358 PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ZOOLOGY. 
tions. Mr. Wood has announced the commencement 
of a general work upon quadrupeds, but I have not yet 
had the opportunity of seeing the first number. 
(441.) No private individual ever thinks of making 
a collection of these animals, for a moderate number 
would fill a house: but a collection of their skulls is 
within compass, and is both instructive and interesting. 
The skulls, for instance, of a monkey, a cat, a dolphin 
or porpoise, a rabbit or hare, and a horse or sheep, will 
give you the types of the leading divisions of this class, and 
these are such common animals, that they can be easily 
procured. Study the differences they exhibit, with a good 
elementary book before you, and you will learn more 
about them, in half an hour, than if you read their details 
in a book for half a day. This is the case in every 
department, and shows the real use of collections ; you 
read specimens as you would a book,—with this in- 
calculable advantage, that the eye at once embraces all 
the information which it will take a page to describe. | 
(442.) Ornithology is a very delightful branch, for 
it concerns the most elegant of those animals which 
move about us ; and which attract our attention, whether 
we will or no, either by flitting before our path, singing 
their pretty song, or coming about our dwellings. Thus 
the study of our native birds may be prosecuted by 
all who live in the country: their acquisition, which 
leads to healthy exercise, is comparatively easy, and 
their preservation neither difficult nor expensive. If you 
reside in foreign countries, the study of these lovely 
and elegant creatures opens a field for much discovery ; 
while, if you choose to increase your collection of native 
birds by purchasing foreign ones, their price on the 
average is very moderate. In a few years, with the 
requisite knowledge, you may form a very valuable 
cabinet. 
(443.) The necessity of acquiring a general knowledge 
of large groups is especially requisite if you study birds. 
You will very soon understand the difference between a 
foot formed for swimming, another constructed for 
