46 EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



shell-heaps of Casco Bay were explored by parties connected with the 

 United States Fish Commission, and those of Eastern Maine by Lieu- 

 tenant Slamm of the Eeveuue Service. From foreign localities the most 

 interesting contribution is that of the remains from the shell-heaps of 

 the ancient moa-hunters of Kew Zealand, referred to as contributed by 

 Dr. Haast. The interest of these localities is heightened by the fact 

 that they embrace remains of the gigantic fossil dinornis, or moa-bird, 

 proving that this was hunted and eaten by the Maoris. 



Of the mammalia, a special prize has been acomi)lete skeleton of the 

 grizzly bear, killed by Lieutenant Carpenter, of Professor Hayden's ex- 

 pedition. Of this animal it is difficult to obtain good skeletons, and 

 the one received was therefore especially acceptable, as it enabled the 

 Institution to meet an urgent request on the part of the British archae- 

 ologists. Among sundry fossil bones of bears found in Great Britain 

 and elsewhere in Europe, are remains which cannot be satisfactorily re- 

 ferred to any European animal ; and it has been suggested that prob- 

 ably the American grizzly was at one time an inhabitant of Europe, 

 and since then exterminated. The loan of this specimen to a commit- 

 tee of the British Association, charged with the investigation of the 

 subject may enable them to determine this point. For its better il- 

 lustration, however, the Smithsonian Institution added to the grizzly 

 a specimen of the barren ground bear of the Arctic region, a very rare 

 animal, and of which the only specimens preserved are in the museum 

 at Washington. It is possibly the Arctic species, rather than the griz- 

 zly, which will be found to have the closest relation to the European 

 fossil, or cave bear, in this respect exhibiting a parallel to the musk- 

 ox, which once inhabited Central Europe, and after the glacial period 

 was driven back to the northward by the increasing temperature of the 

 continent, and finally entirely exterminated from the Old World. It 

 is now only found living in America and Greenland. 



Two very complete skins of the musk-ox, from Arctic America, have 

 been forwarded to the Institution by Mr. William L. Hardesty, of Fort 

 Simpson, and their arrival is expected at an early date. The collections 

 of the remains of cetaceans, such as the skulls of whales and the skins 

 and skeletons of porpoises, «&c., from the California coast, as contri- 

 buted by Captain Scammon, have been already mentioned; as also 

 that of the Aplodontia-le])orina, or showt'l, which has been received from 

 Mr. S. C. Wingard. 



To Professor Sumichrast, of Telmantepec, the Institution owes the 

 contribution of a skeleton of the tapir of Mexico. 



A complete series of the mammals of Costa Rica and their skulls, fur- 

 nished by Professor Gabb, is of great value. 



Among the rarest of mammals is included the hairy tapir of the 

 Andes, from South America, the only representative of the species 

 heretofore being a skull in the Paris Museum. 



To the Hon. S. A. Hurlbut, at the time United States minister to 



