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and mongooses are grouped with lizards. Quadrupeds are sub-divided into four kinds, on the basis of the morphology of their feet (hoof and claw). Then the winged animals are divided into four kinds on the basis of the morphology of their wings. The first kind includes all the familiar and unfamiliar feathered birds; the second kind refers to animals like bats who have membranous wings. The third type have wings like a box which do not open and are useless for flying. No examples are given, but if what is implied is flightless birds, than ostrich and kiwi belong to this type. We also come across a GENUS of extinct gigantic flightless birdsAepyornis—resembling Moas (flightless birds like ostrich) and known from their remains found in Madagascar. The last type is quite intriguing but it is explained that this kind is not found on the Earth.
This manner of classification differs from the five classes of the subphylum vertebrata as mentioned above. Here the fishes, amphibians and reptiles are described as cold blooded (Piokilothermal) animals, i.e., their body temperature cannot be maintained at a fixed norm but varies with the surrounding atmospheric changes. Birds and mammals are warm blooded (Homoiothermal) vertebrates, i.e., their body temperature is maintained at a fixed norm irrespective of the changes in the atmospheric temperature.
Fishes are either cartilaginous or bony. Amphibians are those animals, like frogs and toads, which live equally well in water as well as on land. Reptiles include turtles, tortoises, lizards, snakes and crocodiles. Birds include arboreal-living in trees—as well as aquatic birds like ducks.
The fifth class of vertebrates are mammals which form the highest group of animals in the animal kingdom. They are so called because they possess, among many other glands, the mammary glands in females, which secrete milk for nourishing the young. Rabbits, rats, bate, squirrels, guinea pigs, monkeys, apes, and men are mammals.
In Biology, we do not find any sub-division of humans. But in scriptures, men are sub-divided on the basis of their geographical habitat which is also very peculiar and cannot be compared with any thing in Biology.
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