Frank E. Beddard

“ There is hardly a more surprising spectacle in the whole animal kingdom than a living fragment of the genus Bugula. The colony grows in the shape of a small tree, whose height may amount to several inches; and is characterised, in many species, by a spiral arrangement of the branches, which makes the genus easy to recognise at first sight (Fig. 233, A) . The stem and branches are composed of a single layer of zooecia, arranged two or more abreast. Each zooecium bears, on its outer side, a most singular body termed an avicularium, from its resemblance to a bird's head. ”

“ The Gorilla has been said to lurk in the depths of the forest, and to stretch down a prehensile foot to grasp and strangle an unfortunate black man passing below. It is said, too, to vanquish the Elephant by hitting it hard upon the trunk with a stout stick, and to crumple up the barrel of a rifle with its powerful teeth. ”

“ Effect of Parasitism on the Parasite.—The usual effect of parasitism on the parasitic organism is that the various organs necessary for a free life tend to degenerate, whilst there is a multiplication and development of organs of adhesion, by means of which the parasite maintains its hold on its host. There is further an immense increase in the powers of reproduction, which may take the form of an increase in the number of fertilised eggs produced, or the parasite may at some time of its life reproduce asexually, by budding, or fission, or parthenogetically. ”

“ MOVEMENT AND MIGRATION AMONG EARTHWORMS
That earthworms can move upon the surface of the ground at a rapid pace is probably well enough known to everyone, and that they can also burrow with considerable celerity. Multiplying the inches of progress in minutes of time by centuries with the resulting miles, it is quite clear that there is no reason to suppose that an individual earthworm might not enormously extend its range under favourable circumstances. Their powers of locomotion are such that they could in the course of comparatively few centuries people a continent. ”

“ The Brain.—Inasmuch as Professor Wiedersheim has said with perfect truth that "the brain of the extinct Ungulate Dinoceras shows so striking a likeness to that of a lizard that one would be compelled to explain it as that of a lizard without a knowledge of the skeleton," it is clear that to define the mammalian brain is a difficult matter. The existing Mammalia, however, all possess brains which can be readily distinguished from those of vertebrates lying lower in the scale. ”

“ As, however, Professor Kingsley justly says that "no single bone occupies a more important position in the discussion of the origin of the Mammalia than does the quadrate," and with equal justice adds that "upon the answer given as to its fate in this group depends, in large measure, the broader problem of the phylogeny of the Mammalia," it becomes, or indeed has long been, a matter which cannot be ignored in any work dealing with the mammals. ”

“ The above brief account of physical features which affect the range in space of the terrestrial Oligochaeta seem to show that the only really important barrier is the ocean; and even a narrow tract of sea water would, as it appears, act fatally in preventing the successful immigration of a race inhabiting one shore to the opposite shore. On the other hand we do undoubtedly find in different countries—even when separated by a large expanse of ocean—closely related forms. The most striking instance of this is that afforded by a consideration of the antarctic species of Notiodrilus and Chilota. ”

“ This cavity, common to all the higher animals, is known as the coelom; it is lined by cells, which cover the intestines as well as the inside of the body-wall; and upon the intestine assume the form so characteristic of the group, namely, that of large yellow cells loaded with secreted matters, and called "chloragogen-cells" by Claparède. The coelom communicates with the exterior by means of the dorsal pores, the nephridia, and the ducts of the reproductive organs. As in all animals which possess a coelom, the reproductive tissues, ova and sperm, are developed on its walls. ”

“ Thus it is plain that Siberia was once covered by mighty forests, through which the Mammoth roamed. The decay of these forests, upon whose branches the Elephant fed, as is attested by the remains of pine leaves found in the interstices of its teeth, was the signal for the disappearance of their most colossal inhabitant.
The large number of remains of this and of other extinct species of Elephas in this country gave rise to the supposition that they were Elephants brought over by Caesar to aid in the subjugation of these islands. ”

“ It is not, therefore, possible to divide the world into realms and regions which shall express the facts of distribution of the entire animal kingdom. Such divisions, which are common in text-books of zoology having but a small section devoted to zoogeography, are at best mere approximations and averages; no good is gained by taking such a comprehensive view of the matter, as the essential object of subdividing the earth's surface is thereby lost sight of. ”

