CONCLUSION. 253 



CONCLUSION. 



In these few pages we have endeavored to make 

 you acquainted with some of the principal forms in 

 which animals have been created, and thus give you 

 some idea of the Animal Kingdom. Although only a 

 few kinds out of the many thousands now living have 

 been mentioned, you have learned that all the Ani- 

 mals upon our globe may be divided into four, or at 

 most five, great groups, — the Vertebrates or Back- 

 boned Animals, the Articulates or Jointed Animals, 

 the MoUusks or Soft-bodied Animals, the Eadiates oi 

 Star-shaped Animals, and perhaps a fifth group called 

 the Protozoans ; and it may be added that geologists 

 tell us that all the animals of past ages, which are 

 now known only by their remains, but which were 

 so numerous that in many places they fill the rocks 

 to the depth of miles, also belong to either one or 

 the other of these five groups. Naturalists call these 

 groups Branches. You have learned that the Ver- 

 tebrates are divided into Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, 

 Batrachians, and Pishes ; that the Articulates are di- 

 vided into Insects, Crustaceans, and Worms ; that 

 the Mollusks are divided into Cephalopods, Gastero- 

 pods, and Acephals ; and that the Radiates are di- 

 vided into Echinoderms, Acalephs, and Polyps. Nat- 

 uralists call these groups Classes. You have learned 

 that the Mammals are divided into Man, Monkeys. 

 Carnivores or Beasts of Prey, Herbivores or Plant- 

 eaters, Cetaceans or Whales, Bats, Insect-eaters, Ro- 

 dents or Gnawers, Edentates and Marsupials ; that the 

 Birds are divided into Birds of Prey, Climbers» Perch' 



