Prince Massena d'Essling, Due de Rivoli, and the types of the spe- 

 cies described by Mr. Gould in the ' Birds of Australia,' were the 

 first and largest of Dr. Wilson's contributions towards this result ; 

 but a great number of further additions have been received during 

 the last ten years from the same individual, and no opportunity is 

 neglected of rendering this branch of the Academy's collection still 

 more perfect. As the Library of the Academy is also very complete, 

 particularly in all that relates to Ornithology, and the greatest libe- 

 rality is shown to strangers who desire access to any part of the col- 

 lections, it will be evident that there are few, if any, places in the 

 globe where a student of Ornithology can pursue his researches 

 with more convenience and profit to himself than the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Mr. John Cassin, so well known 

 by his work on the Birds of California and Oregon, and his nume- 

 rous papers in the Proceedings of the Academy, devotes the whole 

 of his leisure time towards the cataloguing and arrangement of the 

 collection of birds, and has already published Lists of the Raptores, 

 and of the Caprimulgidce and Hirundinidce of the order Passeres. 

 The collection of birds' eggs belonging to the Academy (of which 

 Dr. Heerman published a catalogue in 1853) is likewise one of the 

 most extensive in the world, embracing upwards of 1320 determined 

 species. 



Mr. Cassin has also a private collection of his own at Philadel- 

 phia, and is no less active in obtaining specimens in the field than in 

 his studies of the examples contained in the Museum of the Aca- 

 demy. 



At New York the Lyceum of Natural History have at present no 

 collection, but publish, in their * Annals,' many interesting papers 

 on Ornithology, chiefly from the pen of Mr. George N. Lawrence. 

 This gentleman is very well acquainted with the birds of the northern 

 portion of the American continent, and possesses an extensive orni- 

 thological collection, embracing many species which he has himself 

 described as new. 



The types of the birds described by De Kay in the 'Natural 

 History of the State of New York ' are at Albany, and form part of 

 the interesting collection which was the result of the State-survey, 

 and so excellently illustrates the zoology of that region. 



In Boston there is, as is well known, a flourishing Natural History 

 Society, whose Museum contains a good collection of birds, princi- 

 pally American. Dr. Thomas Brewer, one of its members, has a 

 very extensive cabinet of eggs, and is now about to publish, under 

 the patronage of the Smithsonian Institution, a large work with 

 coloured plates illustrating the eggs of all the species of North Ame- 

 rican birds — the first work of the kind undertaken in that country. 

 Another member of the Society — Dr. Samuel Cabot — has also a col- 

 lection of birds, containing, amongst others, the types of the species 

 described by him in the Proceedings and Journal of the Society in 

 1843, and which he himself procured in Yucatan. 



There are two collections of Natural History at Washington, which 

 merit much attention. First, that in the Patent Office, where will 