“ The oxygenation of the blood probably takes place to some extent through the walls of the oral fringe, but the blood which receives its oxygen at this spot is limited in its distribution, and could only supply the brain and head. It seems probable that the remaining organs are supplied with oxygen by the fluid of the body-cavity, which bathes them on all sides. This might obtain its oxygen from the blood in the heart, or more probably, through the thin walls of the intestine, from the stream of water which is maintained by the ciliated groove described above. ”

“ Just as there are no Platyrrhine Apes in the Old World so there are no Catarrhines met with in a fossil condition in the New World; the two great divisions of the Apes were as distinct in the past, so far as we know, as they are now—a strong argument in favour of those who would derive them from two sources. The existing genera, Cebus, Mycetes, and Callithrix, now living in South America, are also known in a fossil state. The extinct genus Homunculus is known from the Tertiary strata of Patagonia, and an apparently allied form is Anthropops. ”

“ We have now completed a brief survey of the general characters of the group of the Oligochaeta which will at least serve to impress upon the reader the fact that these animals are somewhat diverse in structure, and that even as regards outward appearance it is not difficult to distinguish a large number of different types. These facts become all the more remarkable when we reflect upon the very similar conditions which surround all the species of earthworms. It is not clear how far the influence of the soil differs in a tropical forest in South America and in Central Africa. ”

“ One is tempted to wonder how far the habit which certain Lemurs have of carrying their young across the abdomen with the tail wrapped round the body of the mother is a reminiscence of a marsupial pouch. ”

“ A vigorous individual buries itself in a few moments in the following manner: Running out the introvert to nearly its full extent, and applying it to the surface of the sand till some spot of less resistance is found, the animal still further expands the introvert so that it penetrates the sand, provided this is not too dense and firm, for then the body is merely shoved backward. When the introvert is inserted, the contraction of the longitudinal muscles of the body-wall brings the whole body forward somewhat, in case the introvert is fixed in the sand. ”

“ The Mammalia since they are hot-blooded creatures are more independent of temperature than reptiles; they are thus found spread over a wider area of the earth's surface. As however, though hot-blooded, they have not the powers of locomotion possessed by birds, they are not quite so widely distributed as are those animals. The Mammalia range up into the extreme north, but, excepting only forms mainly aquatic, such as the Sea Lions, are not known to occur on the Antarctic continent. With the exception of the flying Bats, indigenous mammals are totally absent from New Zealand ”

“ For the Eastern Archipelago, though rich in species, is but poor in genera, not possessing more than half a dozen or so. And on the other hand the temperate climate of New Zealand has produced a very considerable series of genera, much more than those of the islands of the East and nearly as many as those of, for instance, Central America and the West Indies.
This conclusion is in its turn contradicted by the conditions observable in Chili and the temperate regions of South America, where the number of species is large but the number of genera small. ”

“ If we take extreme cases, such as the nail of the thumb in Man, the hoof of a Horse, and the claw of a Cat, it is easy to distinguish the three kinds of phalangeal horny coverings. But the differences become extinguished as we pass from these to related types. The nail of the little finger in Man approaches the claw-like form; and the hoofs of the Lama are almost claws in the sharpness of their extremities. On the whole it may be said that claws and hoofs embrace the bone which they cover, while nails lie only upon its dorsal surface. ”

“ There are various considerations which enable us to form a fair opinion as to the probability of a given species being really indigenous or imported. Oceanic islands afford one test. There are species of earthworms known from a good many, but with a few exceptions they are the same species as those which occur on the nearest mainland; in those cases where it is supposed that the animal inhabitants have reached an oceanic island by natural means of transit, it is a rule that the species are different, and even the genera are frequently different. ”

“ The skull, which is small for the size of the creature, has a complete jugal arch, from the middle of which depends a downward process as in other allied forms. The teeth grow to an extraordinary depth, and there are five of them in the upper and four in the lower jaw—on each side of course. The fore-limbs of the Megatherium are very much more slender than the enormously bulky hind-limbs, upon which and the equally massive tail the animal seems to have supported itself while tearing down branches of trees, upon whose leaves it fed. ”

