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CHAP. XXIII. 



VERTEBRATA FISHES. 



Form of Fishes : its Adaptation. External Covering. Colours. 

 Locomotive Powers. Eespiration, &c. 



OUR readers have now been supposed, on their 

 occasional visits to the sea-shore, to have seen a 

 variety of examples from three out of the four great 

 subdivisions or groups into which Cuvier has 

 divided the whole animal kingdom, proceeding 

 from the lowest rank of organised beings upwards 

 to those of the highest grade. By this process 

 they have now arrived at the great sub-kingdom 

 of the Vertebrata, which comprehends within it 

 all animals possessed of a vertebral column, or 

 back-bone. 



The group or sub-kingdom of the vertebrata is 

 distributed into four classes : fishes, reptiles, birds, 

 and mammalia. Of several of these classes a 

 great variety of examples are either occasionally 

 or permanently inhabitants of our sea-shores, and 

 their structure, their instincts, and their habits 

 afford most striking illustrations of that creative 

 power, skill, and foresight which every reflective 

 mind delights, to recognise. 



Our attention is naturally directed, in the first 

 instance, to the lowest of the four classes now 



