366 Miscellanies. 
Less than three hundred species of birds are found in Massachu- 
setts. A specimen of each species might be procured and mounted 
for three or four hundred dollars, and yet there are our cases, empty. 
3. Herpetology.—Several species of serpentia from Brazil, and 
Mississippi, and a choice collection of reptiles from India, have been 
added to the herpetological cabinet. 
4. Ichthyology.—With the exception of a beautiful specimen of 
Lepisosteus from the Ohio river, presented by Dr. Emerson of Illi- 
nois, no additions, save a few of our own fishes, have been made to 
the collection of ichthyology. It would ill become your curator of 
the departments of ichthyology and herpetology to dwell upon this 
portion of his report: justice to himself however, requires he should 
remark in passing, that the pledge referred to by the gentleman 
who offered the last annual report, has been redeemed, and the rep- 
tiles, as well as the fishes, are scientifically —— labelled and 
catalogued. 
5. Entomology.—To no department can we point with more 
pleasure or pride, than to that of our entomology. Each succeeding 
year has added new treasures to the cabinet, until it has become by 
far the most extensive and valuable in the United States. The fol- 
lowing extract from an elaborate report kindly offered me by the 
- curator of this department, will undoubtedly be gratifying to the so- 
ciety. “At the annual meeting in May, 1836, Dr. Gould reported 
the condition of the cabinet of insects, and the additions and dona- 
tions which had been made toit. All the diurnal Lepidoptera were 
then arranged and named, and some progress had been made in ar- 
ranging, determining and labelling the Coleoptera. About one half of 
the insects of this order are now finished, their names as far as they 
' could be ascertained are affixed to them, and the species are arranged 
and referred to the new genera according to the catalogue of Count 
Dejean. The number of species now entered upon the catalogue 
amounts to two thousand one hundred and eighty, and when the re- 
mainder are added, the cabinet will contain at least two thousand and 
six hundred species of Coleoptera, without including those in the 
collection of Professor Hentz. 
“The processes necessary to be gone through with the insects ren- 
ders the work very slow and tedious. Many of the insects require 
to be cleaned ; a large number are badly impaled, upon short, clumsy 
or crooked pins, and must therefore be softened so as to have these 
pins extracted and new ones inserted, and this delicate and hazar- 
