Animals come next in order of creation, and the general notion
of the writer seems to be that they were produced by the medium
in which they live; that is to say, the aquatic animals by the
waters, and the terrestrial animals by the land. But there was a
difficulty about flying things, such as bats, birds, and
insects. The cosmogonist seems to have had no conception of
"air" as an elemental body. His "elements" are earth and water,
and he ignores air as much as he does fire. Birds "fly above the
earth in the open firmament" or "on the face of the expanse" of
heaven. They are not said to fly through the air. The choice of
a generative medium for flying things, therefore, seemed to lie
between water and earth; and, if we take into account the
conspicuousness of the great flocks of water-birds and the
swarms of winged insects, which appear to arise from water, I
think the preference of water becomes intelligible. However, I
do not put this forward as more than a probable hypothesis.
As to the creation of aquatic animals on the fifth, that of land
animals on the sixth day, and that of man last of all, I presume
the order was determined by the fact that man could hardly
receive dominion over the living world before it existed;
and that the "cattle" were not wanted until he was about to make
his appearance. The other terrestrial animals would naturally be
associated with the cattle.

The absurdity of imagining that any conception, analogous to
that of a zoological classification, was in the mind of the
writer will be apparent, when we consider that the fifth day's
work must include the zoologist's Cetacea, Sirenia, and
seals,<12> all of which are Mammalia; all birds, turtles,