachian reptiles? 
 
 ORDER II. OPIIIDIA. P. 274. How many joints are in the 
 spinal column of the Rattlesnake? In that of the Viper? la 
 what climates are they most numerous? What is said of them 
 in reference to islands in the Pacific Ocean? What as regards 
 America? What are their habits? What are the comparative 
 numbers of the poisonous and the harmless tribes? How does
 
 15 
 
 the Boa-constrictor kill its prey? Describe the structure of the 
 jaw. Same of the poison-fangs. What is said of the poison ? 
 Of the Rattlesnake? Of the Naja or Asp? Of the Cobra-di- 
 capello? Of the Python? What evidence of the former exist- 
 ence of large serpents in England ? What species now represen t 
 there the poisonous and the harmless tribes? What of the bite 
 of the Common Viper? How do the English snakes pass the 
 winter ? How many were in one instance found together ? How 
 is the skin changed ? Mow are the young produced ? What are 
 the movements of the Common Snake ? What use was formerly 
 made of the flesh of serpents ? Why is the Blind- worm so called ? 
 What is the cause of the appellation fragilis ? What peculiar inte- 
 rest attaches to this creature ? At what altitude are snakes found i 
 
 ORDER IIL SAUEIA. P. 281. What are the characteristics of 
 the Order ? How many species are known ? Are any used as 
 food / State the habits of some South American species. Where 
 are Iguanas found ? What is remarkable in their appearance ? 
 What is their food? What is peculiar in the structure and 
 habits of the Geckos ? State some of the peculiarities of the Cha- 
 meleon. Explain its changes ot colour. How are the Lacertidce 
 distinguished ? What English species belong to this family ? 
 How are the young of these two species produced? Give an 
 instance of the tail separating easily from the body. Where are 
 the Caymans found ? Where the true Crocodiles ? Where tho 
 Gavials ? In what respect are these reptiles beneficial to man ? 
 What was formerly supposed respecting the tongue of the Cro- 
 codile? State other erroneous ideas regarding these reptiles. 
 What does Swainson say of the courage of the Crocodile ? What 
 provision exists for keeping up the supply of teeth ? State how 
 many teeth exist at one time. What was the Icthyosaurus ? Its 
 size ? Its food '< How many species ? What was tne structure 
 of the Pksiosaurus? What were its habits ? What was its most 
 remarkable characteristic? What was the 1'terodactyk? How 
 many species are known ? What were the sizes ? What the 
 peculiarities of structure ? What the food ? The habits ? 
 
 ORDER IV. TESTUDIXATA. P. 289. What are the characteris- 
 tics of the Order ? Where are the vertebrae ? How many species 
 are known ? How many of these are Land Tortoises ? How 
 many fresh-water ? How many marine ? Where are Tortoises 
 found ? Are any included in the British fauna ? What use is 
 made of the Green Turtle ? What article is supplied by the 
 Hawk's-bill Turtle ? What is said of its structure and habits ? 
 Where are the eggs deposited? What are the habits of the 
 River Tortoises ? What of the Marsh Tortoises? What is tho 
 food of the Land Tortoises? What are they remarkable for? 
 What is said of the size of those in the Galapagos Islands ? 
 What of their habits? What does Pliny say of the size of sonic 
 in the Indian Sea ? What are the ascertained dimensions of a 
 fossil species from India? Did Tortoises formerly live in our 
 own seas ? What does Professor Forbes say of Tortoises in Lyciu .' 
 
 CLASS III. AVES. P. 297. 
 What are the characteristics of the present Class? YvLut o
 
 IB 
 
 Raid of the power of flight ? What is said of the vertebra of the 
 neck ? What of those of the back ? What of the breast-bone ? 
 What of the "merry-thought?" By what mode is lightness 
 in the bones combined with strength ? What is said of the 
 temperature of their bodies ? What is remarkable in their respi- 
 ration ? What variety do the feathers exhibit ? How do they 
 conduce to warmth f How are those of the wing named ? Give 
 examples of long-sustained powers of flight. What tradition 
 was current respecting Birds of Paradise^ What is said of the 
 haunts of the Gannet ? What of its number ? Of its mode of 
 capturing its food ? To what depths can they descend in the 
 water? What structural peculiarities give to it the powers it 
 enjoys? What is meant by moulting ? Explain the changes in 
 the appearance of the plumage. Of what does the food consist ? 
 Mention some of the various uses and forms of the beak. Where 
 is food stored until required ? Mention some of the peculiarities 
 of the stomach. What is said of the stomach of the Ostrich? 
 Of the structure of the eyes of birds ? How many eyelids have 
 they ? Give proofs of their possessing the sense of smell. Give 
 example of the obtuseness of this sense in the Condor ? What 
 controversy has prevailed as to their senses of sight and smell ? 
 What are the habits of the Adjutant ? Enumerate some of the 
 labourers by whom the removal of decaying animal matter is 
 effected. Explain the meaning of the term "migration" as 
 applied to birds. Give examples of the migratory instinct over- 
 coming another powerful one. In what different ways do birds 
 evince their parental affection ? Give examples of different kinds 
 of nests. Describe the organs of voice. What bird is remarkable 
 for its powers of imitation ? How are birds distributed over dif- 
 ferent regions? Does Europe possess much variety of species? 
 What are the comparative numbers of species belonging to the 
 different Orders ? How many species in all, according to Strick- 
 land, are at present known ? Into how many genera are these 
 divided ? Have genera a real existence in nature ? Have species 
 a real existence ? What system of classification is avowedly the 
 best ? What is the only sure foundation ? In what way are the 
 external parts said to be an index to the internal ? What union 
 of knowledge is involved in the idea of a perfect system of classi- 
 fication ? Into how many Orders are Birds divided ? What rea- 
 sons are given for commencing in this book with birds of prey, 
 rather than with swimming birds ? 
 
 ORDER I. RAPTOHES. P. 327. How distinguised ? What are 
 the structure and position of the toes ? Into what families are 
 they divided ? 
 
 Family I. Vulturidce. P. 327. How distinguished from the 
 other families? Are any permanently resident in these coun- 
 tries? What species have been recorded as taken? What are 
 their habits ? By what peculiarities is the Condor distinguished ? 
 What erroneous ideas were current respecting it ? What are its 
 true dimensions ? To what elevation does it ascend ? Describe 
 the appearance of the Lammergeyer. Where is it found ? What 
 is told of its audacity ? 
 
 Family If.Fakonidce.'P. 330. How distinguished? To
 
 17 
 
 what source of error are we liable ? What species of Eagle are 
 permanently resident here ? To what country does the Spotted 
 Eagle belong? Golden Eagle its aspect? Power of vision? 
 Capture of food ? Its boldness ? Popular error ? Habits ? Si- 
 tuation of eyrie ? How destroyed ? The true Falcons, how dis- 
 tinguished ? Haunts of the Peregrine ? This species, how used ? 
 Terms applied to it in falconry ? How carried ? How bedecked ? 
 Meaning of "lure," "quarry," &c. ? Former value? Kapidity of 
 flight ? Boldness ? Rapacity of a female ? Hawks, how distin- 
 guished from true Falcons ? How many British species ? Size 
 of Gos-hawk ? C'oloui ? Character of Sparrow-hawk ? The Kite, 
 how distinguished when on wing ? Is it rare in Ireland ? Honey- 
 buzzard, where native of? Hen-harrier, its prey? Its strength? 
 
 Family Ill.Strigidce.P. 340. Flight of Owls? Time of 
 appearance ? Sig'ut ? Superstitious fear of them ? Dimensions ? 
 Snowy Owls, -.vhere native ? What species most common in these 
 countries ? Their haunts ? Food ? Habits of a pair of White 
 Owls? Eagle Owl, where native? Give instance of its attach- 
 ment to its young ? Habits of a South American species ? 
 
 ORDER II. INSESSORES. P. 342. Meaning of the term ? What 
 this Order does not include ? How many native species ? How 
 do birds perch? Into how many tribes are they divided ? Give 
 the names and an example of each. 
 
 Tribe I. DENTIROSTRES. What other birds do the Butcher, 
 birds resemble in habit and form of bill ? What is their food ? 
 How is it treated by them ? Where is the Water Ouzel found ? 
 What question has arisen as to its habits ? What is said of tho 
 song of the Missel Thrush ? And of that of the Song Thrush and 
 Blackbird ? What birds belong to the family Sylvitdce ? What 
 is the food of the Eobin Redbreast ? Its habits ? Give examples 
 of its building its nest in strange places. For what is the Night- 
 ingale distinguished ? Is it resident in England at all seasons ? 
 Is it found in Scotland or in Ireland ? Are its notes indicative 
 of sorrow ? Why are Humming-birds so called ? What is said 
 of their size ? Of their food ? 
 
 Tribe II. CONIROSTRES. P. 349. Sky-lark, what peculiarity is 
 there in the foot ? On what does it feed ? When is it fattest ? 
 For what object does it dust itself? What is said of its song? 
 What other birds belong to the same family ? For what power 
 is the Starling remarkable? What is said of its migrations? 
 On what do Starlings feed ? How are their evolutions described ? 
 What fables were curient respecting Birds of Paradise? What 
 species belonging to the Cormdcc can imitate the human voice? 
 What are the haunts and habits of the Raven ? Where have tho 
 Hooded Crows been observed? Wliat does Washington Irving 
 say of a Rookery? What is said by JIacGillivray ? What by 
 Knapp ? Do Rooks do more good or 'more harm to the farmer ? 
 On what do they feed ? What 19 Jesse's evidence on the ques- 
 tion ? What recorded instances ,tre there of their destruction in 
 great numbers ? What other species belong to this fam ily ? What 
 is told of the Daws at Cambridge? Why arc the Horn-bills f-o 
 called ? In what countries arc they found ? What is their food ? 
 
