REPORT. 



Albany, January 5, 1880. 



lo the Honorable the Board of Regents of the University of the State 

 of New York: 



Gentlemen — I communicate herewith the Annual Report on the 

 State Museum of Natural History, giving some account of the condi- 

 tion of the collections in the several departments, the additions which 

 have been made, and the work done in the institution during the 

 past year. 



I am able to report that the collections of the museum are in good 

 order, and are arranged for exhibition and study as satisfactorily as 

 our facilities will admit. The want of room for the increasing collec- 

 tions is morf seriously felt every succeeding year, and it has become 

 quite impossible to place on exhibition the results of the labor in the 

 several departments. The want of proper working rooms in connec- 

 tion with the museum building has long been a serious cause of embar- 

 rassment, and most of the work of arrangement and preparation is, 

 from necessity, done outside of the walls of the museum. This being 

 already known to the Regents, it is unnecessary for me to offer any 

 comment, farther than to remark that there are several thousand speci- 

 mens of fossils already prepared for arrangement in the museum, and 

 for which we have no available space in the building. 



I beg leave to repeat on this occasion what I have said in my report 

 of last year regarding some parts of the zoological collections. I 

 regard it as very important that the ornithological collection should 

 be re-arranged and relabeled, in accordance with the more recent 

 nomenclature, and that the wanting species should be supplied. Be- 

 yond this we need information regarding the migration and local dis- 

 tribution, habits, breeding, etc., of many of the species. While so 

 much attention is being given to this subject in various parts of the 

 country, the State Museum of New York should not remain behind 

 similar institutions elsewhere. The subject of ornithology has enlisted 

 so many votaries who have become experts in the science, that it will 

 not be difficult to secure the services of a competent person, who, for 

 a moderate compensation, would undertake and complete the work in 

 a manner creditable to himself and to the State. 



In January last I made a special communication to your honorable 

 body upon this subject; and 1 beg leave now to call your serious atten- 

 tion to the matter, with a hope that we may be able to accomplish so 

 desirable an object, both for the advancement and diffusion of scien- 



