THE HAUNTS OF ANIMALS 



BY J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. 



Professor of Natural History, University of Aberdeen 



CHAPTER XX 



Introductory Note. Prominence has been given in this book to 

 " plant associations/' and to the adaptation of plants to particular 

 surroundings. Animals must be considered from the same point 

 of view. This has been done in part in treating of the several 

 classes, e.g. of birds and mammals, and in part in that section of 

 the book which deals with the observational study of animals 

 in aquaria. What is proposed in this chapter is to indicate 

 briefly how the distribution of animals in various kinds of haunts 

 may be brought within the scope of reasonable " Nature 

 Study." 



The Chief Haunts of Animal Life. It is useful to begin by 

 recognising, as vividly as possible, that there are six chief haunts 

 of animal life, namely, the seashore area in the wide sense, the 

 open sea, the deep sea, the fresh waters, the dry land, and the 

 air. There are, it is true, other haunts of animals, e.g. in 

 brackish water, in caves, inside other creatures, and so on ; but 

 the chief haunts are the six which we have mentioned. 



1. The seashore, with its littoral fauna. 



2. The open sea, with its pelagic fauna. 



3. The deep sea, with its abyssal fauna. 



4. The rivers, lakes, ponds, etc., with their freshwater fauna. 

 5- The dry land, with its terrestrial fauna. 



6. The air with its aerial fauna. 





