56 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



trated by twenty five plates aud six figures. It includes fifty ft ve papei s 

 by Messrs. Eidgway, Eatbbun, Stejueger, Dall, True, and otlier officers 

 of the Museum, and by Messrs. Jordan, Eigenmanu, Evermann, Law- 

 rence, aud other collaborators. Six new genera aud fifty-one new species 

 of animals are described for the first time in this volume. Signatures 

 7-31 of volume 10 of the " Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum," 

 were printed and distributed. These include 400 pages, and embrace 

 thirty-three papers by Messrs. Bean, Bollman, Cope, Eigenmanu, C. H. 

 Gilbert, Lilljeborg, Linton, Lucas, McNeill, Eathbun, Eidgway, E. W. 

 Shufeldt, J. B. Smith, Stejneger, Townsend, and Vasey. In these sig- 

 natures are contained descriptions of fifty-one new genera aud species 

 of birds, mammals, reptiles, fishes, and insects. Bulletin 32, " Cata- 

 logue of Batrachians and Eeptiles of Central America aud Mexico," 

 by E. D. Cope, has been issued. Considerable progress has been made 

 in the printing of Bulletin 33, " Catalogue of Minerals," by Thomas 

 Eglestou, and of Bulletin 34, " Batrachia of North America," by E. D. 

 Cope. 



The Museum report for 1887-'88 is now being prepared, and will in- 

 clude literary contributions from Dr. H. C. Yarrow, Prof. Otis T. Ma- 

 son, Mr. F. A. Lucas, and others. 



Circular 30, "Concerniug the Department of Antiquities," was printed 

 and widely distributed by the curator of that department. A large 

 correspondence has resulted, and valuable facts have been collated there- 

 from. These will be published in the report of the curator. 



Nearly 250 papers have been published by the officers of Museum 

 and about 50 by collaborators. In the latter case the papers are 

 based upon material in the Museum. Of the entire number, 79 relate 

 to insects, 70 to birds, 12 to reptiles, 11 to fossil invertebrates, 9 to min- 

 erals, aud 8 to plants. 



The number of labels printed for the Museum during the year is 

 2,600. In addition, copy for more than 2,000 labels was sent to the 

 Government Printing Office, but the labels had not been printed at the 

 end of the fiscal year. It is hoped that next year it may be possible 

 to secure quicker returns of labels from the Printing Office, since upon 

 them depends in great part the instructive value of the objects exhib- 

 ited. 



The number of publications added to the Library during the year 

 is 6,063, of which 1,316 are volumes of more than a hundred pages. 

 The most important accession was the bequest of Dr. Charles Eau's 

 library, consisting of 715 volumes aud 1,722 pamphlets and other docu- 

 ments. 



Through the co-operation of the U. S. Fish Commission the Smith- 

 sonian Institution has been enabled to secure from Funk Island, for 

 the National Museum, a collection of bones of the Great Auk, and in- 

 cidentally important collections of mammals, birds, bird eggs, fishes, 

 plants, ores, rocks, stone implements, and fossils were obtained from 