 Tribe HI. SCANSORF.S. P. 357. By what peculiarity of strut;-
 
 JS 
 
 tare are those birds distinguished f What is the food of the 
 Woodpecker ? How is it procured ? For what is the Wren re- 
 markable ? For what habit, as regards its eggs, is the Cuckoo 
 distinguished? Is the same habit observed in the American 
 species ? Mention some of the poets who have referred to the 
 cheerful note of the Cuckoo. 
 
 Tribe IV. FISSIROSTRES. To what countries do the Bee-eaters 
 belong? Which British bird possesses the most brilliant plu- 
 mage ? What are its habits ? What fables were current about 
 the Halcyon? What bird, traduced by popular report, is in- 
 cluded in this tribe ? What does Sir Humphrey Davy say of the 
 Swallow? About what date does the Swallow arrive in these 
 countries? Where does it build ? What is its food ? How is it 
 distinguished from other species? How is the House-martin 
 distinguished ? By what poet is the situation of its nest referred 
 to ? Where else have those nests been observed ? Do the House 
 martins return to the nests they formerly occupied ? What was 
 done by a pair when they found a swallow in possession ? What 
 explanation is suggested by Mr. Thompson ? Is the Sand-martin 
 smaller or larger than the House-martin? How soon does it 
 arrive ? Why is it called Sand-martin ? How is the Swift dis- 
 tinguished from any other species ? Where are its nests found ? 
 In what month does it arrive ? In what does it depart? 
 
 ORDER in. KASORES. What is the meaning of the term? 
 What domestic bird exhibits the habit? What other birds 
 belong to the Order ? Family Columbidce. P. 363. What other 
 names are given to the Wood-pigeon ? What of the injury these 
 birds are said to do to farm-crops ? Where does the Rock-dove 
 build ? Of what Doves is this the origin ? How is the Carrier- 
 pigeon trained ? How many miles has it been known to fly in 
 an hour ? At Avhat season does the Turtle-dove visit these coun- 
 tries ? Of what country is the Passenger-pigeon a native ? How 
 many, according to Audubon's estimate, may be in a single 
 flock ? How many bushels ot grain would such a flock consume 
 daily? Family Phasianidce. What country did the Common 
 Pheasant come from ? To what country is the Red Grouse re- 
 stricted? What are its haunts? Where is the Black Grouse 
 found ? Where the Ptarmigan ? What is the meaning of its 
 generic name Lagopus? What is the colour of the plumage in 
 summer? What is it in winter? What well-known species, 
 not yet mentioned, belongs to this family ? What interest at- 
 taches to the Quail ? Where is it found ? What are its habits ? 
 What bird of large size, once living in these onmtries, is no 
 longer found here ? What countries does it yet inhabit ? Fa- 
 mily Struthionidce. Are Bustards plentiful ? What is said of the 
 Great Bustard ? What of the Little ? 
 
 ORDER IV. GRALLATORES. P. 367. Meaning of the term? Do 
 the Ostrich and the Plover exhibit the peculiar characteristics of 
 the Order? What was Cuvicr's arrangement ? What is remark- 
 able in the structure of the Apteryx? Wliat are its habits? 
 Family Charadriada. Origin of the name Plover ? Where is the 
 Golden Plover found? How does it appear to have a double 
 uioult ? For what device are some of these birds remarkable ?
 
 19 
 
 What is the origin of the name Lapwing ? What name has been 
 suggested by its note ? Is the Common Crane a native of these 
 countries ? What does Gould say of this bird ? What situations 
 are frequented by the Common Heron? What is remarkable 
 about its appearance when at rest ? What when on the wing ? 
 W r here does it build ? Is the Common Bittern a common bird ? 
 What is said of its " booming ?" What was it considered the 
 emblem of? For what is the Stork remarkable? In what 
 country was it in former times regarded with reverence i What 
 other species belonging to this family has been looked on as 
 sacred? Family Scolopacidce. P. 371. What birds belong to 
 this family ? What is the range of the Woodcock ? When does 
 it fly? On what does it feed? Do any breed in these king- 
 doms? Family RalUdce. P. 372. What is the best known 
 species of Pvail ? What other birds belong to this family ? What 
 difference is observable in the foot of the Water-hen and the Coot ? 
 ORDER V. NATATORES. What are the general characteristics of 
 the Order ? In what respect is the Flamingo allied to Order IV. 
 and also to Order V. ? What is the meaning of its scientific 
 appellation ? Family Analidce. P. 374. What birds belong to 
 this family? What figure does a flock of Wild Geese assume 
 when flying ? What are the best known species ? What is said 
 of their watchfulness ? At what season are the Brent Goose and 
 the Bernicle procured ? What name is given to the Brent Goose 
 in Belfast Bay ? What is said of the Whistling and of the Mute 
 Swan? Where are Black Swans found? What article is pro- 
 cured from the Eider Duck ? Where are its haunts ? How is 
 the down collected ? Family Colymbidce. What birds belong to 
 it? W r hat are the habits of the Great Northern Diver? How 
 has it occasionally been captured? Family Alcidce. What 
 names have been given to the Puffin? What is said of the 
 wings of the Penguin ? Give examples of the courage of these 
 birds. Family Pekcanidce. How many native species belong to 
 this family ? What is said of the Common Cormorant ? How 
 are Cormorants used by the Chinese? Family Laridce. What 
 birds belong to this family ? What other name has been given 
 to the Terns ? How do they take their prey ? What is meant 
 by a "play of gulls?" What is their food? How are gulls 
 sometimes captured? What food do they seek in spring? 
 What are they said to destroy at Horn Head? What is said 
 of the Black-headed Gull in Norfolk ? What at Lough Neagh ? 
 What is said of the Common Gull of Belfast Bay ? What name 
 has been given to the Stormy Petrel? What are its habits? 
 What use is made of Petrels in the Hebrides and at St. Kilda .' 
 Has the Fulmar been found on the Irish coast ? Has the Stormy 
 Petrel? What situation did it occupy at Tory Island? How 
 were Petrels affected by the storm of 1839 ? What does Darwin 
 Bay of another species? Contrast the multitudes of different 
 species of birds. What is remarked of their abundance or scar- 
 city in a fossil state ? Of what island was the Dodo a native ? 
 What was its probable weight ? To what tribe did it belong '( 
 Are any foot-prints existing of large birds now extinct? What 
 was Professor Uwen's opinion of large Loues from New Zealand?
 
 20 
 
 7V> what genus -were they all referred f What hypothesis has 
 beeu suggested by these remains ? 
 
 CLASS IV. MAMMALIA. P. 385. 
 
 What is the derivation of the term? How many compart- 
 ments are in the heart ? What is said of the circulation as com- 
 pared with that of birds ? How is respiration effected ? How 
 are the lungs situated ? What is their structure ? What is the 
 characteristic covering of the Mammalia f What different as- 
 pects does it assume ? What is the usual number of feet ? What 
 term is from this circumstance often used as synonymous with 
 Mammalia 9 State some of the changes observable in the form or 
 number of the extremities. Is the number of joints or vertebrae 
 in the spinal column uniform or not ? What is the number in 
 the neck of the Elephant ? What in that of the Giraffe ? What 
 peculiarity is observable in the head of the Tapir ? In that of 
 the Elephant ? Of the Rhinoceros ? Of the Giraffe ? Of the 
 Stag ? What name is hence given to animals of the Deer tribe ? 
 What was the weight of the antlers in the " Irish Elk" ? In 
 what space of time did they grow ? What difference of structure 
 Is observable in the horns of the Goat and the Ox. compared 
 with those of the Deer ? What name has from this circumstance 
 been given to these animals? Are the tusks of the Elephant 
 regarded as part of tne dental system ? What teeth do they re- 
 present ? What size and weight do they attain ? What evidence 
 is there of the former abundance of Elephants in Siberia ? What 
 is whale-bone ? What is its situation, and its use to the living 
 animal? How many teeth has man? How are they called? 
 How are they placed ? Are they absent in any species of Mam- 
 malia? Mention examples of difference in the number. What 
 lias been observed with regard to the adaptation of the teeth to 
 the food ? What inference is thus suggested ? Is there any in- 
 stance in nature of an incongruous union of parts? Can the 
 comparative anatomist venture to deduce the size, structure, 
 and habits of an extinct animal from a portion of its skeleton ? 
 Who led the way in this field of discovery ? What organs did 
 he regard as furnishing the surest basis for classification ? Into 
 how many Orders are the inferior animals now divided ? How 
 is man classed ? Name the eleven Orders, and give an example 
 of each ? What is the estimated number of species ? How many 
 are British? How many are Irish? What causes appear to in- 
 fluence the geographical distribution of animals? What docs 
 Lyell say of the Mammalia of North America ? 
 
