CiiAP. I. HABITS OF ANIMALS. 59 



these habits are the expression of their structure. Every species is described as if 

 it sto(j(l uhjiie in the world ; its peculiarities are mostly exaggerated, as if to con- 

 trast more forcibly with all others. Yet, \nnv interesting would be a comparative 

 study of the mode of life of closely allied species ; how instructive a pictm-e might 

 be drawn of the resemblance there is in this respect between species of the same 

 genus and of the same family. The more I learn upon this subject, the more am I 

 struck with the similarity in the very movements, the general habits, and even in 

 the intonation of the voices of animals belonging to the same family; that is to say, 

 between animals agreeing in the main in form, size, structure, and mode of develop- 

 ment. A minute study of these habits, of these movements, of the voice of aniumls 

 cannot fail, therefore, to throw additional light upon their natural affinities. 



While I thus acknowledge the great importance of such investigations with refer- 

 ence to the systematic arrangement of animals, I cannot help regretting deeply, that 

 they are not more highly valued Avith reference to the infonnation they might 

 secure respecting the animals themselves, independently of any system. How much 

 is there not left to study with respect to every species, after it is named and classi- 

 fied. No one can read Nauman's Natural History of the German Birds without 

 feeling that natural history would be much further advanced, if the habits of all 

 other animals had been as accurately investigated and as minutely recorded ; and yet 

 that work contains hardly any thing of importance Avith reference to the systematic 

 arrangement of birds. We scarcely possess the most elementaiy information neces- 

 sary to discuss upon a scientific basis the question of the instincts and m general 

 the faculties of animals, and to compare them together and with those of man,^ 

 not only because so few animals have been thoroughly investigated, but because so 

 much fewer still have been watched during their earlier periods of life, when their 

 faculties are first developing; and yet how attractive and instructive this growing 

 age is in every living being ! Who could, for instance, believe for a moment longer 

 that the habits of animals are in any degree determined by the cu'cumstances under 

 which they live, after having seen a little Turtle of the genus Chelydra, still 

 enclosed in its egg-shell, which it hardly fills half-way, with a yolk bag as large as 

 itself hanging from its lower surfiice and enveloped in its amnios and in its allantoi-s, 

 with the eyes shut, snapping as fiercely as if it could bite without killing itself?^ 

 Who can watch the Sunfish (Pomotis vulgaris) hovering over its eggs and protectmg 

 them for weeks, or the Catfish (Pimelodus Catus) move about with its yomig, Uke 



' ScriEiTi.ix, (P..) ViTsucli cincr vollst;in(lip;cn des aniiiiiiiix, [lar 11. ilourens, Ann. Se. Nat., 2(li' 



Thierseelcnkunde, Stuttgart lunl Tubingen, 1840, ser., vol. 12. 



2 vols. 8vo. — CrviER, (Fkk.I).,) Ke'siiuu- aiialyt- - See, Part III., wliicli is dovotiil to llio Em- 



ique ik's observations sur I'instinct et riutelligencc bryology of our Turtles. 



