42 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



The interest manifested in tiie history and anthropolooy of our 

 Philippine and other insular possessions rendered desirable the issu- 

 ance of instructions for the guidance of collectors of objects in these 

 branches, and to secure this purpose there has been printed an addi- 

 tional part of Bulletin ?>9 (Part Q), prepared by Mr. W. H. Holmes 

 and Prof. O. T. Mason, under the title Instructions to Collectors of 

 Historical and Anthropological Specimens. 



The twenty-fourth volume of Proceedings, printed in bound form at 

 the beginning of the fiscal year, contains thirty-four papers (1241 to 

 1274, inclusive), all of which were issued in the form of separates dur- 

 ing the preceding year. Fifteen of these papers were prepared b}^ 

 members of the Museum staff, ten ])y Dr. David Starr Jordan and his 

 assistants, being mainly descriptions of Japanese fishes represented in 

 the Museum collections, and the remainder by other correspondents 

 and collaborators of the Museum. 



Papers numbered from 1275 to 130.5, constituting volume xxv, 

 and those numbered from 1306 to 1332 of volume xx^i, were also 

 printed by June 30. It is expected that numbers 1333 to 1349 will 

 soon be published, and that volumes xxv^ and xxvi will appear in 

 bound form during the summer of 1903. 



There is a continuous demand for certain of the Museum publica- 

 tions no longer in stock, but the means this year have permitted the 

 reprinting of only the following: Mr. Robei't Ridgway's paper on the 

 Humming Birds, from the Museum Report for 1900; Dr. Stejneger's 

 paper on The Poisonous Snakes of North America, from the Report 

 for 1893; Bulletin 37, entitled A Preliminary Catalogue of the Shell- 

 bearing Marine Mollusks and Brachiopods of the Southeastern Coast 

 of the United States, by Dr. William H. Dall; parts F, G, H, I, J, K 

 of Bulletin 39, containing directions for collecting insects, shells, min- 

 erals, rocks, specimens illustrating the aboriginal uses of plants and 

 fossils, and the first volume of Bulletin 47, entitled Fishes of North 

 and Middle America, l)y Doctors Jordan and Evermann. 



All the publications of the Museum are distributed by the Oflice of 

 Correspondence and Documents, and it is estimated that during the 

 year not less than 10,000 volumes and 35,000 separate papers were 

 sent to libraries and individuals in the United States and foreign 

 countries. 



Appendix IV of this report contains a list of the publications of the 

 Museum, of the members of its staff, and also of outside colla])orators 

 to the extent that the papers of the latter were based on Museum 

 material. The number of authors is 90, and the total number of 

 papers mentioned by title is 277. 