 ORDER MARSUPIATA. P. 397. What is the derivation of the 
 term? In what particular prior to birth do the young of this 
 group differ from other Mammalia? What animals are included 
 in the Order? Over what parts of the world are their remains 
 distributed ? What is their food ? What was the size of a young 
 Kangaroo measured by Professor Owen ? What use is the pouch 
 of the mother? What diversity is shown in size? What name 
 is given to one section of the Marsupial animals? What doo.s 
 the Echidna resemble? What arc the peculiarities of the Orni- 
 thoryncutf What are its habit*? What arc the habits of tho
 
 21 
 
 Kangaroos? What occurred in the Surrey Zoological Gardens f 
 Where are the Opossums found ? What is their size ? Their food ? 
 What is the structure of the feet? Have they pouches like the 
 Kangaroos? If not, how arc the young earned without falling ? 
 
 ORDER RODEXTIA. P. 402. What common animals may bo 
 taken as representing this Order ? What definition of Rodents 
 is given by Jenyns ? What number of species is known ? What 
 proportion does this bear to the entire number of Mammalia ? 
 How many species belong to the family of the Squirrels ? How 
 many to that of the Rats and Mice ? How many to that of the 
 Porcupine? To what continent does that animal essentially 
 belong? Are any species of this Order peculiar to Polynesia? 
 How many British species of Rodentia? How many Irish? 
 What English genus containing three species is unrepresented in 
 Ireland? What is remarkable in the molar teeth? Describe 
 the growth of the incisor ? When an opposing incisor is lost, 
 what happens? What is the meaning of hybernate? What 
 species do so ? Which of them collect a store of food ? What 
 apparent usefulness is connected with this Order ? What is said 
 of the habits of the Common Squirrel of England ? Is it known 
 in Ireland ? What is said of the fur of the Scotch and of the 
 English Hare compared with that of the Irish? Is the Irish 
 Hare identical with another formerly believed to form a different 
 species ? Where is the Beaver found ? Was any species of 
 Beaver ever indigenous to the British islands ? 
 
 ORDER EDENTATA. P. 408. Are any of these animals without 
 teeth ? What is the true characteristic of the Order ? Into what 
 groups is it divided ? To what quarter of the world do the Ar- 
 madillos belong ? How are they distributed ? What is their 
 food ? What is said of their size ? How many species of Sloths ? 
 What is their food? How have they been spoken of? What 
 does Waterton say of their mode of progression ? What must 
 have been the dimensions of the Megatherium? What is Pro- 
 fessor Owen's opinion as to the food of that animal, and of the 
 Mylodon ? How, 'according to Owen, was the food procured ? 
 
 ORDER RUMINAXTIA. P. 414. How is this Order distinguished ? 
 What is the food ? What peculiarity of foot is observable ? What 
 is said of defensive weapons growing from the forehead ? What 
 animals are included in the Order ? Into how many genera are 
 they divided ? Into how many species ? In what part of the 
 world are they most numerous? What services do they render 
 to Man? Name any countries in which they are not found. 
 What is said of the molar teeth ? Into how many groups are 
 they divided by Mr. Waterhouse ? 
 
 Group L (Camehus.) How is the Camel distributed ? Is there 
 any place in Europe where the Arabian Camel is now used ? 
 
 II. (Auchenia.) What is the geographical distribution of the 
 Llamas ? 
 
 III. (Moschus.) Why are the Musk-deer so called? How are 
 they distinguished ? What is their habitat ? 
 
 IV. (Cervus.) What are the characteristics of the Deer ? What is 
 the largest species now living ? What was its size compared with 
 the " Irish Elk ?" Why is that name objectionable ? With what
 
 fossil remains is its skeleton found ? What are the three species 
 of Deer now living: in these countries, and in what situations? 
 
 V. (CamelapardaKs.} How many species of Giraffe? To what 
 quarter of the globe do they belong? What is the food, and 
 how procured ? 
 
 VI. (Antilope.) Where is the Chamois found? Where the 
 Gazelle? How many species of Antelope belong to each of the 
 four quarters of the world ? What proportion do the Deer and 
 the Antelopes together bear to the other Ruminants? 
 
 VII. (Capra.) In what localities are the Goats found ? Where 
 is the greatest mvmber of species ? 
 
 VIII. (Ovis.) What is the original locality of the Sheep ? Where 
 are they now found in a wild state ? At what elevation does the 
 Chamois habitually live? At what the Cashmere Goat? The 
 Goat of Thibet ? the Pamir Sheep or Kass ? 
 
 IX. (Bos.) What domestic animals represent this group ? What 
 foreign species are the most celebrated ? How many species did 
 the Romans describe as inhabiting the continent of Europe? 
 Are animals belonging to one of these species yet living ? If so, 
 where? What is C.-esar's description of the other? Where have 
 the remains of both species been found ? 
 
 ORDER PACHYDESMATA. P. 421 . Meaning of the term ? What 
 are their habits as regards food ? Into how many genera is the 
 Order divided? Into how many species? To what zones do 
 they principally belong ? Name one great division of the earth's 
 surface where they are not found. Are the Indian and African 
 elephants alike or different? To what continent does the Hip- 
 popotamus belong ? How many species of Rhinoceros ? What 
 European species is the representative of the Swine? Where 
 are the Wart Hogs found ? Where the Peccaries ? Where the 
 Tapirs ? Where the Horse ? What is said of fossil remains of 
 these animals? Where are Wild Asses found? Where the 
 Zebras ? Of what does the food of the Elephant consist ? What 
 three substances enter into the composition of the teeth ? De- 
 scribe the arrangement by which a succession of teeth is secured. 
 What are the remarks of Professor Owen on this subject ? What 
 specific characteristics are represented by the teeth ? What or- 
 ganic remains are found in Europe along with the teeth of the 
 Mammoth? What hypothesis was started to explain the occur- 
 rence of elephants' teeth in Europe ? Why was this unsatisfac- 
 tory? What conclusion was then arrived at? What extinct 
 animals of the present Order lived at former periods in Britain ? 
 What remark is made by Owen ? 
 
 ORDER CETACEA. P. 427. What are the external character- 
 istics of the Cetacea ? Into what groups were they divided by 
 Cuvier? How are the carnivorous Cetacea arranged ? (Delphi- 
 nidcR.) P. 427. Is the Dolphin ever met with on the British 
 coasts ? What associations are connected with its name ? What 
 does Professor Bell say of its habits? What is said of those of 
 the Common Porpoise? What is its length? What other 
 species belong to this group ? (Physeteridce.) P. 428. What 
 substance is procured from the Cachalot? In what state is 
 it found in the living animal? In what situation is it placed?
 
 28 
 
 "What is the length of the Cachalot ? "What proof is mentioned 
 of its strength ? On what does it principally feed ? (BalcenidcE.) 
 P. 429. On what does the Common Whale feed ? Is it now 
 abundant in the Greenland Seas? Why is the term "Whale- 
 fishery" objectionable f What is the position of the tail ? What 
 is it in fishes ? To what different purposes is it applied by Whales 
 and by fishes? What is the superficial measurement of the tail 
 in some of the larger Whales ? To what pressure is the Whale 
 when at great depths occasionally subjected? How is it ren- 
 dered capable of resisting this pressure ? In what way does this 
 prevent the heat of the body from being dissipated ? Does it 
 increase the density of the animal, or not ? What is the length 
 of the Rorqual ? What ancient tradition respecting the Whale 
 is recorded by Milton ? 
 
 ORDER CARXIVORA. P. 432. To what animals is this term 
 now restricted ? What are the characteristics of the Tiger ? Of 
 the Bear? Of the Seal? W T hat number of species does this 
 Order contain ? Into how many families are they divided ? 
 Family I. Phocidce. P. 433. In what do the Seals resemble 
 the Ceiacea? In what do they differ from them? Where do 
 they live? What number is supposed to be annually taken? 
 How many species are found on these coasts ? What lengths do 
 they attain ? II. Ursidce. P. 433. What are the most obvious 
 peculiarities of the Bears? What is the principal food of the 
 American Black Bear ? What of the Polar Bear ? Where is the 
 Brown Bear fonnd ? Have any fossil remains of animals of this 
 family been found in England ? Is any living representative yet 
 existing there? What is said of fossil remains of the same 
 species ? What does Professor Owen say of the antiquity of the 
 Badger ? in. Mustelidce. P. 434. What animals may be enu- 
 merated as giving an idea of the characteristic structure of the 
 group ? In what way has the Otter been made useful ? In what 
 particular does the Stoat resemble the Alpine Hare ? At what 
 altitude has the Ermine been found ? IV. Canidce. What ani- 
 mals belong to this family ? What is supposed to be the source 
 from which our domestic dogs have sprung? V. Felidat. P. 
 435. What animals are included in the family of the Cats? 
 What effect have they on the numbers of the smaller mammalia ? 
 What animal is now the sole representative in these countries 
 of this group ? What was the " Great Cave Tiger ?" What is 
 Dr. Buckland's statement respecting the remains found in a cave 
 at Kirkdale ? To what countries are Hyaenas now restricted ? 
 Y\'hat is their food, and mode of using it ? How many indivi- 
 duals, according to Buckland, must have lived in the Kirkdale 
 Cave ? On what animals did they feed ? How is the fact of the 
 occurrence on one small island of so many animals belonging to 
 au extinct fauna, accounted for ? 
 
