SECRETARY'S REPORT. 333 



Arachmd(s, (Spiders,) and a specimen (dry,) of the brown snake, Coliiher 

 ordinahis. 



Mr. Charles Cook, of Bolton, presented, through Mr. L. "Wether- 

 ell, a chister of the cocoons of a small hymcnopterous insect, belonging 

 to the genns Bracon, which is parasitic upon the tent-caterpillar of the 

 apple, Clisiocampa americana, (Harris.) Also, a cocoon of a minute 

 moth, belonging to the genus Tponomeuta, from which four parasitic 

 hymenoptera were reared. 



Mr. J. C. Merrill, of Cambridge, presented eggs of Hyhernia 

 tiliaria (Harris) — (the lime-tree winter moth ;) Ennomos magnaria, 

 (Guenc^e ;) and Anisopteryx vernafa, (Harris,) — (the canker-worm.) 

 Also, specimens of Capnia necydaloides, (Pictet,) and Dromius piceus 

 (Dejean.) 



Mr. E. Burgess, of Boston, presented several moths belonging to the 

 family Noctuldoe, and larvse of Dasylopha anguina, (Smith,) obtained in 

 Beverly. 



Mrs. Hannah P. Mackintosh contributed a specimen of the root of 

 the apple, showing the damage done by the larva of the common Dor- 

 beetle, Laclmosterna fusca III., Phyllophaga qiiercina, (Knoch.) 



Mr. Charles Breck, of Milton, presented a block of White Oak, 

 Quercus alba, (Linn,) containing a colony of small black ants, Formica 

 pensylvanica, and specimens of Black Oak, Quercus tmctoria, (Bartram,) 

 attacked by borers of the Lepidopterous genus, Xyleutes, (Newman.) 



Mr. William F. Poole, of the Boston Athen^um, contributed eggs 

 of Ennomos magnaria, (Guenee,) attached to a twig of the apple. 



The State Cabinet is designed to illustrate the extenii and 

 richness of the natural history of this State. It is not a miscel- 

 laneous collection from all parts of the world. It does not 

 occupy the ground of other great collections, like that owned by 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, or the superb collection 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge. It 

 would be of little use to attempt to rival these grand collections 

 in extent or variety, with the facilities at our command, and the 

 space allotted to the Cabinet. 



As a collection of our own natural history, it is both useful 

 and instructive, and is becoming more and more so every day, 

 with the constantly accumulating specimens. And this local 

 character constitutes its chief interest and attraction. 



Whenever it is removed from its present position, its character, 

 as a State collection, should be considered, and a disposition 

 made of it that will preserve this distinctive cl^af acter so far as 



