68 ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PROGRESS 



recorded in literature about its structure, habits, economic 

 importance or anything else ; without the correct name we 

 are in the dark and the conclusions we arrive at may be 

 founded on erroneous grounds. It is most important that 

 the anatomist or the physiologist should know exactly what 

 species he is dealing with. In many cases conflicting state- 

 ments that have been made about the structure of an animal, 

 or contradictory observations about its behaviour, have been 

 found to be due to the fact that the species had been 

 wrongly identified. 



An historical case, discussed by Darwin in his Animals and 

 Plants under Domestication, is that of the rabbits introduced 

 from Spain into the island of Porto Santo, near Madeira, just 

 500 years ago. These ran wild and increased at such a rate 

 that they became a pest ; in 1861 two were brought alive to 

 this country and Darwin observed that they were smaller 

 than and differently coloured from the English wild rabbit ; 

 he concluded that a distinct species had evolved on the island 

 of Porto Santo. But this conclusion was wrong, for Mr. 

 Miller, in his Catalogue of the Mammals of Western Europe, 

 tells us that these Porto Santo rabbits are exactly like those 

 of Southern Europe, whence their ancestors came, whilst a 

 larger and somewhat differently coloured race inhabits Central 

 Europe and the British Isles. Contrary to what Darwin 

 believed, the Porto Santo rabbit has not changed at all since 

 its introduction 500 years ago. 



A similar explanation applies to claims made in recent 

 years that new species of fishes have evolved in a comparatively 

 short time, one in a canal in France, another in a lake in 

 Germany ; in each case the wrong species has been selected 

 as the supposed ancestor. 



The relation of systematic zoology to general zoological 

 research may be summarised as follows : the classification of 

 animals is in itself an important and essential part of zoology, 

 and it is of value to all other branches of zoology because by 

 its means animals can be correctly named. I pass then to 

 the second question, the practical value of systematic zoology. 



Economic zoology is sometimes spoken of as a thing apart, 



