OF WASHINGTON. 43 



of about 5,000 feet the more temperate life-zone prevails. From 

 what is known of the fauna of Porto Rico, which is represented 

 in the U. S. National Museum by the collection of Mr. August 

 Busck, the island should be included in the group known as the 

 Greater Antilles. It is a notable fact that the fauna of the north 

 ern half of this island differs distinctly from that of the southern 

 half. 



Mr. Schwarz concurred with Prof. Uhler in his opinion that 

 Porto Rico should be included in the Greater Antilles, and not 

 in the Lesser Antilles, where it has been placed by the Zoologi 

 cal Record. He said that, in referring to the ca~rd catalogue of 

 West Indian Coleoptera made by the late Mr. M. L. Linell, he 

 found that Haiti might be considered the central point for the 

 species peculiar to the West Indies. The chain of islands to the 

 southward contains a large proportion of truly Central American 

 and tropical forms whereas the Greater Antilles contain many 

 genera and species found also in our southern States. 



Prof. Uhler said he agreed with Mr. Schwarz that the geo 

 logical formation of the Greater Antilles showed that it was at 

 one time connected with Yucatan as a part of the North Ameri 

 can continent. 



Mr. Schwarz presented a paper entitled "A Census of the 

 Collection of West Indian Coleoptera at the U. S. National 

 Museum." Although the National Museum had, he said, never 

 sent an entomological exploration excursion to the West Indies, 

 and had never purchased any West Indian material, yet it had 

 accumulated from various sources, and mainly by the help of the 

 Department of Agriculture, a fair collection of the West Indian 

 Coleoptera. About the time the Riley collection was presented 

 to the Museum, a large part of the collections of the Department 

 of Agriculture and those of Prof. John B. Smith and Mr. M. L. 

 Linell were also turned over to the Museum, but only a few 

 West Indian species were found in the old collection as made up 

 from these sources, and up to 1894 there were only 136 species 

 of West Indian Coleoptera in the National Museum. One im 

 portant addition was made by the transfer of the H. G. Hubbard 

 collection. Mr. Hubbard visited Jamaica in 1886 and the is 

 land of Montserrat in 1894. In Jamaica he, collected 172 spe- 



