No. 5. J NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 305 



The critical examination of the Marine Polyzoa of the River 

 and Gulf of the St. Lawrence has been almost completed ; the 

 Cyclostoinata are quite finished, and the Cheilostomata and 

 Ctenostomata nearly so. In the naming of difficult species much 

 assistance has been rendered by the Rev. A. M. Norman, one of 

 the best authorities in Europe on this group, to whom a number 

 of specimens have been sent for comparison, which have been 

 subsequently returned. Mr. Norman has also presented to the 

 Society a large number of named British types. 



The fine and interesting collections of marine invertebrates- 

 made by Mr. Richardson in 1875 on the west coast of America, 

 have also been carefully studied, and critical forms of molluscs, 

 hydroids, and crustaceans have been sent respectively to Messrs. 

 Dall, Verrill and Smith, which have also been returned. The 

 whole series has now been named, with the exception of the 

 Polyzoa, and a report on the whole is in process of preparation. 



Some progress his also been mide in the naming and mount- 

 ing of the shells from the Audamans, presented by Col. Bulger. 



A committee of the Entomological Society having requested 

 the loan of rare Canadian insects for exhibition at the Centen- 

 nial, a series has been selected and forwarded for that purpose. 

 As soon as Mr. Petti t has completed the naming of the Coleop- 

 tera, the whole will be returned. In the late Mr. Ritchie's 

 catalogue of the Island of Montreal, the Curculionidce are 

 omitted, probably because at the time no specialists had worked 

 at this particular group. For some years Mr. Caulfield, Mr. 

 Passmore, and myself have endeavoured to collect as many local 

 species of this order as we could, and last summer, knowing that 

 Drs. Horn and Leconte were engaged in a monograph of the 

 group, all our material was sent to the latter gentleman, who 

 has kindly named and returned all the species. 



The rather extensive series of beetles collected in British Co- 

 lumbia by Mr. Selwyn and Prof. Macoun in 1^75, has also been 

 packed and forwarded to Dr. Leconte, aud a list of them has 

 been published in the Report of Progress just issued. This 

 catalogue is an important addition to our knowledge of the dis- 

 tribution of insect life in the Dominion. 



In consequence of the cleaning of the museum and the tinting 

 of the walls mentioned in the report of the Chairman of Council 

 it has been necessary to take down all the ethnological specimen 



