KEPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 37 



Stockton. Edited by R. Ridgway (pp. 388-449). Mr. Ridgway is to be 

 credited merely with the editing of this paper and the nomenclature 

 adopted. The list is the most complete catalogue extant of Central Cal- 

 iforiiian birds, being based upon the observations of Mr. Belding, made 

 during a residence of about twenty years in the State, and includes 220 

 species, which, with very few exceptions, are represented in the collection 

 of the National Museum by specimens (upwards of GOO in number) sent 

 by Mr. Belding. 



(7) Descriptions of new species and races of American birds, including 

 a synopsis of the genus Tyrannus, Cuvier (pp. 46G-48G). — The new species 

 here described are Tyrannus luggeri, from Demerara and Cayenne; 

 Lichenops perspicillatus andinus, from Western South America (Chili to 

 Colombia); Dacnis pulclierrima aurcinucha, from Ecuador; Parus rufes- 

 cens negleetus, from the coast of California. 



Smitltsonian Annual Report. — The report of the Institution for the 

 year 1878 was presented to Congress on the 8th of February, 1879, and 

 10,500 copies were ordered to be printed, 1,000 being for the use of the 

 Senate, 3,000 for that of the House of Bepresentatives, and 6,500 for 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



For almost the first time in the history of the Institution, this report 

 has failed to make its appearance, and to be distributed before the close 

 of the following year. Under ordinary circumstances it should have 

 been printed by the 1st of July, but the year has come to an end, and 

 not more than half the number of pages have been set up. This is due 

 to the fact that the extra session of Congress held in March last found 

 the Public Printer without any special appropriation to meet the cost of 

 printing ; and instead of going on with the work ordered at the previous 

 session, he was obliged to postpone it. Work was, however, resumed 

 upon the report late in the autumn, and it will probably be finished in 

 the course of a few months. It is earnestly to be hoped that a similar 

 delay will not occur again. The same cause has pre vented the printing 

 of the 1 ien ry Memorial volume authorized by Congress last winter, but 

 the work on this will soon be begun. 



Reports of the United States Fish Commission. — A series of publications 

 which may be considered as in some respects connected with the work 

 of the Institution, not only in the personnel, but in the subjects of natu- 

 ral history discussed and in the resulting contributions to our knowledge, 

 may properly be here noticed. The present Secretary being at the head 

 of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, and the work 

 accomplished by this agency in increasing and diffusing scientific as 

 well as practical information being quite within the objects and prov- 

 ince of the Institution, much of the material would legitimately form a 

 portion of the Smithsonian Contributions or Miscellaneous Collections. 

 These reports are, however, published by the government, and are dis- 

 tributed by Congress. 



