24 Report of the President. 



The Department of Vertebrate Zoology has received 

 1,108 mammals, 3,139 birds, about 1,200 reptiles and 23 fishes. 

 The most important additions have been received from the Jesup 

 and Constable expeditions, and from Colonel Nicolas Pike, who 

 has kindly presented to the Museum his large collection of New 

 York reptiles. We have also received a number of valuable speci- 

 mens in the flesh from the New York Zoological Park and from 

 the Central Park Menagerie. The accessions greatly exceed 

 those of any recent year, and include npt only a large amount of 

 material for exhibition, but many mammals from tropical and 

 arctic America wholly new to science. About forty mammals, 

 mostly large specimens, have been added to the exhibition series. 

 These include a number of rare African Antelopes, and also Deer, 

 Peccaries, and other mammals from South America. Six groups 

 for the collection of New York Mammals have been completed 

 and two others remodeled for this collection. There are now 

 fourteen of these groups finished and on exhibition, and work on 

 the others is steadily progressing. 



About one hundred birds have been added to the exhibition 

 collection, and also several new bird groups, including as the most 

 notable the large Brown Pelican group. The " Local Collection 

 of Birds," which includes the species found within fifty miles of 

 New York City, has been installed and forms one of the most 

 instructive features of the department. Besides representing 

 nearly all of the birds found in this immediate region, there are 

 special cases devoted to the birds found here at particular 

 seasons, the specimens being changed from month to month in 

 order to show just what birds are present with us at any given 

 season of the year. This arrangement proves very serviceable to 

 local bird students, who thus have only a few specimens to pass 

 in review in their search for any particular species. Considerable 

 material has been gathered for additional bird groups, and several 

 thousand specimens of birds have been received from South 

 America, which furnish many desirable species for mounting. 



In the Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology, 1899 

 has been a notable year, especially in the munificent gift of the 

 Cope Collection of North American Fishes, Amphibians and Rep- 



