Report of the President 41 



advanced. The Director has for many years desired to see 

 such groups introduced in museums and is pleased to have 

 lived long enough to see this accomplished. 



The Group of Whooping Cranes, a bird apparently doomed 

 to destruction, has been added to the Habitat Series, leaving 

 but one space to be filled, that intended for arctic birds. 



The King Penguins, on the second floor, mark, it is hoped, 

 the beginning of the rearrangement of this hall, which, as 

 noted on the label, "temporarily installed," is planned to 

 include a series of groups of Birds of the World. 



Through the interest and energy of that Nimrod of the 

 Sea, Mr. Russell J. Coles, the Museum has received the mold 

 and skeleton of the rare dolphin Prodelphinus plagiodon, and, 

 what is even more important, a mold of the Giant Ray, or 

 Devilfish, Manta fo'rostrzs, a specimen for which the Director 

 has longed for twenty-five years past. 



Due to the usual — or unusual — delays to which museums 

 seem subject, the work of preparing this has only recently 

 been started. 



The Group of Mountain Sheep, begun in the autumn, will 

 be completed as soon as glass is received to close up the case, 

 and a Group of the Little Brown Bat, including one hundred 

 individuals, will be put on exhibition early in 1916. Mr. 

 Andrews has secured material for a Group of Virginia Deer, 

 and Mr. Anthony for Jack Rabbits and Mountain "Beaver," 

 all for the Hall of North American Mammals. 



Mr. John H. Prentice presented a fine example, mounted, 

 of the Square-lipped or White Rhinoceros, and Mr. Walter 

 Winans has added to his gifts a series illustrating various 

 stages in albinism in the pheasant as well as a fine repro- 

 duction of the historic Dodo, copied from paintings by Dutch 

 artists. 



The reproduction of Weyer's Cave, which will be an illustra- 

 tion of the various stages and phenomena of cave formation, 

 has occupied the attention of Mr. Peters and a helper for the 

 greater part of the year. 



The Nahant Tide Pool Group has made good progress, 

 though this is not apparent to one unacquainted with the 

 problems to be met and overcome. Probably no one will 



