REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1921. 63 
and placing of the larger specimens in separate containers had to be 
suspended toward the end of the year on account of lack of suitable 
jars. A considerable number of older skeletons were cleaned by 
the preparators, but have not as yet been card catalogued and dis- 
tributed. 
In the division of reptiles, the regular routine work of caring for 
the specimens has continued without interruption and the cata- 
loguing brought up to date. The card cataloguing which had to 
be suspended for some time was resumed, arrangement being made 
for having part of the work done in the head curator’s office. All 
the dry turtle material has now been transferred to the third story 
and placed in metal-covered quarter unit cases. 
Similarly, in the division of fishes the collections have been regu- 
larly inspected, the containers refilled or changed when necessary, ~ 
jars and shelves cleaned, labels restored, and much of the older 
undetermined material named and installed. 
In the division of insects substantial progress has been made 
in the care of the collections, especially in introducing the tray 
system. Inability to obtain a sufficient number of drawers has been 
the limiting factor in this work. The associate curator reports that 
the collections, as a whole, are in as good condition as in any large 
modern museum, the loss from museum pests being exceptionally 
small, due to the excellent system of cabinets and drawers adopted. 
The overhauling and putting in good order of the various lots of 
material in the alcoholic storage of the division of marine inverte- 
brates has about kept pace with the requirements of the collection. 
Further sorting of miscellaneous.lots of unidentified material into 
various major groups of invertebrates has been done. Only recently 
the sorting of the rather comprehensive collections of the /ish Hawk 
in Chesapeake Bay has been completed. Coincident with the great 
arrearages in cataloguing, there is considerable named material on 
hand waiting to be incorporated in the regular study series. Revi- 
sion of the collection of brachyuran crustaceans is being carried 
along with Miss M. J. Rathbun’s monographic reports, and the rear- 
rangement of the entire alcoholic collections begun during the past 
fiscal year is being continued as time permits. Doctor Bassler, of 
the department of geology, in connection with his studies of the 
Bryozoa, is working up the greater part of the recent unnamed mate- 
rial and rearranging the entire collection of these forms. 
From the division of mollusks the report is that the usual routine 
of naming, labeling, cataloguing, and putting in place in the series 
has been carried on as in former years. The arrangement and re- 
installation of the west Atlantic Pelecypods has been completed. 
The west Atlantic mollusks are now arranged according to latest 
classifications and nomenclature and large quantities of new ma- 
71305 ° —21——5 
