Jan., 1922. Annual Report of the Director. 19 



eight prints have been added, making a total number of 2,939 prints 

 in these albums. 



The reference collections in the Department of Zoology remained 

 inaccessible during most of the year, and cataloguing, therefore, was 

 impossible. The total number of entries made was 326, distributed 

 as follows : Mammals, 5 ; Birds, 49 ; Eggs, 1 ; Fishes, 39 ; Reptiles and 

 Batrachians, 226; Invertebrates, 6. Record cards written during the 

 year number 490, principally those of an index to the systematic 

 exhibit of birds. Very little labeling of specimens in the reference 

 collections has been done; but a very large number of new exhibition 

 labels were written and printed. These included a few for the 

 mammals, a large number for the birds, a complete series for the 

 habitat groups, for all the fishes and reptiles and for a large number 

 of shells. 



The following shows the work performed on catalogues and 

 the inventorying accomplished : 



Number of 

 Record Books 



Department of Anthropology ... 38 



Department of Botany 58 



Department of Geology 22 



Department of Zoology 40 



The Library 14 



Section of Photography 20 



Accessions. — Through the generosity of Mr. Martin A. Ryerson 

 and Mr. Homer E. Sargent, the Department of Anthropology is 

 enabled to list, among its important acquisitions of the year, a col- 

 lection of eighteen Mexican serapes gathered by Mr. Herbert J. 

 Browne during a long sojourn in Mexico. The serape is made from 

 two rectangular blankets of particularly fine texture and quality, sewn 

 together lengthwise to form a square and having a short slit in the 

 center through which the wearer may slip his head, the whole being 

 worn over the shoulders in the same manner as the rubber poncho. 

 The making of these blankets originated in Mexico shortly after the 

 Spanish conquest and rapidly became a jealously guarded institution 

 which flourished in certain parts of the country until 1850, a date 

 which marks the beginning of a decline in that industry which proved 

 even more rapid than the ascendancy. The exponents of the old 

 art are now extinct, and while ordinary specimens are manufactured 

 today in various sections of the country, the fine textiles with their 

 brilliant colorings and exquisite patterns are rapidly disappearing, as 



