Report of the President. 17 



The total accessions for the year are 2,172 mammals and 

 2,420 birds. 



The general work of the department has progressed satis- 

 factorily. The cataloguing and identification of the birds col- 

 lected by Mr. J. H. Batty, and the rearrangement of the study 

 collections of birds have been continued by Mr. Miller under 

 Mr. Chapman's supervision. The index, or systematic cata- 

 logue of mammals, is well advanced. 



Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology. — The most 

 noticeable event in the work of this department was the comple- 

 tion of the installation of the greatamphibious Dinosaur, Br onto- 

 saurus, discovered near MedicineBow, Wyoming, by the Museum 

 Expedition of 1898, and collected during the summer of 1899. 

 This gigantic reptile is nearly 70 feet in length and over 15 

 feet in height; it occupies the center of the new Hall of Fossil 

 Reptiles. The Brontosaurus has attracted a great deal of atten- 

 tion in the press, and has proved to be one of the most interesting 

 exhibits in the Museum. Other noteworthy installations have 

 been the skeletons of Diplodocus, a long-limbed Dinosaur ; 

 Oruitholestes, a small "bird-catching" Dinosaur ; Stegosai/rus, 

 an armored herbivorous Dinosaur ; Hadrosanrus, a duck- 

 billed herbivorous Dinosaur ; AUosanrus, a bipedal car- 

 nivorous Dinosaur ; also of the great skull of Triceratops, 

 a three-horned herbivorus Dinosaur, and finally of portions of 

 the skeleton of Tyrannosaurus, a newly-discovered carnivorous 

 and bipedal Dinosaur of immense size. The fine exhibit of 

 fossil turtles and tortoises, occupying two alcoves in the Dino- 

 saur Hall, is now nearly complete. 



The mounting of the splendid mammoth skeleton from Indi- 

 ana is nearing completion. This fine skeleton is a most impor- 

 tant addition in filling in the gaps in our series of fossil mammal 

 skeletons, and will make a striking centerpiece for the hall. 

 It is a mammoth of the largest size, standing fully 13 feet high, 

 considerably exceeding the skeleton in the St. Petersburg 

 Museum, and quite as large as the skeleton in the Paris 

 Museum. The skeleton of a four-toed horse, obtained in the 

 Bridger Basin last summer, is being prepared. This will give 



