170 
ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 
[UPPER 
Tables 11, 12. The Spiders, as the Mygale, or. Bird-catching Spider ; 
the Trap-door-Spiders, which dig holes in clayey banks, and close them 
by a door hanging with a hinge ; the Scorpions ; the Ticks. The Centi- 
pedes and Millipedes, so called from the great number of their feet. 
Tables 13-24. Crustacea, such as the Land Crabs of Africa and 
the West Indies; the Hermit Crabs, which live in shells; the Robber 
Crab or Tree Lobster, which climbs the cocoa-nut trees to get at the 
nuts ; the Lobsters and Cray-fish ; the Glass Crabs found in the tropical 
parts of the ocean ; the King Crabs of America and the Chinese seas. 
FIFTH KOOM. 
The Wall Cases contain the Ganoid and Cartilaginous Fishes, viz. : 
the Sturgeons of Europe and America ; the long and flat-snouted 
Polyodon of the Mississippi; the Polypterus of Tropical Africa, and 
the Bony Pikes (Lepidostens) of the North American Freshwaters, 
covered with scales, hard and polished as ivory ; the African Mudfish 
(Lepidosiren), with four long threadlike limbs; in summer, before the 
water is dried up, it buries itself in the mud and forms a case in 
which it lies torpid until the rainy season begins ; the Barramunda 
(Ceratodus), a fish hitherto known from fossil teeth only, but recently 
discovered living in Queensland ; the Cartilaginous Fish, such as the 
Sharks and Rays ; the Torpedo or Numb-fish, which defend themselves 
by means of an electric apparatus on each side of the head. The middle 
of the room"is occupied by a Saw Fish (Pristis pectinatus), common 
in all tropical seas, and a most dangerous enemy to other large fish, 
the smaller kinds of whales, and even to man. The Saw Fish is a 
Shark with the upper part of the snout prolonged into a strong and 
broad blade, which is armed laterally with large teeth, and generally 
called the " saw/' The mouth itself is armed with very small teeth, 
which by themselves would be quite harmless. In attacking another 
animal, the Saw Fish tries to rip open the abdomen with its saw, and 
having succeeded in thus killing its prey, it feeds on the intestines and 
other soft organs, leaving the muscular and tougher portions to the 
stronger-toothed sharks. On the top of the Cases are the saws of 
various Saw-fish, and specimens of the largeif Cartilaginous fish, also 
some of the larger Sponges, such as Neptune's Cup. 
In the Table Cases are exhibited various kinds of Sponges which 
belong to an extensive class of mostly microscopic beings. 
On the landing outside of this room is exhibited in a tank a speci- 
men of the Ox-Ray from the Mediterranean (Dicerobatis), distinguished 
by a straight horn-like appendage on each side of the head, pointing 
forwards. These fishes are commonly called " Sea-Devils " in the 
West Indies and other tropical seas, where they attain to an enormous 
size. Specimens of thirty feet width are on record; and the capture 
of such large examples is attended with considerable danger. 
ALBERT GUNTHER. 
