68 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Some specimens were collected on the Grand Banks by the fishermen, 

 and by Messrs. Osborne and Scudder, which are also noteworthy. 



Several rare specimens of Texas birds were obtained by Mr. Ragsdale. 



Kept lies. — A miscellaneous collection of reptiles was received from 

 various sources, more especially of living serpents, salamanders, turtles, 

 and lizards, from many different contributors. These came in part from 

 Mr. Frank W. Hayward, of South Carolina, Mr. S. T. Walker, of Florida, 

 Dr. Lightburne, of Fort Mohave, and many others, and have served a 

 most admirable purpose for making the series of plaster casts of Ameri- 

 can reptiles, which is superior in interest and extent to anything extant 

 in x>ublic museums at home or abroad. 



To Mr. Edward Newton, colonial secretary of Jamaica, we owe a living 

 specimen of the yellow boa, a rare serpent of great size, of which admi- 

 rable copies have been made. 



Fishes. — The collections in this department, as might be expected, 

 from the relations of the United States Fish Commission to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, have included many new and rare species from the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the lakes, and the interior 

 waters. The amount of the collections is entirely too great to attempt 

 a specification, although among the most important may be mentioned 

 a series furnished by the Museum of the University of Christiania of 

 seventy-one species of Norwegian fishes, and the collection from Japan, 

 from the Mombusho Museum, already referred to under the head of 

 Exchanges. 



To Mr. E. G. Blackford, the enterprising fish-rlealer of Fulton Market, 

 New York, the Institution has for years been under many obligations 

 for his zeal in collecting all the rare fishes that came to the New York 

 market, and forwarding such of them to the Institution as he had reason 

 to believe were desirable. Many new species, and others of great rarity 

 have been thus selected by Mr. Blackford, who has also rendered most 

 important service in receiving various consignments of fish packed in 

 ice from various parts of the country and even from Europe, and in 

 repacking and forwarding them to Washington. 



To the masters and crews of the Gloucester fishing-fleet most special 

 acknowledgments are due for their earnest desire to place at the com- 

 mand of the government the means of information in regard to the fields 

 of labor traversed by them. A full statement of these contributions 

 will be found in the list of donations to the United States Fish Com- 

 mission. 



The United States Fish Commission itself was stationed at Province- 

 town, Mass., during the last summer, and secured great numbers of fishes. 



Murine invertebrates. — Of marine invertebrates, by far the most im- 

 portant collections are those furnished by the Gloucester fishing-fleet, re- 

 ferred to under the head of Fishes, and by the United States Fish 

 Commission at Provincetown. 



