MOLE TRIBE

are arranged. These include Moles from the four quarters of the world.
There are the North American marsh moles and long-tailed star-nosed
moles; the golden moles, from the Cape of Good Hope; the varieties of
the shrew-mouse, including the remarkable blue shrew-mouse of India,
the African elephant shrew, and the Russian musk shrew; the Javan
insectivorous squirrel; and a curious variety of hedgehogs, from
opposite quarters of the globe. Having examined these inferior
mammalia, the visitor will pass in direct order of succession to the
cases in which

THE MARSUPIAL ANIMALS

are deposited. These fill nine wall-cases, and they should be
carefully examined, as exhibiting a peculiar economy of animal life.
The marsupial animals are placed by some zoologists in the lowest
class of mammalia. They include carnivorous, herbivorous, and
insectivorous families, and their head-quarters appear to be
Australia. In the first two cases (44, 45) which the visitor will
examine, are the varieties of Australian phalangers; and here also are
the New Holland bears, the Australian wombat, the flying squirrel of
Norfolk Island, the flying phalangers; and in the right corner of the
case are grouped those notable animals to which public curiosity has
of late years been so keenly directed--the kangaroos. In the next five
cases (46-51) the visitor will find more varieties of these strange,
awkward-looking creatures. Here amid the kangaroos of Australia are
the long-nosed, rock, and jerboa kangaroos, the New Guinea
tree-kangaroo, and below, the Australian koala. The two next cases
(52, 53) contain the varieties of Australian opossums, and below are
the opossums of America.

These close the attractions of the wall-cases, and the visitor should
now glance round the saloon at the specimens of the varieties of

THE SEAL TRIBE,

which are arranged along the tops of the wall-cases. These include the
leonine seal of the Southern Ocean, the Cape porpoise and dolphin, and
the long-beaked dolphin of the Ganges. Having noticed these specimens,
the visitor should proceed to examine the extensive collection of

CORALS,

which are arranged upon the central tables of the saloon. To explain
the presence of coral in the midst of a zoological collection it is
necessary to remind the visitor that this beautiful substance, which
is chiefly a deposit of carbonate of lime, is also the fossil remains
of that animal known to zoologists as the polypu