REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1918. 43 



Dr. H. B. Bigelow, scyphomedusae by Dr. Alfred G. Mayer, chaetog- 

 nath worms by Mr. Ellis L. Michael, and starfishes by Prof. Walter 

 K. Fisher. However, the Bryozoan collection, the greater part of 

 the hydroid, the gigantic protozoans, almost the entire rotatoria, 

 part of the annelid collection, several large groups of Crustacea, and 

 many thousand mollusks remain to be registered. 



Dr. W. H. Dall, the honorary curator of mollusks, continued his 

 work of rearranging the mollusk collections from the Pacific coast of 

 America and carried forward his studies on that material, especially 

 with a view to completing a check list of the gastropod fauna from 

 the Arctic Ocean to San Diego, California. This involves the clear- 

 ing up, as far as possible, of the fauna south of San Diego. During 

 recent years, reviews of several genera with numerous species have 

 been issued in the Proceedings of the Museum and during the past 

 year, a paper on the Chitonidae was submitted for publication, and 

 another on the Turritidae, a very prolific family, was nearly finished. 

 With the exception of two or three families the check list referred 

 to is practically completed, being, compiled in a manner similar to 

 the check list of bivalves published by the Southwest Museum of 

 Los Angeles in 1916. In addition, the report for the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment on the mollusks of the Arctic coast of America, including 

 those from the Canadian Stefansson expedition to the Arctic, 1913- 

 1916, mentioned in last j^ear's report, was expanded to include addi- 

 tional material and is now ready for printing. Dr. Mary J. Rathbun, 

 associate in zoology, completed a report on the spider crabs ob- 

 tained by the Fisheries Investigation ship Endeavour, on the coast of 

 Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tas- 

 mania, to be published by the Department of Trade and Customs 

 of the Commonwealth of Australia, and also one on the decapod 

 crustaceans of the Canadian Stefansson expedition to the Arctic, 

 1913-1916, for publication by the Canadian Department of the Naval 

 Service. The results of the latter are valuable as showing a more 

 complete circumpolar distribution for several species than was pre- 

 viously known. Besides continuing work on the bulletin on the 

 spider crabs of America, Dr. Rathbun began the study of the brach- 

 yuran crabs of the American Museum Congo expedition, Herbert 

 Lang and James P. Chapin, naturalists, 1910-1916, spending a week 

 at the American Museum sorting and making preliminaiy notes. The 

 collection represents chiefly the fresh-water and brackish-water fauna 

 of the region visited, and is notable for the large serias of each 

 species it contains. 



The curator, Dr. Bartsch, in addition to routine administrative 

 work, was engaged with the preparation of reports on various groups 

 of mollusks, and, besides those quoted in the bibliography, a number 

 of his papers were in the printer's hands at the close of the year. He 



