There are six orders or families of osseous or bony fish; and specimens of all these will be found in the wall cases of this room.  First there is the family of

Spiny-finned fishes.

This family occupies the first thirteen wall cases.  Among the fishes in the first four cases, the visitor should notice the flying gurnards; the sea scorpions, and flying sea scorpions; the paradise fish; and the perches, including the fingered variety.  The next cases (4-9) include, amid other varieties, the chaetodons, or bristle-toothed fish; mackarel, and horse mackarel; tunny; scombers, &c.; john-dories; and pilot fish.  Then follow, next in succession, two cases (10, 11) containing the lively dolphins, which are remarkable for the rapidity with which they change colour when they are withdrawn from the water; the sturgeons, with their lancet spine; and the sea garters.  The next two cases include the remaining specimens of the spiny-finned fish.  Among these are the wolf fish; the curiously formed tobacco-pipe fish; the big-headed dolphins or anglers; the hand fish, with its long fins; and the rook fish.

THE SOFT-FINNED FISHES

are deposited in nine cases.  In the first two cases (14, 15) of the series, are the fresh water fish of different countries, including the voracious and long-lived pike:  these form an interesting group for the contemplation of anglers.  The next case is devoted to hard-coated fish, as the Callichthes, which are cased with a thick scale armour; and the hard-coated Loricaria.  The fish grouped in the other cases of the series, are mostly familiar to the general visitor.  Here are the varieties of the salmon and the herring; cod; ling; turbot; flounders; eels of various kinds; whiting; and the lump fish.  The remaining four cases of this room are devoted to a series of fishes including, in cases 23, 24, the globe fish with a parrot’s beak; and the ungainly sea horses.  The two last cases (25, 26) include the file fish; the coffin fishes with their hard case of octagonal plates; and the European and American sturgeons.  Having examined the varieties of osseous fishes, the visitor should continue his westerly course into the fifth and last room, a compartment of the northern zoological gallery.  In this room he will find the wall cases devoted to

Cartilaginous fishes.

Many of the specimens of this division are placed on the top of the wall cases, being too large to be placed inside the cases.  The Cartilaginous fishes here brought together include the varieties of the ray; torpedos; and sharks.  At the western extremity of this room the visitor should terminate the onward course of his first visit, and, remembering that the table cases of the northern and eastern galleries through which he has passed, remain to be examined on his way back to the grand staircase, should begin to retrace his steps, confining his attention, as he returns, to the table cases placed in the central space of the rooms through which his way lies.  He should now therefore face the east, and return, in the northern zoological gallery towards its eastern extremity.  The table cases deposited in the room with the cartilaginous fish are covered with