56 Report of the President 



lower Mississippi valley. The studies for this group were made 

 at Moon Lake, Miss., in 19 10. 



Another group completed during the year was that of the 

 Sea Lamprey. This represents three lampreys which have 

 run up a river in the breeding season, in the spring, and are 

 carrying away the pebbles with their suctorial mouths so as to 

 make a depression, or nest, in the river bottom in which to 

 spawn. The studies for the group were made on the Nisse- 

 quogue River at Smithtown, L. I. 



The department has also in preparation four other fish 

 groups. Three of these, the Amia, Gar Pike and Shovel- 

 nose Sturgeon, were designed to represent the ganoid fishes 

 peculiar to North America; one of them, the Amia Group, 

 is nearing completion. These will be window groups, 

 illuminated by the colored light streaming through painted 

 glass inserted in the windows. The field studies for these 

 groups, which were made possible through the Dodge Fund, 

 were carried out in Wisconsin, in the spring of 191 2. There 

 is also under construction a semi-diagrammatic group of the 

 Australian Lungfish Neoceratodus, of which the department 

 was fortunate in obtaining a number of specimens. This 

 group will be of much scientific as well as popular interest, 

 since specimens of the fish are rather rare and the species, it 

 appears, is on the verge of extinction. 



Fossil Fishes. — This exhibit was increased by a total of 

 $•$ specimens, chiefly restorations of high artistic finish. Some 

 of these have been attempted for the first time, and all have 

 been carried out with strict attention to scientific accuracy, 

 while not neglecting, at the same time, to represent the fish as 

 life-like as possible. Among those worthy of special mention 

 are a model of the ancient shark Cladoselache, based upon the 

 fossils of which the Museum has the largest collection- in the 

 world; Pleur acanthus, an- ancient shark belonging to a group 

 also extinct, remarkable for having a powerful serrated spine 

 back of the head ; a model of Semionofus, and three reproduc- 

 tions of models in the British Museum. Two panels illus- 

 trating the evolution of the Arthrodires were arranged, one 

 showing the progressive changes in form and size of the head, 



