Tour the Smithsonian After its First Fifty Years

All this, as fast as it came, was transmitted to the Smithsonian Institution, and carefully stored. From time to time portions have passed through the hands of naturalists, and have furnished the material for many im portant books.

Beginning with the highest order, Pnonates, one of the most conspicuous . r objects in the Museum is brought to our attention, in the large case of stuffed orang-utans represented with startling fidelity by the chief taxidermist of the Museum, Mr. Wm. T. , Hornaday, as climbing about the branches of a tree, and engaging in one of those quarrels which too frequently mar the beauty of character that ought to be displayed by the acknowledged head of brute-creation.

"The victorious male is four feet five and a half inches high, and is the largest specimen known. His face is round and black, with a rudimentary nose, and but for a protruding mohth would be perfectly flat. It measures thirteen inches across, its width being due to the spreading flesh of the flat check. The arms are longer than those of a human being, the legs shorter, the abdomen heavier. The body is covered with long reiidish-brown hair. The other male is an exact counterpart, except that it is smaller in size. The female is about three feet eight inches in height."-RHEES.

Each of these orangs was killed by Mr. Hornaday himself in the wilds of Borneo, while making collections there for Prof. H. A. Ward, of Rochester and a full account of all the incidents connected with their capture and preservation will be found in the entertaining and valuable narrative of Mr. Hornaday's travels, entitled, " Two Years in The Jungle," published by Scribner's Sons, New York. The books of Alfred Wallace, Forbes (Harpers) and of South African travellers, also contain much information in regard to this, and the closely allied gorillas and chimpanzees, forming the anthropoid or " man-like " monkeys.

The American monkeys exhibited are those of the Cebidae, a family which embraces all the larger American monkeys, and of which ten kinds dwell between Mexico and Panama. Those of the typical genus, Cebus, are usually called "sapajous," and are the kind most often seen with organ-grinders; the spider-monkeys (Atcles), so-called because of their very long limbs and tail, range over the whole of equatorial America. The howlers (Mycetes) are " characterized by having a hollow bony vessel in the throat formed by an enlargement of the hyoid bone, which enables them to produce a wonderful howling noise." F. A. Ober's " Camps in the Carribees " (Lothrop, Boston,) Bates' " Amazons," Waterton's "Wanderings," and other books of that kind, besides the regular natural histories, give good accounts of this large family which is especially characterized by the prehensibility of the tail , which is thus made an extremely useful member and serves as a fifth hand.

The next order is that of the Carnivora, or flesh-eating " beasts of prey ' , divisible into eight groups, partly terrestrial and partly marine, numbering in North America no less than 66 species, among which are found some of the fiercest and strongest natural enemies against which man contends; A some of the sharpest intelligences in the brute world, and several species of the highest value to both savage and civilized man. Here appear the walrus and seal, the bear, racoon, otter, mink, ermine, weasel, fox, wolf and wild cat.

To the cats (Felidae) must be given the place of honor at the head of those of a human being, the legs shorter, the abdomen heavier. The body is covered with long reddishbrown hair. The other male is an exact counterpart, except that it is smaller in size. The female is about three feet eight inches in height."-RHEES.

Each of these orangs was killed by Mr. Hornaday himself in the wilds of Borneo, while making collections there for.Prof. H. A. Ward, of Rochester; and a full account of all the incidents connected with their capture and preservation will be found in the entertaining and valuable narrative of Mr. Hornaday's travels, entitled, " Two Years in The Jungle," published by Scribner's Sons, New York. The books of Alfred Wallace, Forbes (Harpers) and of South African travellers, also contain much information in regard to this, and the closely allied gorillas and chimpanzees. forming the anthropoid or " man-like " monkeys.

