AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MAMMALS
AN INTRODUCTION
TO THE STUDY OF
MAMMALS
LIVING AND EXTINCT
BY
WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER
C.B., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., P.Z.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c.
DIRECTOR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENTS, BRITISH MUSEUM
AND
RICHARD LYDEKKER
B.A., F.G.S., F.Z.S., &c.
[Illustration: THE WOOLLY OPOSSUM]
LONDON: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
MDCCCXCI
PREFACE
One of the greatest difficulties experienced by all who undertake a
work of this nature, not professing to be an exhaustive treatise on
the subject with which it deals, is to determine the amount of detail
desirable to be introduced to meet the requirements of the ordinary
student, without rendering it too bulky or costly for general use. The
experience of those who endeavour to profit by the book can alone decide
how far the authors have succeeded in this respect. It will be observed
that in many instances certain better-known or more interesting members
of the class have been described at considerable length, while it has
been necessary to treat others with much greater brevity.
With regard to the references to the literature of the various groups
treated of, it has been the endeavour of the authors to make a selection
of such memoirs and works as are likely to prove most valuable to the
student for the amount of original information which they contain, and
more especially of those giving full bibliographical data up to the
time of their publication, the repetition of which has been considered
unnecessary.
In a few instances new generic terms have been introduced to replace
some which were already occupied; these have been proposed by Mr.
Lydekker, and should be quoted as his.
The work is based largely upon the article “Mammalia,” together with
forty shorter articles, written by the senior of the two authors for
the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The account of the
orders Rodentia, Insectivora, and Chiroptera contributed to the article
“Mammalia” by Dr. G. E. Dobson, F.R.S., as well as the articles “Mole,”
“Shrew,” and “Vampyre,” by the same writer, the articles “Marmot,”
“Mouse,” “Opossum,” “Phalanger,” “Rat,” “Squirrel,” “Stoat,” “Vole,” and
others, by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, and likewise the article “Ape,” by Dr.
St. G. Mivart, F.R.S., have also been made use of to a greater or less
extent. The best thanks of the authors are due to these three gentlemen
for freely permitting the incorporation of their own work in the present
volume.
Mr. Lydekker undertook the task of arranging the various articles in
their proper sequence, selecting from these such portions as seemed
suitable, filling up the gaps, and adding new matter where necessary; a
large amount of this new matter treating of the extinct forms, and also
of the group Artiodactyla.
The subsequent revision, both before being sent to the printers, and also
when passing through the press, has been made by both authors, who are
thus jointly responsible for the whole work.
The illustrations are to a great extent those prepared for the various
articles in the Encyclopædia, but many have been added—some drawn
expressly for the work, and some borrowed from other publications. For
most of the latter the authors take this opportunity of expressing their
thanks to the Publication Committee of the Zoological Society of London,
as well as to the individual writers in whose works they first appeared.
The authors have further much pleasure in acknowledging the ready and
obliging way in which Mr. Oldfield Thomas has, throughout the progress of
the work, placed his extensive knowledge of the group of animals of which
it treats at their disposal.
LONDON, _March_ 1891.
CORRIGENDA.
Page 280, _for_ Chæropsis _read_ Chœropsis.
Page 292, _for_ Chæropotamidæ and Chæropotamus _read_ Chœropotamidæ and
Chœropotamus.
Page 590, _for_ Pæcilogale _read_ Pœcilogale.
=Transcriber’s Note:= The corrections have been applied.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 1
Use of term mammals, 1; Characters of mammals, 2;
Development of young, 3; Size of mammals, 4; Uses and
products of mammals, 4.