PARTS OF ANIMALS, I. iv. 



describing first of all the general attributes of many 

 species, and repeating the same thing many times 

 over. (By " general " attributes I intend the 

 " common " ones. That which belongs to many we 

 call " general.") One may well hesitate whether of 

 the two courses to follow. For, in so far as it is the 

 specifically indivisible which is the " real thing," it 

 would be best, if one could do it, to study separ- 

 ately the particular and specifically indivisible sorts, 

 in the same way as one studies " Man," to do this 

 with " Bird " too, that is, to study not just " Bird " 

 in the mass, but — since " Bird " is a group which 

 contains species — the indivisible species of it, e.g. 

 Ostrich, Crane, and so on. Yet, on the other hand, 

 this course is somewhat unreasonable and long- 

 winded, because it makes us describe the same attri- 

 butes time and again, as they happen to be common 

 attributes of many species. So perhaps after all the 

 right procedure is this : (a) So far as concerns the 

 attributes of those groups which have been correctly 

 marked off by popular usage — groups which possess 

 one common nature apiece and contain in themselves 

 species not far removed from one another, I mean 

 Birds and Fishes and any other such group which 

 though it may lack a popular name yet contains 

 species generically similar — to describe the common 

 attributes of each group all together ; and (6) with 

 regard to those animals which are not covered by 

 this, to describe the attributes of each of these by 

 itself — e.g. those of Man, and of any other such species 

 there may be. 



Now it is practically by resemblance of the shapes 

 of their parts, or of their whole body, that the groups 

 are marked off from each other : as e.g. the groups 



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