In point of intelligence, mollusks must be relegated to a very low position. They give evidence of possessing no more than the most primary instincts, those of self-preservation and of reproduction. There are some forms that exercise a high degree of protective mimicry. The highest class of mollusks, the /Cephalopoda/ (cuttlefishes, octopi, etc.), is widely separated from the other classes in the development of faculties that appear to correspond with intelligence. They are exceedingly crafty in the pursuit of their prey as well as in eluding capture. STRUCTURE OF MOLLUSKS Among the invertebrate animals, especially in the lower orders, wide physiological departures from central or typical forms are frequent. It often happens that a whole group or even suborder will differ so materially in its general characteristics from another group or suborder belonging to the same phylum that the student will be puzzled at first to understand how the two can be nearly related. In many such cases it is only when the essential features of the phylum are thoroughly understood that the relationships of its suborders can be appreciated. An example of widely divergent groups within the same phylum has already been shown in the /Echinodermata/. Who would at first suppose that the graceful /Astrophyton/ could bear kinship to the inert [pg316] holothurian, or that both of these have the closest family ties with the sea-urchins? The probable reason for these startling departures from a typical form is that in the lower orders of life, where the organs and their functions are comparatively simple, the laws of evolution operate far more quickly in the adaptation of an organism to environment and changed conditions of life. A decided tendency to this departure from the type is a feature of the mollusks. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to give a general description that would fit both a common garden-snail and the common oyster, yet both are mollusks. A concise definition of the phylum is therefore practically impossible, and it seems here as if nature resented all attempts to circumscribe her living forms by rigid rules.