 ORDER INSECTTVORA. P. 438. What is the shape of the teeth ? 
 What British animals are the representative of the Order ? So- 
 ridd<E. What is the name popularly given to the Shrew ? What 
 are its habits ? Is there any part of these countries where the 
 AVater Shrew is not found ? Erinaceadce. P. 438. Where is the 
 Common Hedgehog lound? How is it defended? What idle
 
 24 
 
 tale is told of its robbing orchards? Talpida. P. 439. What 
 arc the most obvious peculiarities of structure in the Mole ? Of 
 what does its food consist? Is it dormant in Winter? What 
 idea do its habits convey to the superficial observer ? What to 
 the naturalist ? 
 
 ORDER CHEIROPTERA. P. 440. State the differences of struc- 
 ture in the wing of the Bat and in that of the bird ? What is 
 the meaning of the scientific term which is the name of the 
 Order? How does the Bat progress if placed on the smooth 
 surface of a table ? What is said of its climbing ? Of its fiight ? 
 Of what use besides that of flight do the wings seem capable ? 
 What were the experiments of Spallanzani? What is said of 
 leaf-like appendages on the nose ? How many species are na- 
 tives of Ireland ? How many of England ? Describe the teeth 
 of the Vampire Bat ? What does Mr. Darwin gay of its biting 
 horses? What is the expanse of the wings of the large Java 
 Bat ? What classic fable may have been suggested by eome of 
 these animals ? 
 
 ORDER QUADRUMANA, P. 443. Why is the Order so named ? 
 In what particular are the American Monkeys distinguishable 
 from those of the Old World ? Where are the Lemurs found ? 
 What are their habits ? What power of movement is possessed 
 by the thumb? In what respect does this contrast with the 
 Marmozet ? In what part of the American continent are Mon- 
 keys most numerous ? How is the tail used by many of them ? 
 What term has been propose*} for those with opposable thumbs 
 on the feet only ? To what regions of the Old World are Mon- 
 keys restricted ? What exception is there to this law ? Are any 
 species regarded with veneration ? At v/hat altitude in India is 
 the Entefius found? By what names are the Monkeys of the 
 Old World separated into three tribes ? Baboons, what is the 
 structure of their cheeks? What other structural peculiarities 
 do they exhibit ? In what manner do they move ? What 
 localities do they inhabit? Into how many genera are they 
 divided ? Monkeys, what are their structural peculiarities ? In 
 what attitude do they walk ? How are the tails used ? What is 
 the colour of the face ? Apes, in what points do they differ from 
 Monkeys and Baboons? What is their attitude and mode of 
 progression ? To what part of the world are they limited ? Is 
 there any exception to this? Which of the Monkey tribes 
 evinces the greatest degree of intelligence ? How many species 
 of Monkeys are known ? What proportion does this bear to the 
 entire number of Mammalia? In what countries have their 
 fossil remains been found? What evidence is there of their 
 having lived in England ? What proof is there that the climate 
 must at that time have been warmer than now ? 
 
 ORDER BIMANA. P. 448. What are some of the most obvious 
 external characteristics of Man ? In what respect does the hand 
 present another characteristic ? What docs Sir Charles Bell say 
 of the hand ? What is the meaning of the term Bimana? What 
 position does Man occupy in the animal creation ? State the 
 results of zoological study on the mental faculties. What other 
 advantages docs it confer ?
 
 INDEX TO PART I. 
 
 PASS 
 ACAT.KPRA 80 
 
 Acephala 163 
 
 Acheta 114 
 
 Acorn-shells 70 
 
 Actina metambyanthemum ... 23 
 
 Actiniidie ... 24 
 
 Agrion 117 
 
 American blight 141 
 
 Ammonites 185 
 
 Annelids 59 
 
 Ants, communities of 123 
 
 , torpid in winter. 134 
 
 ANHELLATA 89 
 
 Aphides, their saccharine secretion 123 
 
 ravages reproduction ... 141 
 
 Aphitlan : gera 141 
 
 Aphrodita 66 
 
 Aphrophora 141 
 
 Apis papaveris 128 
 
 Aplysia 179 
 
 Aporrhais pes pelicani 159 
 
 APTEBA 148 
 
 ARACHXIDA 150 
 
 Arenicola piscatorum 64 
 
 Argonaut 187 
 
 ARTICCLATA 57 
 
 Asaphut caudatus 77 
 
 Ascaris lumbricoidet 13 
 
 A sci n i OD A 26 
 
 stscidia communit 163 
 
 ASTEROIDA 20 
 
 Asteridte 48 
 
 Avicula inargarilacta 169 
 
 Barnacles, fables connected with . . 69 
 , their transformations . . 70 
 
 ISaianut 71 
 
 Bed-bug 143 
 
 Bee-bread 13-2 
 
 Bees, solitary and social 127 
 
 , artisans 128 
 
 communities of. 129 
 
 Reroe 33 
 
 Belemnite 186 
 
 Biphora 165 
 
 Boat-fly li 
 
 Bolina Hibernica 89 
 
 Bombitf 12D 
 
 Bombyx Mori 138 
 
 BotryUi 164 
 
 Bots 147 
 
 BRACHIOPODA 165 
 
 Buccinum 154,182 
 
 "Butkie" ...'. 183 
 
 Burying Beetle Ill 
 
 Butterflies 133 
 
 their transformations.. 100 
 
 Caddis-worms 118 
 
 Calamary 184 
 
 Calosoma Ill 
 
 Calymene Blumenbachii 77 
 
 Cancer pagurus 79 
 
 Carabus 57, 104 
 
 Carcinui mtenat 83 
 
 Carpenter Bees 127 
 
 "Catydids" 140 
 
 CentipMe 148 
 
 CEPHALOPODA 184 
 
 Cestum Veneris 40 
 
 Chiton 178 
 
 Chrysalis 100 
 
 Cicada 140 
 
 Cicindfla campeitrit 109 
 
 Ciliobranchiata 38 
 
 Cimei lectulariu* 143 
 
 CIRRIPKDA 68 
 
 Clio borealti 175 
 
 Coccus Cacti 143 
 
 Cock-chafer 110 
 
 Cock-roaches 114 
 
 COI.EOPTERA 107 
 
 Coniatnla rosacea 46 
 
 Coral Reefs 25 
 
 Cowry 156 
 
 Crangon vulgar it 88 
 
 Cribella ocuiata 44 
 
 Ct inoidic 45 
 
 CRUSTACEA 73 
 
 Crab, edible species of 8ft 
 
 Cra.v-fi-.il 86
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGS j 
 
 Crickets, sense of hearing in 98 I 
 
 habits 113! 
 
