Introduction. xiii 



space at our disposal for the exhibition of specimens relating to the 

 subject of Economic Zoology, we find it safficient to distinguish in each 

 group or smaller division the " British " and the " Extra-British " animals. 

 An animal once established as an inhabitant of Britain we shall consider 

 as British, whether it is of foreign importation or long established as an 

 inhabitant of these islands. 



GEOUP A. 



Animals Captured or Slaughtered by Man for Food, or for the 

 use by him, in other ways, of their Skin, Bone, Fat, or 

 other Products. 



This group includes those animals having the most primitive and 

 direct relation to man, those which he hunts and captures or kills. 



Perhaps the relation of some (but not all) of those animals which 

 infest or attack the body of uncivilised man may be regarded as equally 

 primitive, that is to say, the relations are free from the complicating 

 circumstances of the civilisation of great communities of mankind. 



It is not desirable in a general Museum of Natural History to bring 

 together a special series of these animals of the chase or fishery. They 

 are best seen and are fully represented in the general galleries of the 

 Museum, Here they may be roughly enumerated. According to locality 

 and circumstance, almost any animal may become the source of food or of 

 economic products to this or that race of man. In the list given below 

 those animals only are cited which are regularly and habitually pursued 

 by man, either for the piu-poses of procuring them for food or as the 

 source of economic products. 



We divide the group into two sub-groups. 



{a) Animals pursued for food. 



iV) Animals pursued for their economic products. 



Survey of Sub-group (a) of Group A. 



ANIMALS PURSUED FOR FOOD. 



Protozoa None. 



Porifera None. 



Coelentera Sea anemones (cul de niulet) are to be seen in most 



French fish markets and are also eaten in Sicily, Trieste, 



and Istria {Actinia viridis and others). 

 Echinoderma Ecliinus (sea urchins), the ovaries of various species in 



all parts of the world, especially in the West Indies 



and Adriatic Coast, 

 Holothurians, known as " beche-de-mer " or "trepang," 



are dried and cooked by the Chinese, Neapolitans and 



others. 



Platyhelmia Cestodes (tapeworms) are eaten by the Chinese. 



Nemertina None. 



Nematoda None. 



Chsetopoda Palolo worms (Eunice) are eaten in the Samoan Islands 



in large quantities. 