The American monkeys exhibited are those of the Cebidae, a family which embraces all the larger American monkeys, and of which ten kinds dwell between Mexico and Panama. Those of the typical genus, Cents, are usually called " sapajous" and are the kind most often seen with organ-grinders; the spider-monkeys (Atcles), so-called because of their very long limbs and tail, range over the whole of equatorial America. The howlers (Myretes) are " charac terized by having a hollow bony vessel in the throat formed by an enlargement of the hyoid bone, which enables them to produce a wonderful howling noise. F. A. Ober s " Camps in the Carribees " (Lothrop, Boston,) Bates' " Amazons," Waterton's "Wanderings," and other books of that kind, besides the regular natural histories, give good accounts of this large family which is especially characterized by the prehensibility of the tail , which is thus made an extremely useful member and serves as a fifth hand. - order is that of the Carrtivora, or flesh-eating " beasts of prey ' , divisible into eight groups, partly terrestrial and partly marine, numbering in North America no less than 66 species, among which are found some of the fiercest and strongest natural enemies against which man contends; some of the sharpest intelligences in the brute world, and several species of the highest value to both savage and civilized man. Here appear the walrus and seal, the bear, racoon, otter, mink, ermine, weasel, fox, wolf and wild cat.

To the cats (Felidae) must be given the place of honor at the head of the list. Nine species will be found in the collection, the largest of which are the semi-tropical jaguar, and its northern brother, the panther. From the Rio Grande southward range several lesser species, including the long-bodied, unspotted yaguarundi and eyra, and the spotted ocelot and margay cat; while of the stouter lynxes three kinds exist.

The largest of all American cats, the jaguar, or "Mexican tiger" (Felis onca) all occurs from Louisiana southward: it is considerablv bigger than the panther, though never equalling in size the Bengal tiger, and its yellow hide is marked with squarish blotches more after the pattern of a leopard.

The duller-hued, unspotted panther, " mountain-lion " or " cougar " (Felis concor) of common speech, was once prevalent over the whole breadth of the continent; but has now been nearly exterminated east of the Rockies K and south of the Canadian forests. Vivid pic tures of the part it played in the life of our great-grandparents can be found in the Leather stocking Tales of Cooper; and the disposition, as well as physical likeness, of the beast is tellingly portrayed in the model of the Central Park statue ' The Still Hunt," by Mr. Edward Kemeys, which adorns the Rotunda. Of the work of this talented sculptor of animals, many of whose modelings are to be seen in the Museum, a full account was given in The Century for June, 1884.

Lynxes are distinguished by their short tails and tufted ears. They are the " wild cats " of ordinary story, and still annoy farmers in thinly-settled districts. Skeletons of many of the large Old World Felidae may be found in the adjoining room where the osteological collection is placed.

The dog family (Canida ) is next to be considered, and is represented by the big " timber," or gray, wolf, once known throughout the east, but now driven beyond the plains; the coyote, whose reiterated bark was as familiar in days gone by to the pioneers in the prairie states, as it now is from the plains westward; andeightvarietiesof foxes-the widespread red and gray species the prairie and little kit foxes of the Rocky Mountain region; the Californian coast fox; and the arctic fox.

The common red fox was at first supposed identical with the red fox (V. vulgaris) of Europe, but the fur of our species is much longer, softer and silkier, and the tail is more bushy; the other has little of the golden hue which gives beauty to our animal, and other divergences exist. Two remarkable varieties of this species appear among the pelts sought by commerce. In one a dark band runs along the back, and is crossed by another on the shoulder; this is the " cross fox " of the fur-trade. In the other, the color of the whole fur is a uniform lustrous black, with a distinct white tip to the tail. On some portions of the body, however, the long hairs are grayish at the end, the effect of which is noted in the name " silver fox." Both these varieties are found only towards the arctic circle.

Of foreign members of this family, the hyaena, jackal, and the curious, untamable dSinge, or wild dog of Australia, are the most noticeable.

The next group is the large, important and well-defined weasel family (Mustelidae), which exists in most parts of the globe except Australia, but reaches its highest development in the northern hemisphere. The material afforded by this Museum has enabled Dr. Elliott Coues to write an exhaustive monograph of this group, whose economic importance is shown by the place it takes in the fur trade.

Dr. Coues quotes figures to show that during the century 1769-1868 the Hudson's Bay Company sold at auction in London, besides many million other pelts, the following of Mustelidae: 1,240,511 sables, 674,027 otters, 68,694 wolverines, 1,507,240 minks, 218,653 skunks, 275,302 badgers, 5,349 sea-otters.

