CHAPTER LXXIV 



UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY— ANIMAL PRODUCTS USED FOR 

 DECORATIVE PURPOSES— ANIMAL ESTHETICS 



We have here first to consider the chief animal products 

 employed for decorative purposes, and afterwards briefly to 

 review the principles of Animal /Esthetics. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTS USED FOR DECORATIVE PURPOSES 



A number of animal products which were originally valued 

 by mankind chiefly as ministering' to the primary necessities of 

 life, now derive their main worth from the ornamental or decora- 

 tive possibilities they present, or they are, at any rate, in increased 

 demand on that account. Furs, horns, silk, and the skins of 

 some birds belong to this category (see pp. 303, 310, 259, and 

 308). 



We are especially concerned in this chapter with products 

 which from the first have been employed by way of ornament 

 or decoration, sometimes also as a means of heightening the 

 attractions of materials of other kind. 



Decorative Products of Mammals (Mammalia). — Some 

 Mammals have been ruthlessly hunted down by man for the sake 

 of the ivory furnished by their teeth. Prominent among these 

 are the Elephants [Elcphas), and, as will be gathered from fig. 

 1277, the tusks of the African species may attain very large 

 dimensions. The extinct Mammoth {^E. priinigcnms) has also 

 long been known as a source of "fossil ivory". The tusks of 

 Walrus {Trichcclms rosinar-iis) furnish a further supply, as does 

 the long spirally-grooved "horn" of the male Narwhal {Monodon 

 monoceros), of which two are occasionally present in the same 

 animal. While the tusks of the Walrus are canine teeth, those 

 of the other animals mentioned are incisors. 



