rV. THE CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS 



In most libraries, the lionks are arranged on the shelves 

 in a certain onler. One class of books occupies a certain 

 slielf or shelves, antl another class, other shelves. Or, as 

 we say, they are classified and arranged. For example, 

 all books of history are init into a group by themselves, 

 books of fiiction into a gr(.>up b}' themselves, l^ooks of biog- 

 raphy by themselves, and so on through the list. 



Now in much the same way animals are gathered together 

 in groups. Certain ones much alike are put into one group, 

 certain others much alike Init ihfl'ering from those in the 

 first group a,rc put int(j another gi'oup, and so on through 

 the whole animal kingdom. Like the books in the library, 

 animals are arranged in groups for convenience of study. 

 More than this, however, animals ai-e gathered into groups 

 that we may get a l^etler miderstanding of their relation- 

 ships to each other. In our stud\' of animals we shall find 

 that a relationship,' or kinship, exists throughout the 

 animal kingdom from the ama-ba to man. Each animal 

 bears a certain relation to the remaining members of the 

 kingdom, although this relation is nmch closer with some 

 animals than it is with otliers. The object of zoological 

 classification is to ex]ivess tlie relation of one animal t(i 

 the others in the kingdom and to determine what place it 

 occupies in the great assemblage of animals. The classi- 



' By this we rid not inriin ( li;it the mcmbors of the animal Icingdom 

 form a .serial nrraiiKeineiit, but rather such an arranscment as is 

 shown by the diagram in P'igure 9. 



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