 Cuckoo Spit 140 j 
 
 Cute* 146 
 
 CCTTI-E-FISU 184 
 
 Culicida 146 
 
 Cydippe pomiformis 33 
 
 Cyaneaaurita 37 
 
 Cyclobranchiata 177 
 
 Cyclopt quadricornit 89 
 
 Cynipi&s 120 
 
 Cyprea 160 
 
 Daphniapulei 90 
 
 D 
 
 Dead Sea Apples 121 
 
 Death's-head Moth 136 
 
 Death-watch 107 
 
 Dipkya elong ata 31 
 
 Dibranckiata 185 
 
 DIPTERA 143 
 
 Dog-whelk 182 
 
 Dor-beetle, sense of smell in 47 
 
 flight habits 108 
 
 Dragon-fly, its power of flight 105 
 
 transformations habits 11 
 
 Drone Bee 130 
 
 Dytiscut marginalit 107 
 
 Earth-worm 61 
 
 F.chinut 50 
 
 ECHINODBRMATA 42 
 
 Emperor Moth 137 
 
 Encrinite 45 
 
 Encephala 162 
 
 EXTOZOA 11 
 
 Eolit 177 
 
 Ephemera 119 
 
 Epeirafasciata 153 
 
 Feather-star 46 
 
 Field-crickets, Song of .-. 98, 114 
 
 "Five-fingers" 49 
 
 Flesh Flies 144 
 
 Flea 150 
 
 Fluttra carbasea 28 
 
 Futut antiquus 157 
 
 Gad-flics 145 
 
 Call-flies 120 
 
 GASTEROPODA 170 
 
 Geoirupei tlocorarius 87, 109 
 
 Gigantic Cuttle-fish 191 
 
 Glow-worm 107 
 
 PAGE 
 
 G nats, their transformations 1 00 
 
 alarm caused by 146 
 
 multitudes of 147 
 
 Gordiut aqua t tens 67 
 
 Gorgoniaflabellum 21 
 
 Gossamer 153 
 
 Grasshopper 112 
 
 Gyrinut natator 98 
 
 TT 
 
 Hair-worm 67 
 
 " Harry Long Legs " 146 
 
 Hawk-moths : 136 
 
 HKLIAKTHOIDA 22 
 
 Helicei 181 
 
 HEMIPTBRA 139 
 
 Hermit Crabs 84 
 
 Hirudo medicinalis 59 
 
 Hive Bee 129 
 
 Htemopsit tanguisvga 61 
 
 Holothuria 54 
 
 Homarut rulgarit 85 
 
 Honey-dew 123 
 
 Horse- Leech 61 
 
 House-flies 144 
 
 Humble Bees 129 
 
 Hyas aranea 82 
 
 Hydra 15 
 
 HYDBOIDA 15 
 
 HYMEXOPTERA ... . 119 
 
 Ichneumonidae. 121 
 
 Ichneumon ... .. 1-1 
 
 Imago 100 
 
 INFUSORIA 4 
 
 IHSBCTS 92 
 
 Isit hippuri* 22 
 
 J 
 
 Jelly-fish 30 
 
 Jnlus 148 
 
 K 
 
 King-crab 
 
 LAMELLI BRAS cm ATA 1C6 
 
 Land-crabs 80 
 
 Larva 100 
 
 Leaf-cutter Bees 128 
 
 Leaf Insects 112 
 
 Leaf Rollers 137 
 
 Leech 59 
 
 Leg-of-mutton Shell 159 
 
 Lepas anatifera 69,70 
 
 LKPIDOPTERA 133 
 
 Lejusma 149 
 
 Lertuea 91
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PA OK 
 
 LibeUula; 105, 116 
 
 Limulus 81 
 
 Limnoria terebrant. 90 
 
 Limpet, quantity used as food 177 
 
 structure and habits 177 
 
 Lobster 88 
 
 Lob-worm or "Lug" 64 
 
 Locust 115 
 
 Loligo 186, 181 
 
 Loligopsis 185 
 
 Louse 149 
 
 Luidin fragiliisima 49 
 
 Lumbricus 62 
 
 Luminosity in Polypes 20 
 
 in DeroSa 35 
 
 in Medusa 40 
 
 in Annelids 67 
 
 M 
 
 Machilis 149 
 
 Madrephylliaea 24 
 
 Mantis 113 
 
 May-flies 117 
 
 Medicinal Leech 59 
 
 Medusae 145 
 
 their development 37 
 
 their watery structure 39 
 
 Melolontha vulgaris 110 
 
 "Midges" 146 
 
 Millipede 146 
 
 Mites 150 
 
 MOLLCSCA 155 
 
 Mollusca of JEgean Sea 193 
 
 Moths 135, 137 
 
 Mosquito 144 
 
 Murex 183 
 
 Muscn 144 
 
 Mutcida 143 
 
 Mussel 170 
 
 Mygale ccementaria 153 
 
 MYRIAPODA 148 
 
 N 
 
 Nais 63 
 
 Nautilus, the Pearly 184 
 
 , the Paper 187 
 
 ffematus, grossulariee 120 
 
 Nemertes, Borlassii 66 
 
 Nemertina 66 
 
 Nepa 94, 142 
 
 Nereis 65 
 
 NEDROPTERA 116 
 
 Kotonecta 142 
 
 Nudibranchiala 177 
 
 Nut Weevil 110 
 
 Oak-leaf Moth 124 
 
 Octoput 189 
 
 (Estrut 146 
 
 Oniscus 76 
 
 Ophiura 47 
 
 Ort/ioceratite* 185 
 
 OBTHOPTERA 112 
 
 Oyster . 167 
 
 Pagurut Bernhardu* 84 
 
 Palcemon ser ruins 88 
 
 Palinurus vulgaris 86 
 
 Paludina mur iatica 158 
 
 Paper Nautilus 187 
 
 "Paps" 163 
 
 PARASITA 149 
 
 Pea-crabs 84 
 
 Peacock Butterfly 133 
 
 Pearly Nautilus 184 
 
 Pearls 169 
 
 Pearl Oyster 169 
 
 Pearl Divers 169 
 
 Pecten maximut 170 
 
 Pelagia 30 
 
 Pennatulidie . . . , , 20 
 
 Pentatoma 139 
 
 Feriwinkle 171 
 
 "Pilcrabs," 84 
 
 Pholcu 173 
 
 Phryganese 117 
 
 PhyUiitm 113 
 
 PhysaUa 31 
 
 Pinna, crab found in shell of 84 
 
 , its silk, and uses of 170 
 
 Pinnothere! pisum 84 
 
 Planorba 180 
 
 Plant-lice 123, 141 
 
 Plumatella 27 
 
 Plumed moth 134 
 
 Podura 149 
 
 Polygaitrica 6 
 
 Portuguese Man-of-war 31 
 
 Poulp 189 
 
 Prawn 88 
 
 PTEROPODA 175 
 
 1'linus 107 
 
 Pulez 150 
 
 Pulmonata 179 
 
 Pupa 100 
 
 Purpura lapillus 18J 
 
 Pyialis 99 
 
 Pyrcsuina 164 
 
 R 
 RADIARIA 29 
 
 R ADI AT A 2
 
 IXDEX. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Red Coral 22 
 
 Rhizoitoma 36 
 
 Rotifera, what they are 6 
 
 , organization Titality ... 8 
 
 8 
 
 Sacred Beetle 109 
 
 {Salpte 165 
 
 Sand-hoppers 89 
 
 Sand-star 47 
 
 Sand-wasp 12G 
 
 Satumia pavonia minor 137 
 
 Saw-flies 120 
 
 Scallop, used by pilgrims 157 
 
 - , power of movement 170 
 
 Scolopendra 148 
 
 ' Scorpion 161 
 
 Sea anemone 22 
 
 , reproduction of lost parts.... 24 
 
 Sea-cucumber 34 
 
 Sea-fans 21 
 
 Sea-hare 179 
 
 Sea Long-worm 68 
 
 Sea-mats 28 
 
 Sea-mouse 6C 
 
 Sea-nettles 30 
 
 Sea-pens 20 
 
 Sea-urchins 50 
 
 Sepia 185 
 
 Serpula 65 
 
 Sertulariadte 16 
 
 Shells of Infusoria 10 
 
 Shells, Structure of 1 92 
 
 Shrimp 88 
 
 Silk-worm Moth 138 
 
 Sipunculidie 55 
 
 Slugs and Snails 179 
 
 Sphinx of vine 136 
 
 Spiders 150 
 
 Spider-crabs 82 
 
 Spiny Lobster 85 
 
 Spio, Calcarea 68 
 
 Spirorbit 65 
 
 Spring-tails 149 
 
 Squilla 74 
 
 Star-fishes 42 
 
 Stylops 132 
 
 SCCTORIA 150 
 
 Tabanidte 145 
 
 Talitriu 89 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Tapeworm 13 
 
 Tectibranchiata 178 
 
 TenlhreSinida 119, 120 
 
 Terebratula 166 
 
 Terebella 64 
 
 Tereilo 173 
 
 Termites H6 
 
 Tclrabranchiata 185 
 
 Thetpkusa 80 
 
 TUYSANOURA 148 
 
 Tipulida 146 
 
 Tongue of the Bcc ] 31 
 
 Tortrix 137 
 
 TVirfucna 157 
 
 Trilobites 77 
 
 Tripoli 10 
 
 Tubularia 17 
 
 TubulibrancAtatj 182 
 
 TUMCATA 1C3 
 
 Turbo 171 
 
 Tyrian die 183 
 
 U 
 
 Upholsterer bees 123 
 
 V 
 
 Velella 31 
 
 Venerupis 1/3 
 
 Vermctus 182 
 
 I'olute 156 
 
 W 
 
 Water-beetle 107 
 
 Water-flea 90 
 
 Water scorpion, respiration in 94 
 
 , colours of 142 
 
 Wasps 125 
 
 Wax 132 
 
 Weevil 110 
 
 Whelk, used as food 171 
 
 , its habits; use as bait 183 
 
 Whirl-gig 8 
 
 Wood-louse 76 
 
 Xiphosura 82 
 
 Xyloeopa 127 
 
 Zoea 79 
 
 Zoology 1 
 
 ZOOPHYTA 14 
 
 I Zostera 67
 
 INDEX TO PART II. 
 
 PAGE | 
 
 Acanthias vulgarss 215 j 
 
 ACAXTHOPTKRYGII 222, 241 
 
 Accipiterfringillariva 323 
 
 Adder 263 
 
 Adjutant 300 
 
 Affection of Birds for their Young 303 
 
 Air-bladder 203 
 
 Alca arctica 361 
 
 Alcedo Ispida 344 
 
 Alices palmata 401 
 
 Alcida: 361 
 
 Alligators 269 
 
 Alligator lucius ,... 271 
 
 Alpine Hare 391 
 
 Amblyrhyncui 265 
 
 American Black Bear 418 
 
 American Monkeys 427 
 
 Ammodytes Lancea 225, 229 
 
 AMPHIBIA 251 
 
 Amphioxus lanceolatus 223 
 
 Anat segetum 358 
 
 albifrons 358 
 
 Anatidee 858 
 
 Anglesey Morris 218 
 
 Anguilla acutirostrii 230 ' 
 
