REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 33 



Eufemio Abadiano, of Mexico, by whom tbey were made. This collec- 

 tiou includes full-size reproductious of several exceedingly important ob- 

 jects, such as the Mexican Aztec Calendar Stone, the Sacrificial Stone, 

 the Aztec Goddess of Death (Teoyoamiqui), and the wonderful reclining 

 figure of Chac-Mool. This collection has been forwarded from New Or- 

 leans and will soon be on exhibition, and it is hoped that by some means 

 it may ultimately become the property of the Museum. It will be in- 

 stalled by the side of the Lorillard collection and other Central Amer- 

 ican antiquities. These two collections of casts, together with the orig- 

 inals already in possession of the Museum, will entirely fill one of the 

 small exhibition galleries and constitute a display of native American 

 sculpture and architecture which is equalled nowhere else in the world. 



Department of Mammals. — At the beginning of the year the work of 

 the mammal department, incident upon the preparation of a collection 

 to be exhibited in New Orleans, having been entirely completed, the 

 regular routine work was resumed. The mammal exhibition hall had 

 been rendered less attractive than formerly by the removal of numerous 

 large specimens for the New Orleans Exposition, and a temporary re- 

 arrangement of the collections was attempted in order to make the 

 vacancies less conspicuous. During the first quarter of the year thirty- 

 three mounted specimens were added to the exhibition series, including 

 several large forms, such as a Siberian sheep, a baboon, &c. A list of 

 aU the mounted mammals was made in Febnuary, and soon afterwards 

 temporary labels were written and distributed among the specimens. 

 Manuscript for printed labels for the entire series was also prepared. 



In April the director of the Museum offered a reward for the capture 

 of a specimen of a spotted dolphin, said to be abundant in the Gulf of 

 Mexico. A fresh specimen was soon afterwards received through Messrs. 

 Warren & Stearns, of Pensacola, Fla., and proved to be of remarkable 

 scientific interest. On the 9th of April three telegrams were received 

 from life-saving station keepers announcing the stranding of cetaceans, 

 two having reference to blackfish stranded near Cape Henry, and the 

 third to a fin-back whale ashore near Truro, Mass. The most interesting 

 cetacean specimens received during the half-year were a male pygmy 

 sperm-whale [Kogia) and the skull of an Atlantic right- whale {Balcena 

 cisarctica). 



Messrs. Barnum, Bailey, and Hutchinson, Mr. Adam Forepaugh, and 

 the authorities of the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens (through Mr. A. 

 E. Brown), and the Central Park Menagerie (through Mr. W. A. Conk- 

 lin), have continued to send many interesting animals in the flesh. 



In June the chief taxidermist was ordered to New Orleans to super- 

 intend the packing of the mammals exhibited in that city. During his 

 stay he negotiated an exchange in behalf of the Museum by which three 

 valuable species of quadrumana were acquired, including a specimen of 

 the interesting gibbon, Hrjlobates concolor. The New Orleans exhibit 

 H. Mis. 15 3 



