MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 35 



From the vicinity of Rock Island, Illinois, some very striking 

 vertebrate fossils were obtained, among which was a remarkably 

 perfect head of Dinichthys pustulosus, found several years ago by 

 Mr. A. S. Tiffany, of Davenport, and obtained by the Museum in 

 exchange with Prof. J. A. Udden, of Augustana College. Several 

 more or less fragmentary crania from equivalent strata (Hamilton 

 limestone) near Milwaukee were also examined by the Assistant, 

 with the result that the complete osteology has at length been 

 worked out for this species. This led to a comparison of the 

 osteology in as many other species and congeners, hitherto unin- 

 vestigated, as were accessible, the leading features of which have 

 been prepared for a forthcoming Bulletin. 



Finally, among the accessions of fossil fishes, a visit to Rochester 

 enabled the Assistant to procure from Ward's Natural Science Es- 

 tablishment a number of especially desirable specimens, selected 

 with a view toward completing our representation of Palaeozoic 

 forms. From Ward's also was purchased a fine mounted skeleton 

 of the European Cavern Bear, which has been placed on exhibition 

 in the room devoted to late Tertiary faunae. 



One of the most notable acquisitions of the year is the large 

 and beautifully preserved ovulite from Northern China, identi- 

 fiable as Struthiolithus chersonensis. Found originally some four 

 years ago by a Chinese peasant, from whom it was purchased by 

 Rev. W. P. Sprague, an American missionary residing in Kalgan, 

 it remained in the possession of the latter until the spring of 

 1897, when it was brought to this country by a returning fellow 

 missionary, Rev. J. P. Roberts, and was by him offered for sale to 

 a number of scientific institutions. Efforts to conclude a trans- 

 action in Boston and Cambridge proved unsuccessful in the first 

 instance, and after a time Mr. Roberts departed, taking the egg 

 with him. Finally, after considerable correspondence, as well as 

 a personal visit to Hartford by the Assistant, its purchase was 

 effected and the specimen brought back to Cambridge. It is de- 

 scribed in Vol. XXXII. No. 7 of the Museum Bulletin. Not long 

 afterwards a plaster cast of the type was received as the gift of 

 Professor Alexander Brandt, of Charkow, who described the first 

 and only other specimen yet discovered. 



Daring the year considerable progress has been made in the in- 

 vestigation of certain groups of Palaeozoic fishes in the collection, 

 together with others, borrowed from various sources, and the re- 



