FLOOE.] 
NORTHEEN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY. 
25 
Insects, such as the Butterflies, Hawkmoths, and Moths. The Hemi 
ptera and Homoptera, with their strange forms. The Diptera, such as 
the Gnat and the Breeze. The Tsetse of Tropical Africa, a fl}' which 
destroys horses and domestic cattle. 
Tables 11, 12. The Spiders, as the Mjgale,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, one of which 
is parasitic on the Rhinoceros. The Centipedes and Millipedes, sc 
called from the great number of their feet. 
Tables 13-24, Crustacea, such as the Land Crabs of 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 Lob- 
sters 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 Polijpterus of Tropical 
Africa, and the Bony Pikes (Lepidosteiis) 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 (Ceratodiis), 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 Sturgeons of the Russian and American rivers; 
the long and fiat-snouted Polyodon of the Mississippi. 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 wiih 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 larger 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. 
ALBERT GUNTHER. 
