•No. 5.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 297 



■been also brought before the Society at one of its monthly meet- 



mirs. 



Some progress has been made in the re-arrangement of the 

 Society's very interesting and valuable collection of fishes amphi- 

 bia and reptiles, but the work in this direction has been stopped, 

 on account of the want of proper bottles, and of alcohol. Many 

 rare exotic snakes, lizards, fishes &c., presented to the Society 

 «ome years ago by Dr. Gunther, have never been accessible to 

 students, because we had no proper means of exhibiting them 

 It is eminently desirable to have a much better series of the 

 smaller fishes, newts, frogs &c. of Canada, for reference, than we 

 can now boast. If a small expense were incurred to obtain 

 alcohol, and suitable bottles, the specimens could soon be obtain- 

 €d. As it is, our small collection has been greatly augmented 

 by a donation of a series of the snakes of Western Canada, 

 presented by Mr. Passmore. 



In the department of Canadian birds, the additions have been 



about equal to the average of former years. Some rare United 



.States species have been presented by Mr. LeChevallier. Among 



these are the painted quail of Texas, and the Brown and Frigate 



Pelicans of Florida. 



Major Bulger has most liberally presented us with a coUectioa 

 of 60 specimens, of the Birds of the Neilgherry Hills and from 

 the Deccan. These have been duly labelled, and the attention 

 of the Society has been called to them in a paper read at one of 

 our monthly meetings. 



By exchange with Mr. LeChevallier the Society has acquired 

 the eggs of about 80 species of N. American birds, some of them 

 of considerable rarity. They are all fine specimens, mostly 

 blown in the most approved fashion, and have all been marked 

 with names and localities. 



The most important additions to the mammalia are an unusu- 

 ally fine specimen of the Canadian or American wolf, obtained 

 through the kind instrumentality of Mr. Vennor and other geatle- 

 men, mostly connected with the G-eolgical Survey ; a good speci- 

 men of the Badger, presented by Prof. Bell, and a Skunk, given 

 by Mr. S. J. Lyman. 



A small series of U. S. Rodents has recently been received 

 from the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, but they are 

 mostly in a bad state of preservation, and none of them have 

 been mounted as yet. 



