28 REPORT OF THE SECKETAEY. 



Scudder: No. 28, "A manual of American Laud Shells," by W. G. Bin- 

 ney: No. 29, " Kesults of Ornithological Explorations in the Comman- 

 der Islands and in Kamtschatka," by Leonhard Stejneger, and No. 30, 

 'Bibliography of Publications relating to the collection of fossil inver- 

 tebrates in the United States National Museum, including complete 

 lists of the writings of Fielding B. Meek, Charles A. White, and Charles 

 D. Walcott," by John Belknap Marcou.* Circular 32, " Classification 

 of the Materia Medica Collection of the U. S. National Museum, and 

 Catalogue of Specimens," by Dr. James M. Flint, revised and extended 

 by Dr. Henry G. Beyer ; and Circular 33, " Notes on the preparation of 

 rough skeletons," by Frederic A. Lucas, have also been published. 



The publication of the special report upon the fisheries of the United 

 States, in quarto, which, in addition to its descriptive, historical, and 

 statistical contents, will in reality constitute a monograph of the Amer- 

 ican portion of the fisheries collection in the Museum, has been going 

 through the press under the supervision of the Assistant Director and 

 Mr. A. H. Clark, who are rendering this service to the Fish Commission 

 as volunteers. 



Museum Library. — The accessions to the Museum library, including 

 books and pamphlets, have been 454. Early in the year Mr. H. W. 

 Spofford was appointed assistant to Mr. F. W. True, the librarian. 



Visitors. — The total number of visitors to the National Museum dur- 

 ing the first half of 1885 was 107,365, a daily average of 692f . 



Meetings in the Lecture Hall. — The lecture hall, as in previous years, 

 has been used for the meetings of several societies, viz, the National 

 Academy of Sciences, the American Fisheries Society, the Biological 

 Society of Washington, the Society of Naturalists of North America, 

 and the Entomological Society of Washington. 



Saturday Lectures. — Twelve Saturday lectures, under the auspices of 

 the Biological and Anthropological Societies of Washington, were de- 

 livered in the lecture hall on successive Saturday afternoons, and were 

 well attended. Many of these lectures had direct reference to the work 

 of the Museum, and were illustrated by specimens from the cases. 



Museum Report. — A special report ujion the Museum having been or- 

 dered by Congress, the reports of the Assistant Director and curators 

 for the year 1884, together with the accompanying statistics and the 

 scientific paj)ers based upon the collections in the National Museum, 

 have been in a measure separated from the regular Smithsonian report, 

 forming Part II of the same, and being arranged in a separate volume. 



In accordance with my custom in previous years, I shall here present 

 a brief review of what has been accomplished in each department, refer- 

 ring to the special Museum report for the full discussion of the additions 



'These form Parts II and III of ''Bibliographies of American Naturalists," and are 

 shaped in refsrence to the long contemplated scheme of publishing a complete bibli- 

 ographical record of all papers relating to the collections in the National Museum. 



