6 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



The income of the Brewster Fund, when available, will enable 

 the department of ornithology to secure some of the desirable 

 specimens which are from time to time offered for sale. 



So large an acquisition as the Brewster collection of bird skins, 

 and the proper interpolation of the same in the Museum series, 

 could not be accomplished readily at any time, and it is owing 

 to the kindness of Dr. E. L. Mark, who has allowed the storage of 

 very many of the Brewster cases in the central space of the large 

 zoological laboratory adjacent to the ornithological collections, 

 that the immediate use of the Brewster collection of bird skins is 

 possible. It is only through Dr. Mark's good offices, the invasion 

 of rooms devoted to departments other than ornithology, and the 

 closing of one of the exhibition rooms, that the temporary storage 

 of the Brewster collection has been brought about. And this 

 crowded and unsatisfactory condition, though emphasized by 

 the Brewster bequest, is not confined to the ornithological depart- 

 ment. It is true with hardly an exception in all departments; 

 the great gift of the Nathan Banks entomological collections 

 would add little to the scientific resources of the Museum were 

 they not still in charge of their generous donor; the recent addi- 

 tions to the department of invertebrate palaeontology are stored, 

 rather than conveniently arranged for reference and study; the 

 collections of recent Echini, one of the great treasures of the 

 Museum, are housed in part in the basement, in part on the fifth 

 floor, with the work room of the Curator on the second floor, 

 and the collections of lower vertebrates are similarly disunited. 



Relief from this condition can be obtained by the removal of 

 zoological instruction from the Museum to a nearby biological 

 laboratory building, an event of three-fold consequence: facilities 

 for research would be enlarged, an ever present and ever increas- 

 ing menace to the Museum collections would be eliminated, and 

 it would provide for the growth and expansion of lines of work 

 which should not be carried on in a building containing typical 

 historical material, coincident from the beginning of systematic 

 zoology to the present day. 



For an accession of unique interest and value, the Museum is 

 indebted to the American Museum of Natural History. At the 

 second meeting of the American Association for the Advancement 



