34 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



J. Stein and H. C. Wardell; the special exhibit of sponges was 

 prepared by Ira Edwards; the foreign Devonian and the starfishes 

 and sea urchins by Winifred Goldring; the synoptic and special 

 wall-cases were equipped by C. A. Hartnagel and H. C. Wardell. 

 Mr Hartnagel has very elhciently supervised the making of the 

 cases, blocks, frames and other accessories and is installing the 

 special exhibit of corals. 



Restorations in wax of Devonian fishes have been made by Mr 

 Henri Marchand, and a series of such models of the graptolites 

 has been commenced by the same artist. These models attract 

 much attention, because of their artistic eJi'ectiveness and their 

 scientific accuracy. They have proved so attractive and instructive 

 that this work should be continued. 



The recent discovery of skeletons of the extinct peccar}'- 

 (Platygonus compressus Le Conte) in a sand and 

 gravel bank on the farm of Elihu Russell, near Gainesville, 

 Wyoming county, is worthy of special riote. Remains of this 

 extinct swine, which is related to the Central and South American 

 peccaries, have been found but once before in this State (near 

 Rochester), although they have been known from Indiana, Ohio 

 and Michigan and other states. The material from Gainesville 

 belongs to two individuals, and consists of 2 skulls, remains of 5 

 ribs, 5 vertebrae, 2 scapulae, one left and one right, 2 metacarpals, 

 I innominate, i ilium, i radius and ulna and 2 tibias. Of the two 

 skulls, one is complete; in the other the lower jaw is missing. The 

 complete one belongs to an older individual, the incomplete skull 

 to a younger, though grown, specimen, which still has the tem- 

 porary molar teeth. . . 



The peccaries are a family of Suiidea peculiar to America, 

 representing the hogs of the Old World. They have longer legs 

 than living hogs, and inhabit today the Americas from Texas south- 

 ward. Platygonus compressus had the size of , the 

 largest living peccaries. 



The remains of these animals are seldom found alone. At 

 Columbus two lots of six individuals each were found, the skele- 

 tons ail pointing with the snouts toward the southeast. The remains 

 are always found within the area occupied by the Wisconsin drift 

 of the Pleistocene glacial period; it is therefore inferred that these 

 peccaries took possession of the noirthern states soon after the 

 withdrawal of the last, or Wisconsin, ice sheet. They were, con- 

 temporaries of the mammoths and mastodons. Doubtless, so soon 

 after an extensive glacial period, fierce snow storms raged at times 



