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                     [Illustration: frontispiece]




                             MRS. LOUDON’S
                       ENTERTAINING NATURALIST,
                                 BEING
                   POPULAR DESCRIPTIONS, TALES, AND
                               ANECDOTES

                             OF MORE THAN

                         FIVE HUNDRED ANIMALS.

                _A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED_.

                                  BY

                         W. S. DALLAS, F.L.S.

                                LONDON:
             BELL & DALDY, 6, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN,

                                 1867.


      LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
                          AND CHARING CROSS.





_PREFACE._


MRS. LOUDON’S _Entertaining Naturalist_ has been so deservedly popular
that the publishers, in preparing a new edition, have striven to render
it still more worthy of the reputation it has obtained. For this
purpose, it has been very thoroughly revised and enlarged by Mr. W. S.
Dallas, Member of the Zoological Society, and Curator of the Museum of
Natural History at York, and several illustrations have been added.

In its present form, it is not only a complete Popular Natural History
of an entertaining character, with an illustration of nearly every
animal mentioned, but its instructive introductions on the
Classification of Animals adapt it well for use as an elementary Manual
of the Natural History of the Animal Kingdom for the use of the Young.







INTRODUCTION.


ZOOLOGY is that branch of Natural History which treats of animals, and
embraces not only their structure and functions, their habits,
instincts, and utility, but their names and systematic arrangement.

Various systems have been proposed by different naturalists for the
scientific arrangement of the animal kingdom, but that of Cuvier, with
some modifications, is now thought the best, and a sketch of it will be
found under the head of the Modern System in this Introduction. As,
however, the System of Linnæus was formerly in general use, and is still
often referred to, it has been thought advisable to give a sketch of it
first; that the reader may be aware of the difference between the old
system and the new one.


_LINNÆAN SYSTEM._

According to the system of Linnæus, the objects comprehended within the
animal kingdom were divided into six classes: Mammalia or Mammiferous
Animals, Birds, Amphibia or Amphibious Animals, Fishes, Insects, and
Worms, which were thus distinguished:

CLASSES.

       { With vertebræ   { Hot Blood        { Viviparous         I. MAMMALIA.
       {                 {                  { Oviparous         II. BIRDS.
  Body {                 { Cold red Blood   { With lungs       III. AMPHIBIA.
       {                                    { With gills        IV. FISHES.
       { Without vertebræ  Cold white Blood { Having antennæ     V. INSECTS.
                                            { Having tentacula  VI. WORMS.


ORDERS OF MAMMALIA.

The first class, or Mammalia, consists of such animals as produce living
offspring, and nourish their young ones with milk supplied from their
own bodies; and it comprises both the quadrupeds and the cetacea.

This class was divided by Linnæus into seven Orders: viz. _primates_,
_bruta_, _feræ_, _glires_, _pecora_, _belluæ_, and _cetacea_ (this order
was called Cete by Linnæus) or whales. The characteristics of these were
founded, for the most part, on the number and arrangement of the teeth;
and on the form and construction of the feet, or of those parts in the
seals, manati, and cetacea, which supply the place of feet:

     I. PRIMATES.--Having the upper front teeth, generally four in
     number, wedge-shaped, and parallel; and two teats situated on the
     breast, as the apes and monkeys.

     II. BRUTA.--Having no front teeth in either jaw; and the feet armed
     with strong hoof-like nails, as the elephant.

     III. FERÆ.--Having in general six front teeth in each jaw; a single
     canine tooth on each side in both jaws; and the grinders with conic
     projections, as the dogs and cats.

     IV. GLIRES.--Having in each jaw two long projecting front teeth,
     which stand close together; and no canine teeth in either jaw, as
     the rats and mice.

     V. PECORA.--Having no front teeth in the upper jaw; six or eight in
     the lower jaw, situated at a considerable distance from the
     grinders; and the feet with hoofs, as cattle and sheep.

     VI. BELLUÆ.--Having blunt wedge-shaped front teeth in both jaws;
     and the feet with hoofs, as horses.

     VII. CETACEA.--Having spiracles or breathing-holes on the head;
     fins instead of fore feet; and a tail flattened horizontally,
