CORAL GALLERY. 
35 
the most marked among vertebrated animals being the Irish 
Stoat, the Squirrel, the Ked Grouse, the St. Kilda Wren, and 
several species of fresh-water fishes, mostly belonging to the 
genus Salmo. Some of the latter have an extremely local dis- 
tribution, being only found in some small groups of mountain 
lakes. 
Of the Seals, but two species are really indigenous to Britain, 
the Common Seal {PJioca vihdina) and the Great Grey Seal 
{Halichcerus gryjpus) ; but other species, as the Einged and the 
Harp Seal of the Northern Seas, are exhibited in their capacity of 
occasional but rare visitors to our shores. 
Parallel with the bird gallery to the north side (right on enter- 
ing), and approached by several passages, is a long narrow gallery 
containing the collection of corals and of sponges and allied forms. Coral Gallery. 
Commencing at the eastern end, some of the lowest forms of Gufdefprice 
animal life are exhibited in the wall-case and table-cases ; they 
belong to a group called Protozoa, and, for the greater part, 
are so minute, that they can be studied with the microscope 
only ; their structure is therefore illustrated by means of models 
and figures. The next divisions of the gallery are occupied by the 
sponges ; most conspicuous among these is a series showing the 
variations of the common bath-sponge (cases land 2), the beauti- 
ful siliceous Eupledella or Venus' flower-basket, the Japanese 
Eyalonema or glass-rope sponge (case 3), and the gigantic 
Poterion or Neptune's cup, of which several specimens are 
placed on separate stands. 
Nearly the whole of the remainder of the gallery is given up 
to the Corals, showing the immense variety of form and colour 
of these animals, some of which present a marvellous resem- 
blance to vegetable growths. The part exhibited is merely the 
dried, hard, horny , or calcareous basis or supporting skeleton either 
of isolated individuals, or of colonies of creatures allied to the 
well-known sea-anemones of our coasts. The aggregated skele- 
tons of myriads of these animals form the coral-reefs which 
constitute the base of thousands of islands in the Indo-Pacific 
Ocean. Near the west end of the gallery is placed a magnificent 
specimen of the Black Coral of the Mediterranean (^Gerardia 
savalia), one of the Antipatharia, which was obtained off the 
coast of the island of Euboea in the ^o-ean Sea. The drawinc: 
D 2 
