60 Report of the President 



fishes, amphibians and reptiles through the New York 

 Aquarium and the Zoological Park. 



In general matters affecting this department, it should be 

 recorded that during the year Professor Dean, owing to his 

 frequent absences abroad, asked to be relieved of the active 

 direction of the department, and was accordingly given the 

 rank of Curator Emeritus, in June. Since this time Louis 

 Hussakof has been in charge of the general administration of 

 the department. Miss Mary C. Dickerson, Assistant Curator 

 of Herpetology, was promoted in April last to Associate 

 Curator of Herpetology. 



Great progress was made during the year in extending the 

 exhibit of fishes. Three habitat groups, representing the 

 p. . ganoid fishes of North America, were completed and 



opened to the public. One of them represents the 

 nesting habits of the Bowfin, a remarkable fish belonging to 

 an ancient family now everywhere extinct except in North 

 America. The group shows the fishes on a nest, a male 

 standing guard over the eggs in a nest, and another guiding 

 and protecting the newly hatched young. The second group 

 represents the Shovel-nosed Sturgeon, a small sturgeon with a 

 peculiar, flattened snout, whence its name, found in the 

 Mississippi valley and neighboring regions. The two or three 

 known allied species are confined to central Asia. The third 

 group illustrates the spawning habits of the Long-nosed Gar 

 Pike, a species found in most of our streams east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. It may also be mentioned that a fourth group, 

 representing the fishes of the profound depths of the sea, has 

 been in preparation for some time and is almost completed. 



These groups, representing, as they do, fishes in the water, 

 have raised a number of difficult technical problems not brought 

 up by groups of birds or mammals, in which the animals are 

 represented in the open air and in broad daylight. These 

 problems happily have been solved, and will afford valuable 

 precedents for future work of the same kind. 



The synoptic series of fishes — that is, the series contain- 

 ing examples of the various families — was increased by the 

 addition of 33 fishes, mounted, with a few exceptions, by the 

 Museum taxidermists. 



