32 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



MAMMALS. 



The chief feature of tlie year's work in the Department of Mammals 

 has been the rearrangement of the exhibition series in new cases, and 

 considerable progress has been made. Mr, Trne, curator, reports that 

 there has been received a smaller number of donations than in previous 

 years, but that some excellent material has been obtained by purchase 

 and exchange. A valuable series of deer-skins from Honduras was col- 

 lected by Mr. Charles H. Townsend. A iiue male Harnessed Antelope 

 was presented by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Nearh'^ sixty 

 specimens have been mounted by the taxidermists. 



During the year 247 specimens (skins and alcoholics) have been added 

 to the collection, and 337 entries have been made in the catalogue. 



Mr. Eobert Ridgway, curator, has prepared a review of the Mexican 

 and Central American members of six famiiies. Collections of birds 

 from the Lower Amazon and from islands in the Caribbean Sea and on 

 the coast of Honduras have been determined. The curator has written 

 a monograph of the genera JJendrocincla and Fsiitamda. 



Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, assistant curator, has continued his studies 

 of the Japanese collection of birds belonging to the Museum, and has 

 investigated se%'eral groups of European birds. He has also reported 

 upon two collections of birds from the Hawaiian Islands. 



For more than two months the time of the curator and his assistants 

 was devoted to the preparation of an exhibit for the Cincinnati Exposi- 

 tion. 



Both the exhibition and study series of this department have steadily 

 improved during the year, and progress is being rapidly made in the 

 systematic arrangement and classification of the immense amount of 

 material which has been received both during this and previous years. 



The curator of birds has called special attention to the fact tliat sev- 

 eral species of iTorth American birds are fast becoming extinct, and has 

 emphasized the desirability of obtaining additional specimens of these 

 species before it is too late. These species are: Great Auk, Flautus 

 impinnis ; Labrador Duck, Camptolaimus labradorivs ; Heath Hen, Tym- 

 panuclms cupido ^ Passenger Pigeon, Eciopistes migratorius ; California 

 Vulture, Pseudogryplms californianvs ; Carolina Paroquet, Gonurus car- 

 olinensis ; and Ivorj'-billed Woodpecker, Campephihis principalis. 



The first of these, the Great Auk, is now believed to be entirely ex- 

 tinct. 



'No specimens of the Labrador Duck have been taken since April, 

 1871. Formerly specimens were occasionally taken about Grand Manan 

 Island, near Eastport, Maine. 



Until within 1 he last two or three years specimens of the Heath Hen 

 were occasionally found on Martha's Viueyard and on the island of 



