1905.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 929 



At the annual meeting of the Section the following were elected as 

 the officers to serve the coming year : 



Director, ..... Benjamin H. Smith. 



Vice-Director, . . . . Joseph Crawford. 



Recorder, ..... Charles S. Williamson. 



Treasurer and Conservator, . . Stewardson Brown. 



Respectfully submitted, 



Stew.^rdson Brown, 



Conservator. 



The Ornithological Section. 



During the past year the Conservator has devoted his attention 

 mainly to a rearrangement of the study collection of bird skins which 

 had become overcrowded through the large accessions of the past 

 two years. 



Ten additional moth-proof cases have been procured, which have 

 permitted a thorough rearrangement of most of the Passeres and 

 Picarise, and the necessary relabelling of the trays has been completed. 



A large number of recently acquired specimens, temporarily arranged 

 in wooden cases, have been interpolated in their proper places and 

 catalogued. 



But little progress was made in the transfer of the mounted collec- 

 tion to its new quarters, owing to the fact that the new cases were not 

 completed until the close of the year; but with those now available 

 and others in the course of erection, the transfer of the remaining 

 specimens should be practically completed during the coming year. 



Among the important accessions during the past year are the series 

 of 500 birds from British East Africa deposited l)y Mr. Creorge L. Har- 

 rison, Jr., and the collection of Lower Calif ornian birds obtained by the 

 Rhoads expedition, upon each of which the Conservator has prepared a 

 report for the Academy's Proceedings. 



A large number of the African birds were entirely new to our collec- 

 tion, many of them having been discovered during the past decade. 



Another accession of note was a series of winter birds from South 

 Carolina and of breeding specimens from New Hampshire, received 

 from Mr. Nathan Clifford Brown, the specimens being exquisitely 

 prepared in his well-known manner. 



The Delaware Valley Ornithological Clu!) has added several speci- 

 mens to its collection of local birds, including a section of tree trunk 

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