REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN THE 

 U. S, NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



By Frederick W. True, Acting Curator. 



The care of the large amount of osteological material on hand and 

 constantly being received, and the work of rendering it available for 

 study, are together sufficient to fully occupy the time of the preparator, 

 and it has consequently been impossible to prepare for study or for ex- 

 hibition purposes any other class of material. 



It is intended, however, that the department shall eventually be in 

 every sense a department of comparative anatomy, and as fast as prac- 

 ticable steps will be taken towards that end. 



The accessions during the year, indicated by the numbers in the 

 osteological catalogue, were: Mammals, 305; birds, 227; reptiles, 3; 

 fishes, 1; a total of 536. A large number of these were of common but 

 desirable species, needed for the study series. 



A fine collection of skulls of small mammals was received from Dr. 

 J. C. Merrill, U. S. Army, skeletons of male and female orangs were 

 obtained by exchange, and a skeleton of the pygmy sperm whale was 

 presented by the U. S. Life-Saving Service. 



Some bones of the extinct Dodo {Bidus ineptus), and Solitaire {Pezo- 

 phaps soUtarius), were received from the Cambridge University Mu- 

 seum, England, and a large collection of bones of the extinct Great Auk 

 were secured by Mr. Lucas, who was detailed to accompany the U. S. 

 Fish Commission schooner Grampus on a voyage to the northeast coast 

 of Newfoundland. Many skeletons of sea-birds were obtained during 

 the same voyage. The collection of bones of the Great Auk contains 

 the remains of several hundred individuals, and although from the 

 length of time that has elapsed since the extermination of the Auk the 

 majority are in a poor state of preservation, it is believed that the col- 

 lection outranks all other collections of the kind. 



Prom this material skeletons have been sent to the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology in Cambridge, Mass., and the American Museum of 

 Natural History, Few York. 



The curator desires to acknowledge the continued courtesies of Mr. 

 A. E. Brown, superintendent of the Philadelphia Zoological Society, 

 Mr. W. A. Conklin, director of the Central Park Menagerie, and Dr. 



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