THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



127 



other they raise loose stones, to the under side of which 

 they often find Lamperns attached, and so obtain a cheap 

 meal. You will remember that King Henry I. died from 

 eating too many Lampreys. 



To cartilaginous fishes also belong the Torpedo or 

 Electric Ray, which has the power of giving such power- 

 ful shocks that they benumb the limb which has touched 

 them, and they are hence called the Cramp fish. 



ARTICULATED ANIMALS. 



ALTHOUGH the name given to this division of the 

 Animal Kingdom really means "jointed," it must not 

 be understood to contain only such animals as have 

 limbs with joints, but rather such as are made up of 

 several rings jointed together ; these, in some of them, 

 are very soft, as in the common Earth-worm, which 

 is an example of the group called Annelida,* because 

 it is made up entirely of rings. To this group also 

 belong Leeches which, as you know, are used to draw 

 blood away in certain cases, but which are not used 

 now so much as they were formerly and also Sand- 

 worms, which no doubt many of you have seen on the 

 sea-shore. The Earth-worms are provided with delicate 

 bristles, which assist them in moving, and which are too 

 small to be seen by the naked eye, excepting on very large 

 worms ; but Leeches have no such hairs. 



Some of the Annelids appear to breathe by the whole 

 surface of their body ; but some, as the Sand-worm men- 

 tioned above, breathe by means of a series of tufts or 

 fringes along each side of the back, which are really the 

 gills of the animal ; and a third division of them live in a 

 tube, from the end of which they hang out a series of 

 beautifully coloured plume -like fringes; by these they 



* Annulus, a ring. 



