The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America / by William T. Hornaday ... illustrated by 227 original drawings by Beard, Rungius, Sawyer, and others, 116 photographs, chiefly by Sanborn, Keller and Underwood, and numerous charts and maps.

William Temple Hornaday

Date:: 1904

Credit: The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America / by William T. Hornaday ... illustrated by 227 original drawings by Beard, Rungius, Sawyer, and others, 116 photographs, chiefly by Sanborn, Keller and Underwood, and numerous charts and maps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

27/486

$order that we may understand their proper relationships, and their places in Nature, we must learn and remember the general principles of animal classification. Without this foundation knowl- edge, a clear view of the splendid domain of animal life is impossible, and the life histories of our living creatures will be but a jumble of disconnected facts, of very slight practical use. Wlien properly simplified, the classification of the principal groups of our vertebrate animals is as easily learned and remembered as the leading facts of geography. Once learned, each animal observed thereafter can be located in the group to which it belongs, and its place in Nature under- stood. This helps toward e.xact knowledge of its anatomy and habits. \o-men'cla-turc is the naming of animals, and the groups to which they belong. The object of popular nomenclature, or naming, is to make the place and character of an animal clearly and correctly understood by the greatest possible number of people. Scientific nomenclature relates to the use of technical names, in Latin or Greek, in which the general student is not often interested. Whenever through frequent or frivolous changes of scientific names, or by the giving of too great a number of them, our knowledge of animals becomes confused and uncertain, scientific classification defeats its own object, and becomes worse than useless. The observance by technical writers of the fatal rule of priority, by which the most obscure names often are exalted at the expense of more appropriate names in universal use, is rapidly debasing the legitimate value of Latin names generally, and creating wide-spread uncertainty and confusion. Latin words are used for most scientific names, because Latin is the universal language of scien- tific men, the world over; and Latin names are used by all educated nations without change in form. In the development of animal classification, the various elasses of animals are subdivided into groups which graduall}' grow smaller, until at last each species is named and placed, thus: Classes are divided into Orders: Orders “ “ Families “ “ Genera “ “ Sj)ecies “ “ .\s an example, take the Puma, or Mountain “ Lion Families: Genera (singular = genus); Species (singular = species): Individuals. Its Order is FE'R.VE, the wild beasts. “ Family is Fe'li-dae, the Cats. “ Genus is I'e'lis, the true Cats. “ Species is concolor, gray. “ Scientific name, therefore, is Felis concolor. .\11 these groups are divided into subdivisions, such as suborders, subfamilies, subgenera, and even subspecies; but in the writer’s opinion there is very little excuse for their creation, or for their continued existence, and the student will do well to let them alone—until he feels the need for them. ■V (au'lo-nt/m is a scientific name in which the name of the genus is repeated as the name of the species. Thus, .some authors write the Latin name of the .\merican Bison as Bison bison; and the Anhinga is .\nhinga nnhinga. In .America, the tautonym habit is merely another step toward the complete demoralization of zoological nomenclature. .4 Iri-no'mial is a name in three sections, applied to a sub.species; such as Felis concolor oregonensis. By .scientific authors, species are frequently divided into subspecies, or races, because in w'idely separated localities, animals of the same parent stock .sometimes are so influenced by differences in climate, food, and surroundings that they assume different colors, or grow larger or .smaller than the type. But, no matter how much individuals may differ in size and color, if it is possible to bring together a collection of specimens which will show all stages of variation from the type to$

The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America / by William T. Hornaday ... illustrated by 227 original drawings by Beard, Rungius, Sawyer, and others, 116 photographs, chiefly by Sanborn, Keller and Underwood, and numerous charts and maps.

Licence and re-use

Contents