136 The Official Guide to the 
some interesting specimens, chiefly foreign. No. 1 
contains Flying-fish and Hammer-headed Sharks, 
both from St. Helena, with young of the latter; 
a number of Australian fishes; the Porcupine-fish 
(Diodon hystrix) and Tetrodon patoca from the East 
Indies, both of which latter possess the power of 
inflating their bodies till they assume an almost — 
globular shape. In No. 2 will be found a number of 
fish in spirits, amongst which should be noticed 
Cottus grenlandicus, from Yarmouth, and near it 
C. scorpius ; also a very rare fish, taken on the Nor- 
folk coast, Scorpenr dactyloptera (Delaroche), known 
to the American Icthyologists as the Rose Perch. 
And in No. 3 are some spirit specimens of Octopus, 
EOL IGO; etc: 
Under Case 2 is a specimen of the Bony PIKg, 
Lepidosteus osseus, belonging to the GANOIDEI, an 
Order of fishes which, though very abundant in the 
paloeozoic and mesozoic age, is very scantily repre- 
sented in the recent fauna, and evidently verging — 
towards total extinction. Dr. Ginther, writing of the 
genus Lefpidosteus, to which this fish belongs, states 
that “fishes of this genus existed already in Tertiary 
time ; their remains have been found in Europe as 
well as North America. In our period they are 
limited to the temperate parts of North America, 
Central America, and Cuba. ‘Three species can be 
* 
distinguished, which attain to a length of about six © 
feet. ‘They feed on other fishes, and their general 
resemblance to a Pike has given them the vernacular 
names of Gar-pike, or Bony-pike (Gtinther’s Study of 
Fishes, p. 367). 
From the Fish Corridor we enter a room devoted 
first to a small collection of REPTILIA, next to 
which are British Mammals, the remainder of the 
cases being occupied by a general collection of 
Mammals. 
