CONCLUSION. 269 



nor stomach, yet on coming to a particle of food it 

 readily closes around it and digests it, any part of the 

 body being formed into mouth, stomach, or tentacles, 

 as the occasion requires. 



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 animals 

 upon our globe may be divided into eight great 

 groups, — the Vertebrates or Backboned Animals, 

 the Arthropods or Jointed Animals, the Mollusks 

 or Soft-bodied Animals, the Vermes or Worms, the 

 Echinoderms or Starfishes, the Ccelenterates or Lasso- 

 throwers, the Sponges, and the Protozoans. The Tuni- 

 cates are a small group related to the Vertebrates. It 

 may be added that geologists tell us that all the ani- 

 mals 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 groups. 

 Naturalists call these groups Branches. 



You have learned that the Vertebrates are divided 

 into Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Batrachians, and Fishes ; 

 that the Arthropods are divided into Insects, Arachnids, 

 and Crustaceans; that the Mollusks are divided into 

 Cephalopods, Gastropods, and Lamellibranchia ; that 

 the Echinoderms are divided into Sea Cucumbers, Sea 



