REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 

 IN THE U. S, NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



By Frederick W. True, Acting Curator. 



The fiscal year to be covered by this report was not a very favorable 

 one for the department. The acting curator was too much engrossed 

 by his duties as the head of another department to do more than to 

 oversee in a general way the operations carried on ; while the assistant 

 curator, who serves also as a preparator, was called upon to do consid- 

 erable work in connection with the installation of vertebrate fossils and 

 domestic animals, and also to prepare certain scientific articles for the 

 report of the Museum. 



The work done during the year was chiefly in the direction of per- 

 fecting the exhibition series and the study series of osteological speci- 

 mens, and caring for material received in a fresh condition. In this 

 connection the birds received the greatest share of attention. No at- 

 tempt was made to obtain or exhibit any preparations of soft parts, 

 owing to the lack of the necessary facilities and assistance. 



Aside from the skulls belonging to skins in the Department of Mam- 

 mals, there were few important accessions of osteological specimens of 

 mammals. A skull of the South American Otter, Lutra felina, was 

 received from the British Museum. A skeleton of a common Armadillo 

 was purchased. The skeleton of a Black Bear which died in the Na- 

 tional Zoological Park was added to the collection. Reference to the 

 skulls belonging to skins in the Department of Mammals will be found 

 in the report of that department. 



An important series of birds in alcohol was collected by the United 

 States Astronomical Expedition to Angola, Africa. This material has 

 not yet been identified or entered. Skeletons of two adult Hoatzins, 

 Opisthocomus cristatus, and those of five young individuals were re- 

 ceived from the Demerara Museum. Skeletons of the King Penguin, 

 Aptenodyies forsteri, and of the Little Penguin, Eudyptlla minor, were 

 purchased. An extensive series of North American water-fowl in alco- 

 hol was presented by Mr. G. Frean Morcom through Dr. R. W. Shu- 

 feldt. Dr. Shufeldt also presented a large number of birds in alcohol, 

 principally of species inhabiting western North America. 



An important reptilian skeleton was that of the Abingdon Island 



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