Excerpt from A Manual of the Common Invertebrate Animals: Exclusive of Insects

This manual has been written to supply the need which has been felt in this country for a long time of a book containing descriptions of the common invertebrate animals, by means of which their names and affinities can be determined. Excellent general manuals with analytical keys for the identification of the common insects already exist, but a person wishing to identify animals belonging to most of the other invertebrate groups must usually have recourse to technical papers and treatises which are for the most part inaccessible except to specialists. The book is intended more particularly for use in the eastern and central portions of the United States and Canada, and the endeavor has been made to include in it most of the common invertebrates except insects occurring in this region. In addition to these, representative species occurring in the western states and on the Pacific slope are included, as are also other species to which some special interest attaches and which are found in other parts of the world. Animals which inhabit the deep sea have not been included except in special cases where they are representative of their particular groups.

The general plan of the book is similar to that of Lennis' Zoologie, a standard German work which has for two generations supplied the need of a general synopsis of animals in Europe, and has been extensively used elsewhere throughout the world. As in that work, the analytical tables and descriptions of species bf each of the larger groups of animals are preceded by a morphological description of the group together with some account of the habits and distribution of the animals. In these descriptions all the technical terms appearing in the tables are explained. References to the principal authorities upon which the descriptions are based are given in footnotes, as are also references to important treatises and monographs which have appeared on the animals described.

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