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                             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,
     instead of hind feet. This order consists of the narvals, whales,
     cachalots, and dolphins.


ORDERS OF BIRDS.

The second class, or Birds, comprises all such animals as have their
bodies clad with feathers. Their jaws are elongated, and covered
externally with a horny substance, called a bill or beak, which is
divided into two parts called mandibles. Their eyes are furnished with a
thin, whitish, and somewhat transparent membrane, that can at pleasure
be drawn over the whole external surface like a curtain. Their organs of
motion are two wings and two legs; and they are destitute of external
ears, lips, and many other parts which are important to quadrupeds. That
part of Zoology which treats of Birds is called Ornithology.

Linnæus divided this class into six Orders:


1. _Land Birds._

     I. RAPACIOUS BIRDS (_Accipitres_).--Having the upper mandible
     hooked, and an angular projection on each side near the point, as
     the eagles, hawks, and owls.

     II. PIES (_Picæ_).--Having their bills sharp at the edge, somewhat
     compressed at the sides, and convex on the top, as the crow.

     III. PASSERINE BIRDS (_Passeres_).--Having the bill conical and
     pointed, and the nostrils oval, open, and naked, as the sparrow and
     linnet.


     IV. GALLINACEOUS BIRDS (_Gallinæ_).--Having the upper mandible
     arched, and covering the lower one at the edge, and the nostrils
     arched over with a cartilaginous membrane, as the common poultry.


2. _Water Birds._

     V. WADERS (_Grallæ_).--Having a roundish bill, a fleshy tongue, and
     the legs naked above the knees, as the herons, plovers, and snipes.

     VI. SWIMMERS (_Anseres_).--Having their bills broad at the top, and
     covered with a soft skin, and the feet webbed, as ducks and geese.


ORDERS OF AMPHIBIA.

Under the third class, or Amphibia, Linnæus arranged such animals as
have a cold, and, generally, naked body, a lurid colour, and nauseous
smell. They respire chiefly by lungs, but they have the power of
suspending respiration for a long time. They are extremely tenacious of
life, and can repair certain parts of their bodies which have been lost.
They are also able to endure hunger, sometimes even for months, without
injury.

The bodies of some of them, as the turtles and tortoises, are protected
by a hard and horny shield or covering; those of others are clad with
scales, as the serpents, and some of the lizards; whilst others, as the
frogs, toads, and most of the water-lizards, are entirely naked, or have
their skin covered with warts. Many of the species shed their skins at
certain times of the year. Several of them are furnished with a poison,
which they eject into wounds that are made by their teeth. They chiefly
live in retired, watery, and marshy places; and, for the most part, feed
on other animals, though some of them eat water-plants, and many feed on
garbage and filth. None of these species chew their food; they swallow
it whole, and digest it very slowly.

The offspring of all these animals are produced from eggs, which, after
they have been deposited by the parent animals in a proper place, are
hatched by the heat of the sun. The eggs of some of the species are
covered with a shell; those of others have a soft and tough skin or
covering, not much unlike wet parchment; and the eggs of several are
perfectly gelatinous. In those few that produce their offspring alive,
as the vipers and some other serpents, the eggs are regularly formed,
but are hatched within the bodies of the females.

This class Linnæus divided into three Orders:

     I. REPTILES.--Having four legs, and walking with a crawling pace,
     as the tortoises, toads, and lizards.

     II. SERPENTS.--Having no legs, but crawling on the body.

     III. NANTES.--Living in the water, furnished with fins, and
     breathing by means of gills. These are true Fishes, principally of
     the group termed _Chondropterygii_, or Cartilaginous Fishes, by
     Cuvier.



ORDERS OF FISHES.

Fishes constituted Linnæus’s fourth class of animals. They are all
inhabitants of the water, in which they move by certain organs called
fins. Those situated on the back are called dorsal fins; those on the
sides, behind the gills, pectoral fins; those below the body, near the
head, are ventral; those behind the vent are anal; and that which forms
the tail is called the caudal fin. Fishes breathe by gills, which, in
most species, are situated at the sides of the head. Fishes rise and
sink in the water, generally by a kind of bladder in the interior of the
body, called an air-bladder. Some of them do not possess this organ, and
consequently are seldom found but at the bottom of the sea, from which
they can only rise by an effort. The bodies of these animals are usually
covered with scales, which keep them from injury by the contact of the
water.

The fishes were divided by Linnæus into four Orders:

     I. APODAL.--Having no ventral fins, as the eel.

     II. JUGULAR.--Having the ventral fins situated in front of the
     pectoral fins, as the cod, haddock, and whiting.

     III