ANIMALS CLASSIFIED 191 



high altitudes, where the temperature is often very low. Birds 

 lay eggs and usually care for their young. 



CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 

 ORDER I. Cursores. Running birds with no keeled breastbone. Examples : 



ostrich, cassowary. 

 ORDER II. Passeres. Perching birds ; 



three toes in front, one behind. 



Over one half of all species of 



birds are included in this order. 



Examples : sparrow, thrush, 



swallow. H 



ORDER III. Gallince. Strong legs ; 



feet adapted to scratching. Beak 



stout. Examples : jungle fowl, 



grouse, quail, domestic fowl. 

 ORDER IV. Raptores. Birds of prey. 



Hooked beak. Strong claws. 



Examples : eagle, hawk, owl. 

 ORDER V. Grallatores. Waders. 



Long neck, beak, and legs. Ex 

 amples : snipe, crane, heron. 

 ORDER VI. Natatores. Divers and 



swimmers. Legs short, toes -..,. > 



webbed. Examples : gull, duck, 



albatross. 

 ORDER VII. Columbince. Like Gal- 



linse, but with weaker legs. Ex 

 amples : dove, pigeon. 

 ORDER VIII. Pici. Woodpeckers. 



Two toes point forward, two African ostrich, one of the largest 



backward, and adaptation for living birds. 



climbing. Long, strong bill. 



ORDER IX. Psittaci. Parrots, hooked beak and fleshy tongue. 

 ORDER X. Coccyges. Climbing birds, with powerful beak. Examples : king 

 fisher, toucan, and cuckoo. 

 ORDER XI. Macrochires. Birds having long-pointed wings, without scales on 



metatarsus. Examples : swift, humming bird, and goatsucker. 



Mammals. Dogs and cats, sheep and pigs, horses and cows, 

 all of our domestic animals (and man himself) have characters of 

 structure which cause them to be classed as mammals. They, like 

 some other vertebrates, have lungs and warm blood. They also 

 have a hairy covering and bear young developed to a form similar to 

 their own, 1 and nurse them with milk secreted by glands known 

 as the mammary glands ; hence the term " mammal." 



1 With the exception of the monotremes. 



