rearrangement to make room for new material or to bring the 

 arrangement into accord with improved classifications. 



A considerable share of the time of the staff is occupied by the 

 entertainment and guiding of scientists from other institutions who 

 visit the Museum to examine its collections, study its techniques, and 

 confer with their colleagues here. Other visitors bring inquiries 

 about Museum work directly to the staff. 



Total accessions number 160,607, of which the great majority 

 (156,382) are insects. Accessions of lower invertebrates number 

 3,326; of fishes, 87; of amphibians and reptiles, 366; of birds, 68; of 

 mammals, 150; of anatomical material, 38, and of skeletons, 190. 

 The most noteworthy gift of mammals is the collection of 72 speci- 

 mens made by Curator Emeritus Osgood in South Dakota. Judge 

 R. Magoon Barnes, the Curator of Birds' Eggs, presented two eggs 

 of the California condor (collected in the '70's), valued conserva- 

 tively at $200; and Mr. Walter F. Webb, of Rochester, New York, 

 continued gifts of rare or otherwise noteworthy specimens of land 

 and fresh-water shells. 



The most important acquisition of the year was the collection of 

 beetles accumulated by the late Frank J. Psota, of Chicago, pur- 

 chased for the Museum by an anonymous donor. This collection, 

 amounting to about 150,000 specimens, represents the life work of at 

 least five specialists on various families of beetles, as well as impor- 

 tant portions of the collections of several other well-known collectors. 

 It contains many large, attractive, and rare species that are highly 

 prized by collectors, and some hundreds of types and co-types are 

 included. The sixty- two drawers of beetles of the family Cetonidae 

 represent the interest of three generations of the Ondrej family, of 

 Prague (see Fig. 17). The collection includes microscopes, a variety 

 of collecting equipment, and the specialized library of about 500 

 bound volumes and 6,000 pamphlets. Among other accessions of 

 insects, the 2,789 moths and butterflies received as a gift from Mrs. 

 Edward F. Lustig, of Elkhart, Indiana, are especially valued as 

 including many local species poorly represented in the Museum's 

 collections. This collection, mostly from Illinois and the adjoining 

 states, had been accumulated by Mrs. Lustig's late husband. 



It is gratifying to note a considerable series of gifts from men in 

 the armed services at stations within the United States and even 

 from the Aleutian and Solomon Island fronts — friends of the Mu- 

 seum as well as our own staff. This special list of collectors is given 

 below, with the number of specimens sent by each, and it should 

 be noted that fully appreciated at the Museum are the difficulties 



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