12 [LLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. 



and insects, are words familiar to every one, and convey to the minds of those to whom they are 

 addressed a more or less definite idea, according to the preconceived notions of the hearer. 



[ngenioiis authors have, at different times, suggested systems of classification, based upon less 

 obvious analogies. Linnaeus, for instance, long Bince remarked a curious parallel between certain 

 classes of quadrupeds and birds, as well in their structure as their habits and destination in the 

 great economy of animal life. A late writer of distinction, M. Le Maout, in his "Histoire 

 NaturelL des Oiseaux" has exemplified this in an engraving, which we here insert. On the left 



hand, in the top of a palm-tree, is seen a i ikey, and opposite, in a similar situation, is a parrot 



These are severally at the summit of their orders, by reason of their cerebral development They 

 al«> approach each other by their capacity for climbing and their habil of living on fruit; both use 

 their limbs for carrying food to their mouth: both are endowed with the instinct of imitation — the 

 one simulating the gestures of mankind, and the other the human voice. 



The next types, seen in the top of the engra^ ing, are flesh-eater — the leopard and the eagle ; both 

 subsisting upon living prey ; both gifted with the keenest faculties for pursuing and seizing it; both 

 supplied with means to rend and devour it ; both remarkable for their ferocity and their rapid and 

 powerful muscular action. Both are seen pursuing the same game — the antelope of the wilderness. 



The next types are still flesh-eaters, but of an inferior order, and living upon carrion. One con- 

 sists of hyenas, the other of vultures; both cowardly, but voracious, and finding a relish in putre- 

 faction ; both live in the vicinity of man, and serve as scavengers to remove animal matter, that, in 

 its decomposition, might begel pestilence; both are grouped in the engraving as feasting together 

 on the same carcase. 



Tlie next group consists of a tupaia— an animal resembling the squirrel — and a starling; both 

 feeding on insects, and living mostly upon the trees. The next consists of the field-mouse and the 

 sparrow, feeding upon seeds. The next presents a herd of antelopes — ruminants of complex stom- 

 achs, feeding on mountain pasturage, with the gallinaceous nepaul, the two horns of which form a 

 close analogy to these animals. 



Next comes the dromedary, a ruminant without horns, and living upon herbs in the desert; 

 and the ostrich, with its capacious crop, also herbivorous, and making the desert its home. 

 Finally, we have the seal and the penguin, both possessing abortive limits, and both plung 

 under the water for their food. 



These analogies arc curious and striking, but they arc not so obvious and useful, for the basis of 

 scientific arrangement, as the more common grouping to which we have alluded — that of beasts, 

 birds, fishes, and reptiles. The received zoological classification is, in point of fact, to a certain 

 extent, coincident with this popular classification. The latter being the result of observation, the 

 only foundation of natural history, must necessarily be more or less correct, according to the 

 extent to which the different kinds of animals are brought under the notice of mankind; thus we 

 find that tolerably clear notions exist as to the differences between a beast, a bird, and a fish, — 

 these being creatures that pass constantly before our eyes ; although, even with respect to these 

 groups, we find some erroneous ideas to prevail. 



But with respect to insects, and other lower animals with which mankind at large are not 

 familiar, the classification of ordinary language is by no means so precise ; so that while, in the 

 former cases, zoology can adopt the popular groups merely by submitting them to a few modifi- 

 cations, in the latter, science is compelled to invenl a system of its own. 



This scientific classification is not, however, a mere arbitrary arrangement like that of the 

 word- in a dictionary, with the sole object of enabling us to find out all that is known of a given 

 animal in the shortest possible period of time : it lias another and a higher purpose in view — that 

 of showing the mutual relations of the various members of the animal kingdom, and tracing, in a 

 manner, the steps taken by the Creator in the modification of the same type to suit the various 

 conditions in which His creatures were to be placed. 



OF CERTAIN TERMS USKD IX NATURAL HISTORY. ' 



A clear idea of the terms species, variety, genus, family, tribe, order, class, and division, which arc 

 constantly occurring in treatises on natural history, is essential to an understanding of the subject. 



