34 ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Depaetment of Zoology. 

 I. — A rrangement. 



The additions to the Collections of Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes have heen 

 entered into the printed Catalogues as soon as they had been examined and named. 



The examination of the exhibited series of Carnivora and Insectivora has been com- 

 pleted ; it was undertaken chiefly with the object of withdrawing from the public galleries 

 deteriorated examples, and of replacing them when possible from specimens which are kept 

 as skins in the study series. The progress of this work has been much accelerated by the 

 permanent addition of a taxidermist to the staff of the Department. The exhibited series 

 of Rodentia is subjected now to a similar examination. 



In consequence of large additions having been made during the years 1879 and 1881 

 to the collection of Bird-skins, special attention has had to be given to the re-arrange- 

 ment of those ftimilies which received the most numerous accessions, as, for instance, 

 the Pigeons, Gallinaceffi, Waders, and Swimming-birds. These families have been re- 

 distributed in the store-boxes and, as far as the genera are concerned, re-arranged ; they 

 are readily accessible for study, iintil the specimens can be placed in the cabinets prepared 

 for their reception at South Kensington. The final re-arrangement of the Passerine 

 Birds, which was commenced in the year 1876, keeps pace with the progress of the 

 *' Catalogue of Birds." 



The collection of Reptiles, the steady and rapid increase of which is in proportion to 

 the numerous discoveries made since the publication of the various " Catalogues " in the 

 years 1854, 1849, 1858 and 1870, requires a thorough systematic re-arrangement. This 

 work was commenced by Mr. O'Shaughnessy, an assistant who had prepared himself for 

 it by many years' study, but who unfortunately died at the beginning of last year, leaving 

 a vacancy for which no qualified successor has as yet been found. 



The Batrachians have been thoroughly re-arranged and re-examined ; this class offers 

 a striking instance of the progress of zoological science and a corresponding increase of 

 the collection. The first edition of the " Catalogue of tail-less Batrachiane" was i^ublished 

 in 1858, and showed that the collection in the British Museum contained 214 species, 

 represented by 1,691 examples; while in the second edition, prepared by M. Boulenger 

 last year, no less than 522 sj^ecies are described, and 4,b92 examples enumerated. 



The continuation of the systematic list of all the species of Fishes described since the 

 publication of the " Catalogue of Fishes," has been likewise interrupted by Mr. O'Shaugh- 

 nessy's death. The cessation of this work seriously interferes with the determination of 

 new accessions to the collection. 



Of MoUusca, only a few small groups which had received some remarkable accessions 

 have been re-arranged ; for instance, the genus Astarte, of which a complete monograph 

 has been prepared and published in the " Journal of Conchology," Vol. III. 



The spii'it-coUection of Edriophthalmous Crustaceans, which had been kept in a 

 store-room, was removed to a more accessible locality and re-arranged. All the species 

 of the family oi Idoteidce were determined and described, in connection with which work 

 an acknowledgment is due to Professor Milne-Edwards, who sent to the British Museum 

 all the types in the Paris Museum, for comparison. 



The " Challenger " collections of Ostracods and Pycnogonids (the former mostly 

 microscopic preparations) were examined and c:,mpared with the published reports, and 

 arranged with the general collection. 



Numerous as the accessions were to the collection of Coleoptera during last year, they 

 consisted chiefly of specimens named by specialists like Messrs. J. S. Baly and F. Bates. 

 Therefore the work of determining the specimens was thus saved to the coleopterist of 

 the Department, but the mere labour of arranging and incorporating more than 13,000 

 specimens, and eliminating duplicates, is more than could possibly be accomplished by the 

 only Assistant to whom the charge of Coleoptera is assigned. Besides describing a 

 number of new species (thus preserving the typical specimens to the Museum) he re- 

 arranged a part of the Central American Buprestidce, of which an account is published in 

 Godman and Salvin's " Biologia Central!- Americana," as also a series of HispidcB from 

 Ecuador and the Cetoniida acquired from the late Edwin Brown's collection. 



The arrangement of the Hymenoptera has made fair progress; the families Tentkred'niidcB 

 and Siricidce have been completed, and the Cynipida, jEvaniidce and Chakididae taken 

 in hand. 



No progress has been made in the arrangement of the Dipterous, Neuropterous, 

 Orthopterous and Homopterous orders of Insects. 



Of Lepidoptera, the moths of the family CatocalidcB have been re-arranged. Also 

 Important faunistic acquisitions, to be mentioned subsequently, have received due atten- 

 tion, and, on the whole, not less than 391 types have been added by description to the 

 collection. 



A commencement has been made of a carefully named reference collection of British 

 Hemiptera Heteroptera, to be exhibited in the New Building. It is hoped that students 

 of Entomology will be induced thereby to engage in the study of these Insects, which 

 is unduly neglected for other branches generally considered more attractive. Numerous 

 specimens have already been collected by the staff of the department and by visitors. 



Owing to the comparatively small number of additions to the collection of Echinoderms, 

 special attention could be paid to perfecting the arrangement of the old collection: the 



spirit 



