38 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



all papers distributed in separate form during tlie year will be touud in 

 Api)eiidi\ V. ^laiiuscripts ot-'i") papers to be included in \'olunie xviii 

 liave been lorwarded to the Priutinj^' Office. These include 14 papers 

 relating to fishes, relating to birds, 4 relating to niollusks, and 8 papers 

 on other subjects. 



Bulletin Xo. 48, "Contribution toward a MonogTai)h of the Insects 

 of the Lepidopterous Family Noctuidse of Boreal North America; 

 A Eevision of the Deltoid Moths," by John B. Smith, has been pub- 

 lished. The following additional parts of Bulletin Xo. 39 are now in 

 the folding room : Part H, " Directions for collecting minerals," by Wirt 

 Tassin ; Part F, 'M)irectious for collecting rocks and for the preparation 

 of thin sections," by (leorge P. Merrill; Part J, "Directions for col- 

 lecting specimens and information illustrating the aboriginal uses of 

 plants," by Frederick V. Coville; Part K, "Directions for collecting 

 and preparing fossils," by Charles Schuchert. An extra edition of 

 Part A, " Directions for collecting birds," by llobert Ridgway, has 

 been i)rinted at the exj)ense of the Museum allotment, to supply the 

 extraordinary demand for this pamphlet. Considerable progress has 

 been made with Bulletin 47, "The Fishes of North and Middle Amer- 

 ica," by David Starr Jordan and Barton VV. Evermann, and the volume 

 will doubtless be ready for distribution during the next fiscal year. 

 The manuscript for the second volume of the work is now in prei>ara- 

 tion. The bulletin will be accompanied by an atlas of i^lates. 



The second of the series of Special Bulletins in quarto form, entitled 

 "Oceanic Ichthyology," relating to the deep-sea and pelagic fishes of 

 the world, by G. Brown Goode and Tarleton II. Beau, the pre]>aration 

 of which was noticed in the Report for last year, has been set in type, 

 and will shortly go to press. The preparation of the third of the series 

 of Special Bulletins, being the second volume of " Life Histories of 

 North American Birds," by Charles E. Bendire, has rai»idly progressed, 

 and the bulletin is already i)artially in type. This, as well as the 

 preceding, will also be published in the Smithsonian Contributions to 

 Knowledge. 



Four circulars have been issued by the Museum during the year, 

 Nos. 43 to 45, requesting the transmission of publications of scientific 

 bodies and educational establishments to the Museum library and 

 inviting the contribution of authors' separates and reprints, and No. 

 46, soliciting the cooperation of students and collectors in forwarding 

 plants found in the District of Columbia, and notes concerning them, 

 for incorporation in a proposed revised edition of Bulletin 22, by Lester 

 F. Ward, entitled "A Guide to the Flora of Washington and Vicinity,'' 

 which a]>peared in 1881. 



MATERIAL LENT FOR INVESTIGATION. 



As in previous years, a considerable quantity of material has been 

 sent to specialists for examination and study. Some of the more im- 

 portant transactions of this character are here mentioned. 



