skeletons, while still another stands over a table near by 

 dflgfif^mg out the brain of a Hire 'not "Mollicut" 

 ( :i r>hius piscatorim). Enthusiastic;* i;e fimmons all 

 to admire the little globule of nervos LlfsuS as it lies in 

 its bath of crystal fluid, its complicated system of neives 

 branching out to nostrils, eyes, ears, jaws, heart and 

 fins, reminding one of a central station communicating 

 with many distant parts by submarine telegraph cables. 

 The Doctor has injected the arteries with vermilion and 

 their delecate arborescence may be traced through all 

 their wanderings among the tissues 



Two other occupants of the room are worthy of pass- 

 ing notice, as they sport their gay colors in the aquarium; 

 one the Box-fish (Chilomyeterus geometricus), his stomach 

 of aldermanic proportions, though it is only filled with 

 water which he throws from his mouth a distance of 

 three feet and more if he is lifted out of water; the 

 other a small Flag-tailed File-fish (Alutera cuspictiuda), 

 a near relative of the Orange File-hsh described in the 

 Sportsman two weeks ago. 



Any remarkable specimens are sent to Washington 

 packed in ice, to be photographed and cast in plaster. 

 Professor Baird's series of "Photographs of the Food 

 Fishes of the United States" already includes some two 

 hundred and fifty species, many of the pictures of re- 

 markable beauty. Mr. Joseph Palmer, the taxidermist of 

 the United States National Museum, is a master in the 

 art of modeling in plaster; in his hands the collection of 

 casts is rapidly growing. These are colored from 

 sketches of the living fish, and for public exhibition are 

 far superior to alcoholic specimens or stuffed skins. To 

 the student they are also valuable, showing the un- 

 shrunken shapes and undistorted proportions of the 

 aewly caught fish. Fratet Ac^arius. 



