REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 37 



granted under tlie ex])ress condiiiou that they are to form the subject of 

 investigatiou, the results of which are to he published by the Institution 

 or some other establishment, and that iu all cases full credit is to be 

 given to the Institution for the assistance it has rendered. Furthermore, 

 in the case of the preparation of a monograph, a full set of the type 

 specimens, correctly labeled, is to be put aside for the National Museum, 

 and the remainder of the specimens made up into sets for distribution. 

 The follo^ving list presents the more important cases of the loan or 

 assignment of materials during the past year. Some of the specimens 

 have already been returned, while the remainder are still in the hands 

 of the parties to whom they were intrusted : 



Crania of the recent and fossil bison, musk ox, &c., to Professor L. 

 Agassiz, of Cambridge, Mass. ; land shells of Central and South America 

 to Thomas Bland, of New York ; land and fresh water shells of North 

 America to W. G. Binney, Burlington, N. J.; nests and eggs of North 

 American birds to Dr. T. M. Brewer, Boston; birds of South America and 

 Alaska to John Cassin, Philadelphia; Alcadae of North America to Br. 

 Elliott Cones, United States army; collections of American and foreign 

 reptiles to Professor E. D. Cope, Philadelphia; fungi from the Indian 

 territory to the Eev. M. A. Curtis, Hillsborough, N. C. ; unfigured species 

 of North American birds to 1). G. Elliott, New York; diatomaceous 

 earths and deep-sea soundings to Arthur M.Edwards, New Yorlc; Lep- 

 idoptera from various North American localities to W. H. Edwards, 

 Coalbiu'g, Va.; seeds of Boehmcria, received from the Department of 

 Agriculture, to Dr. Earl Flint, Nicaragua; plants collected in Ecuador 

 by the expedition under Professor Orton to Dr. Asa Gray, Cambridge ; 

 miscellaneousspecimensof North American insects to Professor T. Glover, 

 IJepartment of Agriculture, Washington; general collection of birds of 

 Costa Pica and Yucatan to George N. Lawrence, New York; American 

 Uniouidiu to Isaac Lea, Philadelphia; series of North American salaman- 

 ders to St. George Mivart, London; American Diptera to Baron R. 

 Ostensacken, New York; Lepidoptera of Ecuador and Yucatan to Tryon 

 lieakirt, Philadelphia; plants collected in Alaska by various expedi- 

 tions to Dr. J. T. Rothrock, McVeytown, Pa. ; birds of Buenos Ayres, 

 received from AV. II. Hudson, and a scries of small American owls, to 

 Dr. P. L. Sclatc4' and Osbert Salvin, London; miscellaneous collections of 

 American Orthoptera to S. H. Scudder, Boston; collections of American 

 Ilcmiptera to P. R. Uhler, Baltimore; American myriapods and spiders 

 to ih: H. C. Wood, Philadelphia; human crania irom iiortiiwesteru 

 America and the ancient mounds of Kentucky, also collections from the 

 ancient shell-heaps of Massachusetts and New Brunswick, to Dr. Jeffreys 

 Wyman, Cambridge. 



Few persons are aware of the great extent to which this Smithsonian 

 material has been used by American and foreign naturalists, or the 

 number of new facts and new species which have been conlributed to 

 natural history through its means. A complete bibliography of the titles 



