Publisher's Synopsis
From the INTRODUCTION.
This little book differs in several notable particulars from most of those of 'the "Young Collector" series that have already appeared. First, the creatures herein described are living pets, the occupants of the Vivarium and not the Cabinet. Next they are few; the intention of. these volumes being to treat of British species only, and Britain has but few reptiles. Thirdly, though still comparatively small creatures, they belong to the important group of Vertebrata or backboned animals.
Those of our young collectors who have already possessed themselves of Kirby's, Butler's, Woodward's, and Skuse's contributions to this series, will have observed that the Insects, Shell fish, and Crustaceans treated of are boneless; and that, compared with the rest of the animal kingdom, all are very small creatures. It is worthy of note that out of the seven sub-kingdoms in which zoologists have generally arranged the inhabitants of the globe, six are composed entirely of these small, boneless creatures, while the one remaining sub-kingdom, animals with a bony skeleton, the Vertebrata, embraces the largest and the most important groups, including man. Persons who have acquired the habit of observing nature - those particularly who incline to the study of animated nature - cannot fail to be impressed by its teeming life in myriad forms. Even in a city during the summer, birds and insects are abundant; and we have only to place some pond weed in a glass bowl of water, and a world of life will soon inhabit it. Should our home be in rural districts, and bur inclination lead us to study the denizens of trees, streams, or meadows, we become fairly puzzled as to which class of beings to choose and where to begin. Within a square foot of soil on the bank where we rest we may, with an ordinary magnifier, see more living creatures than we can count. Let us stoop over a brook or a rain-pool on a warm, sunny day, and again we shall find it impossible to calculate' the number and variety of minute objects that in diverse movements are flitting, darting, swimming, in an independent existence. The more powerful our magnifying glass the more bewildering are the wondrous forms of microscopic creatures revealed to us. At the seaside, on the surface of the waves, and in the depths of the ocean, living forms are not less numerous. By this we can understand how it is that while our great naturalists have arranged all known animals under - say seven grand divisions, six out of the seven embrace only small, boneless, and, to a great extent, microscopic beings.
Included among the largest of these boneless creatures are our familiar acquaintances of the garden and the shore, - worms, slugs, spiders, beetles, butterflies, - all insects, in fact - snails, centipedes, crabs, lobsters, star-fishes, jelly-fishes, sea anemones, and many others that will occur to the memory as being boneless and bloodless. By "bloodless," not having red blood is to be understood; and as it happens that all animals with a bony frame possess red blood, Aristotle divided the animal kingdom into two great groups, "those with blood and those without blood."
But the fluid circulating through the bodies of insects, worms, shell fish, etc., though nearly colourless, answers to the blood of quadrupeds, and is so spoken of by physiologists; therefore we may dismiss any reference to the fluids of the body, and retain the distinction of bones and no bones - correctly speaking, Vertebrate and Invertebrate animals - as the most explicit and comprehensive mode of separating the two great groups. All animals with a bony skeleton, whether seal, fish, frog, or elephant, being formed on a similar plan, of which the solid structure, the backbone, is the chief support; and this backbone being composed of a number of small bones-vertebra (see skeletons, pp. 26, 82)-compactly jointed together, the term Vertebrate
