REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY. bO 



butiou of au extensive series of birds' uests and eggs, the materials upon which 

 he based a memoir on the birds of Jamaica, transmitted to the Institution, to be 

 published by the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and printed in its 

 proceedings for November, 1863. 



Cuba. — Additional collections were received during the year from Mr. Charles 

 Wright and Professor F. Poey, embracing new and rare species of birds, shells, 

 i-eptiles, and fishes. Some collections, transmitted by Dr. J. Grundlach, have 

 not yet reached us. 



Ecuador. — The Hon. C. R. Buckalew, now United States senator, while 

 United States minister, resident at Ecuador, made quite an extensive collection 

 of the birds of that country, which he has lately presented to the Institution. 

 Nearly all of the species thus obtained were new to the cabinet. 



No collections of magnitude, from regions or localities other than American, 

 have been received during the year. It is not the intention or expectation of 

 the Institution to make general collections of the natural history of the globe, 

 neither its space nor available funds warranting so broad a field of operations. 

 By limiting its labor to America, a hope may be entertained of possessing, in 

 time, a complete series of the animals of the continent. 



Exotic collections, as far as they are spontaneously offered, and especially 

 such as are necessary to illustrate the characters of American species, are 

 always acceptable, and the specimens gathered by the government exploring 

 expeditions, of which the Smithsonian Institution is the custodian, will always 

 be carefully preserved ; but any especial efforts towards the increase of the 

 museum may advantageously be confined, as a general policy, to the New 

 AVorld. 



The most important additions, it will be readily seen, relate to the class of 

 birds. Desirous of extending the observations upon the birds of North 

 America, as published in the ninth volume of the Pacific railroad report, a cu'- 

 cular was issued by the Institution, which has been distributed by the State 

 Department to the consular and diplomatic oificers of the United States in the 

 foreign portions of America, asking aid in completing the collection of birds ; 

 and important additions are expected from the request thus extended. The 

 materials received will be used, in connexion with those already in possession 

 of the Institution, in the preparation of catalogues and monographs relative to 

 American ornithology. 



Among the specimens received by the Institution during the year should 

 especially be mentioned the great Ainsa or Tucson meteorite. 



This meteorite was first discovered by the Jesuit missionaries in Sonora, by 

 whom it was considered a great curiosity, exciting much speculation as to its 

 origin. In 1735 the "Gran Capitan de las Provincias del Occidente, Don Juan 

 Baptista Anza, was induced to visit the aerolite," and found it at a place called 

 "Z/05 Muchaches," in the Sierra Madre, and, struck with its appearance, under- 

 took to transport it to San, Bias, then the nearest port of entry, with the view 

 of carrying it to Spain. With this object it was brought as far as the Presidio, 

 near Tucson, in Arizona, and left there on account of the difficulty of carrying 

 it any further. After the withdrawal of the Spanish garrison it was taken into 

 the town of Tucson, set up vertically, and used as a kind of public anvil, of 

 which it bears marks at the present time. In this condition it was seen and 

 reported upon by various travellers ; among others it was visited by John R. 

 Bartlett, July 18, 1852, at the time Commissioner of the United States and 

 Mexican Boundary Survey. Mr. Bartlett gives a short account of it, (Personal 

 Narrative, volume II, p. 297,) accompanied by a figure, (the lower one on the 

 plate,) where it is represented as resting upon two legs, owing to the lower 

 part of the ring, of which it consists, being buried in the ground. His estimate 

 of six hundred pounds as its weight falls far within the actual amount. 



