REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 59 



Very valuable services have been rendered by the following gentle- 

 men, who are acting as honorary curators in the Museum : Mr. W. H. 

 Dall, Department of Mollusks; Mr. C. D. Walcott and Dr. 0. A. White, 

 Departments of Paleozoic and Mesozoic Invertebrate Fossils ; Prof. 

 Lester F. Ward, Departments of Fossil and Recent Plants, and Prof. F. 

 W. Clarke, Department of Minerals. 



DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. 



Col. Cecil Clay, chief clerk of this Department, sent skins and a skull 

 of a moose (Alces machlis) and photographs of cow-moose. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Dr. A. K. Fisher, of the Bureau of Economic Ornithology, sent Spar- 

 row-hawk, Eed-tailed hawks, Eed-shouldered hawks, Eed-breasted mer- 

 ganser, and birds' nests and eggs. The Museum still enjoys the co- 

 operation of Prof. C. V. Riley, the entomologist of the Department, as 

 honorary curator of insects. 



U. S. FISH COMMISSION. 



Several collections of marine invertebrates, fishes, birds, shells, rep- 

 tiles, etc., have been received ; also birds' nests and eggs, skulls of sail- 

 fish, birds, lice from seals, 3 worm-eaten planks taken from schooner 

 Melissa D. Bobbins, shark, fish, seals, fungi, etc. From Major T. B. Fer- 

 guson was received a specimen of Barn-owl, and from C. H. Townsend 

 15 specimens of Menopoma and eggs. Mr. Townsend made an explora- 

 tion of Swan and Grand Cayman Islands, and has already forwarded a 

 collection of birds, concerning which Mr. Ridgway, curator of birds, 

 makes the following statement: 



Swan Island. — The collection from this place embraces 31 species, of 

 which 22 are land birds. Of the latter 17 are migrants from Eastern 

 North America j Coccysus seniculus is West Indian and Central Ameri- 

 can ; Columba leucocephala belongs to the coast of Honduras and some 

 of the Greater Antilles ; Mimocichla rubripes (of which a good series 

 was collected) is identical with the Cuban species, instead of being that 

 found on Grand Cayman (M. ravida Cory); Contopus albicollis Lawr"? 

 (2 specimens) is probably identical with a Yucatan species, and Dendro- 

 ica vitellina Cory, is identical with a species found elsewhere only on 

 Grand Cayman. The only new form is a Butorides, allied to B. virescens, 

 but altogether darker in coloration, and perhaps different enough to be 

 considered specifically distinct. 



The water-birds include five specimens of the following: Tringa 

 maculata, Ereunetes pusillus, Totanus flavipes, Porzana Carolina, Sula 

 eyanops, S. piscator, S. sula, and Fregetta aquila. 



Grand Cayman. — Mr. Townsend's collection from this island contains 

 12 species, including 5 of the 13 new species obtained by Mr. Cory's 

 collector, viz : Certhiola sharpei, Dendroica vitellina, Centurus cayman- 



