14 New Zealand Institute. 
(Stenorhyncus leptonyx), thirty birds, fifty fishes, twenty reptiles, etc., consti- 
tuting a most interesting feature in the Museum. 
Shells.—The collections of New Zealand shells, both recent and fossil, have 
been thoroughly investigated by Captain Hutton, the greater part of whose 
time during the past year has been devoted to this important work, and he has 
prepared a descriptive catalogue, which only awaits the receipt of a list of the 
New Zealand shells in the European collections, which is being prepared by Dr. 
Von Martens, of Berlin, to be completed for the press. 
The total number of existing species of the class Mollusca, represented in 
the Museum, and described in this catalogue, will be 560; to which must be 
added 200 species of fossil shells that are now extinct. 
Captain Hutton has also prepared a descriptive catalogue of the New 
Zealand Echinodermata in the Museum, in which he enumerates thirty-six 
species. ; 
The collection of foreign shells has been added to, during the past year, by 
170 American species, presented by Colonel Jewett, of New York, and other 
collections of minor importance. 
Insects.—An. arrangement is being made for the publication in England of 
descriptive and illustrated catalogues of the different classes”of insects which 
are found in New Zealand, as their classification cannot be satisfactorily 
effected without reference to extensive Museums and Libraries containing 
works of reference in Natural History. The foreign collections in the 
Museum have received a valuable addition in a named collection of 332 
specimens of the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera of Queensland, from W. H. 
Paleontology.—The descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the New 
Zealand fossils in the Museum is also in an advanced state of preparation ; but 
further examination of certain localities will be necessary before it can be sent 
to press. The collection of minerals, rocks, and fossils, has been largely 
extended during the past year, in the course of the Geological Survey ; the 
chief additions being the collections made in Canterbury by Dr. Haast, and 
Mr. H. Travers in the Chatham Islands and at the Amuri, where he obtained 
a large number of Saurian bones, in blocks that weigh several hundredweight, 
but unfortunately in a very hard matrix, so that it is doubtful if they can 
be extracted in a perfect state. 
The chief special collections which have been added to the Herbarium 
during the past year, besides the plants of the neighborhood, which are 
constantly being collected by Mr. Buchanan, are specimens illustrating the 
botany of the Hot Lake and North Taupo Districts, which have been reported 
on for the Department by Mr. T. Kirk, F.L.S. 
An almost exhaustive collection of the botany of the Chatham Islands has 
