REPOET ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 217 



wh ile the fishery-census experts were visiting every part of the American 

 coast, they obtained many extensive faunal collections, among the more 

 interesting of which were those of Prof. D. S. Jordan, from the Cali- 

 fornia coast; of Mr. Silas Stearns, from the Gulf of Mexico; and of 

 Messrs. Earll and MacDonald, from the Southern Atlantic coast. The 

 collections brought in by the Gloucester fishermen on behalf of the Fish 

 Commission, from 1878 to 1882, are also very extensive and of extreme 

 value. 



These large receipts of valuable specimens from the United States 

 Fish Commission have naturally rendered the collections of this exten- 

 sive survey the most important feature of this department. Up to 

 January 1, 1883, there had been received from Professor Verrill 1,973 

 packages and bottles of Fish Commission specimens, representing the 

 several groups, as follows : 



Crustacea, 138 species. 



Worms, 31 species. 



MoUusca, 33 species. 



Bryozoa and Tunicates, 31 species. 



Echinoderms, 44 species. 



Anthozoa, 24 species. 



Hydroids, 12 species, 



A total of 313 species, and over 200,000 specimens, not counting a 

 large number of the smaller species, of many of which there are several 

 thousand specimens each. Nearly all of the above species are repre- 

 sented by several specimens from each known locality, constituting a 

 part of the so-called reserve or reference collection of the Museum, the 

 balance being duplicates. The following groups are the ones most fullj'^ 

 illustrated in the reserve series from the Fish Commission : The Deca- 

 pod and Isopod Crustaceans, Pycnogonids, shore Annelids, Cephalopods, 

 Echini, Starfishes, Gorgonians, and Actinians. The miscellaneous col- 

 lections sent direct from the summer stations to Washington have not 

 been fully catalogued, and no definite statement can be made concern- 

 ing their extent, but they" will probably add 50 more species and many 

 thousand specimens. 



The curator, during the past three summers, as an assistant to the 

 Fish Commission, has devoted the most of his time to collecting and 

 studying the marine Co2}epo(ia, both free-swimming and parasitic, which 

 are very abundant upon our coast. The collection of Copepodsthus far 

 obtained and now in the Museum is one of the largest, if not thelargestj 

 in the world, and fills over 1,500 vials and bottles. 



From Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, who is in the permanent employ of the 

 Fish Commission at Wood's Holl, Mass., the Museum has been in con- 

 stant receipt of marine invertebrates, collected in the neighborhood of 

 Wood's Holl, at intervals through the year, but mainly during the win- 

 ter, spring, and fall seasons, when this region is seldom visited by nat- 

 uralists. By collecting at these times Mr. Edwards has procured several 



