375 



The Department of Conctiology remains in much the same 

 state as at the last annual report. The Gasteropods alone 

 are on exhibition, arranged in the rail cases of the first gal- 

 lery. These form rather less than one third of the whole 

 number of specimens in the possession of the Society, and it 

 is to be regretted that no steps have yet been taken to fur- 

 nish a room for the display of the remainder of the collection. 

 The Curator again desires to call attention to the paucity of 

 alcoholic specimens. It is very desirable that members of 

 the Society should fill this blank. The commonest species 

 of 3Iollusca preserved in spirit would be acceptable, even 

 from the immediate neighborhood of Boston. The additions 

 received during the j^ast year, although not numerous, are 

 very valuable ; among them may be especially mentioned fifty- 

 four species, described by C. B; Adams, from Panama ; eighty- 

 nine species, P. P. Carpenter's t}i)es, from Vancouver's Is- 

 land and CaUfornia ; series of P. P. Carpenter's types of Ma- 

 zatlan shells; series of land, fresh- water and marine shells, 

 named from Dr. Gould's ty}3es, and the Cuming Collection, ob- 

 tained by the U. S. Exploring Expedition under Commodore 

 Wilkes ; upwards of one hundred and fifteen species of 

 Mollusca, mostly alcoholic, fi'om the coast of Labrador, from 

 Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr; a series of Cuban shells, named and 

 presented by Dr. Gundlach ; series of British Mollusca, from 

 Dr. H. Bryant, twenty-two species of Achatinella fi'om the 

 Sandwich Islands, j^resented by Dr. A. Chapin. Beside these 

 w^e have also received donations from Drs. C. T. Jackson and 

 A. Coohdge, amounting in all to about fifteen hundred speci- 

 mens. 



The arrangement of the collection of Radiata during the 

 past year has been greatly advanced, but the work has been 

 done more with reference to securing their permanent value, 

 than to exhibit them. When the collection was placed under 

 the charge of the present Curator, a very large part of the 

 specimens of corals had no labels connected with them, to in- 

 dicate their localities, or donors, and the few labels that had 

 been formerly placed upon them loosely, were mostly lost, or 

 misplaced, during the packing up and two successive re- 

 movals of the collection. The same was true, to a consider- 



