44 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1912. 



species. The South African marine shells were segregated for rela- 

 beling, and the Philippine material was rearranged by families to 

 facilitate its future study. 



A synoptical collection illustrating the families of mollusks and 

 consisting of attractive specimens was mounted on tablets, labeled, 

 and added to the exhibition series. The moUusk fauna of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia was the subject of another collection prepared for 

 exhibition. 



Studies of the Tertiary fauna of the Panama Canal Zone and of 

 the Oligocene of central Florida occupied the greater part of the 

 time of the curator, Dr. Dall, although he also prepared a few short 

 papers, principal among which was a report on the land shells from 

 the Yale Peruvian expedition. Dr. Bartsch continued work on the 

 Pyramidellidse of the west coast of America, completing a supple- 

 ment to his published monograph and a discussion of the faunal dis- 

 tribution of the family. His report on the South African shells col- 

 lected by Col. W. H. Turton was practically finished, but its publica- 

 tion is deferred awaiting the receipt of additional material which 

 has been sent. He also made some progress in the working up of the 

 Philippine collection. Mr. John B. Henderson, jr., made constant 

 use of the collections of the division in connection w^ith his studies 

 of West Indian and Florida 'shells, and Miss Mary Breen, collabor- 

 ator of the division, continued, as time permitted, her researches on 

 the microscopic structure of mollusks of the District of Columbia. 

 Miss Julia Gardner, of Johns Hopkins University, spent several 

 weeks at the Museum conducting investigations to be incorporated in 

 a doctoral thesis, and Hon. T. H. Aldrich, of Birmingham, Ala., 

 Mr. Brj^ant Walker, of Detroit, Mich., and others consulted the col- 

 lections from time to time. But few loans of specimens for study 

 were made, and only in small lots. Among the recipients were Dr. 

 H. A. Pilsbry, of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; 

 Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, of Boulder, Colo. ; Dr. F. Blochmann, of 

 the Zoological Institute, Tubingen, Germany; and Mr. J. Wilfrid 

 Jackson, of the Manchester Museum, Manchester, England. 



Marine invertehrates. — This division received its most extensive 

 and valuable additions from the Bureau of Fisheries. They consisted 

 principally of material collected by the steamer Albatross during 

 cruises in the Pacific Ocean, including over 25,000 specimens of deca- 

 pod crustaceans from the Philippine Islands ; some 2,000 specimens of 

 hydromedusse, siphonophores, and ctenophores, identified by Dr. 

 Henry B. Bigelow ; a large series of starfishes from the north Pa- 

 cific, described by Dr. Walter K. Fisher in Museum Bulletin No. 76 ; 

 ascidians from southern California, reported upon by Dr. William E. 

 Ritter; barnacles from the northwest Pacific, studied by Dr. H. A. 

 Pilsbry; and hydroids from the eastern Pacific, determined by Dr. 



