Snails are mollusks, which means a kind of animal without backbones. There are two basic kinds of snails: the first includes the snails which have shells; the second, those which are covered merely by a thin man­tle. Members of this second group are usually called "slugs....

The octopus belongs to a group of animals called "cephalopods." The name means "head-footed" because the foot is divided into long armlike tentacles that grow out around the head. The octopus has eight such tentacles.

Even though the octopus belong...

"Mollusk" sounds like it ought to be the name of some prehistoric ani­mal, but it isn't. Mollusks are a huge division of animals without back­bones, and they range from snails to clams, and oysters to octopuses.

They differ in size from almost in­visible creature...

The ancestor of the goldfish is the carp. In the lakes and-rivers of China and Japan, the greenish-gray carp is found in great quantities, and this is where the goldfish was first developed.

The Chinese have been breeding goldfish for cen...

If you have ever been near the sea and walked along the shore where there are piers, rocks, and breakwater walls, then you've almost certainly seen barnacles. In fact, the "crust" you saw that was formed on the piers and rocks was made up of millions and millions of barn...

Do you like to eat clams? There are many people to whom the very idea is quite unappetizing. And it must have been this way for thousands of years. Nobody in Europe ever thought of eating this creature until the white man came over to America and saw the Indians doing it! ...

One of the most curious of all living creatures is the long, slippery, whip like member of the fish family called the feel.

If it were possible to identify one of the species and follow it in its travels, it would be found at dif­ferent times swimming a...

One of the most curious creatures to be found in the sea is the lobster. It is a "crustacean," which means a hard-shelled animal, and it is related to the crawfish, the shrimp, and the prawn.

There are three species of true lobsters. American lobsters,...

Sardines are small, yellowish-green fish which belong to the herring family. When they are full-grown, usually about 25 centimeters, they are called "pilchards" and are smoked and sold like other herrings.

Usually, however, sardines are caught when they a...

The starfish is one of the most curious of sea creatures. Among its queer relatives are the prickly sea-urchins, the sea cucumbers, and the sand dollars. There are more than 6,000 of these relatives and they are called "echinoderms," which means spiny-skinned. The ...