Letlers, Notes and Extracts. 369 
ment of the collections. Both Birds and small Mammals 
are contained in large box-like cases made of wood about 
3 ft. x 3 ft. x 5 ft., lined with tin and closed in front by 
an air-tight door, which is not on hinges, but comes away 
quite freely when opened. Inside these are fitted with 
drawers or trays of stout cardboard in a frame of wood. 
The cost of such cases, as Mr. Henshaw informed me, is 
from $7 to $8 apiece (about 30s.), and each would hold 
nearly a thousand small bird-skins. This seemed to me a 
very economical method of storage. 
From Boston I travelled straight through to Princeton, 
New Jersey, where I was the guest of Mr. W. B. Scott, 
Professor of Geology in Princeton University. This is a 
charming Old-World spot, full of ancient houses and 
memories, dating back to old Colonial times. The Uni- 
versity was founded in the time of George II. The 
Museum-collections are not at present in a very satisfactory 
state, as they are distributed among several buildings, and 
there is no room for an adequate display, but a new Museum 
is now in course of erection and will shortly be completed. 
The Vertebrate Palzeontclogical material gathered together 
by Professor Scott from the Western States and from 
Patagonia in South America forms, of course, the most 
valuable and extensive portion of the collection, but there 
is also a very complete local collection of Birds mounted by 
Mr. W. E. D. Scott, a namesake of Professor W. B. Scott, 
who is the Honorary Curator of this department. 
At Washington I spent some time at the Biological Survey, 
the Smithsonian and the United States National Museum, 
all of which are close together in a stretch of park on the 
south side of the City which runs from the White House 
towards the Capitol. The new National Museum is in the 
same park just opposite the old building, and is rapidly 
rising from its foundations, but it will be some time yet 
before it is completed ; in the meantime very little is being 
done in regard to the exhibition-collections in the old 
buildings. Mr. Ridgway was unfortunately in the country 
when I called; he spends a good deal of his time there, 
working at the fourth volume of the ‘Birds of Middle 
SER, 1X.—VOL. I. 25 
