Report of the Director. 7 



The whole number of contributors to the several departments and the Library- 

 is seventy-four. 



The Work of the Museum. 



Botany. In the Botanical department, a special report on the subject of his 

 investigations will be made by the botanist, Mr. C. H. Peck. 



Zoology. The collections in this department having been nearly all arranged 

 in preceding years, we have not much special work upon them to report for the 

 last year. Of the donations, several specimens have been mounted, and, 

 together with the others of value, added to the collections. A number of Reptilia 

 in alcohol, principally from the Southern States, have been determined and 

 labeled ; and all the alcoholic specimens of reptiles and fishes not belonging to 

 the New York fauna, have been separately arranged in one of the wall-cases. 



Geology and Mineralogy. The labeling of the Museum collections, prepa- 

 ratory to the compilation and publication of a general catalogue, has been con- 

 tinued through the year. 



The geological collections contained in the wall-cases have been re-arranged, 

 and labeled as far as the Devonian rocks. For want of other space, these cases 

 have frequently been made the receptacle for rock specimens, without due re- 

 gard to their value. The removal of all specimens not important to the com- 

 pleteness of the series has relieved the over-crowded cases, and made room 

 for the proper exhibition of the collections. Each specimen is now accompanied 

 by a card-label, indicating its name, geological position and locality ; and a 

 transcript of the card is attached to the specimen. The specimens withdrawn 

 from the cases have been placed in drawers beneath the table-cases, with mem- 

 oranda of their removal. 



The mineralogical specimens were arranged and properly labeled during the 

 previous year (1876). During the past year, a large number of minerals have 

 been incorporated in the general collection, derived from a more critical exam- 

 ination of specimens which had been laid aside as duplicates from collections 

 made in the field, and from various contributions ; notably one from Prof. Albert 

 R. Leeds, of beautiful and valuable specimens from Bergen Tunnel, and other 

 localities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



After the selection from the duplicate minerals, the remainder have been 

 arranged in drawers within the enclosure on the second floor, in two series : the 

 first in sixty-five drawers beneath the tables, in which are all those of known 

 localities ; second, in the case of trays in the same enclosure, containing all 

 those of unknown localities, the larger number of which are from the old col- 

 lections of the Museum, which have been obtained from various sources, many 

 of them being of little value. 



In the Van Rensselaer collection, presented to the Museum in 1872, to which 

 reference has heretofore been made, there were a large number of volcanic 

 specimens, which had undoubtedly been collected with a view of presenting a 

 full representation of the Vesuvian products. These have been arranged in 

 four table-cases on the second floor of the Museum, with labels indicating the 

 contained minerals, so far as they have been determined. 



Four additional table-cases on the second floor contain an arranged collec- 

 tion of claystones ; a series of Cumberland, Eng. rocks, and miscellaneous rock 

 specimens of the Brazilian collection. The drawers beneath these cases contain 

 Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils, which have been mainly derived from the Van 

 Rensselaer collection, and not previously arranged. 



The collection of minerals, chiefly crystals, formerly belonging to Dr. E. 

 Emmons, which was purchased some years since by Hon. Erastus Corning, and 

 deposited in the Museum, has been obtained and added to the Museum collec- 

 tions, by the payment of its original cost from the Museum appropriation. 