 Anguilli&e 229 I 
 
 Anguis fragilis 264 j 
 
 Ant-eaters 377, 392 
 
 Antelopes 403 
 
 Anlhiu 332 
 
 Anti-lope 403 
 
 Apes 431 
 
 Apteryx 352 
 
 Aptinodytes demersa 361 
 
 Aquila ntEvia 315 
 
 chrysceetos 315 
 
 Ardea cineif.a 353 
 
 Ardeida 3,53 
 
 Armadillo 371, oUS,* note 397 
 
 Articola 388 I 
 
 PACK 
 
 Asp 2G1 
 
 Asses 407 
 
 Astur palumbarius 323 
 
 Auchenia 401 
 
 Aurochs 405 
 
 Australian Water Eats 377 
 
 AVES 281 
 
 Avocet 294 
 
 Axolotl 251 
 
 B 
 
 Baboons 430 
 
 Badger 418 
 
 Baleen 376 
 
 Baleen Whale 413 
 
 Ballan Wrasse 241 
 
 Bank Martin 346 
 
 Barbary Baboon 429 
 
 " Barnacles " 358 
 
 Barn-door Fowl 347 
 
 Barn Owl 325 
 
 Basking Shark 226 
 
 Ba.tra.chia 251 
 
 Bats S73, 424 
 
 Baya 305 
 
 Bean Goose 358 
 
 Beaver 391 
 
 Bee-Eater 344 
 
 Bernicle Goose , 358 
 
 Bills of Birds 294 
 
 BIMAXA 432 
 
 BIRDS 281 
 
 Birds of Paradise 'J90, 33 '> 
 
 Bison 404 
 
 Bittern 3u7, 35 1 
 
 Black Swan 359 
 
 Black-headed Gull 3G3 
 
 Black Grouse 349 
 
 Bleak 240 
 
 Bleuny., 241
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Blind-fish 202 
 
 Blind-worm 264 
 
 "Blubber" 414 
 
 Blue Shark 226 
 
 Blue Skate 241 
 
 Boa Constrictor 260, 262 
 
 Bonito 243, 244 
 
 Sot 404 
 
 Sotaurus SteUaris 354 
 
 Bottle-head Whale 412 
 
 Bradyput 893 
 
 Bream 240 
 
 Brent Goose 358 
 
 Brown Bear 418 
 
 Buffalo 404 
 
 Bufo vulgaris 254 
 
 calamita 254 
 
 Bnlflnch 334 
 
 Buntings. 334 
 
 Bustards 351 
 
 Butcher-birds 328 
 
 Buteo vulgaris 323 
 
 Buzzard 323 
 
 Caaing Wnale 4T2 
 
 Cachalot 412 
 
 Camel 372, 401 
 
 Camelopardalis 403 
 
 Cameltts 401 
 
 Canidce 419 
 
 CapercailHe 351 
 
 Capra , 403 
 
 Caprimulgus Europeans .. 328, 345 
 
 CAU-MVORA 416 
 
 Carrier Pigeon 348 
 
 Carp 2"12, 219, 240 
 
 CARTILAGINOUS FISHES 223 
 
 Cassowary 284, 352 
 
 Cottar Europteus 392 
 
 Cat 420 
 
 269 
 
 401 
 
 eapreohu 403 
 
 dama 403 
 
 elapktu 403 
 
 Cepola rubetcent 242 
 
 CBTACRA 4tl 
 
 Chameleons 267 
 
 Chamois 403, 404 
 
 Charadriidte 352 
 
 Charadriut plucialit 35-) 
 
 Chelonia imbrica a ~2~", 
 
 mydat 275 
 
 Chimpanzee 376, 431 
 
 CU1HOPTEKA 424 
 
 Cholic-stones 220 
 
 Chough 338 
 
 Ciconia atba 355 
 
 Cinclus aqual iciis 329 
 
 Circulation in Fishes 207 
 
 in Reptiles 250 
 
 in Birds 287 
 
 in Mammals 370 
 
 Cirri -?00 
 
 Classification of Birds 308 
 
 Climbing Birds 341 
 
 Ciupeaalba 234 
 
 -sprat'.ut 234 
 
 pilcfiardta 234 
 
 harengus 335 
 
 Clupeidte 233 
 
 Ctenoid Fishe* 246 
 
 Cobra-di-Capcllo 261 
 
 Cock-of-the-Woods 351 
 
 Cockatoo 341 
 
 Cod-fish 203,213,233 
 
 Colosfodiely* Atlea 279 
 
 Columba Palumbut 347 
 
 Lioia 348 
 
 lurtur 349 
 
 migratoria 349 
 
 Colnmbidee 347 
 
 Colymbtts glaciaii- 360 
 
 Common Bat 424 
 
 Common Whale 413 
 
 Condor 299,313 
 
 Conger Eel 229 
 
 Coot 356 
 
 Cormorant 295. 362 
 
 "Corn-crake" 356 
 
 Corvid<e 337 
 
 Corvus Comix 333 
 
 Cormtt frugilegut 333 
 
 "Coulter-neb" 351 
 
 Covering of Fishes 199 
 
 Crane 353 
 
 Crocodiles 269 
 
 -, Teeth of 270 
 
 Crop of Fowl 295 
 
 Cross-bill 334 
 
 Cfotaltu 259 
 
 " Cuckoo Gurnard " 244 
 
 Cuckoo 342 
 
 Cuculut canorta 342 
 
 Curlew 355 
 
 Cushat 347 
 
 Cycloid FisHet 246 
 
 Ct/clopteridte 231 
 
 Cyclopterui Lumpus 213, 231 
 
 CYCLOSTOMI 221 
 
 Cynocephaltu 431 
 
 Cyprinidte 24J
 
 PAU4 
 
 Cyprinut auratut 240 
 
 caipio 240 
 
 Cypselut murarius, 345 
 
 Dactylopterus 245 
 
 e Dasypus 393 
 
 Daws 340 
 
 Deer 375, 402 
 
 Delpliinidte 411 
 
 Delphinus delpkis 411 
 
 Dentiroslres 32S 
 
 tiidelphidae 3g5 
 
 Digestive Organs in Birds 294 
 
 Dinornis 357 
 
 Divers 360 
 
 Diodon igg 
 
 Dodo 36g 
 
 Dog 376, 419 
 
 Dog-fish 215, 225 
 
 Dolphins H77, 411 
 
 Domestic Hen 347 
 
 Dory 220, 243 
 
 Dromedary 4Qj 
 
 Duok 294 
 
 E 
 
 Eagle Owl 325 
 
 Eagles 286,55*7, 315 
 
 Ear-bones 201 
 
 Echeneidce 231 
 
 Echeneis remora 221 
 
 Echidna 334 
 
 Echiodon 243 
 
 EDENTATA 392 
 
 Eels 197, 203, '212, 219, 229 
 
 , their migration 230 
 
 , susceptibility to cold 230 
 
 Egyptian Vulture 312 
 
 Eider Duck 359 
 
 Electric Ray 218 
 
 Elrphas, primigeiiius 409 
 
 Elephant, neck of 373 
 
 , trunk of. 374 
 
 .tusksof 375 
 
 , food and teeth of. 4Q7 
 
 , extinct native species ... 410 
 
 Elk 401 
 
 Eyes of Fishes 201 
 
 Emydse 276 
 
 Entellus 430 
 
 Krin'tceut Luropaiui 422 
 
 Erinnceadce 4->2 
 
 Ermine 419 
 
 Esocidte 239 
 
 Exococlus volitnns 206 
 
 Eyrie of Eagle . 318 
 
 F 
 Falconidif . 314 
 
 PACK 
 
 Falcons 314 
 
 Falco fieregrinui 319 
 
 Fallow Deer 402 
 
 Feathers 287 
 
 felidee 420 
 
 Ferret 419 
 
 Fiddle-fish 198 
 
 Fifteen-spined Stickleback... 214, 244 
 
 Finches 334 
 
 Fins, how named 204 
 
 Fish Lizard 271 
 
 Fishing Frog, or Frog Fish... 210, 241 
 
 Fisheries, Improvement of 247 
 
 FISHES 197 
 
 Fitrirostret 3 
 
 Flamingo 357 
 
 Flight of Falcon 321 
 
 Pigeon 349 
 
 Fly-catchers 329 
 
 Flying Fish 206, 214 
 
 Fox 420 
 
 Fox Sharks 217 
 
 Fregilus graculut 333 
 
 Frigate-bird 290 
 
 FringUlida 334. 
 
 Frog 2 5 2 
 
 I'ulica atra 3:5(5 
 
 Fulmar Petrel 355 
 
 Gadidte 232 
 
 Gallinullit Chloroput 356 
 
 Gammarus 205 
 
 Cannot 291 
 
 Ganoid Fishei . 246 
 
 GAPI NO-BILLED BIRDS 344 
 
 Gasteroiteus 214, 216, 244 
 
 Gavials 269 
 
 Gamalut Gangeticut 271 
 
 Gazelle 403 
 
 Gecko 266 
 
 Geese 358 
 
 Geographical Distribution of Birds 308 
 
 Giant Armadillo 393 
 
 Giraffe 373, 374, 403 
 
 Globe-fish 1'JS, 228 
 
 Glossy Ibis 355 
 
 Goat 375,403 
 
 Goat-sucker 328, 345 
 
 Gobies 241 
 
 Gobioidte 241 
 
 Golden-crested Wren 332 
 
 Golden Eagle Slti 
 
 Golden Carp 240 
 
 Golden Plover 352 
 
 Gold-fish 198, 201, 240 
 
 Goldfinch 304,334
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 "Good Wives" .................. 241 
 
 Gos-hawk ...... ................. 323 
 
 GRALLATORES ....................... 351 
 
 Great Cave Bear ............... 418, 421 
 
 Great Cave Tiger ............... 420, 421 
 
 Great Northern Diver .............. 360 
 
 Grebes ................................. 360 
 
 Green Turtle .......................... 276 
 
 Grey Skate ..................... 241 
 
 Griffon Vulture ...................... 312 
 
 Gros-beaks ........................... 334 
 
 Grouse ............................... 349 
 
 Gruidie ...................... 353 
 
 Grus Cinerea ..... ........... 353 
 
 Gudgeon ........................ 240 
 
 Guillemots ...................... 361 
 
 Gulls .................................. 362 
 
 Gurnard ................... 203, 244 
 
 H 
 
 Haddock 
 Halcyon 
 Hake 
 
 Haliiretus albicilla ............ 
 
