REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF LIVING ANIMALS IN THE U. S. 

 NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



By W. T. HoRNADAY, Curator. 



From the date of the plan of organization of the National Museum it 

 has been the intention of its founders that it should eventually include 

 a Department of Vivaria, to afford materials for the prosecution of 

 scientific studies, as well as for general educational purposes. The 

 organization of the present Department of Living Animals was hastened , 

 and finally precipitated, by the imperative needs of the taxidermic force 

 for living models to be studied daily in connection with work on the 

 series of family groups of American mammals begun last year for the 

 display of mounted mammals. The experiment of keeping live animals 

 for this purpose in the taxidermic laboratory had proven expensive and 

 in many ways unsatisfactory. Inasmuch as it had been determined to 

 spare no effort in this work, and to produce a series of groups which 

 should be as nearly perfect as possible, it was deemed necessary to 

 form a small collection of living animals for purposes of study, and, if 

 practicable, to also arrange for its exhibition to the public. 



In pursuance with this determination the chief taxidermist was 

 directed to accompany Fish Commission Car No. 1, Mr. J. Frank Ellis, 

 messenger, on its autumn trip to the Pacific coast, for the purpose of 

 collecting and bringing back as many specimens of mammals as could 

 be secured by gift, or purchased at nominal prices. This trip occupied 

 a month, from October 8th to November 9th, during which Car No. 1 

 visited St. Paul, Minnesota; Fargo and Mandan, Dakota ; Helena, 

 Montana; Tacoma, Washington Territory; Portland, Oregon; Salt 

 Lake City, Utah ; and Cheyenne, Wyoming. At all of these points liv- 

 ing specimens were acquired, both by gift and purchase, until the total 

 number of acquisitions amounted to seventeen. The following were 

 the objects which formed the nucleus of the present collection of living 

 animals : 



Vulpes fulvus fulvus, Eecl Fox. Gift of O. V. Davis, Mandan, Dakota. 

 Ursus americanus cinnamomum, Cinuamon Bear. Purchased at Helena, Montana. 

 Cariacus virginianus, White-tailed Deer. Purchased at Helena, Montana. 

 Cynomys ludoviciamts, Prairie Dog. Gift of Carl Steinmetz, Helena, Montana. 



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