BEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1921. 49 



which these collections were brought together at the expenditure of 

 much money, labor, and ingenuity,,than we were before they were first 

 sent abroad. They still represent a dead mass of material awaiting 

 proper utilization in the service of scientific progress and must re- 

 main so until the Museum shall be financially able to support a 

 sj)ecialist in this important branch of science. The moral of the 

 above needs not to be pointed out; the danger and futility is too 

 obvious. 



The department sustained a very serious loss during the year in 

 the deaths of Mr. Nelson R. Wood and Mr. William Palmer, both 

 taxidermists of the first rank. Mr. Wood, who died on November 8, 

 1920, was undoubtedly the foremost bird taxidermist in this country. 

 The bird exhibit is a lasting monument to his grasp of the character 

 of each individual and his unsurpassed ability to give it lifelike 

 expression. The technical skill with which he handled old and seem- 

 ingly impossible skins and achieved results as if it had been fresh 

 material was no less remarkable, and the saving and rejuvenescence 

 of manj^ rare and valuable old specimens is due to his thoughtful 

 and loving care. The remounting of the great auk is a case in point. 

 Mr. William Palmer, whose death occurred on April 8, 1921, in his 

 65th year, was an excellent all-around museum preparator. He was 

 as skillful in mounting mammals and birds as in making plaster 

 casts of whales, fishes, and reptiles ; his ability to paint these and to 

 fashion the accessories of the various biological groups was of no 

 mean grade ; and he was equally successful in handling the cleaning 

 and mounting of a large whale skeleton as in preparing an exhibit of 

 dainty butterflies. But Mr. Palmer was more. He had an extensive 

 knowledge of the natural history of the animals and plants of this 

 region; his special knowledge of certain groups of birds and their 

 plumages was considerable ; he had also paid particular attention to 

 collection and studying the fossil remains of whales. In the Museum 

 exhibition series the collection illustrating the fauna of the District 

 of Columbia is almost exclusively his work, and to a great extent 

 also the casts in the whale hall and in the fish and reptile hall. 



COMPARISON OF INCREMENT OF SPECIMENS OF 1920-21 WITH THAT OF 1919—20. 



From the numerical standpoint the collections of this department 

 show a healthy growth during the past year, no less than 251,485 

 specimens having been received as against 136,765 during the previous 

 year. This increase is observable in almost all the divisions. It is 

 even more satisfactory to be able to report that all the curators ex- 

 press themselves as highly pleased with the scientific importance of 

 the new accessions, in instances characterizing the collections received 

 as "of greatly increased value" (mammals), or "of far greater 

 value" (fishes), or "greatly surpassing in value last year's acces- 



