VOLUME TWELVE
P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY NEW YORK
Copyright 1922 BY P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY
MANUFACTURED IN U. S. A.
ZOÖLOGY
THE SCIENCE OF ANIMAL LIFE
BY ERNEST INGERSOLL
P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY NEW YORK
PREFACE
In this volume, occupying the place in the series assigned to the subject "Zoölogy," the writer was called upon to survey the whole range of animal life on the globe, and to keep in view the fact that these books were to be a library of science. The casual reader, with no particular interest in natural history, seeks in such a book little more than stories of animal life thought of mainly as "big game," with an appetite for the adventurous and wonderful. But beasts and birds and snakes, although they number in the aggregate thousands of kinds, are but few compared with the almost innumerable hosts of the lower orders of animal life that dwell in the wildernesses of the world, or throng in the seas, or hover about us in the air; yet they are a part of the zoölogy of the globe, and a most important part. Although they may rarely have the picturesque interest that attaches to the vertebrate groups, they exhibit great beauty in many cases, and are the foundation on which the others rest, for they furnish the food on which the more highly organized creatures subsist. To the student this lower half is often more attractive than the upper half; and the history and philosophy of animal life could not be understood unless it was fully considered. The author has therefore devoted a proportionate space to the lower orders, at the expense of detailed descriptions of birds and beasts, knowing that these are easily accessible elsewhere. The arrangement of the matter in the volume is according to the latest results of critics of classification, and it illustrates, as well as any lineal arrangement can, the principle of the development of the higher classes from the inferior by a gradual evolution toward more and more complex forms. Space did not permit of much exposition of methods of development, as revealed by fossils; and the volume on Paleontology should be read in connection with this one.
ERNEST INGERSOLL.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. HOW THE GLOBE WAS STOCKED WITH LIFE 9
II. THE SEA A VAST AQUARIUM 16
III. A CHAPTER OF FOUNDATIONS 25
IV. THE HUMBLEST OF ANIMALS--SPONGES 30
V. FLOWERS OF THE SEA 33
VI. UNINVITED GUESTS 44
VII. DWELLERS BETWEEN TIDE MARKS 46
VIII. BUILDERS OF THE PEARLY SHELLS 57
IX. BUILDERS OF THE PEARLY SHELLS--_Continued_ 64
X. ANIMALS WITH JOINTED FRAMES 81
XI. FROM BUTTERFLIES TO BEETLES AND BEES 99
XII. AT THE DOORWAY OF THE "UPPER CLASSES" 127
XIII. FISHES--THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE WATERS 132
XIV. SHARKS--THE TIGERS OF THE SEA 142
XV. THE FEARFUL DEVILFISH AND OTHER RAYS 148
XVI. BONY FISHES--TELEOSTOMI 151
XVII. MODERN FISHES--TELEOSTEI 154
XVIII. AMPHIBIANS--A CONNECTING LINK 167
XIX. AMPHIBIANS--_Continued_ 174
XX. REPTILES--MONARCHS OF THE MESOZOIC WORLD 182
XXI. SERPENTS, GOOD AND BAD 211
XXII. BIRDS--KINGS OF THE AIR 239
XXIII. SOME NOTABLE WATER BIRDS 250
XXIV. VULTURES, FALCONS, AND GAME BIRDS 260
XXV. FROM GULLS TO KINGFISHERS 264
XXVI. PASSERINE BIRDS 268
XXVII. THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD--SOME PRIMITIVE TYPES 270
XXVIII. THE GNAWERS 285
XXIX. MAMMALS OF THE SEA 297
XXX. THE WORLD'S HERDS AND FLOCKS 300
XXXI. THE WORLD'S HERDS AND FLOCKS--_Continued_ 313
XXXII. SOME SUPREMELY USEFUL ANIMALS 324
XXXIII. BEASTS OF PREY--THE CARNIVORA 332
XXXIV. BEASTS OF PREY--_Continued_ 354
XXXV. INSECTIVORA--HEDGEHOGS, MOLES, AND SHREWS 366
XXXVI. THE BATS--WING-HANDED MAMMALS 369
XXXVII. MAN'S HUMBLE COUSINS 373
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
GIRAFFES, IN THEIR NATIVE AFRICAN HAUNTS _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
STARFISH AND OTHER TYPICAL LIFE IN A TIDE POOL 48
CORAL FORMATIONS OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, AUSTRALIA 49
CATERPILLAR BEGINNING TO WEAVE ITS COCOON 118
MOTH AND EGGS 119
CATERPILLAR PROTECTED BY FORM AND COLOR RESEMBLING THE TWIGS OF A TREE 148
SEA HORSE PROTECTED BY FORM AND COLOR RESEMBLING THE MARINE PLANTS AMONG WHICH IT LIVES 148
GILA MONSTER, FEARED, THOUGH ITS BITE IS NOT ALWAYS DEADLY TO MAN 149
IGUANA, A REMARKABLE LIZARD OF THE NEW WORLD 149
PELICAN, NOTABLE FOR ITS THROAT POUCH 248
PEACOCK WITH BRILLIANT TAIL SPREAD 249
SACRED PHEASANT 249
OPOSSUM MOTHER AND YOUNG 272
ANTEATER, WHICH LIVES ON INSECTS CAUGHT IN THE STICKY SALIVA OF ITS LONG TONGUE 273
SLOTH, AN ANIMAL WHICH KEEPS TO TREES AND IS ALMOST HELPLESS ON THE GROUND 273
WART HOG, ONE OF THE UGLIEST ANIMALS TO SEE 304
MALAY TAPIR, RELATED TO THE PIG AND THE RHINOCEROS 304
MARKHOR, AN ASIATIC WILD GOAT 305
MOUNTAIN SHEEP OR BIGHORN OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 305
THE KUDU, OR STRIPED ANTELOPE, OF AFRICA 312
HEAD OF THE GREATER SABLE ANTELOPE 312
HEAD OF ALASKAN MOOSE 312
AXIS, OR SPOTTED DEER OF THE EAST INDIES 313
AMERICAN DEER WITH HORNS IN VELVET 313
WOLVES IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA 336
BEAR IN A ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOREST 337
BAT, WITH YOUNG BAT IN EACH POUCH 352
BLACK SPIDER MONKEY 353
RUFFED LEMUR, ATTRACTIVE BY ITS COLORING 353
MANDRILL, MOUTH OPEN TO SNARL 368
GORILLA, SOMEWHAT THOUGHTFUL 368
CHIMPANZEES, IMITATING SOME OF THE WAYS OF MAN 369