20 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Feb. 
While laboring in this direction, less attention has been paid 
to our exchanges and other means of increasing the collection 
than formerly, and we have consequently less to report than 
usual in this department. The whole number of packages 
received during the past year has been 30, containing 1,523 
species and 21,394 specimens from 26 persons. 
Some of these packages have contained shells of unusual 
interest, deserving more than a passing notice. Among these 
we may mention two parcels received from W. G. Binney, Esq., 
one of them containing the type shells used by him in his own 
publications, and the other the specimens which his father 
referred to while writing his costly and valuable work on the 
‘Terrestrial Air-breathing Mollusks of the United States.’ 
These type specimens, with the author’s labels, are of more 
than ordinary interest, advancing as they do one of the special 
objects we have in view, viz., the procuring of undoubted 
representatives of all described forms of mollusks. In this 
way only may we hope to avoid one of the greatest obstacles 
the present generation of naturalists labor under in determining 
species, it being now impossible in many cases to know what 
an author really described, for want of authentic types of his 
species. 
Another contributor, Mr. Geale, of London, has sent us 92 
species of Cyprzea, carefully labelled, from Mr. Cumings’ col- 
lection, a collection unrivalled for beauty and perfection of 
specimens and accuracy of labels. 
One of the most important additions made to our collection 
of mollusks during the past year has been by purchase from 
Mr. T. Bland, of New York, of his large and carefully labelled 
collection of North American land shells, the result of many 
years of patient labor on his part, and embracing 260 species 
and 2,494 specimens. The well known accuracy of Mr. Bland 
in this department, which has been a specialty with him for a 
lifetime, renders this collection one of no ordinary value, and 
it may well form, as we trust it will, the basis of a formal 
arrangement of the shells of North America, which has long 
been one of the prominent desiderata of our Museum. 
The remaining specimens received during the year from 
various sources have been mainly derived from our exchanges. 
Nevertheless we have not failed to be remembered by our con- 
