6 



complete the collections already begun, has led to making con- 

 tracts with Prof. H. A. Ward, of Rochester, for all the mammals 

 of North America, as far south as the Rio Grande between Texas 

 and Mexico, as is necessary to supplement our present collection 

 and make it complete in every respect. One consignment of these 

 specimens has been received, which includes a remarkably fine 

 group of walruses from Alaska. A second contract made with 

 Prof. Ward is to provide the Museum with specimens of all the 

 monkeys of the world, and during the year the Museum will re- 

 ceive from both these contracts large and valuable additions. 



All the mammals on exhibition have been fully and satisfacto- 

 rily labeled, and the specimens to arrive will be provided with 

 labels as rapidly as they are placed in the cases. 



"Visitors' Guides," with photographic views of the different 

 Halls, have just been issued. 



The rapid growth of the Economic Department, particularly 

 that portion illustrating the forestry of the United States, has ne- 

 cessitated the construction of a large glass case, in two sections, 

 extending along the middle of the Lower Hall ; and the Wolfe 

 collection of shells, now on that floor, will be moved to the Upper 

 Hall where they will be better and more satisfactorily placed, in 

 connection with their allied fossil forms. 



The grand effect of our exhibition halls may be somewhat im- 

 paired by an overcrowding of cases upon their floors when all the 

 additions to our collections are received, but it will illustrate the 

 imperative necessity for an immediate application to the City for 

 the erection of another wing, of the same form and dimensions as 

 the one now occupied. If such an additional structure were 

 begun at once, it is thought more specimens would be gathered, 

 at the present rate of growth, by the time such building would be 

 completed, than it could properly display. 



In the collection of Birds, in the Main Hall, the transferring 

 from stands of various forms and materials to a uniform series of 

 mahogany has been completed, and the Birds of North America 

 have been labeled. 



In the Gallery, the costly dresses, implements, carvings and 

 other specimens illustrating the ethnology of British Columbia, 

 which were gathered during 1881, by Dr. J. W. Powell, Superin- 



