REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1903 201 



As it appeared that the economic importance of the crab in 

 New York did not justify further work in that direction, the 

 preparation of a catalogue of the invertebrates of New York city 

 was begun, and the principal work of the year has been the 

 collection of material for that purpose. October 1902, the spring 

 months and September 1903 were therefore spent in New York city, 

 and a considerable amount of invertebrate material was collected, 

 much of which was, before, either poorly, or not at all, repre- 

 sented in the Museum collections. Tn continuation of the work 

 on a catalogue of the Batrachia of New York, begun some time 

 previously, three weeks were spent in the Adirondacks, where 

 much myriopod material was also obtained. In vacation a trip 

 was also made to Bermuda, and some interesting foTms for the 

 type series were brought back. 



The winter months were spent partly in identifying the material 

 collected, and a visit to the Harvard University museum was 

 made for the purpose of comparing the myriopod and phalangid 

 material on hand with the specimens there. 



In the exhibition series numerous changes were made. Some 

 of the smaller mammals were removed from the large end case 

 and placed in one of the center cases, and the central end case 

 was used as an alcove foi* vivaria. The duplicates were remo?ed 

 from th^ series of mammalian skeletons, and the remainder were 

 placed in one of the wall cases against a black background. The 

 skulls were put in one of the table cases. 



The birds have also undergone a considerable rearrangement, 

 and the foreign birds and the duplicate specimens have been 

 removed from exhibition and stored in the upper third of the wall 

 cases, a space useless for exhibition purposes. The nests, which 

 were formerly in a case by themselves, have been placed in the 

 general series of birds along with their appropriate specimens. 

 These changes resulted in giving more space, so that it was 

 possible to use two of the smaller wall cases for birds and give 

 the two large east center cases to invertebrates, a position where 

 they would have better light. 



The birds' eggs have all been placed on black smalt in black 

 boxes and show to much better advantage than formerly. 



