EEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 63 



reptilian collection; and diA'ision of paleobotany, with Mr. David 

 ^Vliite . as associate curator. The other members of the staff con- 

 nected Avith these divisions are given in the list beginning on page 65. 



Furloughs without pay were granted to Dr. AV. H. Ashmead, whose 

 continued illness still incapacitates him for work, and to Mr. Laurence 

 La Forge, aid in the division of physical and chemical geology. 

 Mr. J. C. Crawford was appointed assistant curator, division of in- 

 sects, to fill the vacancy caused by the transfer to the Bureau of 

 Entomology of the Department of Agriculture of Dr. Harrison G. 

 Dyar, Avho had been temporarily occupying this position. The 

 latter, however, still retains the custodianship of the collection of 

 Lepidoptera. Mr. A. C. Weed was made an aid in the division of 

 fishes, and Mr. E. N. Bales, a preparator in the division of physical 

 anthropology. 



I regret having to record the death, on July 8, 1907, of Dr. AVilliam 

 La Grange Ealph, curator of the section of birds' eggs, to whom the 

 Museum is indebted for especially important gifts and whose services 

 were mainly rendered Avithout compensation. Doctor Ralph was 

 born June 19, 1851, at Holland Patent, Xew York, where his early 

 years were passed. In his boyhood rambles he imbibed a taste for 

 natural history which had an important bearing on his after life. 

 In 1863 his jjarents moved to Utica, where he received his preliminary 

 education. He attended Whitestone Seminary, and later the College 

 of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, where he obtained the 

 degree of doctor of medicine in 1879. LTpon his return to Utica he 

 engaged in the practice of his profession, but delicate health soon 

 forced him to abandon his intention of following a medical career, 

 and urged him to less exacting pursuits. He again turned his atten- 

 tion to the fascinations of bird study and the wild life of the woods, 

 and, having independent means, began in earnest the formation of a 

 collection of birds, nests, and eggs of Oneida County. In the study 

 of the local avifauna he became associated with Mr. Egbert Bagg, of 

 Utica, and the researches of the two naturalists resulted in the publi- 

 cation of an Annotated List of the Birds of Oneida County, New 

 York. (Trans. Oneida Hist. Soc, III, 1886, pp. 101-147). This 

 was followed some years later by a supplement, entitled "Additional 

 Notes on the Birds of Oneida County, New York." (Auk, VII, 

 1890, pp. 229-232). 



It was to the subject of oology that Doctor Ralph's energies were 

 chiefly directed, and his cabinet of nests and eggs, at first of not 

 more than local interest, became in later years one of the most impor- 

 tant private collections in the United States. His personal work in 

 the field was restricted chiefly to the Adirondacks and Florida, but 

 he obtained by purchase and through the employment of collectors 

 many important desiderata from other parts of the country. "When 



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