REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 21 



The third paper in the volume, on the palaeontology of the Upper 

 Missouri, was described in the last report. It occupies 158 pages, 

 and is illustrated by five plates of figures engraved on stone. 



A full account of the fourth paper, on the cretaceous reptiles of 

 the United States, as given by the author, is also appended at the 

 close of this report. 



Miscellaneous Collections. — On account of the continued increase in 

 the price of printing and paper, and the unexpected length to which 

 some of the works were tending, I thought it advisable to suspend, 

 for the present, the general publication of this series. Of the list 

 of works it comprised, as given in previous reports, the only ones 

 published since the last session of the Board are the second part of 

 Binney's Bibliography of American Conchology, Meek's Check Lists 

 of Fossils, and the supplement to Loew's Diptera. 



The first of these contains an account of the writings of foreign 

 naturalists relative to American conchology, and also additions and 

 corrections of the first volume, with a copious index of authors and 

 names of species. It forms an octavo volume of 300 pages. 



The second work consists of check lists of all the species of creta- 

 ceous, Jurassic, and miocene invertebrate fossils of North America 

 which had been described up to the end of 1863. These constitute an 

 important aid in the labor of cataloguing and labelling collections. 

 The manuscript of another number of the same series, prepared by 

 Mr. Conrad, of Philadelphia, has been received. It gives a list of the 

 eocene invertebrate fossils, and, as the work is much wanted to assist 

 in the distribution of specimens, it will be put to press immediately. 



The other article of the Miscellaneous Collections published during 

 the past year is the supplement and completion of the second part 

 of the monograph of the Diptera of North America, by H. Loew. 

 A general account of the work on the diptera (comprising flies, mus- 

 quitoes, &c.) is given in the report for 1861. This order of insects 

 has perhaps a wider distribution than any other known, and, from 

 the variety and the minuteness of the specimens, is difficult of study 

 and classification. Before attempting to give a monograph of the 

 whole order, it was thought proper to print a catalogue of all the 

 genera which had been described, and this work (prepared by Baron 

 Osten Sacken) was published in 1858. The preparation of the mon- 

 ograph was intrusted to Dr. H. Loew, of Meseritz, Prussia, one of 

 the most eminent naturalists in this line now living. 



In the first part of this work is an essay on the terminology of 



