REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I915 5 I 



ing the year is a collection of about twenty pairs of domestic 

 pigeons representing different breeds and color varieties ; a few 

 additions to the poultry collection were also made. 



The additions to the collection are therefore of a character which 

 adds greatly to the popular interest and instructiveness of the 

 zoology exhibit, and make the list of accessions for the year fully 

 up to the average in importance and value, although the actual 

 number of specimens acquired has been less than in some other 

 years. 



Such conspicuous additions to the material on exhibition do not, 

 however, represent more than a small part of the actual progress 

 that has been made. The zoologist has gone over the entire collec- 

 tion of wild birds, giving it its final arrangement and grouping, 

 attached the individual and species labels, and painted the legs and 

 bill of the specimens the natural color where drying or fading had 

 altered it. In many instances the old specimens were found to have 

 glass eyes of some incorrect color. These have been replaced, and 

 the lifelike appearance and value of the collection to bird students 

 increased through attention to these details. 



Not only the bird collection, but by the close of the year, nearly 

 all the specimens on exhibition had been labeled, the cards giving 

 in many cases not only the popular and scientific names of the 

 animals, but such information as to its distribution in the State, or 

 its habits, as could be conveyed in two or three lines of reading 

 matter. It is believed that this greatly increases the educational 

 value of the exhibit, and it is proposed to carry it out more exten- 

 sively when the completion of more urgent work will permit more 

 time to the preparation of labels. They require care in wording, 

 and any information added to the label has to be stated in the most 

 concise manner possible. Museum visitors have neither the time 

 nor inclination to read lengthy labels, and will probably not look at 

 them at all if their length exceeds what can be taken in at a glance. 



During the past year a beginning has also been made in the prepa- 

 ration of an exhibit of invertebrates, a considerable part of the col- 

 lection of New York State mollusks having been cleaned, mounted 

 and labeled by the zoologist and put in readiness for installing in 

 the cases reserved for it. 



