74 REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



With the view of carrying out the arrangement between yourself 

 and Drs. Torrey and Gray, in reference to the selection of a single 

 series of all the botanical collections made and deposited by the vari- 

 ous government exploring expeditions and received from other sources, 

 the entire herbarium has been placed in their hands for the purpose. 



Nearly all the mammals, the North American birds, and the exotic 

 water birds exhibited in the museum, have been labeled with both 

 scientific and vernacular names as far as these could be ascertained. 

 The remaining specimens will be similarly treated as fast as they can 

 be properly identified. The entire osteological collection has been 

 placed on exhibition, as also the geological collections of the Pacific 

 railroad and some other Government parties, in the northeast and 

 southeast galleries of the museum hall, first opened to the public 

 during the year. 



A large number of skins of North American mammals and birds, 

 not previously exhibited, have been mounted and placed in the cases. 

 All the old stands of mounted specimens have been replaced by new 

 ones, and the entire series is believed to be in a good condition, 

 although much remains to be done for its perfection by adding defi- 

 ciencies of North American species, and replacing old, faded, badly- 

 prepared, and otherwise discreditable specimens, by fresher and better 

 ones. 



Of the collections mentioned in the last report as in the hands of 

 collaborators residing out of Washington, the Ophiuridae have been 

 returned, labeled, and identified by Mr. Theodore Lyman, of Brooklyn. 

 Many new species were found among the Smithsonian specimens, which 

 have been characterized in the proceedings of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, and will be described in detail in a monograph. The 

 Echini of the North Pacific expedition have been worked up and 

 returned by Mr. Barnard, and much progress made in the determina- 

 tion of the Crustacea and sea glars of the same expedition by Mr. 

 Stimpson, and of its fishes by Mr. Gill. Mr. Cassin has completed 

 his investigations upon the birds of Lieutenant Michler's expedition 

 to the Atrato, and of the North Pacific expedition, and returned the 

 specimens. The herpetology of the North Pacific expedition, originally 

 prepared by Dr. Hallo well, has been revised and brought up to date 

 by Mr. Cope, who has also made some important examinations of 

 serpents in the collection of the Institution. 



No reports of return of specimens have been made during the 

 year by the gentlemen mentioned in the last report as having Smith- 

 sonian material in charge, as follows : Turtles by Professor Agassiz, 

 Etheostomoids by Mr. F. W. Putnam, Siluridae by Dr. Wheatland, all 

 of the Cambridge Zoological museum ; fossil vertebrata collected by 

 Dr. Hayden during the expedition of Lieutenant Warren, in the hands 

 of Dr. Joseph Leidy, of the Philadelphia Academy. Of other series 

 not yet mentioned in the present report, the coleoptera are in the hands 

 of Dr. Le Conte, the neuroptera of Dr. Hagen, the diptera of Dr. Loew, 

 the lepidoptera of Dr. Morris and Mr. Edwards, the water breathing 

 univalves of North America of Mr. W. G. Binney, the west coast and 

 exploring expedition shells of Mr. P. P. Carpenter. The birds of 

 Captain Page's Paraguay expedition and of Lieutenant Herndon's 



