66 Report of the President 



The most important work in exhibition in herpetology for 

 1914 has been the completion of the "Toad Group" or "May 



■^ , -i_-^ Group," one of the results of several years 

 New Exhibits , _ ,' , , ■ , • ■ \ 



of field and laboratory study by the Asso- 

 ciate Curator before coming to the American Museum. This 

 group is the fourth of the panoramic habitat groups represent- 

 ing North American reptiles and amphibians, and the largest 

 and most complex yet attempted by the department. It 

 certainly reveals the accurate and realistic effects to be 

 obtained by the use of wax casts in museum exhibition. 

 There is a wild apple tree in blossom in the group; there 

 are unfolding leaves of blueberry bushes, of maple, oak, 

 shadbush and hornbeam; unrolling leaves of fern; hellebore 

 and skunk cabbage are on the ground, where also blossom 

 in profusion the common wild flowers of May; there are 

 more than fifty animal forms in the group, including two 

 species of tree frogs, three of frogs, two of toads, two of 

 salamanders, and a few snakes and turtles; and all these 

 plants and animals are of wax, cast from the life and colored 

 from the life. The group answers the question so often asked 

 as to the difference between frogs and toads and between 

 frogs', toads' and salamanders' eggs, and is the first attempt 

 to represent the gelatinous egg masses and "polywogs" at 

 various stages of development. The background is a notable 

 canvas by Hobart Nichols. 



The fifth North American Reptile Group is planned to 

 show some of the reptile and amphibian life of Florida. 



Work on the study collection has carried on what was 



begun in the latter part of 1913, i. e., the renumbering of the 



entire collection so that each specimen bears 



_ ,, . its own individual number, and its arrangement 



Collection a m ' „ . r f. 



in systematic order. The collections of lizards, 



snakes, turtles and crocodiles (some 5,000 specimens) are now 

 renumbered. A catalogue has been made covering the new 

 numbering, and the new numbering has been entered in the 

 original accession book to prevent any confusion which might 

 possibly arise in later years from this renumbering of speci- 

 mens. Also a large part of the unidentified material has been 

 identified in connection with this work. 



