NATURAL HISTORY.
MAMMALIA.
By P. H. GOSSE.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION,
APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
GREAT QUEEN-STREET, LINCOLN'S INN-FIELDS, AND 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE;
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
1848.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
PREFACE.
The usefulness of the study of Natural History is now so fully admitted, that it needs not to be recommended. It is a branch of knowledge peculiarly appropriate to youth, inculcating many virtues and graces in a very pleasing manner; while its attractions are proved by the universality of the interest which young people take in its details. And though, in this reading age, works on the classification, structure, economy, and manners of animals are very numerous, yet such is the extent of the subject, and so rapidly are discoveries continually being made, that there is no fear of its becoming exhausted.
The following work embraces all the Families of the Mammalia; each of which is illustrated by a single genus and species; the technical characters of the Class, of the Orders, the Families, and the Genera, are given with scientific accuracy, but in language intelligible to all; their geographical distribution is particularly noticed; and the history of each selected species is given somewhat in detail, and interspersed with characteristic anecdotes. Pictorial illustrations of each species described are added; besides many others which display important peculiarities of anatomical structure.
As far as it has been possible, the Author has drawn his illustrations from British species; for these are within the reach of all: and many young readers, it is hoped, may be induced to verify the statements they read in books, by personal observation of the living types that surround them. By this means, the knowledge acquired will possess an assurance (and a charm also) which mere reading can never bestow.
Finally, the exhibition of the wondrous structure of living beings, and its beautiful and perfect adaptation to the instincts implanted in them, should produce a reverential admiration of God as He has manifested Himself in His works of Creation, and be, under the Divine blessing, one of the means of leading the heart to an acquaintance with His work of Grace.
London, June, 1848.
CONTENTS.
NATURAL HISTORY.
MAMMALIA.
The Class of animals of which the present volume is intended to treat, comprises those which have an internal jointed skeleton of bone; which breathe by means of lungs, through which the whole blood passes at each circulation; and which bring forth and suckle living young.
In common language this class is denominated Quadrupeds or Beasts; terms, which, though sufficiently appropriate as indicating the great majority of its subjects, are not in strictness applicable to it as a whole; for, though the general character of the animals of this division is to possess four extremities, in one important Order, that of the Whales (Cetacea), the hinder pair of limbs is altogether wanting, or only exists in a rudimental condition. The fish-like forms and aquatic habits of these exclude them from the common notion of "Beasts," as much as the absence of hind feet from that of "Quadrupeds;" yet in all characters which are really essential, they do not deviate from the ordinary members of the Class we are about to consider, while in none do they manifest any near affinity to true Fishes. We are therefore constrained to designate the Class by a term founded on the last of the distinctive peculiarities enumerated above.
The sphere of action assigned to the Mammalia is the solid earth, on which they walk or run with various degrees of agility; some, however, burrow beneath its surface, as the Mole; others by a very interesting modification of the ordinary structure, emulate the rapid and continued flight of birds, as the Bats; while yet others, mostly of great bulk, inhabit the ocean, as the Seals and Walruses, the aquatic Pachydermata, and the Cetacea.
Certain important peculiarities of organization require the separation of the Mammalia into two divisions of very unequal extent, which are named Placentalia and Marsupialia. The details of these peculiarities would be unsuitable to the character of the present treatise; the most obvious is the presence of a remarkable pouch on the abdomen of the female in the Marsupialia, in which the teats are situated, and into which the young is transferred, at a very incipient stage of development, and there nourished till it is fully formed and its powers are somewhat matured.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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