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Read Ebook: Zoölogy: The Science of Animal Life Popular Science Library Volume XII (of 16) P. F. Collier & Son Company 1922 by Ingersoll Ernest
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Ebook has 123 lines and 104572 words, and 3 pages
FACING PAGE
STARFISH AND OTHER TYPICAL LIFE IN A TIDE POOL 48
CORAL FORMATIONS OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, AUSTRALIA 49
CATERPILLAR BEGINNING TO WEAVE ITS COCOON 118
MOTH AND EGGS 119
CATERPILLAR PROTECTED BY FORM AND COLOR RESEMBLING THE TWIGS OF A TREE 148
SEA HORSE PROTECTED BY FORM AND COLOR RESEMBLING THE MARINE PLANTS AMONG WHICH IT LIVES 148
GILA MONSTER, FEARED, THOUGH ITS BITE IS NOT ALWAYS DEADLY TO MAN 149
IGUANA, A REMARKABLE LIZARD OF THE NEW WORLD 149
PELICAN, NOTABLE FOR ITS THROAT POUCH 248
PEACOCK WITH BRILLIANT TAIL SPREAD 249
SACRED PHEASANT 249
OPOSSUM MOTHER AND YOUNG 272
ANTEATER, WHICH LIVES ON INSECTS CAUGHT IN THE STICKY SALIVA OF ITS LONG TONGUE 273
SLOTH, AN ANIMAL WHICH KEEPS TO TREES AND IS ALMOST HELPLESS ON THE GROUND 273
WART HOG, ONE OF THE UGLIEST ANIMALS TO SEE 304
MALAY TAPIR, RELATED TO THE PIG AND THE RHINOCEROS 304
MARKHOR, AN ASIATIC WILD GOAT 305
MOUNTAIN SHEEP OR BIGHORN OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 305
THE KUDU, OR STRIPED ANTELOPE, OF AFRICA 312
HEAD OF THE GREATER SABLE ANTELOPE 312
HEAD OF ALASKAN MOOSE 312
AMERICAN DEER WITH HORNS IN VELVET 313
WOLVES IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA 336
BEAR IN A ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOREST 337
BAT, WITH YOUNG BAT IN EACH POUCH 352
BLACK SPIDER MONKEY 353
RUFFED LEMUR, ATTRACTIVE BY ITS COLORING 353
MANDRILL, MOUTH OPEN TO SNARL 368
GORILLA, SOMEWHAT THOUGHTFUL 368
CHIMPANZEES, IMITATING SOME OF THE WAYS OF MAN 369
HOW THE GLOBE WAS STOCKED WITH LIFE
Ever since man began to think in the connected way that follows self-consciousness, he has pondered, with a mixture of fear, reverence, and curiosity, on the nature of life and its origin. The world in which he found himself was a vast mystery which, very crudely at first, he sought to penetrate. All his paths of thought led him circling back to himself as the greatest mystery of all. He struggled with the problem for thousands of years, framing fanciful guessworks, erecting elaborate structures of logic on foundations of error, emotion, and presumption, fashioning beautiful fables and theories , yet found no better solution than that life must be a gift from some unknown, perhaps unknowable, source. Even lately, learned philosophers, such as Helmholtz and Kelvin, supposed it brought to the earth by meteorites--fragments of exploded planets that had borne life before they went to destruction; or, like Arrhenius, postulated an impalpable dust, or "panspermia," scattered through all space and borne from the atmosphere of one planet to another. But all such hypotheses only threw the question of origin one step further back.
Thereupon some of the naturalists fell back into the ranks of the speculative and religious persons who were content to believe the endowment of the world with life an act of a Divine Creator--something above and outside of nature as otherwise manifested; others asserted an equivalent but more materialistic doctrine that they styled "spontaneous generation," which presently was shown to be untrue, at least in the way they formulated it; and a third group confessed that they did not know whence life came, nor were they much concerned to know.
LIFE CONSTANTLY ORIGINATED BY NATURE'S PRODUCTIVE ENERGY
THE NEW NIMROD
"What a fine hunting day"-- 'Tis an old-fashioned lay That I'll change to an up-to-date pome; Old stagers may swear That the pace isn't fair, But they're left far behind us at home! See cyclists and bikes on their way, And scorchers their prowess display; Let us join the glad throng That goes wheeling along, And we'll all go a-hunting to-day!
We've abolished the sounds Of the horn and the hounds-- 'Tis the bicycle squeaker that squeals And the pack has been stuffed, Or sent to old Cruft, Now the huntsmen have taken to wheels! Hairy country no more we essay, Five bars, too, no longer dismay, For we stick to the roads In the latest of modes, So we'll bike after Reynard to-day!
MY LITTLE BROWN MARE
She's rather too lean but her head's a large size, And she hasn't the average number of eyes; Her hind legs are not what you'd call a good pair, And she's broken both knees, has my little brown mare.
You can find some amusement in counting each rib, And she bites when she's hungry like mad at her crib; When viewed from behind she seems all on the square, She's quite a Freemason--my little brown mare.
Her paces are rather too fast, I suppose, For she often comes down on her fine Roman nose, And the way she takes fences makes hunting men stare, For she backs through the gaps does my little brown mare.
She has curbs on her hocks and no hair on her knees; She has splints and has spavins wherever you please? Her neck, like a vulture's, is horribly bare, But still she's a beauty, my little brown mare.
She owns an aversion to windmills and ricks, When passing a waggon she lies down and kicks; And the clothes of her groom she'll persistently tear-- But still she's no vice has my little brown mare.
When turned down to grass she oft strays out of bounds; She always was famous for snapping at hounds; And even the baby has learnt to beware The too playful bite of my little brown mare.
She prances like mad and she jumps like a flea, And her waltz to a brass band is something to see: No circus had ever a horse, I declare, That could go through the hoops like my little brown mare.
I mount her but seldom--in fact, to be plain, Like the Frenchman, when hunting I "do not remain:" Since I've only one neck it would hardly be fair To risk it in riding my little brown mare!
MISPLACED ENERGY
A Nice Prospect
HUNTING "DAY BY DAY"
"The Mudsquashington Foxhounds had a good day's sport from Wotsisname Coverts . They found in Thingamy Woods, rattled him round the Osier Beds, and then through the Gorse, just above Sumware. Leaving this and turning left-handed, he ran on as far as Sumotherplace, where he finally got to ground. Amongst the numerous field were Lord Foozle and Lady Frump, Messrs. Borkins, Poshbury, and Tomkyn-Smith."
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