The present annual sales of American sables reach about loo,ooo pelts; of sn:nks, 75,000; and of otters 15,000; but all are fast diminishing.

The weasels proper (Putorius) include half a dozen generally similar animals. Three belong to Central America, and one (the black-footed) to the plains, while the mink, ermine (or stoat) and least weasel belong to the eastern and northern parts of the continent, the last two, indeed, circling the entire globe.

Very similar in general structure and habits are the martens, ferrets, and sly minks, the last named holding their place with wonderful tenacity amidst civilization. " The skunks are infamous for the quality, familiar to everyone, which places them among the most offensive and revolting of animals; they are, moreover, capable of causing one of the most dreadful diseases to which the human race is exposed [hydrophobias The cruel sport which badgers have afforded from time immemorial has given a verb to the English language." The handsome skins of five species of skunk (four of which are semi-tropical) and of two species of badger will be found in the North American collection; also of three species of freshwater otter, one sea otter and the notorious wolverin It will be interesting to examine the skeletons of all these animals, note the varied stages of changing pelage, and to compare specimens from Europe, with those of the same species shot in America.

In the otters the family characteristics are somewhat modified in adaptation to a highly aquatic mode of life, 45 giving an animal with a round breast, blunt muzzle, cylindrical body, stout, tapering tail and short, broad, fully webbed feet, wearing a coat of dense, short and slick fur. The United States and Canada possesses one species widely distributed, apparently nowhere ingreat abundance, yet wanting in few, if any, localities adapted to its habits. A case-full may be examined. Its food is wholly fish, and it dwells in some convenient excavation in a stream bank. Yielding a pelt of great beauty and value, the otter is an object of constant pursuit by hunters who set their steel traps at a " slide," or place where the animal habitually crawls from the water up the bank. Great care must be used, for the sight and smell of the otter are acute, and his wariness, caution and sagacity are developed to a high degree. The hunting of the otter for sport, with trained dogs, or with a gun, is little practiced in this country; but the European species is an object of great sport, which has been described by many writers and is still pursued. There is a distinct breed of dogs called otterhounds; and the otter itself has often been tamed and trained to assist in sport by catching and retrieving fish for its master.

The sea otter (Enhydris lutris) is by far the most valuable fur-bearer in the world, prime pelts having been worth, in Alaska, for the past century, from $75 to Loo each. Formerly an inhabitant of the whole Pacific coast, it is now to be found only on certain Aleutian islands, where it would speedily become extinct, were it not carefully cherished. Its interesting habits, and the processes of capture, have been described by Steller, Scammon, Dall, and other writers on Alaska, and more recently in great detail by Mr. Henry W. Elliott.

Among the raccoons (Procyonidae) will be found our common 'coon, the pretty little nasua and several southern forms. are lead by the circumpolar white bear made familiar to us through arctic narratives.

The example shown is probably the best-mounted specimen of its kind in the world. It was killed by E. W. Nelson, who in 188I accompanied the Corwin on her cruise to Wrangel island in search of the ill-starredJeasgnegge party. An account of this cruise was published by the Treasury Dep't, in which the circumstances attending the capture are recounted. The western arctic coast- abounds in these bears far more than does Greenland, where they are continually hunted, and where their food is less plentiful.

Other bears in this case are the grizzly (and its cinnamon variety); the surly barren-ground bear of the Athabascan plains; and the common black bear, which survives in all the mountainous and forested parts of the whole Union.

This introduces the marine representatives of the carnivora, forming by their great size one of the most noticeable features of the Museum.

Attention is especially called to the walrus, concerning which there is much popular misapprehension. the seals, of which we have many species in the oceans washing the American coasts, are extremely well represented in the National Museum by the many stuffed specimens grouped upon the two pyramidal platforms in the center of the hall and others inside the cases. These are all well stuffed, and at least in the case of the sea-lion and the Pacific fur-seals, they are superior in the faithful delineation of life-like attitudes to any other specimens · in existence. This is due to the skill of the Museum taxidermists in following the sketches from life; made of these animals by Mr. Henry Elliott, while residing on the Pribylov islands, where the fur-seal is protected . M r. Elliott's reports to the Treasury Dep't, and his monograph in the Tenth Census reports, are the highest authority upon these valuable animals. Mr. J. A. Allen's " Pinnipeds " also gives a full history of the whole order and a popular account of the Atlantic coast species forms chap. xviii. of Ingersoll's " Country Cousins " (Harpers, New York).

