REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 15 



DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY. 



DEPARTMENT OF MAMMALS. 



The administrative work of the department has been directed mainly 

 to the preparation for an eutire re arrangement of the exhibition series. 

 Twenty new specimens have been placed on exhibition during the year. 

 There have been made 407 entries in the catalogue of the department, 

 the majority of the accessions having been received from the Central 

 Park Menagerie, in New York City, the Zoological Gardens at Phila- 

 delphia, and Barnunrs Menagerie. 



The entire collection, with the exception of the shrew-mole (Soricidw), 

 has been studied and identified, and a card catalogue of the skins and 

 alcoholic specimens, which now amount to 7,451, has been completed. 

 A report was prepared during the year upon the mammals collected by 

 E. W. Nelson and C. L. McKay in Alaska. Mr. F. W. True, curator, has 

 in progress extensive investigations on American cetaceans, and is at 

 present engaged upon a revision of the dolphins. During the year Mr. 

 True visited various points on the coast of North Carolina, to study the 

 dolphin and porpoise fisheries. He has continued his studies upon the 

 toothed whales, and in connection with the comparison of skulls of the 

 American species of lynx discovered cranial differences between Lynx 

 canadensis and Lynx rufus. He has also made a new study of the kan- 

 garoo rats. 



In the spring of 1886 Mr. William T. Hornaday, chief taxidermist, 

 was sent by the Smithsonian Institution to Montana for the purpose of 

 obtaining skins and skeletons of buffalo, now on the verge of extinction. 



j DEPARTMENT OF BIRDS. 



An important part of the administrative work of this department has 

 been the extension of the collections by means of exchange. Two thou- 

 sand five hundred and eighty-one specimens have been sent out through, 

 exchange, and a full equivalent has been received. Altogether 4,147 

 specimens have been added to the collection during the year, the largest 

 contribution having been made by the Fish Commission steamer Alba- 

 tross, in the Bahamas, consisting of 1,000 specimens and about 75 species, 

 5 of which were new to science. Exchanges have been completed with 

 the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, in Paris, representing 86 specimens, 79 

 species, from Madagascar and Cochin China ; with the British Museum, 

 U35 specimens, 179 species, from India and Europe ; with the Mexican 

 Geographical Exploring Expedition, 135 specimens, 75 species ; and with 

 Count Hans von Berlepsch, of Miinden, Germany, 60 specimens, 50 

 species, of South American birds. 



More than half of the mounted collection has been transferred to ex- 

 hibition stands of the improved standard recently adopted. The final 

 labelling of the exhibition series has been deferred by delays at the 

 Government Printing Office, and advantage has been taken of the delay 

 to revise the labels in order that they may accord with the order of 



