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 accredited pos- 

 sessors 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 j>osition 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 "pentedac- 

 tylous ;" "pointed" for "acuminate;" "ringed" for "annulate;" together with innumerable similar 

 instances which need no separate mention. 



Owing to the iuordinate 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 apprenticeship to its preliminary formula?. 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 capa- 

 bilities 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 comprehension of all who care to examine the myriad varieties of form and color 

 with which the Almighty clothes His living poems. 



The true object of Zoology is not, as some appear to fancy, to arrange, to number, and to ticket 

 animals in a formal inventory, but to make the study an inquiry into the Life-nature, and not only an 

 investigation of the lifeless organism. I must not, however, be understood to disparage the outward form, 

 thing of clay though it be. For what wondrous clay it is, and how marvellous the continuous miracle by 

 which the dust of earth is transmuted into the glowing colors and graceful forms which we most imper- 

 fectly endeavor to preserve after the soul has departed therefrom. It is a great thing to be acquainted with 

 the material framework of any creature, but it is a far greater to know something of the principle which 

 gave animation to that structure. The former, indeed, is the consequence of the latter. The lion, for 

 example, is not predaceous because it possesses fangs, talons, strength, and activity ; on the contrary, it 



Vol. I. 



