Seventh Annual Report. 397 
Publishing Branch. 
1 Editor. 
1 Assistant Editor. 
2 Draftsmen. 
1 Lithographer. 
1 Government Printer. 
Total, 104 copies. 
Museum. 
The alteration and extension of the buildings of the department, which 
have, since last report, been undertaken by the Government, will, it is 
believed, when completed, leave little to be desired in that direction for a 
considerable time. 
These works, which were commenced in November last, and are still in 
progress, but rapidly approaching completion, affecting as they have done 
almost every portion of the building, have necessitated the exclusion of the 
public for a long period, but this loss will be amply compensated for when 
the collections, together with the large and valuable additions expected from 
Europe on the return of the Director of the Geological Survey, shall have 
been arranged in the Museum, while the erection of office accommodation 
will remove many obstacles to the progress of departmental work. 
There have been 4,818 specimens added to the Museum during 1874-75, 
over 4,000 of which have been collected in the field by the officers of the 
department. Owing to the extensive alterations which have been going on 
in the Museum building, the number of presentations for the past year falls 
short of what it has been in former years. 
A large and valuable collection has been taken to England by Dr. 
Hector with a view to identification and exchange, so that next year con- 
siderable additions will be looked for in the objects of interest in the 
Museum. 
Mammalia.—A specimen of the humpback whale, Meyaptera australis, 
has been recived from Mr. G. Gooch, from the Kaikoura Beach. Two speci- 
mens of the blackfish, Globiocephalus macrorhynchus, and one skeleton of 
Eubalena marginata, from Mr. Charles Traill, of Stewart Island. Captain 
Fairchild also procured for the Museum a specimen of a new species of cow- 
sh. wie 
Birds,—Fifty-seven specimens have been added to this department since 
last report, the chief of which are twenty-seven foreign birds sent by Dr. 
Otto Finsch, of Bremen. A fine specimen of peacock ( Pavo cristatus), by 
Mr. J. Monteith ; and a large specimen of the Patagonian penguin, pre- 
sented by Mr. C. Traill, and mounted by Mr. Morton. 
Reptilia.—The only entries under this head are a collection of lizards 
