REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES IN THE 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



By Richard Rathbun, Curator. 



Most attention has been paid during the past year to the working up 

 of the collection of Corals, Star-fishes, and parasitic Copepods, and to 

 the sorting, cataloguing, and preservation of specimens. Several re- 

 ports upon the groups mentioned, mainly of the nature of annotated 

 catalogues, have been completed and submitted for publication in the 

 Proceedings. No increase has been made in the number of specimens 

 on exhibition, but much material has been prepared for the display se- 

 ries, and will be mounted as soon as opportunity offers. 



The number of accessions has been rather above the average ; and, 

 as during many previous years, the Fish Commission has made the 

 largest and most important contributions. Very valuable collections of 

 Bermuda corals and sponges have been received from the Wesleyan 

 University, and donations from the naval service have been numer- 

 ous and interesting. The Fish Commission steamer Albatross was in 

 active service only during the summer and fall, so that her regular 

 southern cruises, which have always yielded very important results for 

 this department, were omitted. Much progress has been made in the 

 permanent arrangement of the general reserve collections, and many 

 duplicates have been distributed to institutions of learning throughout 

 the country. The card or reference catalogue of the identified speci- 

 mens has been kept up to date, and now covers a large part of the col- 

 lections. 



The work-rooms of this department were closed from the first of July 

 until the last of October, the curator and his assistants taking part in 

 the investigations of the Fish Commission at Wood's Holl, Massachu- 

 setts, during that period. 



Fifty-five accessions have been received by this department during 

 the year. The largest and most important of these comprised the in- 

 vertebrate collections made by the Fish Commission steamer Albatross 

 during the summer and fall months, with headquarters at Wood's 

 Holl, Massachusetts. Over 1,200 packages, many of which were of 

 large size, and contained a great variety of specimens, were sent to 

 Washington in October, as a partial result of the season's explorations, 



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