INTRODUCTION 



The arrangement, presentation, and. selection of the subject-matter 

 in the present text-book have been determined by the experience 

 gained from the labors of ten years in the class room with the grade 

 of students for whom this work is intended. In fact, the text is 

 simply a more orderly discussion of the same subjects in the same 

 sequence that have been presented for ten years to successive classes 

 in elementary zoology. The author, in his work with these students, 

 has attempted to interpret, with much thought and care, the zoologi- 

 cal demands of such students according to their average' receptivities 

 and practical needs rather than by any preconceived ideas of what 

 constitutes a knowledge of zoology. The aim has been to create an 

 interest in nature, beget an acquaintance with the lives, habits, and 

 activities of animals, train the powers of observation, quicken the 

 judgment, widen the horizon of environment, augment the capabili- 

 ties for independent thinking, and inculcate an unswerving regard 

 for the truth. 



The instruction that a potential citizen receives in zoology must 

 give tnore than a mere acquaintance with animals. If the study of 

 this science does not accomplish the objects enumerated in the fore- 

 going paragraph, it loses its highest value as an educational subject 

 in the curricula of the common schools. That the study of zoology 

 may fuilill its function as a subject of mental discipline and, at the 

 same time, give to that large majority of pupils who become " ordinary 

 citizens '' an acquaintance with animals, the author has been led, from 

 his experience in teaching, to include in a zoological course a goodly 

 amount of natural history and comparative anatomy, a large share of 

 animal ecology, economic zoology and physiology, a moderate amount 

 of classification, embryology, and paleontology, something of the 

 history of zoology, and, through all, a persistent presentation of the 

 relationships of animals and of the manner in which tliey have been 

 evolved. To present the foregoing divisions of the subject-matter of 

 zoology in their proper relations and proportions is indeed a difficult 

 task, and one which, at best, is open to criticism ; but it is hoped that 

 the pupils who follow the course here laid down will gain an acquaint- 

 ance with animals and acquire an interest in them, and, at the same 

 time, receive that mental discipline which they would derive from 

 the pursuit of other studies. 



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