REPORT OF ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY. O 



111 many ways the Departmeiit of Biology, wbeu establisbed at the 

 beginning of the fiscal year, was in much better condition than either 

 of the other two departments. The several zoological divisions already 

 existing and the Division of Plants were brought together under a 

 separate administrative head. As many of these divisions have been 

 in existence since the reorganization of the Museum in 1881, and 

 several of them for a much longer period, the organization of the 

 department was a relatively simi)le matter. The biological specimens 

 constitute the larger part of the Museum collections. They had been 

 in charge of curators and assistants who followed the well-defined and 

 long-established methods of systematic zoology and botany, and there- 

 fore no radical changes in the scientific methods or in the business 

 administration of these divisions were required. The efiorts of the 

 head curator were largely in the direction of developing those features 

 which, from various cases, had not had due prominence. He found the 

 same difficulties met with by the other head curators in regard to 

 laboratory and exhibition space and the force at his command. A large 

 amount of the biological mal erial is displayed in the Smithsonian build- 

 ing. The bringing together of all the invertebrates in this building 

 was accomplished during the year, and this is a great gain in the classi- 

 fication of the exhibits. These collections include insects, mollusks, 

 and all other classes of invertebrates. The display in Musuem build- 

 ing includes the mammals, batrachians, reptiles, fishes, and the collec- 

 tions representing comparative anatomy. The birds remain in the 

 Smithsonian building, it having been found impracticable to transfer 

 this large exhibit to the Museum building. 



The erection of galleries in the Museum building — a subject adverted 

 to later — while not involving great changes in this department, as in 

 the departments of Anthropology and Geology, rendered necessary the 

 complete reinstallation of the large exhibition series of mammals. In 

 the reinstallation Dr. True arranged the zoological exhibition on a 

 faunal basis, special ijrominence being given to the faunas of the United 

 States. This principal series is to be supplemented by various smaller 

 series illustrating important topics in biology. 



The additions to the zoological and botanical collections were nu- 

 merous, and in some directions unusually important! The generous 

 donation of Messrs. Hubbard and Schwarz of their collection of Coleop- 

 tera, principally North American, comprising about 200,001) specimens 

 and representing approximately 12,000 species, is of great importance, 

 as it places the IsTational Museum in advance of all others as regards 

 North American Coleoptera. Dr. W. L. Abbott continued his liberal 

 gifts to the Museum by presenting large collections of birds, mammals, 

 reptiles, insects, and other animals from lower Siam and Kashmir; and 

 Dr. W. L. Ralph supplemented his valuable additions to the collections 

 of birds' eggs. The largest acquisition to the mollusks consisted in 

 the gift by Dr. R. Ellsworth Call of a collection including over 86,000 

 specimens. 