 Hammer-head Fish ............. 
 
 Hamster ........................ 
 
 Hares ...................... 377, 
 
 "Hassars" .................... 
 
 Hawk's-bill Turtle .......... 275, 
 
 Hearing in Fishes ............... 
 
 Hedge Sparrow .................. 
 
 Hedgehog .................. 3/1, 
 
 Hen Harrier .................... 
 
 Heron .......................... 
 
 Herring ..................... 218, 
 
 - , migration of .............. 
 
 Herring-Gull .................... 
 
 Hippocampus ................ 
 
 Hippopotamus.... 400, -iW, 410, 
 
 Hirvndinidce ................ 
 
 Hirundo rustica .............. 
 
 -- urbicd .............. 
 
 - ri/Mtria ............... 
 
 Hollow-horned Ruminants ......... 
 
 Honey Buzzard .................. 
 
 Hooded Crows .................. 
 
 Hoonuman ...................... 
 
 Hornbill ........................ 
 
 Horse .......................... 
 
 House-Martin .,- ............ 302, 
 
 Howlers ....... '. ................ 
 
 Humming-Birds ............ 286, " 
 
 Hyama 
 Cybernation 
 
 flyperordtm 
 
 232 
 
 344 
 
 232 
 
 344 
 
 31o 
 
 1- 
 
 390 
 
 391 
 
 213 
 
 276 
 
 201 
 
 343 
 
 422 
 
 323 
 
 353 
 
 233 
 
 235 
 
 363 
 
 228 
 
 421 
 
 345 
 
 345 
 
 345 
 
 346 
 
 375 
 
 323 
 
 338 
 
 *30 
 
 341 
 
 406 
 
 345 
 
 429 
 
 332 
 
 420 
 
 389 
 
 412 
 
 Hyttricida 
 
 Ibis 1)4, 355 
 
 Icthyosaurut 271 
 
 Iguana 266 
 
 Iguanodon 266 
 
 Incisor Teeth of Rodentia 3gg 
 
 INSECTIVORA 422 
 
 INSESSOKKS 32(5 
 
 Irish " Elk," weight of antlers .... 375 
 
 , distribution 4Q2 
 
 , with other fossils.. .. 421 
 
 Irish Hare -39^ 
 
 Jackdaw 349 
 
 Jay 307, 337 
 
 Jer Falcon 320 
 
 Jerboa 390 
 
 "John Crow" 298 
 
 Kangaroos 381, 383, 384, 385 
 
 Kashgow 400 
 
 King-ash 220 
 
 King-fisher 344 
 
 Kite 323 
 
 Kittiwake 353 
 
 Labrid<e 241 
 
 Labrtts maculatus 241 
 
 Labyrinthodon 257 
 
 Laccrtidte 2G8 
 
 Lacerta agilis 268 
 
 Lagopus mutus 350 
 
 Lammergeyer, or Lamb- Vulture .. 314 
 
 Lamprey 223 
 
 Lancelot 211, 223 
 
 Land Tortoises 277 
 
 Laniadte 328 
 
 Lapwing 353 
 
 Laridas 362 
 
 Larks 334 
 
 Larut argentatut 363 
 
 ridibundus 363 
 
 canta 364 
 
 Lemurs 428 
 
 Leopard 420 
 
 Lepidosiren 245 
 
 Ling 232 
 
 Linnet 334 
 
 Lion 420 
 
 Lissotriton punctatus 255 
 
 Little Bustard 351
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lizards 2(55 
 
 Llama 401 
 
 Lopliiadte 241 
 
 Lophius piscatorius 241 
 
 LopnoBRA.Ncim 221, 228 
 
 Loiia soda, 3yg 
 
 Lump Sucker 213, 231 
 
 Lampris gultatus 220 ! 
 
 Lycian Tortoises 280 
 
 M 
 
 Macaws 341 
 
 Mackarel 204,218, 244 
 
 Mackarel Midge 219 
 
 Macropodidie 384 
 
 Magpie 305, S07, 337 
 
 "Maids" 241 
 
 Maigre 219 
 
 MAI.ACOPTERYGII APODES 229 
 
 . SUB-BRACHIALES 233 
 
 ABDOMIXALES .. 233 
 
 MAMMALIA 369 
 
 Mammoth 376, 409, 421 
 
 MAN 432 
 
 Man-of-War Bird 289 
 
 " Maukeeper " 255 
 
 Marmot 389 
 
 Marmozet 429 
 
 Marsh Tortoises 276 
 
 Marsupial Pouch in Pipe-fish .... 228 
 
 MARSCPIATA 381 
 
 Mastodon 410 
 
 Malepterurus 217 
 
 Meadow Pipit 343 
 
 Megatherium 395 
 
 Mfgatherioid animals 395 
 
 Meles Tatus 418 
 
 "Mermaids' Purses" 224 
 
 Merulidae 329 
 
 Missel Thrush 329 
 
 Meropidce 344 
 
 Mice 387 
 
 .Migration of Birds 301 
 
 Milvus Ictinus 323 
 
 Minnow 240 
 
 Mocking-Bird 30" 
 
 Molar Teeth of Ruminants 4QO 
 
 Mole 422, 423 
 
 Monkeys 427,431 
 
 Alonotlon monoccros 4J2 
 
 Mohotremata 333 
 
 Moschut 4Q] 
 
 Motacilla 332 
 
 " Mother Carey's Chickens" 3^4 
 
 Moulting 293 
 
 Moose Deer 41)1 
 
 Magil chelo 241 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Miigilidte .................... 241 
 
 Mullet ...................... 241, 245 
 
 Mmlus surmulctus ........... 245 
 
 Murid* ........................... 387 
 
 Merian's Opossum ................... 386 
 
 Mus messoi ius .................. 388 
 
 Muscicapidce ..................... 3'J9 
 
 Musk Deer ........................... 401 
 
 Mustela emiinea .................. 419 
 
 Mustelidis ........................ 419 
 
 Mylodon robustus .................. 395 
 
 N 
 
 Narwhal ........................ 37^ 
 
 NATATORKS ........................... 
 
 Katrix torquata ............ 259 
 
 Natter-jack Toad .................. 
 
 Naucr ates ductor ............. 
 
 Neophron .......................... 
 
 Nests ................................. 
 
 Newts ................................. 
 
 Nightingale .......................... 
 
 Nocturnal Lizards ................... 
 
 Number of Mammalia ............... 
 
 
 
 261 
 412 
 
 ggg 
 
 263 
 254 
 243 
 QV2 
 304 
 255 
 33^ 
 
 2(56 
 
 241 
 
 "Old Wife" 
 
 Opah 220, 243 
 
 OPHIDIA 258 
 
 Opossums ....381, 382, 383, 385, 386 
 
 Orang Outan 376, 431 
 
 Orders of Birds 310 
 
 Orders of Mammalia 379 
 
 Organs of Voice in Birds 306 
 
 Ornithoryncus 383, 384 
 
 OSSEOUS FISHES 228 
 
 Ostracion 200 
 
 Ostrich 287, 351 
 
 , its digestive powers 297 
 
 Otis tarda 351 
 
 tetrax 351 
 
 Otolites 201 
 
 Oiter 419 
 
 Oustiti 429 
 
 Ovispolii 404 
 
 burrhcl 404- 
 
 Owls 307, 324 
 
 Ox 404 
 
 PACHYDF.RMATA 403 
 
 Pamir Sheep 404 
 
 Panther 420 
 
 Popio 431 
 
 Parr 239
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Parrot 294, 307, 341 
 
