REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY 



By Leonhaed Stejneger, Head, Curator 



The reports of the activities of the various divisions of this de- 

 partment during the past fiscal year demonstrate plainly that the 

 material which of necessity is increasing in volume and value from 

 year to year is rapidly reaching the point where lack of space for 

 expansion and lack of personnel for working the accumulation 

 threaten to prevent the functioning of the National Collection as a 

 scientific institution. The exhibition space is filled to capacity and 

 the space allotted to the study series is rapidly nearing the point of 

 saturation. The staff, on the other hand, remains stationary. The 

 work accumulates but the number of the workers does not increase. 

 These conditions are becoming more and more serious as the years 

 pass by; if continued much longer without relief, the efforts of the 

 curators to carry on the scientific work must suffer while the safety 

 of the collections themselves may become imperiled from lack of help 

 to take care of their preservation. 



COMPARISON OF INCREMENT OF SPECIMENS OF 1923-24 WITH THAT OF 1922-23 



The collections received during the year surpass those of the years 

 immediately preceding not only numerically but equally so in scien- 

 tific importance, notably emphasized by the addition of a large num- 

 ber of species and genera new to the Museum. Many gaps have been 

 filled and deficiencies supplied that have helped to remedy some of 

 the many serious defects of our collection. This is particularly 

 noticeable in the division of birds, where the generosity of B. H. 

 Swales has made possible the acquisition of many forms hitherto un- 

 represented. Such increments do not make for quantity but for 

 quality and add immensely to the scientific value of the collections. 



ACCESSIONS DESERVING SPECIAL NOTICE 



The most outstanding accession of the year is the donation by Dr. 

 J. M. Aldrich, associate curator of insects, of his private collection 

 of 44,610 specimens of dipterous flies, mostly North American. 



The influx of material from China begun during the previous fis- 

 cal year has continued, and as it is of particular importance, atten- 

 tion is called to the comprehensive collections received through the 



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