358 PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ZOOLOGY. 



tions. Mr. Wood has announced the commencement 

 of a general work upon quadrupeds, but I have not yet 

 had the opportunity of seeing the first number. 



(441.) No private individual ever thinks of making 

 a collection of these animals, for a moderate number 

 would fill a house : but a collection of their skulls is 

 within compass, and is both instructive and interesting. 

 The skulls, for instance, of a monkey, a cat, a dolphin 

 or porpoise, a rabbit or hare, and a horse or sheep, will 

 give you the types of the leading divisions of this class, and 

 these are such common animals, that they can be easily 

 procured. Study the differences they exhibit, with a good 

 elementary book before you, and you will learn more 

 about them, in half an hour, than if you read their details 

 in a book for half a day. This is the case in every 

 department, and shows the real use of collections ; you 

 read specimens as you would a book, with this in- 

 calculable advantage, that the eye at once embraces all 

 the information which it will take a page to describe. 



(442.) Ornithology is a very delightful branch, for 

 it concerns the most elegant of those animals which 

 move about us ; and which attract our attention, whether 

 we will or no, either by flitting before our path, singing 

 their pretty song, or coming about our dwellings. Thus 

 the study of our native birds may be prosecuted by 

 all who live in the country : their acquisition, which 

 leads to healthy exercise, is comparatively easy, and 

 their preservation neither difficult nor expensive. If you 

 reside in foreign countries, the study of these lovely 

 and elegant creatures opens a field for much discovery ; 

 while, if you choose to increase your collection of native 

 birds by purchasing foreign ones, their price on the 

 average is very moderate. In a few years, with the 

 requisite knowledge, you may form a very valuable 

 cabinet. 



(443.) The necessity of acquiring a general knowledge 

 of large groups is especially requisite if you study birds. 

 You will very soon understand the difference between a 

 foot formed for swimming, another constructed for 



