6 Thirty-second Report on thh State Museum. 



I shall have the pleasure of presenting to your honorable body a special com- 

 munication upon this subject, from which you will be able to learn in a more 

 satisfactory manner the nature of the work to be done, and which when done 

 will give an important rank to our ornithological collection, which at present is 

 of little value to science. At the same time, the facts thus obtained and pub- 

 lished will be a valuable source of information to the people of the State. 



Details of the additions to the Museum in its several departments will be 

 found appended. The donations have been unusually few during the past year. 



To the Botanical department contributions have been received from seventeen 

 persons, making in all fifteen hundred and fifty-two species. 



To the Zoological department contributions have been made by twelve persons. 



To the Ethnological department two contributors only are recorded. 



In this department, contributors to the Museum have greatly diminished in 

 number during the past few years, from the fact that such subjects have come to 

 have a pecuniary value ; and, also, that there are numerous collectors and insti- 

 tutions in the State who are competitors with the State Museum. 



This condition of things will continue ; and if it be thought desirable to 

 increase the collections in this department, it will be necessary to make special 

 collections, or to purchase from those who have made them. Several offers of 

 the sale of collections have been made to the Museum during the year, but hav- 

 ing no means at our disposal for such purposes, no present encouragement ^has- 

 been given to the applicants. 



To the Mineralogical and Palaeontological department four donors are 

 recorded. 



To the Library, contributions have been made by twenty societies and eight 

 individuals, of twenty-three bound volumes, and eighty-nine in paper covers and 

 pamphlets, all but thirteen of these being serials. From all sources, the addi- 

 tions to the Library have been forty-two bound volumes, and of volumes in 

 paper and pamphlets (chiefly serials), one hundred and forty-one. 



A donation of the extensive botanical collection of the late Dr. Anthony 

 Gescherdt has been kindly made to the Museum by Madame G-escherdt, through 

 Hon. Alexander Thain, of New York. The collection contains 1,479 species,. 

 all of which are labeled. These are chiefly European species, but there are 

 some from the United States, the West Indies, etc. A list of the species, as 

 they were arranged in the twenty-two packages when received, has been made 

 by Mr. Peck. This list, when fully classified, will be communicated with the 

 report upon the State Museum. 



General Work of the Museum. 



In the Botanical department the accompanying report of the Botanist, Mr. 

 C. H. Peck, will indicate the work done by himself, and the addition to the 

 Herbarium of one hundred and sixty-five mounted species of plants which were 

 not previously represented in the collection. 



To the Zoological department some interesting specimens of worms, insects, 

 crustaceans and fishes have been added, through the collections of Mr. Lintner r 

 at Caledonia creek, made at the request of the State Commissioners of Fisheries. 

 Such of the animal forms as could be obtained during the winter season at this 

 interesting locality, were carefully collected and critically studied, with especial 

 reference to their value as fish food, and the practicability of their transplanta- 

 tion into other streams of the State which are less prolific in the forms so remark- 

 ably abundant at Caledonia. The results of this examination have been pub- 

 lished in the Tenth Annual Report of the State Commissioners of Fisheries. 



The alcoholic collection of specimens has been in part relabeled, the jars- 

 replenished with fresh alcohol, and the recent donations and collections incor- 

 porated. 



