70 THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Pheasant, the Lyre Bird, the Humming Birds, and 

 others, do not utter any music worth calling such, 

 indeed, in many instances they possess ear- 

 splitting and discordant notes the reverse of 

 pleasant. 



Next to our feathered population, in the classi- 

 fication of animal life, we come to the Reptiles, 

 which of course include the Snakes and the Lizards. 

 The body covering of these too often despised 

 creatures is composed of scales and plates, whilst 

 the Amphibians — to which belong the Frog, Toad, 

 and Newt — have naked skins, which are, never- 

 theless, well calculated to cover and protect the 

 skeleton and internal organs. 



The Fishes, as every one knows, have scales, but 

 much divergence is seen in these, for, if we take 

 the common River Eel, or the mud-loving Tench, 

 we find exceedingly small scales upon the body, 

 whilst in the Roach, the Rudd, the Dace, the 

 Chub, and others, the large scales are a charac- 

 teristic feature. 



Leaving the fish we reach the members of the 

 Crustacea, namely, the Lobsters, Crabs, Shrimps, 

 and other similar creatures. These we find have 

 a horny skeleton, known to almost every one, and 

 some of the animals claiming kinship with the 

 Crustacea, such as the Crab, have the power of 

 growing another limb if they happen to lose one 

 of their appendages. 



