Report of the President. 25 



which have been placed the objects found in the upper and 

 lower deposits. 



The human skulls which have been obtained in connection 

 with the Hyde expedition in the southwest, and the Villard 

 and other expeditions in Peru have been arranged geograph- 

 ically and studied by Dr. Hrdlieka, who has prepared for pub- 

 lication an elaborate memoir on the physical characters of 

 the peoples of the southwest. 



Special attention is called to the Ainu collection secured by 

 Professor Bashford Dean of Columbia University during his 

 recent visit to Japan. By the kindness of Arthur Curtiss 

 James, Esq., to whom we are indebted already for much Ainu 

 material, this collection has been added to our series illus- 

 trating the culture of that interesting tribe. 



Department of Entomology.— The Curator of Entomol- 

 ogy reports that the arrangement of the exhibition collection 

 of Beetles has progressed considerably during the year, and 

 that it is now fairly well advanced. Enlarged drawings of 

 some of the minute forms have been made and placed in the 

 cases near the specimens. Such illustrations enable the vis- 

 itor to form an idea of the nature of objects otherwise too 

 small for. exhibition. In March the Museum issued a Memoir 

 on the Sesiidse, or Clearwinged Moths, of America north of 

 Mexico, by the Curator. The monograph consists of one 

 hundred thirty-eight pages of text, with twenty-four text 

 cuts and eight plates. 



The Very Reverend Eugene A. Hoffman has continued his 

 generous gifts to the department by donating more than one 

 thousand butterflies. These are being mounted on plaster of 

 Paris exhibition tablets, ready for display as soon as cases 

 have been provided for their reception. This calls attention 

 to the fact that there are already more than two thousand 

 such specimens on hand which cannot be exhibited for lack of 

 case room. During the autumn the Curator spent his vacation 

 in the Black Mountains of North Carolina continuing his in- 

 vestigations of the previous year. This expedition added to 

 the collections of the deoartment more than three thousand 



