CiiAP. I. HABITS OF ANIMALS. 57 



SECTION XVI. 



RELATIONS BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS AND THE SURROUNDING WORLD. 



Every animal ami ]il;uit stands in certain definite relations to the surrounding 

 world, some however, like the domestic animals and cultivated plants, being capal^le 

 of adapting themselves to various conditions more readily than others; but even 

 this pHability is a characteristic feature. These relations are highly important in a 

 sj'-steinatic point of view, and deserve the most careful attention, on the part of 

 naturalists. Yet, the direction zoological studies have taken since comparative anat- 

 omy and eml)r}ology began to absorl) almost entirely the attention of naturalists, 

 has been very unfavorable to the investigation of the habits of animals, in which 

 their relations to one another and to the conditions under which they live, are more 

 especially exhibited. "We have to go back to the authors of the preceding century,* 

 for tlie most interesting accounts of the habits of animals, as among modern writers 

 there are few who have devoted their chief attention to this subject.^ So little, 

 indeed, is its importance now appreciated, that the students of this branch of natural 

 history are hardly acknowledged as peers by their fellow investigators, the anat- 

 omists and phvsiologists, or the systematic zo^Jlogists. And yet, without a thorough 

 knowledge of the habits of animals, it will never be possible to ascertain with any 

 degree of precision the true limits of all those species which descriptive zoologists 

 have of late admitted with so much confidence in their Avorks. And after all, what 

 does it matter to science that thousands of species more or less, should be described 

 and entered in our systems, if wo knoAv nothing about them ? A very common 

 defect of the Avorks relating to the liabits of animals has no doubt contributed to 

 detract from their value and to turn the attention in other directions: their purely 

 anecdotic character, or the circvimstance that they are too frequently made the 

 occasion for narrating personal adventures. Nevertheless, the importance of this 



* Reaumur, (R. Ant. de,) Mt'moircs jiDnr 5 vols. 8vo. — Kikby, (W..) and Spence, (W..) 



servir a I'histoire des Inseetes, Paris, 1834-42, (> vdI. An Introduction to r^ntoniolo^y, London, 1818-20, 



4to. fifC. — RosEL, (A. J.,) Insoetcnbelustigungcn, 4 vol.-*. 8vo. fig. — Lk.nz, (II. O..) Genicinniitzige 



Niirnlicrg, 174G-G1, 4 vols. 4to. fig. — Bufeon, Naturgcschielite, (ioiliii, IS.!.'), 4 vols. 8vo. — Rat- 



(G. L. LeClerc de.) Ilistoire natiirelle gcnerale zenburg, (J. Tii. Cii.,) Die Forst-Insekton, Rer- 



ct particiiliorc, Paris, 174'.), 44 vols. 4to. fig. lin, 1837-44, 3 vols. 4to. fig., and supplement. — 



^ AtiHUox, (.J. J..) Oniitlioiogical Biogiai.liy. Harris, (T. W.,) Report on the Insects injurious 



or an Account of tlie llaliils of tin' liinls <it' llie to Vegetation, Cambridge, 1841, 1 vol. 8vo. ; the 



United Slates of America, Edinliurgli, 1831-4',I, most important work on American Insects. 



8 



