MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 23 



REPORT ON THE BIRDS. 



By William Brewster. 



In my report for 1899-1900 I mentioned that the Museum had 

 received that } r ear "from the Bigelow family of Boston, through 

 Mr. Henry Bryant Bigelow, . . . nominally on deposit, but with 

 the assurance that they are not likely to be removed from their 

 present quarters," a large number of skins of North American 

 and West Indian birds. All of these have now been formally 

 presented to the Museum by Mr. Bigelow (see [D], page 34). 



This collection forms, without question, not only the largest but 

 decidedly the most valuable acquisition which our bird department 

 has received by gift since I have been connected with it. There 

 are, as I stated in the report for 1899-1900, " upwards of eight 

 thousand skins of North American and West Indian birds. Of 

 these about six hundred — the original nucleus of the collection — 

 are of especial interest and value from the fact that they were col- 

 lected and prepared by the late Dr. Henry Bryant, the others 

 having been obtained later by Dr. William S. Bryant and his 

 nephew, Mr. Bigelow." Most of the specimens are in excellent 

 condition, and the greater part of them have been relabelled under 

 Mr. Bigelow's direction and at his expense. Nothing remains to 

 be done to them, therefore, but to weed out such as are obviously 

 duplicates (the number of these is not likely to be large, for very 

 fortunately the collection, as a whole, supplements rather than 

 duplicates that already in the Museum) and to enter the remain- 

 ing birds in our catalogue. 



The Museum is still further indebted to Mr. Bigelow for a col- 

 lection of birds made by him in Ceylon as well as for those of one 

 hundred and ninety-nine North American birds. 



The Museum has also received by gift : From G. Nelson, six 

 mounted specimens of North American birds ; from T. Barbour, 

 an albinistic specimen (mounted) of the Florida Grackle ( Quiscalus 

 q. aglceus) ; from Willis H. Chandler, a mounted parrot (Psittacus 