Next in systematic order to the huge sea-lions and sea-elephants comes the order Jns~~stevora, represented in North America by the diminutive shrews, moles, etc.,-a goodly company of which are on exhibition, and may surprise some persons, who, familiar all their lives with the work of the garden mole, have never seen the worker. The shrews are circumstantially described in " Country Cousins," chapter iii.

An adjacent order, the Cheiroptera, is given to the "wing-handed " bats. These are divided into three American groups,-Vespertilionidae, Emballonuridae and Phyllostomidae. The first named are the true bats, and of these eight or nine species are to be met with in the eastern states, several exclusively on the Pacific slope, and one all over the world,-the " serotine " bat. Of the rest, however, none come north of the Rio Grande though no less than sixty additional species are counted in Central America and the West Indies. Some gigantic specimens of the fur-coated " flying-foxes " of Madagascar (Fig. 49) the spread of whose arms is over two feet, are to be seen; but in Java and .. Borneo bats exist, and are eaten by the Dyaks, of more than twice that size, as described by Hornaday. The next order is that called Rodentia, and marked by the great prominence of the incisors, or gnawing front teeth, familiar to everyone in the rabbit squirrel, and rat. " The Rodentia constitute by far the largest order of mammals and one of the most important from an economic as well as scientific standpoint. Though the species are mostly small and apparently insignificant, their relations with man are of much moment. Some of them, like the beaver, the muskrat, and others, furnish important articles of commerce; while a large majority of the species directly affect the agricultural interests of the nation. Various species occur in countless multitudes, and constitute one of the most serious obstacles with which the agriculturist has to contend in many parts of the country."

Squirrels hold the first rank. These number nearly forty species north of the Isthmus of Panama, embracing the woodchucks, prairie dogs, chipmunks, ground squirrels (spermophiles), the red, gray, fox, and other true squirrels of arboreal habit, and the lovely little flying squirrels. The family has been elaborately monographed by Prof, J. A. Allen, who acknowledges his great indebtedness to the present collection, the stored material of which is enormous; and he brought out of his studies certain lawsof variation depending upon geographical position, which have given him high rank as a philosophical naturalist.

The families of the sewellel and the beaver come next; and are followed by that of the mice, which have been a subject of special study to Dr. Elliott Coues. who has monographed them exhaustively in the volume "Rodentia," published as quarto xi, of the Reports of the U. s. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., 1877, devoting 270 pages to this family, which is the largest of American rodents. This exemplary memoir, more especially, perhaps, than the rest of the volume, was based upon the material in the National Museum. Popular information on the wild mice, whose secretive habits are the bane of the farmers in many regions, may be found in in the general natural histories. Kennicott gives especially full accounts of prairie species (also of squirrels, gophers and hares) in the Agric. Reph for 1856; and Ingersoll devotes to them a chapter, with admirable illustrations, in his " Friends Worth, Knowing " (Harper's). The gopher family comes next, under the systematic name Geomyidae which is Greek for " ground mice." " The term masher has been applied to various animals often entirely dissimilar in form and mode of life. Thus the prairie-dog (Cynomys), a burrrowing squirrel Spermophilus), and the western chipmunk (Tasnias) are called gophers by some people, as well as the present family, to which the name properly attaches. Besides this there is a tortoise in Florida, a snake in Georgia, and certain farming tools to which the same term is applied." The pouched rats (Saccomyidae) succeed the gophers. " The Saccomyidae are extremely lithe, agile, graceful animals; jerboalike, with long saltatorial hind limbs, elongated and often tufted tail, large ears, and full eyes, and are not specially nocturnal or subterranean in habits. The Geomyida-, on the other hand, are hamster-like, or rather an exaggeration of that kind of structure · they are among the heaviest for their inches of any animals of this country, of squat, bunchy shape, with short, thick limbs, a short tail, very small or rudimentary ears, small eyes, no appreciable neck, and thick blunt head; and they are as completely subterranean as the mole itself. They are rarely and only momentarily seen above ground; they excavate endless galleries in the earth in their search for food, frequently coming to the surface to throw out the earth in heaps, but plugging up these orifices as soon as they have served their purpose. Both families agree in possessing enormous cheek-pouches overlying the whole side of the head, in some species even reaching over the neck and shoulders. The nature and construction of these sacs was long misunderstood. They were supposed for many years to be external, pendulous bags, opening into the mouth, and thus to differ only in degree of development from the ordinary cheek-pouches of many other rodents-an enlargement of the mucous membrane of the mouth and skin of the cheeks. But, as now well known, they have no connection with the mouth; at least, no more than the abdominal pocket of an opossum has with the genitalia. Their chief purpose is not even related to the food of the species; they are sacs that the animals use chiefly in carrying out dirt from their burrows to deposit on the surface of the ground."- Geemys anal Ti/zomoznys.

