MAilMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY. 265 



MAMMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY OF NEAV ENGLAND, 



WITH REFERENCE TO 



AGRICULTURAL ECOXOMY. 



BY E. A. SAMUELS, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



The ilieory of so many years ago, and its truth so clearly demonstrated by 

 the most eminent naturalists and scientific men of the present time, that the 

 Creator carefully and wisely provides laws, and also instruments to enforce 

 them, whereby a beautiful and just equilibrium in the elements and workings 

 of nature is maintained, is scarcely, as yet, felt and recognized in its proper 

 and full value by those most practical and, from the nature of their occupation, 

 the most professional of all naturalists — the farmers. They hardly appreciate 

 properly the fact, notwithstanding all that has been written and is being writ- 

 ten every day on the subject, that, although numerous elements are created in 

 nature which ai'e continually acting against them and their interests, other ele- 

 ments are provided to operate against the workings of these enemies ; and if 

 those that are friendly are not interfered with, they will, to a very great ex- 

 tent, counteract the evil effects of the others. 



To understand the workings of the various forces that are acting for or 

 against him, it is not necessary that the agriculturist should possess a complete 

 knowledge of the several branches of natural history ; but it is important that 

 he should have a general knowledge of the subject, that he may, at least, be 

 able to distinguish who are his enemies and who his friends ; and it is the duty 

 of the naturalist, and tho§e who make the study of nature in her various forms 

 a specialty, to simplify and generalize the study, that all who are interested 

 in its application to agriciiltural economy may become acqiiaintcd with the 

 different phenomena, their causes and effects, without spending valuable time 

 in the investigation of details. 



The means adopted to maintain the proper equilibrium are, of course, differ- 

 ent in animate from those in inanimate nature. In the latter, elements are em- 

 ployed to counteract or neutralize the effects of other elements ; while iu 

 animate nature rapacious tribes are created to destroy or prey upon other inju- 

 rious tribes ; but that these rapacious animals shall not extirpate the others, 

 which are to a certain extent useful iu different ways, they are slow in multi- 

 plying, while the others increase with sufficient rapidity to prevent extinction 

 through these natural enemies. Although a knowledge of inanimate nature in 

 her different forms is undoubtedly of great importance to the success of agri- 

 culture, animate nature possesses the greatest interest to the farmer, both because 

 it has a very direct influence upon his success, and the objects in it are gene- 

 rally familiar to him and best capable of being understood by him. 



Taking our terrestrial animated nature, or fauna, therefore, and analyzing 

 it, we find it to consist of four great classes — mammals, birds, reptiles, and 

 insects. The characteristics of each of these classes are, of course, familiar to 

 all ; they may be described briefly as follows : Mammals are warm-blooded 

 vertebrate animals that suckle their young. They ai'e viviparous — that is, 

 they bring forth thek young alive. 



