24 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



Synopsis, by means of typical examples, of the whole 

 animal kingdom. Two large wall-cases are devoted to 

 the Mammalia ; each Order being represented by three or 

 four of its most characteristic forms, from the monotremes 

 and marsupials up to the apes and monkeys. The rodents, 

 for example, are illustrated by means of stuffed specimens 

 and skeletons of an agouti, a porcupine, a rabbit, a 

 squirrel, and a jerboa ; the ungulates by a small tapir and a 

 young hippopotamus, always accompanied by their skulls 

 or skeletons. The birds are similarly represented, in one 

 wall-case, by stuffed specimens and skeletons of all the 

 chief types. Another case is filled with reptiles — fine 

 examples of lizards and snakes in spirits, tortoises, 

 alligators, toads, &c., while the fossil forms are shown by 

 a small but very perfect oolitic crocodile, a Plesiosaurus, 

 a beautiful slender lizard of Jurassic age, and a cast of 

 the Pterodactyle with its wings. Another case contains 

 some striking specimens of fishes, both in spirits and 

 stuffed, with their skeletons, as well as some beautifully- 

 preserved fossil fishes. The worms, sponges, and insects 

 are exhibited in three more wall-cases, while the Crustacea, 

 radiata, and mollusca occupy two cases in the centre of 

 the room, and over these is suspended a model of a 

 gigantic cuttle-fish twenty feet in diameter. 



The special features to be noted in this room are, that 

 its contents and purpose are clearly indicated to every 

 visitor, each group and each specimen being also well 

 and descriptively labelled; that every specimen is good 

 and perfect, well mounted, and beautiful or interesting in 

 itself; that skeletons exhibiting the differences of struc- 

 ture, and fossils exhibiting some of the strange forms of 

 earlier ages of the world, are placed along with stuffed 

 specimens ; and, lastly, that the specimens are compara- 

 tively few in number, not crowded together, and so 

 arranged and grouped as to show at the same time the 

 wonderfully varied forms of animal life, as well as the 

 unity of type that prevails in each of the great primary 

 groups under very different external forms. We here see 

 that a room of very moderate dimensions is capable of 

 exhibiting all the chief types of form and structure that 



