86 LECTURES 



highly important as it is in its way, the mere accumula- 

 tion of specimens of either animals or plants, and bestow- 

 ing upon them appropriate technical names, and defining 

 the position of such species in the natural system is by 

 no means the end and all there is to zoological science. 

 No one, I think, can better appreciate the great value of 

 the kind of material of which I speak, than I do. Take 

 mammals, for example, there can be no question about 

 the desirability of collecting both alcoholic specimens, 

 skins, and skeletons of all the mammals possible, in an 

 country; of naming them, describing them and classify- 

 ing them, as far as the material will admit. Yet, some- 

 times, it is very discouraging to go into our large 

 museums, and, upon examining those specimens, to find 

 really how very little we know of the life-histories, the 

 intimate habits, or even the geographical distribution of 

 the specimens that have been so carefully collected. In 

 this country we are, even to-day, wonderfully ignorant of 

 many of the habits of some of our commonest and most 

 abundant mammals, and, especially, the smaller varieties 

 of them, though what I have said is equally applicable to 

 many of the larger forms. 



In the. majority of instances in the case of the latter 

 this is very unfortunate, as all over the world many of 

 them are rapidly becoming extinct, and some, indeed, 

 have become quite so, even within very recent times. 

 Not only is it very essential that we should possess as 

 complete accounts as possible of the entire morphology 

 of all the forms to which I have reference, but upon all 

 occasions, wherever and whenever opportunity offers, 

 both in Nature and in the zoological gardens, we should 

 make most careful observations upon every trait any par- 

 ticular animal exhibits. And, above* all else, such studies 

 should be made comparative and the comparisons based 

 upon true scientific methods. It is desirable to know as 

 accurately as possible the exact geographical range and 

 distribution of each species; its relative abundance; its 

 rate of increase or decrease, as the case may present; its 

 enemies and the animals which it itself in turn attacks; 

 the diseases and parasites to which it is subject; its food 

 at various seasons of the years, and its choice of one food 

 when deprived by any cause of another; its habits as 

 affected by. the seasons, by the elements and by vicissi- 

 tudes of climate; its peculiar habits; its habits in confine- 

 ment and its diurnal and nocturnal habits; its changes of. 

 pelage; all that refers to its reproduction, development, 

 relations of the sexes and their behavior when associated; 



