58 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1923. 



tional storage cases will be needed as the collection is still in an over- 

 crowded condition. The arrangement of the small and medium skulls 

 in the office is complete and work has been done on the large skulls in 

 the attic until they are in much better condition. Ten of the quarter 

 unit and two half unit cases have been used for rearrangement and 

 spreading of small cetacean slrulls ; 18 of the quarter unit cases and 

 4 half unit cases have been added for the facilities for rearrangement 

 of large skeletons in the attic, and during the year considerable head- 

 way has been made in the proper arrangement of this material. Dur- 

 ing the fiscal year no other work than the adding of new material 

 has been done in the alcoholics, which are in good condition. During 

 the year the taxidermists have prepared 61 skins as study specimens, 

 part as made up skins and part as flat skins. All large skins now on 

 hand from the field are either made up, or are in the hands of the 

 taxidermists. Work on cleaning large and medium skulls and skele- 

 tons by the Museum force has resulted as follows : Skulls, 156 ; skele- 

 tons, 105. Contract work on small and medium-sized skulls and 

 skeletons has resulted in the cleaning of 1,616 skulls and 75 skeletons. 

 The work is in a satisfactory condition, only a very few uncleaned 

 skulls now being on hand in the office. The preservation of the col- 

 lection is uniformly good though crowded in certain groups. 



In the Division of Birds study skins were shifted and rearranged 

 in 37 quarter-unit cases (covering the families Muscicapidae, Pycno- 

 notidae, Timaliidae, Fringillidae, Turdidae, and Picidae), and in 

 21 half -unit cases, for the purpose of readjusting portions of the 

 collection and giving room for future expansion. The storage cases 

 were renumbered, and over a hundred cases were provided with re- 

 vised case labels. Drawer labels were revised for the 58 cases re- 

 arranged, and specimen labels were written for about 700 specimens 

 received during the year. Many of the larger birds of the African 

 collections (held apart in special cases for several years past) were 

 distributed, for the purpose of providing more room for temporary 

 receipts, or for material that may not be at once distributed through 

 the general collection. It is necessary to hold in reserve certain 

 cases for the temporary accommodation of collections, during the 

 process of assorting, cataloguing, labeling, and the temporary deter- 

 mination, of such material. This case room was becoming very 

 scarce, and it was thought best to distribute the more bulky speci- 

 mens from the African collections to obtain the needed room. Prac- 

 tically no change was made in the egg and nest collection, other than 

 to catalogue, number, and file away temporarily the accessions of the 

 year. In continuation of work begun last year, considerable old 

 alcoholic material was examined and assorted, the specimens checked 

 up in the catalogues and identified, relabeled, renumbered with tin 



