MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 5 



Notable changes have been made in some of the exhibition 

 rooms. The Tertiary, Quaternary, and Jurassic Rooms have been 

 completely cased, heavy plate-glass the full height of the cases 

 being employed, thus avoiding the obtrusive sash bars of the 

 cases in the older exhibition rooms. In two of the rooms plate- 

 glass screens forty feet in length have been constructed, behind 

 which the larger fossil vertebrates are grouped. The exhibits in 

 these rooms are in process of installation. In the hallway of the 

 main entrance on the second floor a large case has been con- 

 structed to contain an exhibit of apparatus used in the investiga- 

 tion of the ocean, such as sounding machinery, deep-sea nets and 

 trawls, dredges, etc. 



The arrival of a superb specimen of the giraffe from Rowland 

 Ward has necessitated a radical change in the African Room. 

 The three floor cases which contained the larger mammals have 

 been removed, and a single large plate-glass case with a monitor 

 top, eighteen feet in height, erected in its place. The effect is 

 pleasing and dignified, and adds much to the attractiveness of 

 one of the most interesting of the faunal exhibits. It is hoped to 

 install such large central cases in others of the faunal rooms. 



The Pacific Room has received many important additions in 

 birds from the Hawaiian and Galapagos Islands, and many minor 

 exhibition specimens have been distributed throughout the Mu- 

 seum, chief amongst which are the mounted turtles and reptiles 

 in the North American Room, the work of Mr. Nelson. 



Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan visited the Museum to examine the 

 extensive collections of limestones from the Pacific Islands, brought 

 together by Mr. Agassiz, with a view to preparing a report on the 

 fossil corals. The material selected by him has been forwarded 

 to Washington. Professor C. L. Edwards and his assistant spent 

 several days in Cambridge studying the collections of Holothuri- 

 oidea. The palaeozoic starfishes loaned to Dr. Suchert have all 

 been returned. 



The Library report of Mr. Henshaw shows the accessions for the 

 year to be 9,147 volumes, parts of volumes, pamphlets, and maps, 

 nearly doubling in number the accessions registered in the last 

 report. The total number of volumes now in the Museum Library 

 is upwards of 38,000, and of pamphlets upwards of 30,000. This 

 great increment is due in a measure, as Mr. Henshaw points out, 

 to parts of the Hagen and Whitney libraries not hitherto cata- 



