FLOOR.] 
NORTHERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY. 
17 
a secretion of a deep black colour, which the}^ emit when in danger, 
and thus conceal themselves. They are very voracious creatures. 
The female of the Paper Nautilus (Argonauta) fabricates a delicate 
symmetrical shell, in which she lays her eggs, and thus protects them. 
Both sexes of the Pearly Nautilus form a shell for their protection, 
one portion of which is divided into chambers. Some of the exiinct 
chambered shells, as the Ammonite, are placed with the Nautilus 
Shell in Table 50. 
In some of the side Table Cases there are — a series of specimens ex- 
hibiting the structures, diseases, deformities, and reparations of shells, 
such as the distorted variety of the common Garden Snail, described as 
Helix cornucopia ; a series of the eggs and egg-cases of Molluscs ; a 
series of specimens exhibiting the shells used for commercial purposes, 
such as the cameos, mother-of-pearl, gloves made from the byssus of 
the Pinna, the Chank shells carved by the natives of India and used 
in their temples. In another Case are specimens of the various kinds 
of Sea Slugs (Holothuria;) ; in China and the East Indian Archi- 
jieliigo they are sold as articles of food, under the name of Trepang. 
Some of the rarest examples of small quadrupeds are exhibited on 
the Table Cases. The stuffed specimen of the Aye-aye of Madagascar 
shows its large ears, the slender middle finger of the fore-hand, and 
the thick thumb of the hind-hand. The skeleton of the same animal 
shows the strong curved chisel-shaped front teeth : with these the 
Aye-aye gnaws down to the burrows of wood-eating grubs, and with 
its slender hooked finger extracts them. It is nocturnal, arboreal, 
and is guided to its favourite food by its acute sense of hearing. Also 
the curious Chlamydophorus and its singularly formed skeleton from 
Chili, and various specimens of Propithecus from Madagascar. 
THE NORTHERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY. 
FIRST ROOM. 
The Wall Cases 1-8 contain a collection of Nests of Wasps and 
Bees ; some are constructed of clay, or of sand, while others are of 
paper, made of an admixture of the scrapings of wood and vegetable 
fibre. Specimens of the various insect fabricators of these structures 
are in many instances attached to the nests. Case C contains the remains 
of the square lintel of a door of one of the government offices in St. 
Helena, showing the destruction caused by a species of White Ant. 
In Case 8, a series of the different stages cf development, and of the 
products of the Japanese Silk-moths, prepared and set up in Japan, is 
exhibited. Cases 0-1 G contain a collection of the Nests of Birds; 
among the more noticeable are the playing f.venues of the Australian 
Bower Birds, the pendulous nests of the American Orioles, and the 
gelatinous nests of the Esculent Swallow ; and that of the San Gero- 
nimo Swallow, which is a long pendulous tube formed entirely of the 
seed of a plant, secured together by the saliva of the bird ; the hollow 
for the eggs is at the top, inside the tube ; the bird has placed a false 
