420 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



family kept in its proximity in the mammal hall. Some of these are so 

 bad that they have been ordered into the workshops for remodeling. 

 Such a one is shown in Plate lxxv, and it is a. very good example of 

 how kangaroos ought not to be mounted. 



About as near perfect as mammalian groups can be made is another 

 one in the collection seen in the armadilloes (Plate lxxyi). This has 

 three animals preserved in it, all in different positions, while the sur- 

 roundings, as plants, cacti, etc., are originals that have been collected in 

 the section where these interesting animals are found. So far as its taxi- 

 dermy is concerned, it may be said that the form of the armadillo is 

 more or less fixed, yet it presents problems to the taxidermist which 

 are quite as difficult to deal with as is the fitting the skin of a hairy 

 mammal to its manakin. If I remember (for the group has at the 

 ] uesent writing gone on to the World's Fair at Chicago), some of the 

 accessories in it, as the cacti, are casts, but their reproduction is so 

 perfect, spines and all, that it is simply impossible to distinguish them 

 from the plants as they occur in nature. Speaking of cacti and this 

 group of armadilloes reminds me of a conversation that I had with 

 Mr. William Palmer, who is now doing such admirable work in the 

 taxidermy of mammalian groups at the Museum, in regard to the 

 reproducing in some group a specimen of the giant cactus of our 

 extreme southwestern territorial districts. It may be introduced with 

 great effect in some one of a variety of ways, either in the mammal or 

 the ornithological department, and it is to be hoped that that will be 

 done some time in the near future. Mr. II. W. Henshaw once remarked 

 to me that he found a species of our pigmy owls breeding in holes in 

 the giant cactus, and a group embodying this idea would certainly be 

 one of great value and interest. 



A group of mammals requiring an entirely different kind of handling 

 from any we have thus far noticed is seen in the Cetaceans. Papier- 

 mache is here the material to reproduce its various species in the most 

 satisfactory manner, and a very fine example of this is seen in the cast of 

 Prodelphituts plagiodon (Cope), shown in Plate lxxvi«. Here much 

 depends upon the skill of the colorist, and the smooth surface of the 

 material used offers a beautiful ground to him whereupon to reproduce 

 the exact natural tints of the animal as it is seen in nature. Mr. Shin- 

 dler, of the Museum, is an adept at much of this, and examples of his 

 skill are best shown in some of the fishes which were noticed upon a 

 preceding page of this report. Incidentally it may be said that to the 

 zoologist this species of Dolphin is a very interesting one, and its char- 

 acteristics and relationships have been set forth by Mr. F. W. True in 

 Bulletin ]So. 3G of the U. S. National Museum publications, entitled 

 u Contributions to the Natural History of the Cetaceans, a Review of 

 the Family Delphinida?" (p. 66). By all odds the papier-mache cast 

 is the most effective way in which to reproduce the cetaceans for 

 museum exhibitions. 



I desire now, at this point, to invite attention to one of the larger 



