18 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Jan. 



the first volume ready for distribution in the course of the 

 coming winter. 



Notwithstanding the activity infused in every department of 

 the Museum, and the satisfactory condition of the institution as 

 a whole, I trust I shall be permitted to add that the regular 

 resources at our command are now utterly inadequate to carry 

 on its regular operations. Had my task from the beginning 

 been restricted to the putting up of a Museum that should 

 answer the wants of the University within the limits of our 

 present means, I might be blamed for extending its sphere of 

 action ; but I understood the object of this organization to be the 

 founding of a great Museum, and I am happy to be able to say 

 that the general frame of such a Museum is not only fairly laid 

 out, but already so far advanced in some of its most important 

 features as to challenge competition. And all that is now want- 

 ing to bring every department to the same degree of perfec- 

 tion, is an addition to our regular income, and a well-digested 

 system of regulations, concerning the work to be done in the 

 Museum and the use of its treasures for scientific purposes. 



Report on the Collection of Mammalia, by A. E. Verrill. 



During the present year the work necessary for putting the 

 collection into a condition of perfect safety, and arranging the 

 specimens so that they may be always available for scientific 

 study, has been continued until it is now so far completed as 

 the limited space, allotted to this department in the cellar, will 

 allow. The alcoholic specimens have all been numbered and a 

 careful catalogue made of the species, with their localities and 

 origin. The specimens remain stored in barrels and kegs, but 

 are arranged according to their families and genera, so that 

 they are readily accessible for examination. The embryos have 

 been catalogued and arranged in jars by Professor H. J. Clark. 

 Most of the Bats (309 specimens) have been sent to Dr. H. 

 Allen, who is preparing a monograph of those found in North 

 America, for the Smithsonian Institution. The Shrews QSoric- 

 idce, 54 specimens,) and Spermophili (8 specimens) have been 

 sent to Prof. S. F. Baird, who is engaged in the study of these 



