N ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



In addition to the specimens of recent birds, the Museum has 

 received from the Boston Society of Natural History several 

 mammalian types, the type of the fossil passerine bird, Palaeospiza 

 bella J. A. Allen, and part of the typical material of Dinornis 

 (Palapteryx) major Kneeland, one of the extinct gigantic birds of 

 New Zealand. 



The Museum is indebted to Dr. Thomas Barbour and Mr. R. W. 

 Sayles for the acquisition of a fairly complete skeleton of a fossil 

 horse Mesohippus sp. ; and to Mr. Anton Schneider, the Manager 

 of the Florida Amalgamated Phosphate Company, for some valu- 

 able mammalian and reptilian fossils. 



The Museum is also indebted to Mr. W. B. Cabot for two ex- 

 ceptionally fine antlers of Cabot's Caribou; to Mr. T. H. Hays 

 for antlers of the rare Schomburgk's Deer; to Messrs. L. A. 

 Mowbray and G. W. Smith for reptiles from Turk's Island; to 

 Prof. E. L. Mark for a collection of fishes from Bermuda; to 

 Prof. Arlo Bates for some Egyptian insects; to Prof. W. M. 

 Wheeler for series of Formicidae; to Mr. B. P. Clark for Sphingidae 

 new to the Museum; to Mr. E. D. Harris for very large series of 

 Cicindelidae; to Mr. J. H. Emerton for North American spiders; 

 to the authorities of the South African Museum, the South Aus- 

 tralian Museum, and the University of Iowa for collections of 

 echinoderms retained in return for the identification of their 

 collections; and to the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and the Canadian 

 Government for collections of marine invertebrates. 



The Library contains 53,783 volumes, and 50,470 pamphlets; 

 1,149 volumes and 1,164 pamphlets have been added during the 

 year. 



The largest single gift to the Library, that of Dr. H. B. Bigelow, 

 consists of 515 volumes, almost entirely standard works of travel. 

 These books, bequeathed to Dr. Bigelow by the late Louis Cabot, 

 though without direct bearing upon the work of the Museum, 

 have a definite value as authoritative narratives of regions of 

 prospective zoological exploration. A Merganser and a pair of 

 Bufne-heads, two Audubon paintings, the generous gift of Col. 

 John E. Thayer, show an interesting contrast between work exe- 

 cuted in 1809 and in 1815. 



The publications of the year include one number of the Me- 

 moirs, completing volume 25, seventeen numbers of the Bulletin, 

 and the Annual Report, a total of 1,217 (214 quarto, 1,003 octavo) 

 pages and 97 (20 quarto, 77 octavo) plates. 



Three numbers of the Bulletin were published in the Geological 



