ROOM II. J 
natural history. ( Animals.) 
33 
sea-weeds, shells, and crustaceous animals : as the Luth of the Mediter¬ 
ranean ; the green turtle, and the imbricated turtle, or tortoise-shell 
turtle of Arabia, which furnishes the best sort of tortoise-shell. 
Wall Cases 24—26. The Crocodiles and Amphisb(ENAS. 
The Crocodiles inhabit both the Old and New World; the alligators, 
only found in America; and the garials, which are peculiar to India. 
The upper shelves of this Case contain the double-headed snakes (Am- 
phisbcena ), so called because both ends are nearly equally blunt, which 
has led to the idea that they could walk backwards and forwards with 
the same facility. 
Wall Case 26. The Batrachian Animals. 
The lower part of this case contains the toads, frogs, and efts: the 
most remarkable are the tree frogs, which have the power of walk¬ 
ing on polished surfaces, and of attaching themselves by their feet 
to, and walking with their bodies suspended on the under side of the 
smoothest leaves ; they fix themselves directly they alight on any body, 
and, like many reptiles, they have the faculty of changing the colour of 
their skins, which often enables them to elude the vigilance of their 
enemies. The bull frogs of America; the horned toads of Brazil; 
the paradoxical frog from Surinam, the young or tadpole of which, 
when in its fish-like form, is larger than its parent, and has been de¬ 
scribed as a fish; and Pipa of Brazil, which deposits its eggs on the 
back of the male, who carries them a certain period, -when the young are 
emitted from the cells ; the siren of Carolina, which looks like an eel 
with front legs ; the proteus of the dark subterraneous lakes of Southern 
Europe, which is of a pale pink colour, and blushes when exposed 
to the light; of this here is a very accurate wax model, to exhibit its 
appearance when alive. 
The Table Cases contain the Sea Eggs, Star Fish, and Encrinites. 
Tables 1— 9. Sea Eggs. 
Tables 1—6. The globular sea eggs. The club-spined echinus 
(Case 3), which has very large club-shaped spines; the tessellated 
echinus, which has short, broad, flat-topped spines like tessellated pave¬ 
ment. The spines easily fall off when the animal is dead, which makes 
specimens with spines on them rare in collections. 
Tables 7, 8. The Sea Pancakes, which are so depressed that there 
scarcely appears to be any room for their internal viscera; some of them 
are lobed or fingered on the margin, and others pierced with slits. 
Table 9. The Galerites, which are most abundant in a fossil state, 
and some of the Sea Hearts, the species of which are continued into 
and occupy Case 10. 
Tables 11—18. The Star-Fish. 
Some have five and others many rays; some have the surface 
scattered with tubercles placed on the junction of a net-like skeleton, 
and others are formed of flat-topped pieces, like a tessellated pavement, 
