EEPOET OF THE SECEETAEY. o~m 



were from the manuscript notes of Dr. J. G. Cooper, of San Francisco, 

 while the descriptions are principally from specimens in the Smithsonian 

 collections. This volume, in regard to its typography, illustrations, and 

 the character of its contents, does honor to the liberality of the State at 

 whose expense it was published, as well as to the science of the country. 

 Professor Baird has also continued his labor's with Dr. Brewer, of Bos- 

 ton, on a work relative to the general ornithology of North America ; in 

 this he has been assisted by Mr. Robert Ridgeway, the zoologist 

 of the exploration of the fortieth parallel under Clarence King. To the 

 latter, free access has also been given, in the preparation of his report 

 on the birds of Mr. King's survey, to all the ornithological specimens in 

 the Smithsonian collections. 



Mr. Meek, the palaeontologist, has made a preliminary report on the 

 fossils collected by Dr. Hayden in his survey of Wyoming and contig- 

 uous Territories, and prepared lists of the same, with descriptions of 

 the new species. He has described and prepared drawings of a collec- 

 tion of cretaceous fossils, sent by Professor Mudge to the Institution, 

 from Kansas. He has made, besides several preliminary examinations, 

 a final report on the fossils collected by Mr. King in the survey of the 

 fortieth parallel, with full descriptions and illustrations of all the new 

 species. He N has also investigated the invertebrate fossils collected by 

 the geological survey of Ohio, and prepared descriptions of the new 

 species for publication ; made a preliminary report, with descrip- 

 tions of some new species, on a collection of carboniferous fossils sent 

 by Professor Stevenson from West Virginia.; continued his work on the 

 illustrations of the monograph of the palaeontology of the Upper 

 Missouri. He has also identified collections of fossils, received from 

 time to time at the Smithsonian Institution from collectors in various 

 parts of the country. 



Mr. Dall has been engaged in collating the extensive collection of 

 manuscript notes of the Hudson's Bay and other Arctic American col- 

 laborators with whom the institution has been in correspondence for 

 more than fifteen years. The part of these notes which he has finished 

 relates to ornithology, and comprises many thousand items descriptive 

 of the habits, distribution, and numbers of the birds of the regions 

 above referred to. . These will be used by Professor Baird and Dr. Brewer 

 in their work on the birds of North America. The manuscripts also con- 

 tain notes relative to the mammals and other animals, as well as to the 

 ethnology of the same regions. When all these are collated and pub- 

 lished they will form an interesting contribution to existing knowledge of 

 the natural productions and ethnology of the North American continent. 



Mr. Dall has also devoted considerable time to original investigations 

 relative to the minute anatomy of the mollusca from specimens in the 

 collections of the Institution. His principal labor, however, has been in 

 the rearrangement of the very large series* of shells from the west coast 

 of America and of the North Pacific, including many types of the new 