“ The very name Earthworm, so distinctive as it is of the habitat of these animals, seems to have been expressly invented in order to crystallise into one word the remarkable distributions of these creatures. They are with very few exceptions the most purely terrestrial animals that we know. There are a few Mammals like the mole and several underground Amphibians and Snakes in the tropics which share this habitat with the worms, probably because they chiefly prey upon them. But there is no group of animals that is characterised by a subterranean existence in the way that earthworms are. ”

“ One of them usually lies in a more advanced position than the other. The ureters lead from the kidneys to the urinary bladder, which in its form and relations is quite distinctive of the Mammalia. The bladder is formed out of the remains of the allantois, and is therefore not the exact homologue of the bladder of the frog, which is the equivalent of the entire sac which grows out of the cloaca in the mammal, and is the foetal allantois. The ureters open into the bladder in the higher Mammalia, but lower down in the urino-genital passage in the more primitive mammals. ”

“ The lower end of the sac is broken up into a number of crypts or pits, lined by large glandular cells crowded with brown pigment. The pigment-granules are secreted into the cavity of the sac, and leave the body through the external opening; they probably consist of the nitrogenous excreta of the animal. The upper end of the sac, into which both the external and internal orifices open, is usually enlarged, and its walls are very muscular. As in so many other animals, the nephridia serve as ducts through which the reproductive cells leave the body of the parent. ”

“ The family Galeopithecidae contains but one genus, which has been at times referred to the Lemurs, to the Bats, or has been made the type of a special order of mammals. It is better to regard it as an aberrant Insectivore—so different indeed from other forms that it requires a special sub-order for its reception.
Galeopithecus [19] inhabits the Oriental region. It is a larger animal than any other Insectivore, about the size of a Cat, and has a patagium extending between the neck and the fore-limb, between the fore-limb and the hind-limb, and between the hind-limb and the tail. ”

“ The coloration of mammals frequently exhibits conspicuous patterns of marking. These are in the form of longitudinal stripes, of cross-stripes, or of spots; the latter may be "solid" spots, or broken up, as in the Leopard and Jaguar, into groups of smaller spots arranged in a rosette-fashion. We never find in mammals the complicated "eyes" and other markings which occur in so many birds and in other lower Vertebrates. It is important to note that in the Mammalia whose sense of sight is quite keen there should be a practical absence of secondary sexual colours. ”

“ The red- or forked-worm, Syngamus trachealis Sieb., is common in poultry and game birds, and causes the disease known as gapes, which is especially common in young birds, and often gives rise to extensive loss. The peculiarity of this genus is that the male is permanently attached to the female, its genital bursa being so closely adherent to the opening of the oviduct that two specimens cannot be separated without tearing the tissues. The ova are not laid, but escape from the body with fully-formed embryos in them, by the decay or rupture of their parent's body. ”

“ It is at any rate perfectly conceivable that the variety of odours among mammals may play a very important part in their life, and it is perhaps worthy of note that birds with highly-variegated plumage are provided only with the uropygial gland, while mammals with usually dull and similar coloration have a great variety of skin glands. Scent is no doubt a sense of higher importance in mammals than in birds. ”

“ Nor do we find Marsupials in Europe until far back in time, and at a corresponding period in North America. Indeed the fauna of South America in late Tertiary times was even more distinct than it is now; for then we had confined to that region the Toxodonts, Glyptodonts, Macrauchenia, and other forms, while in Australia there were still Marsupials. In late Tertiary times Europe and India were by no means so distinct from Africa as they are to-day. North America does not resemble the Old World quite so much as the subdivisions of the Old World resemble each other ”

“ The nervous system consists of a ventral cord lying in the body-cavity, as in the Sipunculoidea, but attached to the skin, and of a circumoesophageal ring. With the growth of the proboscis this ring is drawn out, and the two branches run along the sides of the proboscis and unite at the tip. There is no specialisation of brain, nor are any special sense organs present, but the ventral cord gives off paired nerves at regular intervals, which, uniting dorsally, form rings in the skin in some and probably in all species. ”

