The classes of the Vertebrata are Fishes, Amphibia, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals. We used to learn that of these, fishes had gills, and Amphibia gills for a time; but, to be strictly accurate, we must say that fishes have gills, and _all_ the rest of the Vertebrata have gills for a time. There is no exception to this rule, not even among the highest vertebrates of all. But in those vertebrates which stand higher in the scale of life than Amphibia, viz., Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals, these gills are never brought into use. They only exist in the early embryo, and afterwards disappear, giving rise by their modification to other structures.
Strange to say, one of these structures is the ear. This takes its origin from one of the gill-"clefts" or spaces. The Eustachian tube, which communicates between the ear and the nose, is part of this cleft; and the little bones which are inside the ear represent the bones of that gill-cleft. For, in fishes, bones support each gill, and are connected together to form a complex arrangement. In the higher vertebrates, which possess gills only in the embryo, this gill-skeleton is much modified, and persists as a bone, the hyoid bone supporting the tongue.
The gills of vertebrates, arranged in successive pairs along the throat, are "perforating gills"; that is to say, they consist essentially of holes or spaces which pass right through the wall of the throat.
If we were to seek for a general character of the vertebrates, besides those mentioned above, that they all possess a notochord and gills, we might also find it in the character of the skin. Fishes, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals, all agree in this, that they have a special clothing of the skin--scales, feathers and fur, respectively. These three kinds of structure, although so widely differing in appearance, are practically formed all in the same way, viz., by alternate ingrowths and outgrowths of the skin; the ingrowth forming the root of the scale, hair or feather, and the outgrowth its projecting part. If these infoldings and outgrowths of the skin could be straightened out into a plane surface, the skin of a small vertebrate would cover an enormous area. The above list excludes the Amphibia: in this class, it should be mentioned, the scales have been lost, and are only found in one group.