THE ICHTHYOLOGICAL COLLECTION 



BY 



NICHOLAS A. BORODIN 



The study collection of fishes of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 comprises about 35,000 registered and catalogued units.' Besides 

 that there are some unidentified and unregistered fishes, collected in 

 the past by various expeditions and private persons, and a large col- 

 lection of African fishes (about 600 specimens), collected recently for 

 the Museum by A. Loveridge. 



Within the last few years a considerable collection of fish skele- 

 tons, some 300 in number, has been added to the study collection of 

 fishes. 



The collection occupies five rooms of the basement and is placed in 

 36 cases with 410 sections; in each section are from five to nineteen 

 trays. 



Most of the fishes ate in bottles, but some of the larger fish are in 

 116 copper containers, and still larger specimens are in two large 

 tanks which serve especially for sharks, skates, sturgeon, etc. 



During the last two years the whole collection has been revised, 

 poorly preserved specimens destroyed, good ones rearranged and a 

 locative card catalogue prepared. 



The collection is not as rich in number of specimens as the collec- 

 tion of the United States National Museum, and probably not as 

 large as the great collection at the University of Michigan, but the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology collection surely excels all other 

 collections in America in the number of South American, Asiatic 

 and European fishes. 



The famous "Thayer" expedition to Brazil in 1866 resulted in 

 bringing to the Museum of Comparative Zoology over 12,000 speci- 

 mens of South American fishes. This huge collection has been used 

 as the principal material for volumes of the ichthyological works by 



^ "Unit" means a single specimen or several specimens in the same container, 

 bearing a separate number, under which it is entered in the catalogue. Some- 

 times it includes a dozen, or even a hundred fishes. 



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