CORRIDOR OF CENTRAL PAVILION 
RECENT FISHES 
The exhibit of fishes occupies the center of the north end of the hall 
of the birds of the world and the corridor beyond the door leading to 
the gallery of the Auditorium. 
The exhibit includes typical examples of the various groups of back- 
boned animals popularly comprised in the term “‘fishes,”’ and is arranged 
in progressive order. The visitor should first examine the case of hag- 
fishes and lampreys facing the large window, near the end of the corri- 
dor. These rank among the most primitive “fishes.”” They are with- 
A PORTION OF THE PADDLEFISH GROUP 
out scales, without true teeth, without paired limbs, and their backbone 
consists of but a rod of cartilage. One of the models shows the way 
in which a newly caught hag-fish secretes slime, forming 
ee around it a great mass of jelly. In the same case are 
Lampreys lampreys, and one of them is represented attached to a 
fish, which it fatally wounds. The nest-building habit 
of lampreys is illustrated in a neighboring floor case: here the spawners 
are preparing a pit-like nest and carrying away stones, which they seize 
with their sucker-like mouths. 
The visitor should next inspect the cases of sharks which are situ- 
ated on the south side of the corridor. These include various forms of 
sharks and rays, selected as typical members of this 
ancient group—for the sharks have numerous characters 
which put them in the ancestral line of all the other groups of fishes. 
Sharks 
