MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 29 



REPORT ON INVERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY. 



By Alpheus Hyatt. 



The Assistant has rearranged the large and difficult group of the 

 Orthoceratidae, and some advance has been made towards a 

 revision of the species. In preparing a table to demonstrate the 

 relations of the life histories of twenty-one types of ammonoids to 

 the evolution of this order, he has incidentally made a number of 

 preparations and revised the genera to which the types belonged. 

 Some work has been done upon the exhibition specimens of palaeo- 

 zoic cephalopods, and these are now nearly complete. 



A series of cases extending to the ceiling have been built upon 

 the top of the wall cases in two of the four storage rooms, and the 

 additional space thus gained is 632 trays. 



An extraordinarily fine collection of fossil corals has been 

 donated by Mr. Alexander Agassiz. The most important part of 

 this was collected by Major W. J. Davis, of Louisville, Ky., from 

 the Silurian and Devonian of the vicinity of that town, and espe- 

 cially at the falls of the Ohio River. The remainder was collected 

 from the same region by Mr. Wm. J. McOonathy, and consists of 

 similar fine materials. These fossils are mostly silicified, and 

 this enabled Major Davis to etch them out from the limestone 

 matrix, and thus produce extremely perfect and often beautiful 

 preparations of these interesting palaeozoic corals. This collection 

 has also had the benefit of relabelling and thorough revision by 

 Major Davis himself, who spent two months in this work after 

 the specimens were unpacked, and they have since been cata- 

 logued by Miss Bryant under Dr. Jackson's direction. It contains 

 most of the originals of Major Davis's descriptions, published by 

 the Geological Survey of Kentucky. There are over three hun- 

 dred species, and twenty-four genera, represented by 1,789 

 catalogued lots, these for the most part consisting of suites 

 of specimens. 



