102 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 
and of expeditions to various localities, and included the types of 
many new species. The museum of Leland Stanford Junior Univer- 
sity contributed a large number of desirable specimens, obtained in 
Japan and California by Dr. David 8S. Jordan, Prof. J. O. Snyder, 
and others; and Mr. Robert Tweedlie, of Balboa, Canal Zone, pre- 
sented an especially fine collection, including the young of rare forms, 
from the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama. Many well pre- 
served and interesting fishes were collected for the Museum at the 
Philippine Islands and in the inner lagoon of Fanning Island by Dr. 
Fred Baker, of Point Loma, Cal.; and at the Philippine Islands, by 
Dr. Albert M. Reese, of the University of West Virginia. 
The general revision of the collections of this division, the need 
of which was alluded to in the last report, was begun during the 
year. As indicated in that connection, recent accessions had left the 
division with an accumulation of material the proper arrangement 
and disposition of which taxed to the utmost the energies of its small 
staff. The great danger to be apprehended in reducing the bulk of 
the collection, which could only be done by relieving it of all duph- 
cates and condemning such material as was not suitable for further 
preservation, was that valuable specimens, even types, might be 
discarded unless the greatest care was exercised and the work under- 
taken by some one having a broad and thorough knowledge of the 
group. No other course was open than to obtain for this revision 
the services of an acknowledged expert in ichthyology who could 
give his entire time and energy to the task, unhampered by any 
routine duties. It was fortunately found possible to secure for this 
important work the cooperation of Prof. J. O. Snyder, of Leland 
Stanford Junior University, who arrived in Washington in the first 
part of January, 1914, and has labored unceasingly to place the 
collection in order. The specific direction of his work has been to 
determine whether any species was more abundantly represented in 
the collection than necessary, to cull out such specimens as were too 
poorly preserved to be of further use, and to separate such types 
and other especially valuable specimens as might be recognized. 
Beginning with the larger class of containers, he had by the close 
of the year examined the contents of more than 400 large storage 
jars, of which a considerable number of poorly preserved specimens 
were condemned, though some were saved for their skeletons, and 
many specimens were set aside as duplicates. Fifty or more types 
were segregated, and rare or otherwise exceptionally valuable speci- 
mens were placed in separate bottles. The revision of material 
belonging to 15 unassorted collections, the most of which had not 
yet been studied, was also completed. It was often found necessary 
to identify collections or to determine whether published investiga- 
tions were based on particular specimens, which would make their 
