44 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



Mr. S. O. Brown, registrar, has completed an alphabetical index of all 

 -accessions to the Museum received up to January, 1887. The manu- 

 script is included in fifteen quarto volumes, and contains 1,394 pages of 

 type- written and printed matter. This is invaluable as a resource for 

 reference. 



Of the 1,646 accessions received during this year, no less than 369 

 consisted of material sent for examination and report. The quantity of 

 this material is rapidly increasing each year, and a classified list may 

 be found in the chapter on laboratory work. 



A geographical statement has been prepared, showing the sources of 

 the more important accessions. 



Geographical Review of the more Important Accessions. 

 AFRICA. 



Comparatively few accessions were received from this continent, and 

 these embraced but few specimens each, in some cases only a single 

 object. The principal collection was that received in exchange from 

 the Bureau of Arts, Paris. This included mammals, insects, ethnologi- 

 cal material, and a series of casts of heads of various African tribes. 

 The remaining accessions were the following : Fragments of garnet 

 from Cape Colony ; meteoric iron and a "tiger eye" from Orange River; 

 an ebony club, 2 bone-pointed arrows, a drum or tom-tom and a leather 

 pouch, sent by Mr. Charles Heape, of Manchester, England, in ex- 

 change ; an ibis (Bubulcus ibis) from Egypt. From Lieut. E. H. Taunt, 

 of the U. S. Navy, was received a carved elephant's tusk, garment made 

 of dyed native cloth embroidered, and a specimen of native cloth from 

 the Baluba country, headwaters of Kassai River. 



AMERICA. 



BRITISH AMERICA. 



From Newfoundland were received collections of marine invertebrates 

 and of bird-skins. Col. Cecil Clay, of the Department of Justice, col- 

 lected and presented moose skins and skulls from Ontario. Skulls 

 of a small quadruped, Richardson's Spermophile, obtained in Manitoba, 

 were received from Mr. E. E. T. Seton. Mr. W. B. Anderson, of Fort 

 Simpson, Northwest Territory, sent a collection of shells. Some fossils 

 from the Chazy formation, Terrebonne, Quebec, and a few Canadian 

 ooins were also received. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



A few specimens illustrative of the natural history of Central America 

 were acquired. Among them the following: An iguana from Big Swan 

 Island, from which locality was also obtained a collection of twenty spec- 

 imens representing five species of land shells, sent by Mr. Charles T. 

 Simpson, and the skull of a Loggerhead turtle ( Thalassochelys caretta) j a 



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