The Zapodidae, represented by a single species, our common and beautiful deer-mouse; the West Indian family Octodontidae; the Hystricidae, or porcupines (of which there is an eastern, a Pacific coast and a Mexican species); and the edible cavies (Cavidae) of Central America, lead US along to a new suborder made up of the Lagomyidae and the Leporidae. The former of these last two contains only a single American species-the pika, or " little chief hare," whose home is among the loose rocks at timber-line in the mountains of the Pacific slope, and the quaint habits of which are described in Ingersoll's " Knocking 'Round the Rockies " (Harper's, I883), chapter v. The family Leporid2 embraces the hares and " rabbits," all the American forms of which are contained in the single genus Lepus.

A vast amount of information is open to readers in respect to hares. Audubon and sachman, Godman, Kennictot and the files of laze American Naturalist are especially full. The "Zoology" of the Ohio GeoL Surv. and Dr. C. Hart MerTiamss " Fauna Of Nonhern New York" contain circumstantial accounts. The scientific authority for the family is J. A. Allen's monograph in the volume As Rodentia it hitherto referred to.

The next order of mammalia is the Ungulata, comprising the animals whose feet have hoofs, and which are chiefly herbivorous. The American families are those of the peccary, deer, antelope, ox and tapir. Here come in the " domestic animals " of mankind,-the horses, cattle, camels, llamas, reindeer, elephants and swine, The skeletons or heads and horns of these are exhibited in more cases than their stuffed skins. Among the former can be seen the skeleton of old " Henry Clay,"the progenitor of the Kentucky breed of Clay horses, renowned for speed, and " the foundation of the American trotting horse." In the main hall of the old Smithsonian Institution building will be found a noble model and skeleton of the gigantic Irish elk whose bones are occasionally found entombed in the peat-bogs of Ireland, and which was made by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins of London, whose "restorations " in Central Park, New York, will be remembered by many.

The deer family (Cervidae) is amply and magnificently represented on our continent, where eight or nine species range north of the Rio Grande, and two southward of that remarkable zoological boundary Following is the complete list:

1. Mule deer (Cariacxs macreiis), Central North America. 2. slack-tailed deer (cz ceZr-rtiianns), Pacific slope. 3. Common red deer (c virginianus), Canada to Panama. 4. Yucatan deer (C. toltecus

), Mexico. 5. Black-faced brocket (C. rufinus) Mexico to Ecuador. 6. Wapiti; American "elk" (Cervus canadensis), Thirty-fifth parallel northward. 7. Moose; European elk (Alces malchis), Northern United States northward. 8. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), Arctic America. 9. Barrenground caribou (R. groenlandicus), Arctic America Woodland caribou (R. caribou), Northeastern North America.

The two last named are often considered varieties only of the reindeer).

