SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 397 



woods highly polished. In any event the aim should be to have it all of 

 a pattern and kind throughout the museum for subjects of one class, as 

 these fishes. It admits placing the label adopted by the museum in 

 front and in the center below, which may be attached in various ways, 

 or simply fastened to an obliquely cut block of wood, finished in the same 

 style as the base, and left to rest free upon it. It is important that the 

 base should be as long, or nearly as long, as the specimen it supports, 

 for that not only lends an appearance of good balance and symmetry 

 to the whole, but it also is a great safeguard against the cast being 

 accidentally tipped over and broken, or broken by the specimen pro- 

 jecting out beyond it too far, and so not properly protecting it. 



The Remora shown in Plate xxi is at once recognized by the black 

 stripes down its side and the white corners to the caudal tin. It seems 

 to attach itself principally to the sharks, thus differing with its congener 

 of the ocean {Remora squalipeta) so frequently found adhering to the 

 sides and bottoms of ships at sea, well below their water line. 



Another tine cast of a shark ( Ginghjmostoma cirratum) also in plaster, 

 is seen in Plate xxn, and viewed upon superior aspect. This not only 

 gives an absolutely correct idea of the animal it was taken from, but 

 shows very well the peculiar lateral corrugations of the skin, so charac- 

 teristic of this and other species. 



Of the Teleosteans I am enabled to present in my plates quite a num- 

 ber of interesting and well-known forms, and if the methods of casting 

 in plaster-of-Paris and plastic compounds be so successful in the case 

 of the cartilaginous tishes, it requires nothing to be said that it is equally 

 applicable to them. 



All of the casts of the specimens here offered are from the collections 

 of the National Museum, and the perfect manner in which they are 

 done is well exemplified in the specimen of the turbo t shown in Plate 

 xxiii (Rhombus maxim us). Most, if not all of them, were executed by 

 Mr. Joseph Palmer with the assistance of his son, Mr. William Palmer, 

 under the supervision and direction of some ichthyologist of the muse- 

 um's staff, and skillfully colored by Mr. A. Z. Shindler. Among the 

 principal x>oiuts to be looked to in making such casts is (1) the selec- 

 tion of as perfect specimens as possible, especially in the matter of 

 unmutilated parts, as fins and tail, and structures of the head; (2) 

 the parts should be exhibited in a natural manner or properly spread 

 out; (3) the cast so made as to exhibit special characers; it should be 

 colored true to nature in a way already indicated; and, (5) finally, 

 they should be well mounted, labeled, and exhibited in a closed glass 

 case. 



Later on we shall see that fish do not require in these matters quite 

 as much knowledge, care, and study as do the reptiles; still they require 

 a good deal, and it should invariably be bestowed upon them. 



More or less uniformly colored, and comparatively smooth fishes, 

 show up fully as well as those with many salient characters, and this 



