I6C1 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEttM, 1880. 



SECTION OF MAMMALS. 



The Curator of the Department of Mammals, Mr. F. W. True, was 

 asked to prepare an exhibit which should illustrate the principles on 

 which the present classification of mammals was based. The family 

 was selected as the division which would best represent the general 

 theory of classification, and it was decided to send a collection which 

 should include one or more characteristic specimens of every known 

 family. As quite a number of the families were not represented in the 

 museum collection it became necessary to secure specimens from other 

 sources, and when such could not be obtained, to represent the family 

 by means of pictures. Owing to the fact that classification rests partly 

 on external and partly on internal characters, both skeletons and stuffed 

 specimens were included. The families, excepting only a few of the larg- 

 est forms, which from their size had to be separated from the systematic 

 series, were arranged in zoological order in one continuous case 140 feet 

 long, beginning with the highest order, man, and ending with the lowest 

 or egg-laying mammals, thus affording excellent opportunities for study 

 and comparison. The collection naturally included many animals with 

 which the public had thus far had little opportunity for becoming ac- 

 quainted. Among these were the gorilla, chimpanzee, aye-aye, panda, 

 walrus, coney, tapir, saiga, antelope, almiqui, shrew, tana, chinchilla, 

 coypu, whale, porpoise, manatee, aard-vark, pangolin, armadillo, ant- 

 eater, duck-bill, and many other forms seldom found in expositions 

 in this or any other country. 



MAMMAL EXTERMINATION SERIES. 



Adjoining the systematic mammal collection was a special exhibit pre- 

 pared by Mr. W. T. Hornaday, Curator of Living Animals, to direct the 

 attention of the public to the rapid destruction of many of the larger 

 animals which are fast disappearing from the country, and are already 

 in great dauger of extermination. The series included the bison, or 

 American buffalo, moose, elk, antelope, mountain goat, mountain sheep, 

 walrus, elephant-seal, and the beaver. The bison was the object of 

 special attention, and a large series of pictures were shown to illustrate 

 the numerous methods employed by both Indians and whites in its de- 

 struction. In the center of the exhibit, upon a sod-covered pedestal, 

 was a skeleton of a bison from which the hide had been removed, show- 

 ing the condition in which the carcasses are left upon the plains by the 

 hide-hunters; and on adjoining screens were specimens of the various 

 grades of commercial hides, with a schedule of their past and present 

 market values. There was also on exhibition a very instructive map of 

 North America, showing by colored areas the original territory covered 

 by the buffalo, and its narrowing range from time to time during the 

 past quarter of a century, due to the destructive agency of man. In 

 the rear of the exhibit was a case containing samples of the hides of 



