64 Report of the President 



3,500 to 4,000 fishes). The department was fortunate also, as 

 in past years, in being enabled, through the generosity of Mr. 

 Cleveland H. Dodge, to procure a number of very valuable 

 specimens. Among these are a suite of 34 examples of the 

 primitive fossil fishes known as Arthrodira, from the Devonic 

 shales near Cleveland, Ohio. This collection includes two 

 complete heads, one with the dentition, of one of the smaller 

 and rarer species of Dinichthys. The department was also 

 enabled to participate in the reopening, by the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, of an old fossil fish 

 quarry at Dura Den, Scotland, famous at one time for the rare 

 fossil fishes obtained from it, but which has been closed for 

 the past three or four decades. From this source we obtained 

 five large slabs of sandstone covered with fishes, some of them 

 in exquisite preservation, and all interesting and important as 

 the first examples of these classic materials received on this 

 side of the Atlantic. 



Another very valuable accession during the year was a huge 



Devilfish, Manta birostris, 17 feet in width, harpooned in 



^ M „ , Florida waters by Mr. Russell T. Coles, of Danville, 

 Devilfish , T . . . , « , 1 ■ .1 



Virginia, and presented by him to the Museum. 



Accompanying the parts of the specimen sent to the Museum, 



was a plaster mold of the entire fish, made in the field, which 



will be utilized in preparing the fish for exhibition. 



In exhibition, the work centered around the preparation of 



models of sharks and the removal of the cases devoted to the 



display of the teleosts, or food and game fishes, to 



another hall. The shark models, twenty-two in 



number, are being arranged in the cases. Each model is a 



„ , ., . r ^ . beautiful representation of the fish, prepared 

 Exhibit of Sharks . , . t u -, ... . , r ru ^„ r ^ u 



and Other Fishes Wlth the utmost fidelity to nature. Though 

 the space afforded by two cases is limited, still 

 it has been found possible to represent nearly every family 

 of sharks. 



The removal of the teleost exhibit, to which a part of the 

 center of the bird hall has been assigned, was necessary to 

 make room for the working up of the great Congo collections, 



