374 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1886. 



been done under the immediate superintendence of the Curator- 

 in-Charse and his assistant. Almost the entire collection of recent 

 Invertebrata contained in the Museum barring the Mollusca 

 has been re-arranged and re-classified, and the different groups 

 have been so placed as to follow one another serially according 

 to their position in the natural scale. The very extensive series 

 of crabs, which have heretofore occupied the window spaces on 

 the first gallery, filling some twenty-four cases, have been inter- 

 calated with the general collection of Invertebrata on the top 

 floor, where they occupy practically the entii'e western wall. A 

 re-arrangement of the Carcinological groups, following Ger- 

 staecker, has been eff"ected. B}^ this shifting of the collections, the 

 first gallery will be relegated exclusively to ornithology, the 

 vacated window cases having been removed to the main floor to 

 relieve the crowded condition of the geological and paleontologi- 

 cal collections. Despite this large accession of table cases, and 

 the addition of an equal number from other parts of the hall, the 

 collections of Invertebrate Paleontology will barely find accom- 

 modation. Roughl}" estimated the fossils of the difi'erent geo- 

 logical formations fill some 20,000-22,000 trays, and in point of 

 individual numbers probably do not fall short of 15,000-80,000 

 specimens, or about one-half the number that is registered in the 

 department of recent conchology. The work of arranging the 

 American series of fossils is now practically complete, and con- 

 siderably over three-quarters of the collection is permanentl}* 

 labeled. The re-labeling of the entire series of fossils collected 

 by the late Wm. M. Gabb in Santo Domingo and California 

 has been effected during the year, and much has been done 

 toward re-determining the type fossils of the first New York 

 survey, collected b}^ Mr. T. A. Conrad. The largest and most 

 important accession to this department is a collection of 

 fossils from the Miocene and Pliocene formations of the State of 

 Florida, collected in the early part of the year by the Curator- 

 in-Charge, to whom leave of absence had been granted by the 

 Academy for the purpose of prosecuting researches and collect- 

 ing, in conjunction with the Wagner Free Institute of Science. 

 This collection, together with an extensive series of inver- 

 tebrates dredged in the Gulf of Mexico and in the inland waters 

 of the State, have not yet been placed in the Museum proper, but 

 are temporarily deposited in a side room, where the specimens 



