50 EEPOET OF THE SECEETARY. 



Professor Hyatt, and other gentlemen, while Prof. D. Baton has identi- 

 fied the marine plants. To these gentlemen, the thanks of the Institu- 

 tion are due for their extremely valuable services in the connection re- 

 ferred to. 



On the transfer of the large number of ethnological objects from the 

 lower hall and the connecting range to the new room in the second story, 

 much space will be gained for the re-arrangement of the zoological 

 collections, and an opportunity will be given for introducing many 

 species which are now necessarily kept elsewhere, for the want of accom- 

 modations. It may, however, be proper to state that for the exhibition 

 of the full series of objects now in possession of the Institution, and not 

 including any unnecessary duplicates, much ampler accommodations will 

 be needed than can be had in the building, and if these are to be displayed 

 as they should be it will be necessary at no distant day to j)rovide 

 means for extending the space, either by a transfer of the entire collec- 

 tion to new buildings or by making additions to that of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



In illustration of this statement, it may be remarked that, of sixty- 

 seven thousand specimens of birds entered in the catalogues of 

 the museum, and of which more than forty thousand are on hand, 

 (the remainder having been distributed,) less than five thousand are 

 mounted and on exhibition, these occupying fully two-fifths of the pres- 

 ent hall; the rest are preserved as skins, in chests, drawers, and boxes, 

 and of them fifteen thousand, or three times the number at present on 

 exhibition, require to be displayed for the proper illustration of even 

 American ornithology. 



The urgency for additional room is still greater for the mammals. 

 Here, out of some five or six thousand specimens, less than so many hun- 

 dred are exhibited, the remainder alone being almost sufficient to occupy 

 half of the hall. Of many thousands of skeletons of mammals, birds, rep- 

 tiles, and fishes, a very small percentage is shown to the public, while 

 exhibition-room to the amount of thousands of square feet is required 

 for specimens that now occupy drawers in side apartments. 



Of the very large collection of alcoholic specimens, which constitute 

 the most important material in every public museum, scarcely anything 

 is on exhibition, although the selection of a single series for this purpose 

 is very desirable. 



The new ethnological gallery, already referred to, even now is scarcely 

 adequate to accommodate a complete series of the ethnological specimens 

 on hand, without taking into consideration the number that the explora- 

 tions of the past few years may lead us to expect for the future. 



It is, however, very gratifying to be able to state, that if the proper 

 plan of a national museum for the United States should be to make it 

 an exponent of the ethnology, and of the animal, vegetable, and mineral 

 treasures of America, this can be considered as in a great measure 

 already accomplished, especially for North America, and to a very con- 



