REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF BIRDS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



By Robert Ridgway. Curator, 



GENERAL REVIEW OF THE YEAR'S WORK. 



Iii addition to the regular routine work of the department, which of 

 itself is too complicated to admit of specific description, the following 

 special work was accomplished during the year. It may be premised 

 that all such work has been done at irregular intervals, or only when 

 time could be spared from the more exacting duties of the curator. 



The working up of a collection of birds from Honduras and another 

 from Costa Rica was completed during duly, and the results turned in 

 to the editor of the "Proceedings" for publication. Considerable work 

 was also done, as opportunity occurred, on a revision of the genera 

 Sittasomus and Formicarius, besides other groups, the results of which, 

 so far as the work has been completed, are mentioned by title in the 

 Bibliography (Section iv). 



In August, the transferring of specimens constituting the study col- 

 lection to new trays was begun, as was also the consideration of plans 

 for an exhibit of birds at the World's Columbian Exposition, the cata- 

 loguing and putting away of the Richmond collection of over .'>,000 

 specimens, the separation of duplicates from the same, and numerous 

 other matters. 



The rearrangement of the study collection in the new cabinets was 

 continued in September until all the cabinets in the gallery were rilled. 



In April, a large collection of birds from (Jaslimir. presented by Dr. 

 W. L. Abbott, was worked up, involving considerable labor, since most 

 of the material was entirely new to the Museum. Much work lias also 

 been done on a large collection of birds from the Galapagos Islands. 



As time and facilities afforded, a large amount of difficult and labori- 

 ous work was performed in the rearrangement of specimens in the west 

 basement, where modern cabinets had been substituted tor some of the 

 various kinds of unsuitable cases in which this extremely valuable part 

 of the collection had been stored. The work is far from finished, how- 

 ever, and can not be completed until after the World's Fair exhibit has 



been disposed of. 



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