IS 
ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 
[UPPER 
entrance on the side to deceive its enemies. Various nests of Hum- 
ming Birds, Honeyeaters, Tailor Bird and Lyre-tailed Menura, are 
also shown. The Table Cases 1-8 contain specimens illustrative of 
the various changes of Insects, their nests and structures; the cocoon 
of the gigantic Goliath Beetle of Western Africa, the clay nests of 
various species of White Ants, the various Vegetable Galls, and a series 
of the nests of Spiders ; among these the nests of the Trap-door Spider, 
and a remarkable flat web, constructed by an Australian species, are 
shown here. On the walls are suspended some specimens of the large 
gigantic Land-Tortoises which once inhabited in large numbers the 
Galapagoes and the islands of Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Aldabra. 
They formed a very important article of food to navigators in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries during the protracted and 
tedious voyages across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but are now 
almost extinct. 
SECOND ROOM. 
The Wall Cases contain the stuffed exotic Reptiles and 
Bat ra chi a ; in the Table Cases are contained the hard parts of 
the Radiated Animals, including the Sea-Eggs, Sea-Stars, and 
Encrinites. 
The Wall Cases 1-8 contain the Lizards ; exemplified by the Moni- 
tors or Varan us of Africa, India, and Australia ; the Heloderms of 
Mexico, which have grooves in the back of the teeth like the poison-fangs 
of serpents ; the Safeguards, large lizards of the tropical parts of 
America. The Ta&tera. (Hatteria), the largest reptile of New Zealand, 
nearly extinct. The Seines (Case 5), generally small, and polished: 
some have distinct and strong legs, and others only traces of them ; 
in the Blind Worms the bones of the legs are hid under the skin. 
Case 6, 7. The Guanas, many of which are highly esteemed as food, 
are natives of America, and, like the Chameleons, have the power 
of rapidly chauging their colour; the 'large lizards from the Gala- 
pogos Islands, one of which feeds on sea-weeds ; the diminutive 
Dragons of India, with the skin of their sides expanded upon long 
slender ribs, in the form of wings, which spread out and support 
the creatures as they leap from branch to branch. In Case 8 is 
the Moloch of Australia, covered with large spines. The Chlamy- 
dosaurus, or frilled Lizard of North Australia, with a large folded frill 
round its neck, like a Queen Elizabeth's ruff, which it can elevate when 
excited. The Chameleons of Africa and India, celebrated for the rapidity 
with which they change their colours ; they feed on insects, which 
they catch by protruding their long tongue ; only a small part of the 
eye is visible, the rest being covered with skin; the eyes move inde- 
pendently of each other. 
Oases 9-13. Snakes or Serpents. Case 9. The Poisonous 
Serpents, such as the Rattle-snakes of the New World, which have a 
rattle at the end of the tail ; this rattle is formed of a series of hard 
horny joints, fitting loosely one into another, which the animal can 
