28 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1913. 



fishes are shown in the same way as the reptiles, the collection of 

 casts representing a wide range of forais. Most of the casts are 

 placed against wall surfaces in the backs of cases, but the flounders 

 are displayed on a sandy bottom in table cases. A special feature 

 consists of a series of enlarged models of deep-sea fishes of extraor- 

 dinary appearance, such as the grotesque pelican fish with its 

 enormous mouth, the viper fish with its protruding fangs, the angler 

 with its light-emitting bulb, and the luminous fish, conspicuous in 

 having numerous phosphorescent spots along the body. The only 

 group so far introduced is one of the so-called walking fishes which 

 are represented as skipping about by means of their pectoral fins 

 on the mud flat of a mangrove swamp. 



Invertebrates. — The faunal display of marine and other inverte- 

 brates has beeii assigned the south haU in the second story of the 

 west wing, which measures 169 feet 7 inches long by 31 feet 6 inches 

 wide. As the exhibit is being built up whoUy anew and will con- 

 tain a large number of specimens prepared in a manner not previously 

 attempted, the work upon the collection has, of necessity, advanced 

 much more slowly than in any of the other sections. It is stUI in a 

 very incomplete state, but by the introduction of certain temporary 

 installations the hall has been made sufficiently presentable to warrant 

 its being kept open to visitors. As regards marine invertebrates, 

 the scheme contemplates the illustration of a number of distinct 

 littoral faunal regions, and of the deep sea, by characteristic forms 

 belonging to the various groups of animals which inhabit them, 

 to be supplemented by group assemblages in which relationships 

 and environment can be more definitely demonstrated. The Httoral 

 faunas with which most progress has been made are three in number, 

 namely, from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Cod, from Cape Cod to Cape 

 Hatteras, and the Floridian. 



Vertebrate osteology and comparative anatomy. — ^The collections 

 illustrating these subjects occupy the entire length of the north side 

 of the west wing in the second story, an area 216 feet long by 31 feet 

 2 inches wide. The osteological series is, in its purpose, most nearly 

 akin to, and may, in fact, be regarded as a part of, the systematic 

 collection in the adjoining range. It represents only selected exam- 

 ples of supergeneric types with no attempt at showing specific differ- 

 ences, and, notwithstanding the difficulty of exhibiting skeletons 

 in a manner attractive to the pubhc, it is felt that the installation 

 has been made especially effective and instructive. 



In the passageway between the wing and the range are the mounted 

 skeletons of a horse and a man, labeled to bring out the homologies 

 of the bones in these very dissimilar species. In the middle of the 

 adjacent space is a series of skeletons of the primates, showing the 

 differences and similarities in the bony structure of the various groups 



