16 MUSEUM OP COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Jan. 



and that it will be possible hereafter to devote a larger part of 

 our working force to other departments, which thus far have 

 received an inadequate share of attention. The Mammalia and 

 Birds need especially to be cared for, and great additions to 

 these classes will be required before they are brought to the 

 same footing as the lower classes. The Insects also demand 

 greater attention, not so much to increase the number of 

 specimens, as to identify and systematically arrange the mater- 

 ials already stored up in our magazines. The Mollusks are 

 now rapidly arranging. It has been my good fortune to secure 

 the co-operation of Mr. J. G. Anthony, who has been for nearly 

 forty years one of the leading conchologists of America, and 

 his zeal and activity, as well as exquisite neatness in putting 

 up specimens, will soon change the whole aspect of that depart- 

 ment of the Museum. I take this opportunity to bear also 

 witness to the devotion of the other gentlemen engaged upon 

 the work of the Museum. Prof. Marcou has been chiefly 

 engaged with the library and the arrangement of the fossils. 

 Mr. Scudder, after a protracted absence, is about resuming his 

 work upon Insects, in which Mr. Packard is now taking a 

 regular part. Dr. Stimpson has arranged a part of the Crus- 

 tacea. Mr. Yerrill has completed the arrangement and identi- 

 fication of the living Polyps, and is now proceeding to the 

 fossils. Mr. A. Agassiz has also completed the arrangement of 

 the Echinoids and will now proceed to the Asterioids and 

 other Echinoderms. The task assigned to Mr. Putnam is 

 almost hopeless. Our collection of fishes is now so extensive 

 that it would require the attention of several assistants to be 

 completed in a reasonable time. What Mr. Putnam has done 

 thus far, to put it in order, is all that I could have expected. 

 It gives me special pleasure to state that both Mr. Hyatt and 

 Mr. Bickmore, after serving for nine months in the army, have 

 now returned to their study in the Museum, where Mr. Hyatt 

 has resumed his monographic investigation of the Cephalopods, 

 and Mr. Bickmore is arranging the very fine collections he 

 had an opportunity of making upon the coast of North Carolina 

 while detached upon special hospital duty near the sea shore. 

 We owe special thanks to Colonel Francis Lee, for the facilities 

 afforded on that occasion to Mr. Bickmore. It is my painful 

 duty to add that Mr. Craigin, who had also entered the service, 



