New York State Museum. 17 



In June I spent two days in the town of New Baltimore, Greene 

 county collecting fossil specimens of recent mollusca, from a deposit 

 of fresh-water marl on the Van Slyke f arm. The marl yielded 



only sixteen species of (fresh-water) shells to my search, although 

 it is probable that originally there were many more species, 

 which, in the course of time, have been destroyed, A notable 

 absence of large bivalves was noticed, the largest bivalve observed 

 being Sphcerium rhomboideum. 



Towards the close of July, I took the African birds and some 

 other foreign birds in our collection to Philadelphia for identifi- 

 cation at the Academy of Natural Sciences. In all about sixty- 

 five specimens were named. I wish to express my thanks to 

 Mr. Witmer Stone, ornithologist to the Academy, for the very 

 valuable aid which he rendered me in accomplishing the task. 



The specimens of young UnionidaB, which were loaned to 

 Mr. Kobert T. Jackson, of Boston, for the study of young stages 

 of Pelecypods, about the early part of 1890, have been returned 

 in good condition. Mr. Jackson kindly presented to the State 

 Museum an interesting series of young oysters and Anomiae which 

 are illustrative of his paper on the " Phylogeny of the Pelecypoda." 



An opportunity was given to Mr. ¥m. Dutcher, Treasurer of 

 the Ornithologists' Union to examine the male and female Lab- 

 rador ducks contained in our collection. 



Dr. C. E. Beecher of Yale University has been afforded an 

 opportunity to study the collection of recent Brachiopods. Several 

 of the specimens have furnished valuable data, which will be pub- 

 lished in the American Journal of Science in the course of a paper 

 on the phylogeny of the Brachiopoda. 



The additions to the collection for the vear include some 

 interesting and valuable specimens. A skeleton of an African 

 ostrich has been purchased and placed on exhibition for the pur- 

 pose of showing the structural differences between carinate and 

 ratite birds. A pair of Heath Hens, or the eastern variety of 

 Pinnated Grouse Tympanuchus cupido (Linn.) (male and female), 

 have been obtained. This bird, which was formely found on 

 Long Island, and in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other States 

 further south, has become extinct in all these places and is con- 

 fined exclusively to the island of Martha's Yineyard, Mass. Even 



