366 Miscellanies. 



Less than tliree hundred species of birds are found in Massachu- 

 setts. A specimen of each species might be procured and mounted 

 for three or four hundred dollars, and yet there are our cases, empty. 



3. Herpetology. — Several species of serpentia from Brazil, and 

 Mississippi, and a choice collection of reptiles fi:;om India, have been 

 added to the herpetological cabinet. 



4. Ichthyology. — With the exception of a beautiful specimen of 

 Lepisosteus from the Ohio river, presented by Dr. Emerson of Illi- 

 nois, no additions, save a kw of our own fishes, have been made to 

 the collection of ichthyology. It would ill become your curator of 

 the departments of ichthyology and herpetology to dwell upon this 

 portion of his report : justice to himself however, requires he should 

 remark in passing, that the pledge referred to by the gentleman 

 who offered the last annual report, has been redeemed, and the rep- 

 tiles, as well as the fishes, are scientifically arranged, labelled and 

 catalogued. 



5. Entomology. — ^To no department can we point with more 

 pleasure or pride, than to that of our entomology. Each succeeding 

 year has added new treasures to the cabinet, until it has become by 

 far the most extensive and valuable in the United States. The fol- 

 lowing extract from an elaborate report kindly offered me by the 

 curator of this department, will undoubtedly be gratifying to the so- 

 ciety. "At the annual meeting in May, 1836, Dr. Gould reported 

 the condition of the cabinet of insects, and the additions and dona- 

 tions which had been made to it. All the diurnal Lepidoptera were 

 then arranged and named, and some progress had been made in ar- 

 ranging, determining and lalaelling the Coleoptera, About one half of 

 the insects of this order are now finished, their names as far as they 

 could be ascertained are affixed to them, and the species are arranged 

 and referred to the new genera according to the catalogue of Count 

 Dejean. The number of species now entered upon the catalogue 

 amounts to two thousand one hundred and eighty, and when the re- 

 mainder are added, the cabinet will contain at least two thousand and 

 six hundred species of Coleoptera, without including those in the 

 collection of Professor Hentz. 



"The processes necessary to be gone through with the insects ren- 

 ders the work very slow and tedious. Many of the insects require 

 to be cleaned ; a large number are badly impaled, upon short, clumsy 

 or crooked pins, and must therefore be softened so as to have these 

 pins extracted and new ones inserted, and this delicate and hazar- 



