30 



Of birds, 89 specimens have been mounted and placed on ex- 

 hibition, and 48 made into skins for the Study Collection, and 

 skeletons made of six others. The mounted birds include a 

 Cassowary and various European and South American species. 

 Work on the Bird Groups has been continued and a number of 

 them completed, including those illustrating the Pied-billed 

 Grebe, the Laughing Gull, the Ruffed Grouse, and the Labrador 

 Duck. The latter is a winter study made on Long Island, where 

 this now supposed extinct species was formerly a more or less 

 common winter migrant. 



DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



Most of the time during the year has been devoted to the prepa- 

 ration and gathering of specimens for the " Jesup Collection of 

 Economic Entomology," and the Study and Exhibition Collec- 

 tions of Insects. In both these collections much progress has 

 been made ; to the Economic Collection, thirty-six groups have 

 been added, and to the Study and Exhibition Collections, about 

 two thousand five hundred specimens have been added. Five 

 large and twelve small Economic Insect Groups have been com- 

 pleted and placed on exhibition, and forty-four groups are in 

 progress (including those collected in 1889), and are expected to 

 be finished and ready for exhibition before the summer. These 

 groups will be exhibited with the "Jesup Collection of Woods"; 

 they represent the life histories and other phases of insects 

 injurious to forest and shade trees, and are illustrated by their 

 food-plants, made in wax, showing the injury done to the trees 

 by the insects. This feature will not only prove useful to prac- 

 tical foresters, but also will be of educational value to students of 

 entomology and the public. 



During the latter part of the year the collection of insects of 

 the late Dr. S. Lowell Elliot was generously presented to the 

 Museum by Mrs. Margeritha Schuyler Elliot. The collection is 

 a very fine one, and consists of one hundred and forty-five cases, 

 14 x 24 inches, containing about six thousand six hundred speci- 

 mens of Butterflies and Moths, in absolutely perfect condition, 

 and fifteen cases containing about four hundred specimens of 

 insects of various orders. Almost all the Butterflies and Moths 

 of this collection are bred specimens, and many of our rarer Lepi- 

 doptera are represented by entire broods, showing the variation 

 and intergradation of the species. The suites of Datatias and 

 Limacodes are probably the largest and finest that have ever 

 been brought together. Almost all the specimens in this collec- 

 tion have been collected in New York City and vicinity. 



Notwithstanding the satisfactory progress that has been made, 

 much yet remains to be done to bring the Museum Collection of 



