DEPARTMENT OF MAMMALS. 143 



Among the accessions were about sixty species and subspecies not 

 previously represented in the collection. 



The number of skins and specimens in alcohol added and distributed 

 during the year was as follows : 



Number of specimens added, 247 ; number of specimens distributed, 69. 



Four specimens only were received on deposit. 



The first entry for the year in the catalogue of skins and alcoholics 

 was Ko. 15900 ; the last, on June 27, 1888, was No. 16236. 



The present condition of the collection as regards preservatiou is, on 

 the whole, satisfactory. The study series of skins, however, is still in 

 cases which are not dust-proof. To devise effective and manageable 

 appliances is a matter of considerable difficulty owing to the great 

 disparity in size among the skins and the cramped condition of the 

 laboratory. Several plans are under consideration, however, and the 

 curator hopes to be in a position to recommend the adoption of some 

 one of them in the immediate future. 



The skins of large mammals which have accumulated during the 

 past twenty-five years, being at present, as already stated, stored in 

 large boxes arranged in tiers in the south entrance of the Museum 

 building, are almost inaccessible for study. Better provisions for them 

 and for the large skins recently received from the taxidermists are 

 much to be desired. A partial reconstruction of the storage cases now 

 in the laboratory and the addition of one new case would meet the pres- 

 ent requirements. 



The mammals in alcohol deteriorate in spite of our best efforts to 

 preserve them. The spirits dissolve out the pigment of the hair, caus- 

 ing it in most cases to assume a pale brown color. Such specimens 

 give a false notion of the real colors of the species, and are useful to 

 students of systematic zoology only for measurements. The curator 

 is not satisfied, therefore, ];hat it is profitable to maintain so large 

 an alcoholic collection and has seriously considered the advisability of 

 converting a portion of the more recently-acquired specimens into dry 

 skins. Many gaps in the series of skins could thus be filled, and there 

 would still be an abundance of material for anatomical investigation. 



