420 ENUMERATION OF ANIMALS. 



writers of whatever kind on the mental endowments of animals, 

 I do not think it a waste either of time or space to point oat shortly 

 the nature and causes of the chief difficulties so encountered. 



I. The use by authors of all kinds only of what is, or is sup- 

 posed to be, the common English name of the animal, whose habits 

 form the subject of their comments ; a designation frequently so 

 vague that it may embrace not only many species, but many genera 

 and even orders. Thus, when a writer describes the habits of an 

 ant in this or that country, without giving its scientific or zoological 

 name, we are at a loss to determine to what one of many species 

 and genera, or even, perhaps, to which of two orders, the animal 

 belongs ; for while the true ants belong to the extensive and im- 

 portant order of the Hymenoptera which includes also bees and 

 wasps the wliite ants belong to the smaller and less important 

 order of the Neuroptera. The consequence, then, of numerous 

 authors speaking simply of ' ants ' instead of designating the 

 genus and species, is this, in so far as concerns such a table as 

 ours, that the said table omits all the instances in which the generic 

 and specific names are not supplied ; in other words, in this single 

 category of ants, the omissions are infinitely more numerous than 

 the species scheduled. 



The number and variety of both genera, and species that may 

 be included in a single general common English name may be illus- 

 trated by such cases as these : among 



1. Coelenterata sea anemones. 



2. Annuloida starfish, hydatids. 



3. Annulosa spiders, worms, crabs. 



4. Insects bees, wasps, beetles, butterflies, moths, flies. 



5. Mollusca snails, slugs. 



6. Fish sharks, salmon, rays. 



7. Amphibia frogs. 



8. Reptiles serpents, snakes, vipers, boas, lizards, tortoises. 



and turtles. 



9. Birds waterfowl, sparrows, albatrosses, ducks, vultures. 



kingfishers, pigeons and doves, crows, gulls, parrots and 

 parroquets, eagles, falcons and hawks, grouse, larks, 

 thrushes, owls, swallows, swifts and martins, partridges 

 and pheasants. 



10. Mammals apes, monkeys, baboons and gibbons, deer, 

 antelopes and goats, rats and mice, whales and seals, 

 bears, bats, marmots. 



Ignoring then the fact that the same common English name may 

 and does refer, in different localities or countries, frequently to 



