88 
THE INDIAN MUSEUM: 1814—1914. 
adult stage. Photographs of fresh rays are also hung on the 
wall of the archway that leads from the reptile gallery to 
that specially devoted to fish. 
The rich material obtained from the ^ Golden Crown ’ 
enabled us to display the rays in a manner that has probably 
not been attempted in any other museum. Immediately 
within the Fish Gallery proper there is another case con¬ 
taining the record specimen of the sting-rays (Trygonidae), 
a female of the White Ray of the Bay of Bengal, the disk 
of which had a diameter of over 8 feet when fresh. 
Yet other specimens of the rays—a large Eagle-Ray and 
an almost equally large Gangetic Sting-Ray—are hung on the 
walls, on a shelf on which also reposes an Indo-Pacific Bask¬ 
ing Shark obtained from the mouth of the R. Hughli. 
Other sharks and other fish of all the families represent¬ 
ed in Indian waters are illustrated in the side-cases of this 
gallery, which has a floor-space of 1760 square feet. In 
cases in the middle of the room skeletons, teeth and the soft 
organs of various fishes are shown, with others illustrating 
the care of the young or of the eggs exercised by certain 
fishes, more particularly by those cat-fish the males of which 
carry the eggs in their mouths. 
Another case is occupied by the primitive vertebrates : 
the ascidians or sea-squirts, the lampreys, lancelets and cer¬ 
tain other less well-known groups. The structure of all these 
is demonstrated by both specimens and diagrams, while 
printed labels explain the reasons why zoologists consider 
that the different groups are related to vertebrate animals. 
A case at the. end of the room contains specimens of the 
largest and the smallest Indian bony fishes —Serranus layiceo- 
latiis and Gohius alcockii. 
Before leaving the subject of zoology in the Indian 
Museum it may be as well to say a few words about the 
connection that has long existed between the zoological sec¬ 
tion (or as it was formerly called the Natural History Sec¬ 
tion”) and the administration of the Museum as a whole. 
This may be traced in the first instance to the appointment 
of Edward Blyth to the curatorship of the Asiatic Society’s 