 Partridge 350 
 
 Parus 332 
 
 Passenger Pigeon 349 
 
 Pea or Roe 212 
 
 Pedimana 429 
 
 Pelican 295, 361 
 
 Peregrine Falcon 319 
 
 Peliusberus 263 
 
 Penguin 286, 287, 361 
 
 Perca Jluviatiiis 245 
 
 Perch, vitality of 197, 218 
 
 , skeleton '204, 222 
 
 , number of ova 213 
 
 , habits of 245 
 
 PERCHING BIRDS 326 
 
 . Percidte 245 
 
 Perdix cinerea 350 
 
 coturnix 350 
 
 Pelfcanidte 301 
 
 Petrels 362 
 
 PetromyzidiJE 223 
 
 Peewit 353 
 
 Phalacrocorax carbo 362 
 
 Phalangistidte 385 
 
 " Pharaoh's Hen " 312 
 
 Phatianidce 349 
 
 Pheasant 349 
 
 Phoca vitulina 417 
 
 PTiocidce 417 
 
 Phoccena communis 412 
 
 melat 412 
 
 Phcenicopterus 357 
 
 Phijci, 213 
 
 Pied Wagtail 343 
 
 Pike 212, 239 
 
 , longevity of 240 
 
 Pilchard 234, 235 
 
 Pilot-fish 243 
 
 Pipe-fishes, covering of 200 
 
 , movements 205 
 
 , mouth 211 
 
 , marsupial pouch 228 
 
 "Piper" 244 
 
 Pipits 332 
 
 PISCES 197 
 
 Placoid Fiskes 246 
 
 PLAGIOSTOMI 221 
 
 Plaice 203, 232 
 
 Flatetsa 232 
 
 PLBCTOOJCATHI 228 
 
 Plesiosaurut 271 
 
 Pleuronectidu; 232 
 
 Plover 352 
 
 Polar Bear 413 
 
 Pollan 236 
 
 Porcupine 37! 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Porpoise 412 
 
 Pouched Adjutant 300 
 
 Pristis 216 
 
 Procellaria glacialfs 365 
 
 Proteus 251 
 
 Ptarmigan 350 
 
 Pterodactylei 272, 273 
 
 Puffin 361 
 
 Piffflnus cinereus 366 
 
 Puma , 420 
 
 Python 262 
 
 Q 
 
 QUADROMASA 427 
 
 Quadruped 372 
 
 Quail 350 
 
 E 
 Rabbit 377 
 
 Raid batis 241 
 
 Rails 356 
 
 " Rainbow Wrasse " 241 
 
 Rallidse 356 
 
 Rana temporal-id.. 252 
 
 RAPTOUKS...... 311 
 
 Rasoret 347 
 
 Rass 404 
 
 Rats 387 
 
 Rattle-snake 259, 260 
 
 Raiidte 224 
 
 Raven 337 
 
 RedDuer 403 
 
 Red Grouse 349 
 
 Red-legged Gull 363 
 
 Red Mullet 203 
 
 Red Riband-fish 198, 242 
 
 Rein-deer 400 
 
 Remora 221, 231 
 
 Removal of Decaying Animal 
 
 Matter 300 
 
 REPTIUA 249 
 
 Respiration in Fishes 207 
 
 in Reptiles 250 
 
 in the Frog 254 
 
 in Birds 286 
 
 in Mammals 369 
 
 Ring-Dove 347 
 
 " River-horse " 406 
 
 River Tortoises 276 
 
 Rhinoceros, horn of 374 
 
 , distribution 406 
 
 , extinct species 409,4 10,421 
 
 Rhombus maximum 232 
 
 Robin Redbreast 330 
 
 Rock-Dove 348 
 
 RODKNTIA 386 
 
 Roebuck 403
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Book 30.5, 307,338 
 
 Round-headed Porpoise 412 
 
 Rorqual 415 
 
 Rudd 240 
 
 RU.MI.XAXTIA 398 
 
 S 
 
 Snlatnandridce . . 
 
 Solea vulgarii 
 
 Salmon 
 
 Migration of 
 Fishing 
 
 SalmonidiE 
 
 Sand Eels 
 
 Sand 1 .11 mice 
 
 Sand-Martin 
 
 Sand-piper 
 
 Sarcoramphus gryphus 
 
 SAVKIA 
 
 Saurians, Extinct species of 
 
 Saw-fish 
 
 Scales of fishes 
 
 SCANSORES 
 
 Scarus 
 
 K/- i/i-ii n aquila 
 
 SciuridcE 
 
 Sciurus vulgaris 
 
 Scolopacidce 
 
 Scolopax rusticola 
 
 Scomber scomber 
 
 Scomberidee 
 
 Scraping Birds 
 
 Scyllium canicula 
 
 Sea Bream 
 
 Sea-Devil 
 
 Sea- Horse 
 
 Seals 
 
 " Sea-parrot 1 ' 
 
 " Sea-purse" 
 
 " Sea swallows" 
 
 Sea- Unicorn 
 
 Serpents 258, 
 
 Sharks 
 
 Sheep 
 
 Shrikes 
 
 Shrew 
 
 Sight in Fishes 
 
 in Birds 
 
 Silunis 
 
 Simiadse 
 
 Skate 
 
 Sky-lark 304, 
 
 Sloth 
 
 Slow-worm 
 
 Small Spotted Dog-fish 
 
 Smell in Fishes 
 
 in Birds .. 
 
 2.V, 
 232 
 237 
 237 
 23S 
 23C 
 22!) 
 2'f> 
 
 346 
 355 
 313 
 265 
 271 
 216 
 199 
 841 
 207 
 219 
 387 
 391 
 355 
 355 
 244 
 243 
 347 
 225 
 244 
 241 
 228 
 417 
 361 
 224 
 362 
 412 
 264 
 225 
 403 
 328 
 422 
 201 
 298 
 217 
 430 
 215 
 333 
 393 
 264 
 225 
 201 
 298 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Snake, Common 263 
 
 Snipe 294, 355 
 
 Snowy Owl 325 
 
 Sociable Grosbeak 306 
 
 " Soft Tortoises" 276 
 
 Solan Goose, power of flight 291 
 
 , taken in fishing-nets 361 
 
 Sole 203, 232 
 
 Solid-horned Ruminants 375 
 
 Song Thrush 329 
 
 Somateria mollissima 359 
 
 Soticidce 422 
 
 Spar idee 244 
 
 Sparrow-hawk 323 
 
 Sparrows 334 
 
 Spermaceti Whale 412 
 
 Spider-Monkeys 429 
 
 Spined Dog-fish 215 
 
 Spotted Eagle 315 
 
 Sprat 234 
 
 Squalida: 224 
 
 Squirrel 3t>7, 391 
 
 Stag 374 
 
 Starling, its imitative powers 307 
 
 , migration numbers 334 
 
 Stickle-back 244 
 
 .common 216 
 
 , 244 
 
 Stoat 419 
 
 Stork 355 
 
 Stormy Petrel 364 
 
 St. Peter's Fish 220 
 
 Strigidce 324 
 
 Strix flammea 325 
 
 Struthionidie 351 
 
 Sturgeon 211, 227 
 
 STDRIONIDvE 227 
 
 STCRXIDJE 334 
 
 Sturnus vulgaris 334 
 
 Swallow 289, 345 
 
 Swan 282, 358 
 
 Swift '286, 295, 346 
 
 Swim-bladder 203 
 
 SWIMMIXG BIRDS 356 
 
 Swine 406 
 
 Sword-fish 216, 243 
 
 Sylvia sutoria 305 
 
 Rubecula 330 
 
 , Luscinia 331 
 
 Regulus 332 
 
 Sylviada: 330 
 
 Syngnathus acus 205, 228 
 
 Tadpole of Frog 252 
 
 of Newt 255
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TaU of Whales 414 
 
 Tailor-bird 305 
 
 TalpidcE 422 
 
 Tapir 374, 406 
 
 Teal 3)9 
 
 Teeth in Fishes '211, 226 
 
 in Mammalia 376 
 
 of Elephant 407 
 
 Temperature of Fishes 197, 244 
 
 of Reptiles 250 
 
 ofBirds 286 
 
 of Mammals 368 
 
 Tench 212,240 
 
 Terns 3G2 
 
 TESTUDINATA 273 
 
 Testudinidce 277 
 
 Tctrao Scoticus 349 
 
 Urogaltus 351 
 
 Tetraonidce 349 
 
 Thalassidroma pelagica 364 
 
 Thrushes 329 
 
 Thynnus pelamys 243 
 
 vulgaris 243 
 
 Tiger, 416,420 
 
 Titmice 332 
 
 Toad, the common 254, 256 
 
 Toenioidei 242 
 
 Tooth-billed Birds 328 
 
 Torpedo 218 
 
 Tortoises 273 
 
 Gigantic Fossil 278 
 
 Touch in Fishes 200 
 
 Trachinui draco 215 
 
 Tree-frog 254 
 
 TrionyciAts , 276 
 
 Troglodytes Europceus 342 
 
 Trout 222, 236 
 
 Trunk-fish 200, 228 
 
 Tunny 213 
 
 Turbot '203, 232 
 
 Turdus t'ncivorus 329 
 
 merula 329 
 
 musicus 329 
 
 Turkey Buzzard 298 
 
 Turtle-dove 349 
 
 Tusks of Mammoth 375 
 
 Two-toed Sloth 394 
 
 U 
 
 Unau 394 
 
 Ursid* 418 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vertebrate Animals what they are 195 
 -, how arranged 196 
 
 Vespertilio Pipistrellus 424 
 
 Viper -259, 263 
 
 Vitality of Fishes 218 
 
 Viviparous Blenny 212, 241 
 
 Voles 387 
 
 Vulture 285, 294, 311 
 
 Vulturfulvus 311 
 
 Vulturidae 3H 
 
 w 
 
 WADING BIK.DS 351 
 
 Wagtails 332 
 
 Wart-Hogs 406 
 
 Water-hen ; 356 
 
 Water-mole 384 
 
 Water Ouzel 329 
 
 Weasel 419 
 
 Weepers 429 
 
 Weever 215 
 
 Whale 37(J, 413 
 
 Whalebone 376 
 
 White-bait 233 
 
 White-fronted Goose 358 
 
 White Grouse 350 
 
 White Owl 325 
 
 White Shark 225 
 
 White-tailed Eagle 315 
 
 Whiting 232 
 
 Widgeon 359 
 
 Wild-boar 4Q6 
 
 Wild Geese 353 
 
 Wild Oxen 405,421 
 
 Wild Swan 307,358 
 
 Wolf 419 
 
 Woodcock 355 
 
 Woodpeckers 341 
 
 Wood-Pigeon 347 
 
 Wood-Quest 347 
 
 Wolf-fish 211 
 
 Wrasse 241 
 
 Wren 304,342 
 
 Xipfiias gladius 216 
 
 Yak 
 
 400 
 
 V Zebra 407 
 
 Vampire Bat 426 Zeus faber '220 
 
 Vanellus crittatus 353 j Zootocavivipara 2(J8
 

 
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