102 NEW. YORK, ZOOLOGICALSSOCIETY. 
GUIDE BOOK. 
The preparation of a useful guide book is well advanced. 
Serious consideration is being given to this feature of the work 
of the Society, in order that it may be made a book of perma- 
nent value. It will contain not only an account of the collec- 
tions in the building, but considerable information respecting the 
methods employed in operating a great aquarium; such, for in- 
stance, as its mechanical equipment, water supply, and the gath- 
ering and feeding of the collections. It will be illustrated with 
a fine series of original photographs from life. 
The manuscript and illustrations of a work on The Inverte- 
brates of the New York Coast were recently presented to the 
Society by Dr. Alfred G. Mayer, Director of the Marine Biolog-. 
ical Station of the Carnegie Institution at the Dry Tortugas 
Islands, Florida. This work now in the hands of the printer, 
will be placed on sale at the Aquarium and elsewhere. All in- 
come derived from it is to be applied to the improvement of the 
Aquarium. Being a work based on the sea-shore life of the 
coast adjacent to New York, it will be not only a natural history 
of local invertebrates, but also a reference book admirably adapted 
for the use of those studying such forms of life in the Aquarium. 
It is the intention to place on exhibition, many species of inverte- 
brates as soon as the improvement of the water supply can be 
effected. Dr. Mayer’s book, and the guide book which will fol- 
low it, will constitute Nos. I and II of The New York Aquarium 
Nature Series, and other small publications on subjects pertinent 
to the work of a great aquarium will be issued later. 
LIBRARY. 
The small library attached to the director’s office has re- 
ceived some very desirable additions during the year, both as 
gifts and by purchase. It is limited to works relating to fishes, 
fish-culture, the fishery industries, angling, marine mammals, 
reptiles, invertebrates, and aquatic life in general. Authors and 
scientific institutions have presented special papers on these sub- 
jects.* The library of works on angling and fish culture, formed 
by the late Nelson Cheney, being offered for sale, a number of 
very desirable books were secured. 
The Smithsonian Institution and the United States Fisheries 
Bureau presented, as usual, their valuable annual publications. 
* See list of gifts to the library. 
