MAMMALS 



BY W. P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S. 



Assistant in Charge of the Osteological Collections, British Museum 



(Natural History) 



CHAPTER II 

 BEASTS OF THE FIELD 



THAT Nature Study, properly taught, is one of the best possible 

 means of training children to use their powers of observation, 

 and of inculcating precise methods of thinking, there can be no 

 question. But, in one particular, those who have undertaken 

 this very difficult task seem to have adopted a quite inexplic- 

 able position. Briefly, they have chosen, most unreasonably, to 

 foster the old and most confusing use of the term animal. The 

 writer of these lines is almost daily brought into contact, in an 

 official capacity, with teachers who use this word as though it 

 designated, not all living organisms which cannot be described 

 as plants, but only such as horses, oxen, dogs, and so on ; the 

 rest of the animal kingdom being made up according to triis 

 standard, of birds, reptiles, fishes and so on. 



But surely if children are to be taught to value the use of 

 words, and to be methodical and discriminating in that use, it is 

 time that this state of things was changed ; that, in short, they 

 should be made to understand, and grow familiar with, the use 

 of the word Mammal as a word of the same value as bird, reptile, 

 fish, etc. They should be taught that an elephant and eel are 

 alike animals, but that the one belongs to the group of animals 

 known as mammals, and the other to the group known as fishes. 



It is assumed that the aim of the teachers of Nature Study is 

 to inculcate, as we have already remarked, habits of observation ; 

 and further, to enable their scholars to take a deeper interest in 

 living creatures. This they cannot effectually do unless they can 

 form a mental image of the essential differences between the 



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