Report of the President. 21 



visual method, and delivered an illustrated lecture to a class of 

 the youngest pupils in this city, and in Albany, in order to test 

 the efficiency of the method of instructing those who enter the 

 lowest grades of the public schools. Experimental trials were 

 very encouraging, and their continuance through the teachers of the 

 lower grade classes was approved by the State Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction. 



A series of seventy-five drawings of some of the birds of our 

 country have just been completed, and slides colored from the 

 specimens in our halls. These slides were exhibited by the 

 Curator at the annual meeting of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, and at the meeting of the Audubon Society of the State 

 of New York, held at the Museum during the autumn and 

 winter. On one screen appeared the slide showing the specimen, 

 and beside it were exhibited views of Central Park and other 

 parts of our State in summer and in winter, so that the bird, its 

 habitat, and the season of its presence, were shown at the same 

 time. The courses of lectures delivered by the Curator during 

 1897 to the teachers of the public schools were in accordance 

 with the series of subjects approved by the Honorable Charles 

 R. Skinner, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



The free lectures given to our citizens under the joint auspices 

 of the Board of Education and this Institution have been main- 

 tained with undiminished success under the direction of Dr. 

 Henry M. Leipziger, Supervisor of Lectures. That their popularity 

 has largely increased is evinced by the numbers unable to gain 

 admission to the hall on Tuesday evenings. The lectures given 

 under the auspices of the Linnaean Society ; the New York Bo- 

 tanical Garden ; the Audubon Society ; the New York Entomo- 

 logical Society, and the receptions of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences and the New York Microscopical Society have necessi- 

 tated the opening of the Museum one extra evening each week. 

 The Trustees have devoted Tuesday evenings for the Board of 

 Education Series, and Saturday evenings for the lectures given by 

 the Professors of Columbia University ; these courses extend 

 from October to May inclusive. Tickets to these lectures are 

 always sent to members of the Museum. 



