Those desirous of studying more minutely the characteristics of British Mammals should examine the series of skins and skulls exhibited in a special case on the right side of the central west window.
Coral Gallery.[10]
Parallel with the Bird-gallery, on the north side (right on entering), and approached by several passages, is a long narrow gallery containing the collection of Corals and Sponges and allied types. Commencing at the eastern end, some of the lowest forms of animal life are exhibited in the wall-case and table-cases; they belong to a group called Protozoa, and, for the greater part, are so minute, that they can be studied only with the microscope; their structure is therefore illustrated chiefly by means of models and figures. The next divisions of the gallery are occupied by the Sponges, most conspicuous among these being a series showing the variations of the common Bath-Sponge (cases 1 and 2), the beautiful flinty Venus’ Flower-basket or Euplectella ([fig. 17]), the Japanese Glass-rope Sponge or Hyalonema (case 3), and the gigantic Neptune’s Cup or Poterion, of which several specimens are placed on separate stands. Special interest attaches to the case showing the different kinds of Sponges used in commerce.
Fig. 17.—Venus’ Flower-Basket (Euplectella imperialis and E. aspergillum). (One-sixth natural size.)
Fig. 18.—Brain-Coral. (Meandrina cerebriformis).
Nearly the whole of the remainder of the gallery is given up to Corals. In life these organisms display an immense variety of form and colour, sometimes presenting a marvellous resemblance to vegetable growths; but the part exhibited in the gallery is merely the dried, hard, horny, or stony basis or supporting skeleton, either of isolated individuals, or of colonies. Corals are allied to the well-known Sea-anemones of the British and other coasts; the combined skeletons of myriads of these animals form the coral-reefs which constitute the bases of thousands of islands in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Among the larger reef-making species are the Brain-Corals (Meandrina), one of which is shown in figure 18. Near the west end of the gallery is placed a magnificent specimen of the Black Coral of the Mediterranean (Gerardia savalia), obtained off the coast of the island of Eubœa in the Ægean Sea. The drawing in the case shows a magnified view of the “animals” or polyps of this species as they appear in life. In case 13 are specimens and drawings of the Red Coral (Corallium rubrum), so largely used for ornamental purposes, and also of the crimson Organ-pipe Coral (Tubipora musica). Arranged on shelves on the south wall of the western end of this gallery is a series of Pennatulidæ (Sea-pens, Sea-rushes, or Sea-ropes) preserved in spirit. These Zoophytes live at the bottom of the sea, with their lower ends fixed in the sand and mud; the skeleton being never more than a straight internal rod in addition to innumerable microscopic spicules.
Fig. 19.—Rough Sunfish (Orthagoriscus mola).