148 
ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 
[UPPER 
Central Asia (Ovis jioli), which was discovered by the Venetian 
traveller, Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century, on the Great Pamir 
mountains, at an altitude of 16,000 feet. The largest pair of horns 
exhibited, measures 56 inches in a straight line from tip to tip. 
The various kinds of Ibex and Wild Goats of Siberia, India, Asia 
Minor, and Europe, and some of their domestic varieties (Cases 6 to 
8 and ] 3) ; the Cashmere and Angora Goats, celebrated for the 
delicate wool growing among their hair, and manufactured into the 
finest shawls. 
The Giraffes are fitted, by their long legs and neck, and extensile 
lips and tongue, to browse on the twigs of high trees; while the Ante- 
lopes, Goats, and Sheep, with their short neck and blunt lips, browse 
chiefly on low shrubs, or graze. 
The Bats, which have the skin extended between the fingers of 
their fore-limbs, fly about in the dusk and at night; they feed chiefly 
upon insects ; some of the larger species, often called Fox-bats, or 
Flying Foxes, have blunt grinding teeth, and eat fruit only. They 
are found in Africa, in the islands of the Indian Archipelago and the 
Pacific, and in Australia, most of them living in large flocks. The 
Morse-shoe Bats and Leaf-nosed Bats have very peculiar physiogno- 
mies, from the complicated folds of the skin on the snout and round 
the nostrils. Though the Bats are generally sombre-coloured, yet 
a few have brilliantly-coloured furs, such as the little orange Port 
Essington Bat, and some of the Fox-bats. The Vampyres, or Blood- 
sucking Bats, are confined to South America ; they have a long 
tongue, and a deep notch in the lower lip. They attack animals and 
sometimes even men while sleeping, fanning the victims with their 
wings. They are of small size, but the wounds which they inflict 
often continue to bleed after the Bats are satiated, and do not readily 
heal. 
2. THE SOUTHERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY. 
In the Wall Cases of this Gallery is exhibited the continuation of 
the collection of the Hoofed Quadrupeds, as the Oxen, Elands, Deer, 
Camels, Llamas, Horses, and the various species of Swine. Here also are 
placed the species of Armadillo, Manis, and Sloth, remarkable for the 
length and strength of their claws. On the top of the Wall Cases are 
the horns of various species of Antelopes, Goats, and Sheep. The 
four corners of the floor are occupied by specimens of the Wild Cattle 
and Buffaloes of Europe, Africa and Asia; by the Eland, the largest 
kind of Antelopes acclimatized in England and Ireland ; by the Elk, 
the most bulky species of Deer, inhabiting North America and some- 
districts of North Eastern Europe. 
In the centre of this Gallery has been placed a magnificent speci- 
men of the Basking Shark (Selache maxima), captured on March 2nd, 
L875, near Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight. It measures 28 feet 
in length, and 13 feet in its greatest circumference. This Shark is 
an inhabitant of the Northern parts of the Atlantic Ocean, and 
