PREFACE. 



IN the present Volume I have endeavored to carry out, on a more extended scale, 

 the principle which has been partially indicated in several of my smaller works ; namely, 

 to present to the reader the outlines of zoologic knowledge in a form that shall be readily 

 comprehended, while it is as intrinsically valuable as if it were couched in the most 

 repellent vocabulary of conventional technicalities. In acting thus, an author must 

 voluntarily abnegate the veneration which attaches itself to those who are the accred- 

 ited possessors of abstruse learning, and must content himself with the satisfaction 

 of having achieved the task which has been placed in his hands. In accordance with 

 this principle, the technical language of scientific zoology has been carefully avoided, 

 and English names have been employed wherever practicable in the place of Greek or 

 Latin appellatives. 



The body of the work has been studiously preserved in a simple and readable form, 

 and the more strictly scientific portions have been removed to the " Compendium of 

 Generic Distinctions " at the end of the volume. In this Compendium the reader will 

 find a brief notice of the various characteristics which are employed by our best 

 systematic naturalists, such as Owen, Gray, Van der Hoeven, and others, for the purpose 

 of separating the different genera from each other ; and by its aid he will be enabled 

 to place every animal in that position which it is at present supposed to occupy. Even 

 in that Compendium simplicity of diction has been maintained. For example : the 

 word " five-toed " has been substituted for " pentedactylous ; " "pointed " for "acumi- 

 nate ; " " ringed " for " annulate ; " together with innumerable similar instances which 

 need no separate mention. 



Owing to the inordinate use of pseudo-classical phraseology, the fascinating study 

 of animal life has been too long considered as a profession or a science restricted to a 

 favored few, and interdicted to the many until they have undergone a long apprentice- 

 ship to its preliminary formulae. So deeply rooted is this idea, that the popular notion 

 of a scientific man is of one who possesses a fund of words, and not of one who has 

 gathered a mass of ideas. There is really not the least reason why any one of ordinary 

 capabilities and moderate memory should not be acquainted with the general outlines 

 of zoology, and possess some knowledge of the representative animals, which serve as 

 types of each group, tribe, or family ; for when relieved of the cumbersome diction 

 with which it is embarrassed, the study of animal life can be brought within the com- 



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