660 Letters, Extracts, Notices, !^c. 



amounting to 8108 specimens, has been received and re- 

 gistered, and the registration and incorporation of the 

 Hargitt collection of Woodpeckers have been completed. 



The lamented death of Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., has 

 deprived the Museum of one of its most valued workers, as 

 his unrivalled knowledge of the South American avifauna 

 rendered his aid in the determination of species simply in- 

 estimable. Mr. F. D. Godman, F.R.S., the co-author with 

 Mr. Salvin of the great woi'k, the ' Biologia Ctntrali- 

 Americana,' lias, since the death of the latter gentleman, 

 given much of his time to the registration of the collections 

 of birds presented by him to the Museum, and it may be 

 confidently asserted that in the next Annual Report the 

 completion of this huge task will be announced. 



It must be noted that as these additional donations of 

 specimens are incorporated in the bird-cabinets, the entire 

 collection is revised and set in order, the specimens arranged 

 in glass-topped boxes and labelled, so that the collection 

 should be made of complete use for the purpose of reference. 



During the past year great progress has been made with 

 the rearrangement of the collections of eggs and skeletons. 

 The former work has been entrusted to Mr. Eugene W. Gates, 

 an accomplished oologist, who has had an experience of 

 thirty years' field-work in Eurma, and is well known as the 

 editor of the second edition of Mr. Allan Hume's ' Nests 

 and Eggs of Indian Birds.' Mr. Gates is now engaged in 

 re-arranging and cataloguing the collection of birds' eggs in 

 the Museum, and during the year 1898 no fewer than 15,000 

 specimens have been dealt with. Similar satisfactory pro- 

 gress has been made with the rearrangement and determi- 

 nation of the collection of birds' skeletons, for during 

 the past year all those of the Penguins, Petrels, Pelicans, 

 and Cormorants, as well as the Ducks, have been examined 

 and carefully identified by Mr. W. P. Pycraft and arranged 

 in boxes. A number of doubtfully identified or imperfect 

 skeletons have been eliminated from the collection, while 

 many beautifully prepared specimens have been added to 

 the series. 



