8o Report of the President 



RECENT AND EXTINCT FISHES * 



Bashford Dean, Honorary Curator 

 John T. Nichols, Associate Curator of Recent Fishes, in Charge 



In July and August, Mr. J. C. Bell of the Department of 

 Preparation spent several weeks at Morehead City, North Caro- 

 lina, close to Cape Lookout, obtaining plaster 

 Care and molds of sharks and rays for exhibition. The 



Development Ocean Leather Company courteously furnished 

 Collections him with facilities and material for this work. 

 Dr. Russell J. *Coles, who was fishing at Cape 

 Lookout, also contributed material, and the opportunity was 

 an exceptional one for securing these great fishes for the 

 Museum. Dr. Coles, a Member of the Museum, was largely 

 instrumental in arranging for Mr. Bell's trip, which proved 

 very successful. It will now be possible to place on exhibition 

 a large Tiger Shark, finer than anything of the sort now in the 

 Museum. Besides exhibition material, skeletons, a series of 

 shark jaws for purposes of study, and interesting observations, 

 notably on stomach contents, were obtained. This is the most 

 important accession of exhibition material during the year. 

 Limited space has left little room for placing more fishes on 

 view ; several desirable specimens are now held in reserve until 

 there be opportunity to show them to advantage, and attention 

 has been given mainly to the study collections. 



An important collection of marine fishes, obtained in Peru by 

 Dr. R. C. Murphy, has been received; Dr. Barton W. Ever- 

 mann of the San Francisco Museum secured some material for 

 this Museum in the Honolulu market; Mr. Harry R. Caldwell 

 is collecting fresh-water fishes in China. The fresh waters 

 of China contain a large variety of interesting fishes, but 

 collections of them are so small and scattered that their sys- 

 tematic study is extremely difficult. It is hoped that a suffi- 



* Under the Department of Ichthyology (see also pages 218 to 219). 



