alcareous or sandy shell, usually
divided into chambers and perforated with small apertures.

FOSSILIFEROUS.--Containing fossils.

FOSSORIAL.--Having a faculty of digging. The Fossorial Hymenoptera are a
group of Wasp-like Insects, which burrow in sandy soil to make nests for
their young.

FRENUM (pl. FRENA).--A small band or fold of skin.

FUNGI (sing. FUNGUS).--A class of cellular plants, of which Mushrooms,
Toadstools, and Moulds, are familiar examples.

FURCULA.--The forked bone formed by the union of the collar-bones in
many birds, such as the common Fowl.

GALLINACEOUS BIRDS.--An order of birds of which the common Fowl, Turkey,
and Pheasant, are well-known examples.

GALLUS.--The genus of birds which includes the common Fowl.

GANGLION.--A swelling or knot from which nerves are given off as from a
centre.

GANOID FISHES.--Fishes covered with peculiar enamelled bony scales. Most
of them are extinct.

GERMINAL VESICLE.--A minute vesicle in the eggs of animals, from which
the development of the embryo proceeds.

GLACIAL PERIOD.--A period of great cold and of enormous extension of ice
upon the surface of the earth. It is believed that glacial periods have
occurred repeatedly during the geological history of the earth, but
the term is generally applied to the close of the Tertiary epoch, when
nearly the whole of Europe was subjected to an arctic climate.

GLAND.--An organ which secretes or separates some peculiar product from
the blood or sap of animals or plants.

GLOTTIS.--The opening of the windpipe into the oesophagus or gullet.

GNEISS.--A rock approaching granite in composition, but more or less
laminated, and really produced by the alteration of a sedimentary
deposit after its consolidation.

GRALLATORES.--The so-called wading-birds (storks, cranes, snipes, etc.),
which are generally furnished with long legs, bare of feathers above the
heel, and have no membranes between the toes.

GRANITE.--A rock consisting essentially of crystals of felspar and mica
in a mass of quartz.

HABITAT.--The locality in which a plant or animal naturally lives.

HEMIPTERA.--An order or sub-order of insects, characterised by the
possession of a jointed beak or rostrum, and by having the fore-wings
horny in the basal portion and membranous at the extremity, where they
cross each other. This group includes the various species of bugs.

HERMAPHRODITE.--Possessing the organs of both sexes.

HOMOLOGY.--That relatio