428 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



upon the part of museum collectors and taxidermists, the feat of trans- 

 porting such a structure from the wilds of the Southwest to the mammal 

 hall of the National Museum would be considered perfectly feasible. 

 But before disturbing- such a nest in any way where the rats had orig- 

 inally built it, it would most assuredly be the thing to do to make a 

 good photograph of it, so that, in the event of having to restore or 

 arrange parts of it after its transportation and arrival, we would have 

 the photograph as a model, and the best that could be procured. In- 

 deed, with the material at hand the entire nest could be again rebuilt 

 by it, as for the matter of that. 



From the standpoint of the introduction of groups of mammals, 

 illustrating habits, etc., such a nest as this presents the problem of 

 devoting a large piece of valuable space to a very small animal. But 

 we contend here, most emphatically, that the lesson it teaches is fully 

 worthy of it, and these are the very kinds of objects that we should 

 devote our very best pains to introduce, with a strict fidelity to nature, 

 into our zoological museums. I would go farther; I would go to the 

 extent of giving many square feet of museum space, and faithfully 

 illustrate in the very best possible manner, a group of beavers and the 

 dam they build. These animals are now being rapidly exterminated 

 in our country, and ere they are gone entirely it is surely our bounden 

 duty to entertain such an idea with the view of carrying it out. Typ- 

 ical beaver dams are quite as scarce as the builders of them, but one 

 should be sought at an early date, photographed from various poiuts 

 of view, and, cost what it may, reproduced at the National Museum. 



Few, at the best, realize how rapidly many of our mammals in this 

 country are being forever' swept away. We are fortunate at the 

 National Museum in having preserved, in the very best manner, a num- 

 ber of them, but there yet remain a great many more demanding our 

 attention, and, in some cases, our immediate attention. It is the Gov- 

 ernment's first duty to see to this matter, and Government aid should 

 not be withheld for a moment where such enterprises are on foot, but 

 should, on the contrary, not only propose them, but encourage the under- 

 taking in every possible way. I have always entertained the idea that 

 the education of the people of any country is one of the best, if not 

 the best investment that that country can make, and surely none of 

 us will question but what zoological and other museums are great 

 educators. We stand very much in need of a zoological museum in 

 connection with our other Government museums, one large building 

 devoted exclusively to everything in the animal series below man. 

 We have no such building at present. We have been very generous 

 to ourselves in these matters on a number of occasions in the past, but 

 the income from it has well repaid us each time, and the benefit there- 

 from as a whole is simply incalculable. The time is near at hand again 

 when we should think of repeating one of those wise acts, one of those 

 well-put investments. 



