126 THE CA?;rADlAN NATtlRALIST. [Vol. VI. 



active and able naturalist resident on the premises, our collection 

 of birds and mammals would rapidly increase. A special appli- 

 cation was made to the Minister of AsTriculture of the Province 

 of Quebec for a license to enable Mr. Passmore to procure birds, 

 for the museum, which was not granted, probably owing to a mis- 

 apprehension. 



From the Smithsonian Institute at Washinirton we have received 

 a large and valuable series of North American birds' eggs, con- 

 sisting of ninety-one species, many of them of considerable rarity. 

 Among the more interesting^ of these are the ea'o-s of the Golden 

 eagle, American pelican, King eider and Pacific eider duck, Velvet 

 duck and Surf Scoter, Canvas-backed and Red-headed ducks, 

 Gambel's and Hutchins' geese, Pacific diver. Western grebe, 

 American oyster catcher, California gull, and other rare eggs 

 from xirctic America and the Pacific coast. We have also added 

 Canadian examples of the eggs of the Eed-shouldered buzzard 

 (Buteo lineatus), and of the Long-eared owl (^Otus Wihonianus) 

 to our collection. A description of the nidification of "each of 

 these species, and a list of all the rare birds that have been 

 recently obtained in the Provinee (at least of all those of which 

 I could get any definite information) has been published in The 

 Naturalist. The birds' eggs received during the past year have 

 been labelled and arranged in drawers in the museum. 



Major Bulger has presented a miscellaneous collection of objects 

 of interest, mostly from the East Indies; a detailed catalogue 

 of some of which has been published in the Society's Journal. 

 Thirty-six species of fossils, several corals, and an example of the 

 Glass-rope sponge {Hyalonema Sieholdii'), have been also added 

 to the Museum. Many of these were received in exchange for 

 shells dredged in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



I have steadily worked at the preparation of my own private 

 collection of shells and fossils for exhibition in the Museum, with 

 the following general results : about 3000 species have been par- 

 tially grouped, of which about 1000 have been attached to proper 

 tablets. Where a name has been ascertained with tolerable cer- 

 tainty, a pen and ink label on white paper has been permanently 

 attached, but where the identification is doubtful, the name and 

 locality of the species is only written in pencil on the blue tablet. 

 Of those mounted permanently 411 species are marine gasteropods 

 (univalve), 300 species and upwards are land or fresh-water 

 gasteropods, 324 species are lamellibranchiate bivalves ;— I esti- 



