EXHIBIT AT PAN- AMERICAN EXPOSITION. 189 



permit the carrying mil of any preconcerted plan rigorously. The 

 collections arc fitted to the space rather than the space to the col- 

 lections. This limitation was experienced in Buffalo do less than at 

 previous expositions. The condition, as already stated, was met by 

 the abandonment of faunal lines and the mingling together of animals 

 from the northern and southern parts of the American continents. The 

 lossof faunal boundaries was probably not felt except by naturalists. 

 The eye rested everywhere on American species and only American, 

 and the labels indicated what particular region each animal inhabited. 

 All the larger mammals and all the birds, reptiles, batrachians, and 

 ti-dies were furnished with descriptive labels, containing in untechnical 

 language the most interesting facts in the natural history of the vari- 

 ous species, due preparation of these labels involved no little labor, 

 and amounted in effect to writing a popular treatise on the natural his- 

 tory of the more characteristic American vertebrates. The labels for 

 tin 1 reptiles and batrachians were prepared by Dr. L. Stejneger, those 

 for the birds by Dr. C. W. Richmond, for the mammals by Mr. (I. S. 

 Miller, jr., and for the fishes by Mr. B. A. Bean. Specimens of these 

 labels are subjoined. 



» <; LASS-SNAKE. 



Ophisaurus ventralis i Linnaeus). 



Although without limbs, and in spite df its name, the Glass-snake is no snake at 

 all, but a degenerate lizard, not very distinctly related to the species with four well- 

 developed legs. The character by which it may instantly he recognized isthe exter- 

 nal ear opening, which is absent in all snakes. 



The name < rlass-snake refers to the brittleness of its tail. v\ Inch is so extreme that 

 a violent muscular exertion is sufficient to disarticulate the vertebraj and break the 

 animal in two or more pieces. It lives in holes in the ground, and when caughl 

 often saves its life by disengaging the tail, and leaving the wriggling member in the 

 hand of the confused captor. That the separate parts of the tail are able to join each 

 other and grow together again is, of course, a fable. < >n the contrary, a new. short 

 stump grows out to replace the lost portion of the tail. Tins reduced portion is dif- 

 ferently colored, and such a specimen as here exhibited is often by the ignorant 

 regarded as evidence of the existence of the fabulous "Hoop-snake," the conical 

 stump being taken for the alleged "sting" of the latter. 



The Glass-snake is common in the southern United State-. 



MOl MAI \ CARIBOU. 



Rangifer montanus Thompson Seton. 



This is the Caribou of the Rocky Mountains of Canada, southern Alaska, and Idaho. 

 It is much darker in color than the ( 'aril ton of the Maine woods, from which it differs 

 also in various details of structure, though its habits are similar. The Caribous are 

 the American representative of the reindeer, but have never been domesticated by 

 the Indians or Eskimos; and the Government has found it necessarj to introduce 



tame reindeer from the Old World into parts of Alaska where native Caribous are 

 abundant. 



