6 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



To the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries the Museum is under obliga- 

 tions for two large series of marine invertebrates, both collected 

 during cruises of the Albatross. One of these collections, the 

 schizopods, obtained during the 1899-1900 and the 1904-1905 

 expeditions has been in the hands of Dr. H. J. Hansen of Copen- 

 hagen. His report forms number 4 of volume 35 of the Memoirs 

 of the Museum. This collection was received in Cambridge in 

 perfect condition and its value is very much enhanced by Dr. 

 Hansen's careful and exact labeling. The labeling of similar 

 collections is too frequently done in a purely mechanical way by 

 inexperienced hands and is consequently without the authority 

 that original material should have. The second accession, the 

 gift of the Bureau, is the series of Hydromedusae, Scyphomedusae, 

 siphonophores and ctenophores collected by the Albatross during 

 1904-1905 and 1906; the reports on the scientific results obtained 

 from these collections have been prepared by Dr. Bigelow. 



The Museum is also indebted to Miss H. E. Hooker, and to 

 Messrs. W. L. Allen, Henry Hales, A. H. Higginson, and Harry 

 W. Smith for additions to the collection of domestic animals, 

 to Yale University, through Prof. Charles Schuchert, for a set of 

 casts of a Pteranodon, and to Mrs. Walter Channing for some 

 interesting birds. 



The thanks of the Museum are due Messrs. Faxon, Brewster, 

 Bangs, Bigelow, and Sayles for their interest in the collections 

 entrusted to their care and also to Mr. Thomas Barbour who 

 makes his first report as Associate Curator of reptiles and amphi- 

 bians. 



The Museum collections benefit each year from the visits of 

 specialists. Two noteworthy instances during the year may be 

 mentioned. Dr. Kiikenthal studied critically a large part of the 

 alcyonarian corals, and received as a loan for a detailed examina- 

 tion at his convenience a small series of foetal whales and sirenians. 

 Dr. Carlos de la Torre has added very many rare and desirable 

 Cuban species of vertebrates and invertebrates to the collection, 

 and the Museum is especially indebted to him for a thorough and 

 critical revision of a very large part of its Cuban land shells. Dr. 

 de la Torre's exact knowledge of the Cuban Pulmonifera and his 

 personal relations with earlier students of West Indian Mollusca 

 enabled him to disentangle many doubtful points of identification 

 and of nomenclature. 



The collection of Araneida has been increased in size and im- 

 proved scientifically by the voluntary work of Miss E. B. Bryant. 



