PREFACE. 



♦ 



'' I ^HIS Guide is issued with the main object of 

 assisting those who may have occasion to 

 study in detail the collections contained in the 

 Invertebrate Gallery, but it is believed that it will 

 be of equal service to the casual visitor. 



The exhibited collections of Sponges and Corals, 

 of Echinodermata, of Crustacea, and of Mollusca, 

 may be regarded as at the least thoroughly re- 

 presentative of the Seas of India both in the shallows 

 and in the depths, as far as the depths are known at 

 present ; but owing in the one case to want of space, 

 and in the other case to the incompleteness of our 

 present knowledge, the respective collections of the 

 air-breathing Arthropoda of the Indian region (ex- 

 cepting only the Lepidoptera, and the Mantidae 

 among the Orthoptera) and of most of the groups 

 of Worms of the Indian region, are intended only to 

 illustrate important generic types. 



A. ALCOCK, Surg eon- Captain, 



Superintenderit of the Indian Museum, 



Indian Museum, Calcutta; 

 2ist May iSg^. 



