Our Animal Friends.
OUR animal friends are usually supposed to be included in the home pets, and the domestic animals which are useful to us in so many ways; but when we learn how closely some of the wildest and fiercest of animals are of the greatest benefit to mankind, how they resemble us in the formation of their bodies, and in the care and love for their little ones, how the many different kinds of animals scattered all over the world are related to each other, and how they are divided into families, we will have a more friendly feeling toward all the wonderful creatures which are often looked upon as the enemies of mankind, and a greater interest in their habits and lives in their native homes.
In this little volume of Natural History we will not only study our animal friends as individuals, but will learn of their relationship to each other, carefully arranged and classified, but much more easily understood, than the classification found in the numerous great volumes of encyclopedia of Natural History.
We are always interested in the relatives of our human friends; even their distant relations living in far off countries soon have a special interest for us when they are closely connected to our friends, and we are constantly learning of their manner of living and their doings in distant lands. In the same manner we find new interest in the fierce wild animals of other countries when we learn how they are related to our domestic animals and home pets.
We find that not only the Wild Cats, but the fierce Lions, Tigers, Panthers, Leopards, Lynxes, Pumas, Jaguars, and many smaller animals, belong to the same family as our pet Cats. The Wolf, Jackal, Hyena, and many different kinds of Foxes are all closely related to our good friends, the Dogs. The Sheep and Cows have some very fierce relations in distant countries, as the Gnu and Yak and Bison, and also some very accommodating and useful relations, like the Camel, Dromedary, Llama and Paca, who are as helpful to their masters and owners as the domestic animals of this country. We would not suppose at first thought that our Horses belong to the same family as the Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Elephant, and the Tapir and many smaller animals which are classified with them, besides the different kinds of Ponies, Donkeys, and the Dauw and Quagga and Zebra.
It is this classification into families, by the use of Latin words, that makes the study of Natural History so difficult to many who are interested in our animal friends, but do not know just how to find out about them without first wading through quantities of long, hard names, that seem to have very little use, except to puzzle the reader. As one of these interested readers recently remarked while delving away at an encyclopedia to learn something of an animal in which he wasespecially interested: “I believe the writer of that article just used all those big words to show off, and try to make people believe he knows more than any one else.”
This does seem to be the case at times, but many of these hard Latin words are often really necessary to make us acquainted with particular kinds of animals and their families; and we will use only the absolutely necessary ones in this book, and master them together, with the different scientific terms explained and made easy to understand, even in the index. Then after mastering these general terms for dividing animals into families, the study of scientific works on Natural History will not be so difficult; for the animals are as carefully classified here, from the works of famous Naturalists, as in those larger volumes, although the Latin names are used only when it is necessary to distinguish different animals that are very much alike, or to divide them into families.
There is a very good reason for the hard words and sometimes whole sentences ofunpronounceable Greek and Latin, often used to describe a single little animal—the Greek and Latin language is studied and understood by scholars of every other language. If the great Naturalist, Linnaeus, had written in Swedish or German, only a Swede or a German could have understood his meaning. To talk to a Spaniard or a Frenchman about a “River Horse,” giving its English name, would not give him any idea of the animal described, but call it a Hippopotamus (which is derived from two Greek words meaning horse and river,) and he would at once understand the nature of the animal.
It is the same with the classification of the different animals. The English and French and German Naturalists differ in their manner of arranging into families—according to the formation of the bodies of various animals, their manner of moving, what they eat, the number of their teeth, the shape of their feet, etc., but it was from the Latin and Greek terms that the names of these divisions were taken for all the different languages in which works of Natural History have been written. Take the first great division—the Mammalia—and it is found that the term is used by Naturalists in all languages, and that it comes from the Latin word mamma, meaning “the breast.” And we find that all animals grouped under this great class are fed on their mother’s milk while they are too small to eat the vegetable and animal food on which the father and mother live. This is very different from the birds who carry the same food that the father and mother eat (the worms and insects) and place it in the mouth of the baby bird; and the fowls who teach their little ones to scratch and pick up their food from the ground. And while the little ones of the birds and fishes and the smaller orders of creation develop rapidly and are soon able to take care of themselves, the babies of some of the larger animals are almost as helpless as human babies, and feed on their mother’s milk for many months before their teeth are well formed and they are strong enough for other food. We often see pictures of Lions and other fierce beasts tearing dead animals to pieces to feed their little ones, but this is only after their teeth begin to grow, and like the babies of the human family they are old enough to feed at the same table and eat the same kind of food as older members of the family.
Many do not realize what a great number of our animal friends belong to this great family of Mammals or Mammalia, from the Moles and the Bats to the huge Mastodons of past ages. Even some of the large water animals are included in it, like the Seals, the Whales and their numerous relatives—the Dolphins, Porpoises, Narwhals, etc. The latter are usually called fishes by those who do not understand this division into orders and families; they are not fishes, however, but belong to the Water Mammalia. And in dividing this book into Animals, Birds and Fishes, all these members of the Whale family will be found where they belong with the great family of Mammalia.
Then after classifying all Mammals both of land and water under the one great family, or order, the Latin terms help to sub-divide them into smaller families, more closely related, in such a manner that all the readers of different languages may understand the meaning of the words because of their Greek or Latin origin. Thus we know that a quadruped is a four footed animal because the term comes from the Latin wordsquatuor, four, and pes, pedis, a foot. And the term quadrumane comes from quatuor, four, and manus, a hand, which makes it easy to understand that all the animals classified under “Quadrumana” belong to the monkey family, who have four hands instead of four feet, with regular thumbs and fingers on the hind hands (which are usually known as feet) as well as on the front ones. Thus the word Quadrumana distinguishes this whole four-handed family from the Bimanes, or two-handed family, to which mankind belongs (making an order by itself) and the Quadrupeds, or the great four-footed family.
In the same manner the family to which the Horses belong are not only quadrupeds, but they have very thick skin. They are, therefore, classified under the term Pachydermata, made up of two Greek words meaning thick and skin. We often find many of the Mammalia arranged in orders, or large groups, before being divided and sub-divided into families and smaller groups. Thus the Dog family and the Cat family are both included under the order of Carnivora, or carnivorous quadrupeds, which is derived from the two Latin words caro, carnis, flesh, and vorare, to devour; and we know that the animals found under this order prefer a diet of flesh food, and devour other animals in their wild state.
Thus we might continue with explanations of terms, but it requires only a few such words and their derivations to make us understand how easy it is, after all, to keep in mind the main families and orders and groups under which all the different animals are classified. And we will soon become so well acquainted with our numerous animal friends in their native homes, and grouped in their proper families, that we can easily recognize many of the animals that must be crowded out of a book of this size. Because we know the meaning of the term used to describe a particular animal, we can place him in the family to which he belongs, and then understand something of his life and habits by comparing them with those of his well-known relatives.
FLYING SQUIRRELS.
FLYING SQUIRRELS.
FLYING SQUIRRELS.