12 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



comparison of fossil and recent forms, a subject which is now attract- 

 ing; much attention in Europe and America. 



The eighth volume of Miscellaneous Collections contains the following 

 papers : 



1. Monographs of the Diptera of North America. Part IV. Prepared 

 for the Smithsonian Institution by E. Osten Sacken. 8vo, pp. 358. 

 Four plates and seven wood-cuts. 



2. Catalogue of the Orthoptera of North America described previous 

 to 1867. Prepared for the Smithsonian Institution by Samuel H. 

 Scudder. 8vo, pp. 110. 



3. Land and Fresh-water Shells of North America. Part I. Pulmo- 

 nata Geophila. By W. G. Binney and T. Bland. Svo, pp. 328, and 544 

 woodcuts. 



4. Arrangement of Families of Birds. Adopted provisionally by the 

 Smithsonian Institution. Svo, pp. 8. 



5. Circular to Officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. 8vo, pp. 6. 



6. Suggestions relative to Objects of Scientific Investigations in 

 Bussiau America. Svo, pp. 10. 



7. Circular relating to Collections in Archaeology and Ethnology. 

 Svo, pp. 2. 



8. Circular to Entomologists. Svo, pp. 2. 



9. Circular relative to Collections of Birds from Middle and South 

 America. Svo, pp. 2. 



10. Smithsonian Museum Miscellanea. Pp. 88. 



The ninth volume of Miscellaneous Collections contains — 



1. Bibliography of North American Conchology previous to the yeas 

 I860. Prepared for the Smithsonian Institution by W. G-. Binney. 

 Part II. Foreign Authors. Svo, pp. 302. 



2. Catalogue of Publications of Societies and of Periodical Works 

 belonging to the Smithsonian Institution. Deposited in the Library of 

 Congress, 1866. '8vo, pp. 596. 



In accordance with the plan adopted by the Institution of furnishing 

 facilities and means of identifying specimens of natural history in its 

 different departments, an arrangement was made with Professor l)e 

 Saussure, of Geneva, Switzerland, the highest authority on the class of 

 insects known as hymenoptera, (of which the principal forms are wasps, 

 bees, &c.,) to prepare a monograph of this part of entomology. Large 

 collections have been sent to him for the work, to which he has devoted 

 several years of gratuitous labor. The first part of the manuscript was 

 completed in the French language in 1863, and for translation was placed 

 in the hands of a competent entomologist, Mr. Edward Norton, of 

 Farmington, Connecticut, who volunteered his services from a desire of 

 advancing science. This part of the memoir was prepared for the press 

 in 1864, but as Mr. Norton was obliged to be absent from the country 

 several. years, the printing was delayed until his return, in order that 

 the proof-sheets might be properly corrected. By this time, however, 



