Creatures that have feathered wings are classed as a genus
under the name of 'bird'; the other two genera, the leathern-winged
and membrane-winged, are as yet without a generic title.
Of creatures that can fly and are bloodless some are coleopterous
or sheath-winged, for they have their wings in a sheath or shard, like
the cockchafer and the dung-beetle; others are sheathless, and of
these latter some are dipterous and some tetrapterous: tetrapterous,
such as are comparatively large or have their stings in the tail,
dipterous, such as are comparatively small or have their stings in
front. The coleoptera are, without exception, devoid of stings; the
diptera have the sting in front, as the fly, the horsefly, the gadfly,
and the gnat.
Bloodless animals as a general rule are inferior in point of size
to blooded animals; though, by the way, there are found in the sea
some few bloodless creatures of abnormal size, as in the case of
certain molluscs. And of these bloodless genera, those are the largest
that dwell in milder climates, and those that inhabit the sea are
larger than those living on dry land or in fresh water.
All creatures that are capable of motion move with four or more
points of motion; the blooded animals with four only: as, for
instance, man with two hands and two feet, birds with two wings and
two feet, quadrupeds and fishes severally with four feet and four
fins.
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