State Museum of Natural History. 



43 



The vacant floor space in this room will have to be reserved for 

 new table cases, which are needed for the proper exhibition of the 

 Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary fossils. 



Zoological Department. 



During the year a great portion of the work in this department 

 has been devoted to a rearrangement of the specimens already on 

 exhibition. The collection of antiquities, which occupied the 

 east-north wall case on the upper floor, has been removed to a 

 case on the floor below, and the space thus gained has been filled 

 with stuffed specimens of fishes, reptiles and amphibians. The 

 collection of bones, skeletons and skulls has been taken out of the 

 south-east wall case and disposed as follows : The jaw of the 

 sperm whale over the doorway entering the building from State 

 street ; the smaller skeletons and the skulls have been placed in 

 new, upright cases in the center of the room, and the stuffed 

 specimens of horse-mackerel, the two sharks, the saw-fish, the 

 boa constrictor and the shell of the large Galapagos turtle have 

 been placed on top of the cases containing the birds. 



The skeletons of the buffalo, moose and elk have been taken 

 from the middle east wall case and placed beside the stuffed 

 specimens of the same animals respectively, in the west wall case. 

 The space thus gained is devoted to the two hooded-seals and the 

 harbor-seal purchased recently, and to the group of beavers. 



The smaller animals have been removed from the west wall case 

 and deposited either in the new upright cases in the body of the 

 room or in the southeast wall case. As now arranged the entire 

 west case is devoted to ungulates of the ruminant order and the 

 southeast case is devoted to carnivorous animals — cats, foxes, 

 wolves, bear and wolverine. 



In the northeast wall case the specimen of giraffe, which was 

 elevated upon irons about three feet from the floor, and the 

 skeleton of rhinoceros which was mounted on irons above the 

 stuffed rhinoceros, have been lowered until the pedestals rest upon 

 the floor. In addition to these three specimens, this case contains 

 an adult male and a young walrus. 



At the time of making the last report the Unios of the 

 Beecher Collection were in course of preparation for exhibition. 

 In January they were placed on exhibition, a little more than half 

 of the west table case being used for that purpose. The Smith- 



