The Philosophy of Zoology: Or a General View of the Structure, Functions, and Classification of Animals

by John Fleming

Overview

John Fleming (1785–1857) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, but in his time at the University of Edinburgh he had also studied geology and zoology. In the tradition of the country parson who was also a talented and knowledgeable naturalist, he published his first works on the geology of the Shetland Islands while serving there as a minister. His subsequent works led to his being offered the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, and subsequently at the newly created chair of natural history at the Free Church College in Edinburgh. The two-volume Philosophy of Zoology was published in 1822, and the young Charles Darwin is recorded as borrowing it from the library of Edinburgh University in 1825/6. His intention in the book was to 'collect the truths of Zoology within a small compass, and to render them more intelligible, by a systematical arrangement'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108001663
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/20/2009
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Zoology
Pages:	628
Product dimensions:	1.38(w) x 8.50(h) x 5.51(d)

Read an Excerpt

hour; and Spa.llanzajji found that of the swallow completed about 92 miles, while he conjectures that the rapidity of the swift is nearly three times greater. A falcon which belonged to Henry the Fourth of France, escaped from Fountainbleau, and in twenty-four hours afterwards was found at Malta, a distance computed to be no less than 1350 miles; a velocity nearly equal to 57 miles an hour, supposing the falcon to have been on wing the whole time. But as such birds never fly by night, and allowing the day to be at the longest, hi flight was perhaps equal to 75 miles an hour. It is probable, however, says Montagu, that he neither had so many hours of light in the twenty-four, to perform his journey, nor that he was retaken the moment of his arrival. But if we even restrict the migratory flight of birds to the rate of 50 miles an liour, how easily can they perform their most extensive migrations ! And we know, in the case of woodcocks, and perhaps all other migrating birds, that they in general take advantage of a fair wind with which to perform their flights. This breeze perhaps aids them at the rate of 30 or 40 miles an hour; nay, with three times greater rapidity, even in a moderate breeze, if we are to give credit to the statement of aerial navigators, who seem to consider the rate of the motion of winds as in general stated too low. It has been already observed, that many species do not perform their migrations at once, but reach the end of their journey by short and easy stages. There is little exertion required from such , while those who execute their movements at one flight, (if there be any that do so), may in a very short time, perhaps a day, by the help of a favourablebreeze, reach the utmost limits of their journey. Many birds, we know, can subsist a long time witho...

Table of Contents

1. On the condition of animals; 2. On the methods of investigation employed; 3. On the rules of nomenclature; 4. General view of the classification of the objects of the animal kingdom.