RErORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 65 



Mr. Robert T. Matthews presented two very rare snakes from Nica- 

 ragua, and Rev. Cyrus A. Clark an equally rare Japanese species, 

 with some other specimens. The skeleton of a large leather-back 

 turtle was donated by Mr. W. E. West. This was a very welcome 

 accession, as the skeleton in the exhibition series of the Museum was 

 not perfect. The Museum made a number of purchases of reptiles 

 during the year, of which the most important were 50 specimens from 

 Sumatra and vicinity for comparison with Dr. Abbott's collections, and 

 137 especially well-preserved specimens from Costa Rica to strengthen 

 the Museum collections from that countrj^ which, though extensive, 

 are not in the best condition. The material obtained from the Philip 

 pine Islands and from Porto Rico has already l)een referred to (see 

 P-62). 



FisJi.es. — Besides the collections obtained from the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission, Stanford University, and Professor Dean, already mentioned, 

 the Museum secured through the good offices of Messrs. Anderson and 

 Price, of Ormond, Florida, the skin of a whale shark, Rhinodon, about 

 13 feet long, the first ever taken in the North Atlantic. 



Jlollusks. — The principal donations in this class were 2,000 shells 

 from Lower California, presented b}^ Lieut. C. A. Clark, U. S. Navy; 

 35 specimens of new and rare species of land shells from various 

 localities in the United States, presented by J. A. Ferris; a collection 

 containing specimens of 12 species of land shells from Cocos Island, 

 representing cotypes of species described in Van Marten's work on 

 the shells of the island. These were obtained by Mr. William H. Dall. 



Insects. — The lunuljer of insects added to the collection during the 

 year, including deposits, exceeded 100,000 specimens, or nearly three 

 times as many as were received during the previous year. Included 

 among the accessions were four large collections, the principal of which 

 was that made by Mr. E. A. Schwarz, Custodian of Coleoptera, assisted 

 by Mr. H. S. Earlier. This collection, which Mr. Schwarz made at 

 his personal expense and presented to the Museum, contained 65,000 

 insects. Mr. ^V. H. Ashmead collected about 7,000 insects in the 

 Hawaiian Islands. Dr. H. G. Dyar, Custodian of Lepidoptera, assisted 

 by Mr. A. N. Caudell, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, col- 

 lected 10.000 Lepidoptera and Orthoptera in Colorado. This collec- 

 tion comprised a large numlier of l)lown lepidopterous larva' prepared 

 in the field by Mr. Caudell. The fourth large accession was a deposit 

 made by Mr. William Schaus, consisting of about 10,000 beautifully 

 prepared specimens of butterflies, chiefly from Mexico and Central 

 America. 



Besides these four large accessions there were 306 smaller ones, all 

 of which are referred to in Appendix II. Only a few can be men- 

 tioned in this place. Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell presented various 



NAT MUS 11H)2 5 



