THE STUDY OF ANIMALS 15 



however, from geological evidence, that animals of the kind 

 formerly existed in North America, Europe, and Asia, and their 

 present occurrence in two widely isolated areas is thus explained, 

 extinction (dying out) having taken place in the intervening tracts 

 owing to the competition of other forms of life. 



{b) Distribution in Time. — As will be fully explained in the sequel 

 the study of geology enables us to some extent to carry back the 

 study of animal life to periods immensely remote from the present, 

 and to construct a history of animals in chronological order. As, 

 from an evolutionary stand-point, we might expect, there has been 

 on the whole a progress from low to high, and it is even possible 

 to work out with some approach to accuracy the pedigrees of 

 certain existing groups. We learn that some forms, including 

 Man himself, are of comparatively recent origin, while, on the 

 other hand, there are many groups of animals which have no living 

 representatives. Much light is also thrown, as indicated above 

 in the case of the tapirs, upon problems of distribution in space. 



7. The UtilitaHan Stand-point. — We may include under this 

 heading not only economic zoology, dealing with the animal 

 kingdom as a source of food, clothing, ornament, &c., but also 

 facts regarding animals as they appeal to the sportsman, the 

 keeper of pets, and the lover of the beautiful. 



Economic zoology, though largely statistical, also involves 

 issues of more general interest, such as the improvement of farm 

 stock, fish-hatching, oyster culture, and bee-keeping. Facts ob- 

 served from a purely practical stand-point in these and other 

 departments of applied zoology have often proved invaluable to 

 theorists, as appears abundantly in the pages of Darwin's great 

 work, Plants and Animals under Domestication; while, on the 

 other hand, researches conducted by theorists have repeatedly 

 borne practical fruit. 



As regards animals in a sporting connection, it commonly 

 happens that sportsman and naturalist are combined in the same 

 individual, and our knowledge of the habits of piany animals is 

 largely derived from this source. Such books as Sir Samuel 

 Baker's Wild Beasts and their Ways, Shield's The Big Game of 

 North America, and Chapman's Wild Norway, Wild Spain, and 

 Bird-life of the Borders, among innumerable others, illustrate this 

 point. 



Animal Esthetics, dealing with animals as objects of beauty, 



