KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1909. 43 



About 6,000 lots of specimens were catalogued and labeled. Dr. 

 William H. Dall and Dr. Paul Bartsch completed their monograph 

 of the Pyramidellidse, which has been in progress for about twelve 

 years. Doctor Dall also prepared a report on a collection of mol- 

 lusks from Peru, containing nearly 900 species. Doctor Bartsch con- 

 tinued work on the collection of South African shells presented by 

 Lieut. Col. W. H. Turton, of England. Among persons not con- 

 nected with the ]\Iuseum who made use of the collections, may be 

 mentioned Miss M. C Breen, of Washington, Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, of 

 Philadelphia, and Dr. V, Sterki, of Pittsburg. The assistant curator 

 was absent on detail with the steamer Albatross in the Philippine 

 Islands during the early part of the year, as elsewhere explained. 



Marine inrerfehrafes. — The large amount of material transferred 

 by the Bureau of Fisheries has been noted on a previous page. Men- 

 tion may here be made of a series of over 400 crabs from the Gulf 

 of Siam, received from the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen, Den- 

 mark, partly as a gift and partly in exchange. It comprises speci- 

 mens of 20 genera and 66 species not previously represented in the 

 National Museum, among them being 9 cotypes. Fifty negatives of 

 types of corals described by Ellis and Solander were obtained from 

 the University of Glasgow, Scotland. 



One of the f)rincipal subjects of routine was the transfer to the 

 regular catalogues of the data relating to specimens formerly in the 

 custody of Prof. A. E. Verrill. A cataloguer was employed for six 

 months especially for this work. As in previous years, a large 

 amount of time was occupied in selecting, invoicing, and packing 

 si^ecimens sent out for study and identification, and in caring for 

 them on their return. These transactions are of great benefit to the 

 Museum as well as to the various zoologists concerned. The sendings 

 are seldom loans in a strict sense, but consist in most cases of un- 

 identified material which it is of great advantage to the Museum to 

 have studied and identified, and, indeed, without the gratuitous 

 cooperation of specialists, it would be impossible to make headway 

 in many groups. During the year sjjecimens were forwarded under 

 these conditions to 28 naturalists in the United States and other parts 

 of the world. The general collection of unidentified fresh-water 

 sponges was transmitted to Dr. N. Annandale of Calcutta, India, 

 who is monographing the fresh-water sponges of the world. Dr. J. A, 

 Ashworth, of Edinburgh, who is working up the Arenicolida?, ob- 

 tained the use of 36 lots of specimens. The unidentified Atyida^ were 

 sent to Prof. E. L. Bouvier, of the Museum of Natural History, Paris, 

 and the unnamed compound ascidians from the Pacific Ocean north 

 of California, to Dr. A. G. Huntsman for examination in connection 

 with his studies of the ascidians of British Columbia. Dr. R. C. 

 Osburn, of New York, received the collection of bryozoans from 



