REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 45 



series of the woods of Guatemala, and a collection of the fibers, fabrics, 

 herbs, tallow, crude sulphur, etc., of the country were received from the 

 Guatemalan Government through Enrique Toriello. Mr. Anastasio Al- 

 faro, secretary of the National Museum of Costa Kica, sent three photo- 

 graphs of Costa Eican antiquities and a type of a species of rail, Porzana 

 alfaro. Mr. Jose" C. Zeledon sent from Costa Rica skins of Cotinga ridg- 

 ivayi, Zeledon, a new species, and a female of Carpodectes antonice r 

 Zeledon, hitherto undescribed. A peculiar woolen garment worn by 

 Ixtatan Indians of Guatemala, and specimens of the foods used by that 

 tribe, were sent by Prof. Miles Eock. 



MEXICO. 



Many contributions from this country were received, the most com- 

 plete being that transmitted by Prof. A. Duges, of Guanajuato, which 

 embraced bird-skins, shells, fishes, plants, reptiles, insects, mammal 

 skin, and polishing slate. The director of the Mexican Geographical 

 Commission presented a collection of 324 specimens, representing 

 seventy-six species of land, fresh-water, and marine shells. A collec- 

 tion of bird-skins was made at Simora by Lieut. H. C. Benson, U. S. 

 Army. From Hon. John A. Sutter, U. S. consul at Acapulco, were re- 

 ceived specimens of cotton, hand-spun yarD, quilt, dye, and shell-fish 

 from which the dye is obtained, from the Indians of Acapulco. Gold 

 and silver ores were sent by Hon. J. T. Morgan, and ores from the 

 Piedras Negras mine were forwarded by the U. S. consul at Piedras 

 Negras. A collection of Mexican pottery, including a clay head, thirty 

 miniature clay heads, two clay toys, six obsidian arrow-heads, etc., 

 was purchased from Eev. Ward Batchelor. A slab of meteoric iron 

 weighing 850 grams, from Toluca, was forwarded by Messrs. Ward 

 & Howell, of Eochester, New York, and a collection of twenty-seven 

 specimens of the marine shells of the Gulf of Mexico, representing 

 twenty species, was received. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Several countries of this continent are represented by small collec- 

 tions or single objects. Among them are the following : Barnacles found 

 attached to a wreck at Payta, Peru, sent by Lieut. W. C. Babcock, U. S. 

 Navy 5 a crystal from Brazil, sent by Lieut. Commander H. E. Nichols, 

 U. S. Navy ; fossil shells from the Pebas group of the valley of the Am- 

 azon ; six humming-birds, contributed by F. S. Webster; a collection of 

 vegetable fibers from Brazil ; a reptile from British Guiana ; a South 

 American monkey received from the Zoological Garden of Philadelphia, 

 where it died in captivity ; specimens of a grub highly esteemed as food 

 by the natives of Venezuela, found in the heart of palm trees along the 

 Orinoco Eiver. From San tare in, Brazil, were received three bird-skins. 

 Mr. W. E. Curtis, of Chicago, Illinois, sent a small collection of ethno- 

 logical material from Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chili, Buenos Ayres, and 

 Patagonia, and a specimen of moss from near the Pass of Chicta, Andes 



