It is now more than seventy years since this outstanding zoological textbook first appeared. In the present Seventh Edition, Professor A.J. Marshall has almost completely revised and rewritten volume II (Chordates). In general, he has attempted to retain basic morphology and yet at the same time emphasise functional aspects and, where possible, present animals as living creatures rather than as laboratory specimen's. Features of this volume are the unusually close attention that has been paid to cross-referencing, the detailed tables of contents and illustrations, and the captioning of the numerous illustrations which include many especially drawn by the artist Jane Marshall.