351 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



pose. He was assisted by Mr. W. Harvey Brown. All the specimens 

 were labeled in the same manner as in the Museum, and the family- 

 divisions were also indicated by large labels. At the request of the 

 Director of the Museum, as pecial guide to the collection was furnished 

 by the Curator, in which a brief account of the zoological affinities, 

 habits, and geographical distribution of all the species was given. 



The Curator has completed during the year his preliminary examina- 

 tion of the species of dolphins, and has read the proofs of a review of that 

 group, forming Bulletin No. 36 of the Museum series. He has exam- 

 ined all the species of Cariacus and Coassus in the collection, in the 

 hope of finding trenchant characters whereby to distinguish these two 

 groups of deer. In this connection he has prepared for publication a 

 description of a new species of spike-horned deer from Central Amer- 

 ica, Cariacus clavatus, a number of specimens of which were detected 

 in the Museum collection. He has also prepared for publication an 

 account of the collections of mammals made by Mr. Charles H. Townsend 

 in Honduras, and by Doctor Birt in Nicaraugua. The former collection 

 contained an undescribed subspecies of Cajrromys, C. brachyurus thora- 

 caius, from Little Swan Island. 



The Curator furnished a greater or less amount of technical informa- 

 tion on a variety of subjects, to a considerable number of correspondents 

 of the Museum. He corresponded with A. H. Cocks, Esq., of Thames 

 Bank, England, aud Mr. E. Pierce, of New Bedford, regardiug a har- 

 poon of American manufacture taken from a whale captured on the 

 coast of Finmarken. To Mr. C. L. Bichardson, of the Soldiers' Home, 

 Kansas, he communicated such facts as are at command regarding 

 breeds of solid-hoofed hogs. Mr. George H. Ragsdale, of Gainesville, 

 Tex., received certain information regarding the mammals of that 

 region, and Dr. B. W. Shufeldt, regarding the mammals of New Mexico. 



Correspondence was also had with Dr. W. L. Abbott, who has for- 

 warded to the Museum a considerable collection of mammals made by 

 himself in the vicinity of Mount Kilimanjaro, East Africa. 



The receipt of. a skull of a narwhal with two tusks, and of a fresh 

 specimen of Sowerby's whale, was the occasion of an examination of the 

 literature relating to those two species of whales. The facts regarding 

 both were communicated to the Biological Society of Washington by 

 the Curator. 



Dr. C. H. Merriam has made extensive studies of the arvicoline mice 

 in the collection of the department, as well as of other groups of North 

 American mammals. 



The general condition of the collection as regards preservation, may 

 be considered on the whole satisfactory ; that of the exhibition series 

 is entirely so. The mounted specimens have not suffered in the least 

 from the attacks of insects for a number of years. The exhibition 

 cases, if not absolutely dust-proof, are approximately so, and can un- 

 doubtedly be made perfectly tight after a little more experimentation. 



