ANIMATED NATURE 



125 



interesting. He shows that the leading animal of a typi- 

 cal circle usually has a combination of properties concen- 

 trated in itself, without any of those preponderating re- 

 markably over others. The sub-typical circles, ne says, 

 ""•do not comprise the largest individuals in bulk, but al- 

 ways those which are the most powerfully armed, eithei 

 for inflicting injury on their own class, for exciting terror, 

 producing injury, or creating annoyance to man. Their 

 dispositions are often sanguinary, since the forms most 

 conspicuous among them live by rapine, and subsist on 

 the blood of other animals. They are, in short, symbol- 

 lically types of evil." This symbolical character is most 

 conspicuous*about the centre of the series of gradations 

 Kingdom .... . . Annulosa 



Sub-kingdom . . . Reptilia. 



Class (Mammalia) • . . Ferae. 

 (Aves) ... . . Raptores. 



In the annulosa it is not distinct, although we must also 

 remember that insects do produce enormous ravages and 

 annoyance in many parts of the earth. In the reptilia it 

 is more distinct, since to this class belong the ophidia, 

 (serpents,) an order peculiarly noxious. It comes to a 

 kind of climax in the ferae and raptores, which fulfil the 

 function of butchers among land animals. As we descend 

 through tribes, families, genera, species, it becomes faint- 

 er and fainter, but never altogether vanishes. In the 

 dentirostres, for instance, we have in a subdued form the 

 hooked bill and predaceous character of the raptores ; to 

 this tribe belongs the family of the shrikes, so deadly to 

 all the lesser field birds. In the genus bos, we have, ik 

 the sub-typical group, the bison, " wild, revengeful, and 

 showing an innate detestation of man." In equus, we 

 have, in the same situation, the zebra, which actually 

 shows the stripes of the tiger, and is as remarkable for its 

 wildness as its congeners, the horse and ass, are for their 

 docility and usefulness. To quote again from Mr. Swain- 

 son, 66 the singular threatening aspect which the cater- 

 pillars of the sphinx moth assume on being disturbed, is a 

 remarkable modification of the terrific or evil nature which 

 is impressed in one form or another, palpable or remote, 

 upon all sub-typical groups ; for this division of the 

 lepidopterous order is precisely of this denomination. In 

 the pre-eminent type of this order of insects, the butter- 

 flies, (papilionides,) our associations .ittle prepare us for 



