360 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



Routine work in arrangement and classification of tbe collection, and 

 in the preparation of the exhibition and study series, has not differed 

 materially in its character from that of the preceding year, but has 

 been prosecuted on a much more extensive scale, owing to the greater 

 facilities provided in the way of new cases, additional labels, etc. 



Specimens have been systematically arranged and labeled in twelve 

 " door- screen " cases, two wall cases and adjoining sides of two adja. 

 cent cases. These cases include the following exhibits : 



(1) Birds of literature (European) with appropriate special labels. 



(2) A corresponding series of North American birds, as yet unpro- 

 vided with special labels. 



(3) A series of eggs, illustrating extremes of size, represented by a 

 cast of the egg of the Giant ostrich of Madagascar on the one side, 

 and the Humming bird on the other, connected by a series of eggs of 

 different birds, including the ostrich, goose, domestic fowl, pigeon, etc., 

 to show a gradation between the extremes. 



(4) The smallest known bird and its nest. 



(5) Specimens illustrating protective mimicry. 



(G) A selection of the more remarkable birds of the world (including 

 the Lyre bird, Bell bird, Umbrella bird, Apteryx, Bird of Paradise, etc.). 



(7) The Great Auk and a cast of its egg. 



(8) A small collection explaining confusion of popular nomenclature 

 in the case of certain American birds, to which have been applied names 

 properly belonging to totally different European birds. 



(9) Parts of the general systematic or fauual exhibits, including the 

 CorvidcEr, and the orders Picarice, Psittaci, Striges, Columbw, and Ptero- 

 cletes of the general systematic series and the following families of 

 North American birds: Thrushes, Warblers, Dippers, Creepers, Tit- 

 mice and Nuthatches, Wrens, Mocking-Thrushes, Wagtails and Pipits, 

 Wood-Warblers, Vireos, Honey Creepers, Shrikes, Waxwiugs, Tana- 

 gers, and Finches. 



Among special researches prosecuted upon material belonging to the 

 department may be mentioned, first, the work of a committee of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, having charge of the matter of the 

 revised official check-list and supplement thereto. This committee 

 held numerous meetings in the office of the Curator of the department, 

 and based its decisions, affecting something near one hundred species 

 and subspecies which were candidates for admission into the official 

 list, almost exclusively upon the collection belonging to the depart- 

 ment. In addition to this matter, special investigations were made by 

 the curator in the genera Psittacula, Accipiter, Xiphocolaptes, and Scle- 

 ruru8, while much work of similar character was done in connection 

 with a large collection from Costa Rica, and a still more extensive one 

 made by the naturalists of the U. S. S. Albatross in Alaska, and various 

 portions of South America, including the Galapagos archipelago. Dr. 

 Leonliard Stejueger has continued his researches in Japanese orni- 



