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Second Floor 

 South Pavilion 



REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS 



This hall illustrates a phase of Museum progress, the temporary dis- 

 order that precedes an ultimate change for the better. At present the 

 hall contains a mixed assemblage of animals brought hither from other 

 halls in process of rearrangement. 



The group of king penguins from South Georgia Islands, one of 

 four devoted to the bird life of South America, is provisionally installed, 

 awaiting the construction of the Hall of Ocean Life. 



Across the hall is a group of Sea Elephants from Guadelupe Island 

 Sea Elephant off the coast of Lower California, where a small colony 

 Group still existed in 1913, a pitiful remnant of the vast herds 



once found there and exterminated for their oil. 



Here, awaiting the construction of a new wing, is exhibited the collec- 

 tion of reptiles and amphibians. Because of the difficulty of preserving 

 Reptiles and the natural covering of many of these animals they are 

 Amphibians usually exhibited in jars of alcohol. In the specimens on 

 exhibition here the perishable parts have been cast in wax from life; 

 for example, in the star tortoise the original " shells" of the specimens 

 are used, while the head, neck and legs are restored in wax. The mount- 

 ing not only brings out the principal features of the species exhibited, but 

 in many instances illustrates also some distinctive habit of the animals; 



37 



