68 ELEMENTARY ZOOLOGY 



study of the development of Sacculina we find that it is 

 more closely related to the crabs and crayfishes and the 

 other Crustaceans than to any other animals, although in 

 adult condition it does not at all, at least in external ap- 

 pearance, resemble a crab or lobster. 



Scientific names. To classify animals then, is to deter- 

 mine their true relationships and to express these relation-- 

 ships by a scheme of groups. To these groups proper 

 names are given for convenience in referring to them. 

 These proper names are all Latin or Greek, simply 

 because these classic languages are taught in the schools 

 and colleges of almost all the countries in the world, and 

 are thus intelligible to naturalists of all nationalities. In 

 the older days, indeed, all the scientific books, the 

 descriptions and accounts of animals and plants, were 

 written in Latin, and now most of the technical 

 words used in naming the parts of animals and 

 plants are Latin. So that Latin may be called the 

 language of science. For most of the groups of animals 

 we have English names as well as Greek or Latin ones 

 and when talking with an English-speaking person we 

 can use these names. But when scientific men write of 

 animals they use the names which have been agreed on 

 by naturalists of all nationalities and which are understood 

 by all of these naturalists. These Latin and Greek 

 names of animals laughed at by non-scientific persons as 

 "jaw-breakers," are really a great convenience, and save 

 much circumlocution and misunderstanding. 



AN EXAMPLE OF CLASSIFICATION. 



TECHNICAL NOTE. There should be provided a small set of bird- 

 skins which will serve just as well as freshly killed birds, and which 

 may be used for successive classes, thus doing away with the neces- 

 sity ot shooting birds. The birds suggested for use are among the 

 commonest and most easily recognizable and obtainable. They may 

 be found in any locality at any time of the year. The skins can 



