XII 



THE OTHER BEASTS 



With the present essay we shall bring to a close this 

 series of sketches, and will herein endeavour to collect 

 as it were into a focus, such light as we have been 

 able to obtain with respect to the various groups of 

 animals which have served as our types. The informa- 

 tion as yet conveyed has necessarily been fragmentary. 

 It is time to present it as an orderly whole. These dozen 

 chapters have been intended to serve as an introduction to 

 a knowledge of zoology, and especially of the leading 

 section of that primary division of animals to which we 

 ourselves belong. That primary division is made up of 

 all those creatures which have either a " back-bone " or 

 a representative thereof, formed of gristle or some softer 

 substance. As most of such creatures possess, as we do, 

 a spinal column or back-bone, formed of a chain of small 

 bones, each of which is termed a "vertebra," this whole 

 primary division of animals is spoken of as the " verte- 

 brate " division, or the division " vertebrata." This 

 division is often also called a " sub-kingdom," because it 

 and the other "sub-kingdoms" together include all 

 animals, and animals taken as one great whole, have 

 been fancifully regarded as a kingdom. The Animal 

 Kingdom being thus opposed to, and contrasted with, the 

 whole mass of plants or the Vegetable Kingdom. Besides 

 the "sub-kingdom," or primary division, of "vertebrate" 



