INTRODUCTION. O 



teenth century, under the name of Thur. The 

 species to which we owe the horse is extinct ; the 

 type of the camel, the original dromedary, the type 

 of the dog tribe are lost for ever. 



But they are replaced by numerous varieties of 

 animals so useful to us that they have been called 

 " domestic animals/' in producing which man has 

 attended to his own interests. 



These modified species of animals are increasing 

 in number daily. The term " domestic" animals 

 should extend over the whole, or, at least, the greater 

 portion of the animal world. Our readers are not ac- 

 customed to hear grubs, insects, animalculae, etc., 

 spoken of as " domestic animals." But do we not 

 rear our silkworms with as much care as our sheep or 

 our coivs ? Do we not construct houses for our bees, 

 cochineals, snails, oysters, etc., as we do for our 

 rabbits, our chickens, or our horses ? Are not large 

 fortunes realized by the cultivation of a worm such 

 as the Leech, or a grub such as the silkworm, as 

 readily as by the aid of the camel of the desert or 

 the Indian elephant ? Have we not seen a thimbleful 

 of some new insect or its eggs fetch as high a price 

 in the market as the choicest Cochin-China fowl ? 



It is too true that these inferior beings are com- 

 paratively new to us in this light. But their study 

 affords far greater interest, and, in many cases, un- 

 doubtedly more profit, than that of superior animals. 



