INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY, 



FOR TUB 



USE OF SCHOOLS. 



" These .arc tliy glorious works, Parent of good 

 Almighty! Thine this universal frame, 

 Thus wondrous fair : Thyself how wondrous then, 

 Unspeakable! who sit'st above the heavens 

 To us invisible, or dimly seen 

 In these thy lowest works; yet these declare 

 Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine." MILTON 



TUE word " Zoology" is derived from two Greek words, and 

 signifies a knowledge of animals. The science which teaches 

 the structure, habits, and classification of animals is Zoology: 

 the person by whom such knowledge has been acquired is a 

 Zoologist. 



When we regard man as the head of the animal creation, 

 and trace the various gradations of structure and intelligence 

 between him and some of the humblest organized tribes of 

 being; or when we think of the countless multitudes of 

 animals scattered over the earth, and diffused throughout its 

 waters, it might seem that any attempt to form them into 

 groups, to distinguish the several species, and bestow on them 

 appropriate names, would be altogether unavailing. 



But what the labour of an individual would be insufficient 

 to effect, the combined exertions of many are, in the course of 

 time, able to accomplish; and as man possesses the power 

 of transmitting by writing the knowledge he has acquired, 

 we arc enabled to benefit by the toil and exertion of those 