“ The lower jaw, for instance, of mammals has fewer bones in it than that of reptiles, and is more concisely articulated to the skull; this implies greater efficiency as a biting organ. The term highest, however, includes increased complexity as well as simplification, the two series of modifications being interwoven to form a more efficient organism. It cannot be doubted that the increased complexity of the brain of mammals raises them in the scale, as does also the complex and delicately adjusted series of bonelets which form the organ for the transmission of sound to the internal ear. ”

“ The Malays have superstitions about Tigers, which are precisely paralleled by the man-and-wolf stories of Europe. "Certain people are supposed to have the power of turning into tigers for a short time, and resuming their human form at pleasure. The transformation commences tail first, and the human tiger is so completely changed that not only has it all the actions and appearance of the tiger, but on resuming its human form it is quite unconscious of what it has been doing in the tiger state." ”

“ But the danger of its presence in the body of man, or in the flesh of pigs, lies in the fact that the larva or bladder-worm (known as Cysticercus cellulosae) can live in the most varied organs. Thus if by accident a mature proglottis be eaten, the embryos escape, bore their way into the wall of the stomach, and entering the portal vein, may reach in time the muscles, the brain, the eye, or even the heart itself, and attain the cystic condition. ”

“ The intestine of mammals is always long and much coiled, though the length and consequent degree of coiling naturally varies. On the whole it is perhaps safe to say that it is shorter in carnivorous than in vegetable-feeding beasts. Thus the Paca has an intestine of 39 inches total length, while the Cat, an animal of about the same size, has an intestine which is only 36 inches long. A fish diet, however, to judge from the Seals, is associated with a long intestinal tract. The intestine is divisible in the vast majority of mammals into a small and a large intestine. ”

“ They are so near as to be within the power of accident to bring the animals, especially the large ones, from one continent to the other either on the ice or even by water. But the continents diverging from each other southward, so as to be at a very considerable distance from each other even beyond the flight of birds, is the reason why the quadrupeds are not the same."
There is no doubt, in fact, that the ocean is the most insuperable of all barriers to the dispersal of mammals. In a less degree mountain ranges and deserts are also barriers. ”

“ Outside is the epidermis, which always consists of a single layer of cells, except in the clitellar region of earthworms. It is a point of difference between the aquatic genera and the terrestrial forms that in the former the clitellum is only one cell thick, while in the higher Oligochaeta it is made up of more than one layer of cells. The epidermis is ciliated only in the genus Aeolosoma, and there only on the prostomium. It secretes a thin layer of chitin, which is defective opposite to the glandular cells, and becomes therefore perforated by numerous pores. ”

“ Zoogeography deals not only with the actual facts in the range of animals, but with the inferences as to past changes in the relations of land and sea which the facts seem to indicate, and with speculations as to the place of origin of the different groups, of which more than hints are sometimes given by their past and present distribution. In addition to this, the earth can be mapped out into provinces and regions which are definable by their animal inhabitants. ”

“ Everybody knows that an animal has a given range: Elephants, for example, are found in India and certain adjacent parts of Asia, and again in Africa; the Rhinoceroses have roughly the same range; the Tiger is limited to Asia; the {79}Jaguar to America, and so forth. The entire expanse of country which is inhabited by an animal is called its area of distribution. Such areas are larger or smaller. The Lion ranges over the whole of Africa, a small part of India, and some neighbouring countries; on the other hand, the Insectivore Solenodon is limited to Cuba and Hayti, a separate species to each. ”

“ The long body and short legs of the Otter, which is more thoroughly at home pursuing fish in the streams than in waddling clumsily upon the banks of the streams, seem to require but little external change to convert it into a small Seal, while the long and completely webbed hind digits of Enhydris are even more like those of a Pinniped. The Sea-Lions, in which the external ear has been preserved, and in which the limbs have not become so entirely useless for progression on the land as they have in the Seals, seem to be the intermediate step in the evolution of the latter. ”

“ As a matter of fact, Giraffes in captivity are not always sheep-like in temper. They will kick with viciousness and vigour, and will even initiate an attack upon their keeper. At the same time they are singularly nervous creatures, and have been known to die from a shock. In moving, the Giraffe uses the fore- and hind-limb of each side simultaneously; this gives to its gait a peculiar rocking motion, the singularity of which is heightened by the curving movements of the long neck, which even describes now and then a figure of eight in the air. Giraffa camelopardalis and the species (?) ”