The family Antilocapridae has only one member in America, viz.:

Prong-horn antelope (Antilocapra americana). Plains west of the Missouri from lower Rio Grande to Saskatchewan. The Bovidae, or cattle family, contains the following existing species, once enormously abundant: 1.Buffalo (Bison americanxs), originally ranging from the Blue Ridge to and among the Rocky mountains, as far north as pasture permitted, or nearly to the arctic circle. 2. Musk-ox (Ovibus moschatus), Arctic America. 3. Bighorn; Mountain sheep (Ovis montana), Rocky mountains region to Mexico. 4. Dall's Ovis montana,var, Dalli), mountains of Alaska and British Columbia. 5. Mountain goat (Ma2ama mentana, Fig. 59), northern Rocky mountains and British Columbia.

Of the huge pachydermatous animals which range the tropical regions of the Old World, two, the African elephant and a rhinoceros, are exhibited among the stuffed animals while the skeletons, or parts of skeletons, of several recent and fossil species, swell the osteological series. The fine young elephant was the gift of Forepaugh, the showman; while his eminent confrere, P. T. Barnum, has enriched the Museum by the skeletons and skdns of several rare quadrupeds which once played their part in his menagerie.

The next order to be taken up is that of the marine mammals, Ceiacea, the leading family of which is Delphinidae, the dolphins, under which head fall the smaller and more active denizens of the deep, of which the porpo se, grampus , blachfish, narwhal, killer and white whales, besides the dolphin proper are familiar examples to " those who go down to the sea in ships."

Models of a large variety of these, as well as of the next following families, are in the Museum, walls or mounted upon the tops of the cases. These models are made of paper after studies from each species represented; and the fantastic pattern of coloring with which many of them are marked is strictly in accordance with their hues in life. Skeletons of many of the species are among the osteological specimens, and should be examined.

The bottle-nosed whales form a family (Ziphiidae) connecting the preceding with the sperm whales (Physeteridae), two species of which exist, of the smaller of which a model is shown.

Next to it stands the most important family of this order, considered practically-the Balaenidae, or whale- bone whales. This forms a suborder distinguished from all preceding by the entire absence of teeth,-a difference which will be fixed in the mind more firmly by comparing skeleton (especially of the jaws) of the sperm whale with that of one of the baleen whales. How the baleen or whalebone is hung in the jaws can best be seen by studying that most prominent and admirable mounting of the humpback whale, which crowns this exhibit.

" A whale's skin cannot be stuffed. Pictures give no idea of him. The unin structed mind finds it hard to clothe the skeletons to be seen in some cabinets, and how to image him forth has therefore been a problem hitherto unsolved. Two or three [now five] winters ago a large 'humpback' was reported ashore on the tip of Cape Cod. At once a force of men was sent thither with a carload of plaster of Paris. They built a tight fence about has whaleship. poured twenty barrels or so of plaster over the frozen carcass, and brought away good molds of one side, and of his head and tail. These were set upon stocks, like a ship to be launched, and from them was made a hollow model in paper which is true to every point of life, colored with exactness, and not too ponderous to be managed. Inside this paper shell the skeleton is mounted. Looking at him from one side, therefore, you see the counterfeit presentiment of his full-bodied exterior; on the other side you have the relations borne by the bony frame to what it supports and distends."-INGERSOLI., The Century, Jan., 1885.

It may give an added interest to remember that this model was made of bank notes,- the pulp used in the operation having been supplied by the Treasury Department out of their destruction of redeemed greenbacks.

A step lower than the Cetarea stands the order Sirgnia, represented by the manatees of Florida and by the dugono of Allctralasia.

Of the manatee a paper model is shown but a skin of the dugong has been stuffed.

Of the Edentala we have the sloths, of which a j humorous but accurate picture is given in Charles Waterton's " Essays; " the bushy-tailed, long-nosed, wire-tongued ant-eaters; and the mailed and toothsome armadillos; all belonging to Central America.

All the mammals mentioned hitherto form together the subclass MONODELPHIA, against which stands the other subclass DIDELPHIA, embodied in the single order of the Marsupialia, distinguished by the presence of an abdominal pouch, in which the young are carried for some time after birth before they are ready to make their debut in the world. To marsupials belong the kangaroos, and many other genera residing in Australia, which have representatives in the Museum North America has only one family of the order,-that of the opossums; and of its seven species only one is known north of Mexico,-the familiar, comical and scientifically interesting 'possum, of which a most admirably mounted family adorns one of the exhibition cases.

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