364 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



DRIED PREPARATIONS IN NATIONAL INSTITUTE— NOVEMBER 18, 1842. 



Catalogue, showing Ihe number of h'udii, quadrupeds, reptUex. fmhes, eic. — Prepared m Ihe 

 rooms of ""' National lustHuti . 



Speci- 

 mens. 



Birds from the cxiiloriuf> ('xpeditioii 471 



Birds from South America and other foreigu parts 86 



Birds presented by the Jardiu dn Koi, Paris 87 



Birds of North America 276 



— 920 



Quadrupeds from the exph)riiig" expedition 26 



Qnadrnpeds from United States and other parts 49 



7r. 



Reptiles from the exploring expedition, etc 66 



Fishes from the exploring expedition, etc 48 



114 



1,109 

 There remain probably three hundred bird skins to be set np, brought by the 

 exploring expedition; and about twenty quadrupeds, some of large size. This is 

 exclusive of an immense number of duiilicate specimens. 



C. P. 



NOTE C. 



REMARKS SUBMITTED TO THE HON. MR. WALKER RY MR. MARKOE AND COL. ABERT. 



In conformity with the desire yon expressed thiit Ave should put on paper the sub- 

 stance of our conversation with yon on certain matters connected with the Insti- 

 tute, we submit the following to your consideration : 



There are several points which, to our experience and reflections, are essential to 

 the prosperity of the Institute and to the great objects for which it was chartered. 

 These are : 



(1) That the Institute should he the organ of the Government in the arrangement 

 and preservation of the collections and in the supervision of the appropriations 

 which the Government may make for those purposes. 



(2) That the Institute should have the power of disposing of all duplicates by a 

 system of exchanges Avith other institutes, or with States, or Avith indiA^iduals. 



As all the Government collections are placed under the care of the Institute and 

 as all the collections which haAC been made, or Avill hereafter be made, by the In- 

 stitute, must, by its charter, eventually become the property of the GoAcrnment, 

 the necessity of a harmonious and iutimate intercourse between the Institute and 

 the GoA^ernmeut seems, to our judgment, self-evident. This idea is clearly main- 

 tained in the charter of the Institute, which makes the six heads of the different 

 Goverment Departments six of its directors. 



But the nominal charge Avhich the Institute noAV has of the collections amounts to 

 nothing, and the same may be said of the very slight and extremely indirect in- 

 fluence Avhich it has been allowed to exercise over the Government exi)enditures for 

 the preservation and arrangement of the collections. At present there are three 

 controlling or operating powers over these subjects: First, the Library Committee 

 of Congress; second, the NaA'y Department; and third, the Institute. But this 

 last, its influence is so slight, if it can be said to haAe any, that it would be too 

 much to say it is either felt or acknowledged. Such a divided state of control can 



