REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CXXXI 



The collections were assorted partly in Washington and partly in 

 Cambridge, and during the past year the different groups have been 

 distributed for study among a number of specialists who were selected 

 with reference to their previous acquaintance with the subjects assigned 

 them, several having participated in the working up of the collections 

 obtained during the famous cruise of H. M. S. Challenger. Their 

 reports, when they shall have been completed and published, will 

 undoubtedly constitute one of the most important series of contribu- 

 tions ever issued respecting the biology of the deep sea. 



The assignments nmde have been as follows : 



The birds, to Mr. Eobert Eidgway, U. S. N"ational Museum; reptiles, 

 to Mr. Leonhard Stejneger, U. S. National Museum 5 fishes, to Mr. 

 Samuel Garman, Museum of Comparative Zoology; i^hosphorescent 

 organs of fishes, to Dr. E. von Lendenfeld, Innsbruck, Austria; cephalo- 

 pods, to Prof. William E. Hoyle, Owens College, Manchester, England; 

 gastropod, lamellibranch, and scaphopod mollusks, to Mr. William H. 

 Dall, U. S. jS^ational Museum; nudibranch mollusks, to Dr. E. Bergh, 

 Copenhagen, Denmark; pteropodsand heteropods, to Dr. P.Schiemenz, 

 Zoological Station, Naples, Italy; ascidians, to Prof. W. A. Herdman, 

 Liverpool, England; sali)idte and doliolidoe, to M. P. A. Traiitstedt, Den- 

 mark ; bryozoans, to C. B. Davenport, Museuin of Comparative Zoology ; 

 land insects, to Prof. C. Y. Eiley, Washington, D. C; halobatidi©, 

 a grou}) of pelagic insects, to Mr. E. P. van Duzee, Buffalo, N. Y.; 

 pycnogonids, to W. Schimkewitch, St. Petersburg, Eussia; crustaceans, 

 to Prof. Walter Faxon, Museum of Comparative Zoology; ostracods, 

 to Dr. G. W. Miiller, Greifswald, Germany; annelids, to Mr. James E. 

 Benedict, U. S. National Museum; sipunciiloid worms, to Mr. H. B. 

 Ward, Troy, N. Y.; sagittse, to Dr. K. Brandt, Kiel, Germany; plana- 

 rians, to Mr. W. McM. Wood worth, Museum of Comparative Zoology; 

 holothurians, to Prof. Herbert Ludwig, Bonn am Ehein, Prussia; echini, 

 to Mr. Alexander Agassiz ; starfishes, to Mr. W. Percy Sladen, London, 

 England; ophiurans, to Prof. C. F. Liitken, Copeidiagen, Denmark; 

 comatulae to Dr. C. Hartlaub, Gottingen, Germany; stalked crinoids, 

 to Mr. Agassiz; antipathes, to Mr. George Brook, Edinburgh, Scotland; 

 alcyonarians, to Prof. Theodor Stud er, Berne, Switzerland; actinarians, 

 to Prof. E. L. Mark, Museum of Comparative Zoology; actinian and 

 hydroid corals, to Dr. G. von Koch, Darmstadt, Germany; hydroids, to 

 Prof. S. F. Clarke and Mr. F. E. Peabody, Williams College, Mass.; 

 acalephs and pelagic fauna generally, to Mr. Agassiz; siphonoi)hores, 

 to Mr. C. Chun, Breslau, Germany; sponges, to Prof. H. Y. Wilson, 

 University of North Carolina ; foraminifera, to Prof. A. Goes, Stockholm, 

 Sweden; thallasicohe, to Dr. K. Brandt, Kiel, Germany; nullipores, to 

 Prof. William Farlow, Harvard University; samples of ocean bottom, 

 to Mr. John Murray, Edinburgh, Scotland; geological specimens, to 

 Mr. George Merrill, U. S. National Museum. Mr. John Murray, who 

 directed the preparation of the scientific results of H. M. S. Challenger 

 after the death of Sir Wyville Thomson, has also been furnished with 



