6 COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Apr. 



Mr. Theodore Lyman has, since his return from Europe, 

 been engaged in arranging the collections of ophiurans he 

 has brought together during his travels. The collection of 

 ophiuridoe and astrophytidse is now one of the best in the 

 world, and may properly be said to have doubled in size and 

 value during the past year. Besides the collections of Prof. 

 Semper, made by him at the Philippines and presented by 

 Mr. Lyman to the Museum, a great number of species have 

 been received by donation or by exchange from the Jardin 

 des Plantes, the Museums at Stockholm, Copenhagen, Leyden, 

 Berlin, Pisa, Naples, Moscow, and from Professor Grube of 

 Breslau, Kolliker of Wtirtzburg, Dr. Fischer of Paris, and 

 Mr. Trois of Venice. Mr. T. G. Cary has continued to super- 

 intend the business of the Museum, which has of necessity 

 greatly increased with the expansion of the establishment, so 

 that the numerous claims upon his time have greatly added to 

 his disinterested labors. 



Baron von Osten-Sacken, now residing in Cambridge, has 

 kindly decided to take care of the collection of diptera. He 

 has himself, on certain most liberal conditions, deposited his 

 collections of diptera in the entomological department. Mr. 

 A. Agassiz has continued in charge of the echinoderms, and 

 has finished cataloguing the echini. He has added to his 

 department the greater part of the collection of echinoderms 

 made at the Philippine Islands by Dr. Semper. 



Dr. Steindachner, who for more than two years has had 

 charge of the ichthyological department, has returned to 

 Vienna. The Museum loses in him an able and indefatigable 

 as well as devoted worker, who has done much towards 

 placing the most valuable, perhaps, of our collections in per- 

 manent safety. 



The collections brought together by the Hassier Expedition 

 have been generally distributed to the several departments. 

 The principal addition made to our collections by donation, 

 is a magnificent collection of invertebrates from Mauritius, 

 sent to the Museum by Nicolas Pike, Esq., late consul of the 

 United States at Port Louis. An important collection which 

 it has been found necessary to suspend for the present, is a 

 collection relating to the domestic animals. Upon this work, 

 Prof. Wilder, of Cornell, and Prof. H. A. Ward, of Eochester, 



