228 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL CLASSIFICATION. 



Every one knows that vertebrated animals^ above all 

 others, are the most distinctly marked by possessing an 

 internal skeleton. They have been, moreover, demon- 

 strated to be a circular group. What, then, are the 

 divisions.'' These are no less obvious. Quadrupeds, birds, 

 reptiles, amphibia, and fishes, are acknowledged to be so 

 many types of the vertebrated circle. There is, however, 

 good reason to believe that the last three of these types 

 form a circle of their own ; in which case, we should 

 have, in fact, three primary circles of vertebrated animals : 

 the first, or typical, comprising the quadrupeds; the se- 

 cond, or sub-typical, consisting of the birds; and the third, 

 or aberrant, including the reptiles, amphibia, and fishes. 

 On the other hand, if each of these latter classes of 

 animals is found to be of the same rank as quadrupeds or 

 birds, then the number of primary divisions will be five. 

 In reference, however, to the above exemplification, it 

 should here be observed, that the absolute union of the 

 reptiles, amphibia, and fishes, into one circle of their 

 own, has not yet been demonstrated. That there is, 

 nevertheless, a high degree of probability attached to such 

 a supposition, will be apparent, when we consider how 

 much nearer they are allied to each other, in comparison 

 to their affinity with birds and quadrupeds. How 

 closely the water serpents and the eels approach each 

 other, and how well are they all three characterised by 

 their cold blood, while that of birds and quadrupeds is 

 warm. There are also similar reasons for believing in this 

 union of the aberrant groups in all the other divisions of 

 the animal kingdom not yet analysed. In ornithology, 

 however, so many analytical details have been gone into *, 

 that we consider this proposition to be fully demon- 

 strated. If, again, one of these larger divisions is 

 analysed, the same results foUow, — there will be three 

 secondary circles united into one ; and thus we go on, 

 reducing every group to a smaller one, until we come to 

 a genus, where again we find three groups of sub-genera, 



• See Northern Zoology. 



