19 



REPORT ON THE MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



By William Brewster. 



The past year has been singularly uneventful as far as this 

 department is concerned. Only two specimens have been given 

 to the Museum ; a star-nosed mole, by Miss Jennie White, and 

 a parrot, by Mr. F. W. Story. The latter is in Ward's hands for 

 mounting. A dusky duck {Anas obscura), a cormorant (Phala- 

 crocorax carho), a gannet (Sula bassana), and a brant (Branta 

 bernicla), have been purchased by Mr. Agassiz for the mounted 

 collection in the Atlantic Room. 



By an exchange with the American Museum of New York, the 

 Cambridge Museum has also received fourteen skins of ground 

 squirrels of the genus Tamias, representing about eight species 

 new to our collection. 



The following material has been lent to specialists for study 

 and elaboration : to Mr. J. A. Allen the entire series of skins of 

 mice (Muridce) and ground squirrels ( Tamias) ; to Mr. D. J. Elliot 

 certain specimens of the woodhewers or tree-creepers (Dendro- 

 colaptidai) ; to the Marquis Doria, of Genoa, all the bats and 

 some of the moles in the Alcoholic Collection. 



Mr. Allen has returned the ground squirrels after carefully 

 identifying and labelling them in accordance with his late re- 

 arrangement* of this difficult group. He still retains the mice, 

 pending the completion of his study of that family. 



Mr. Elliot's investigations have resulted in a paper entitled 

 " A Study of the Genus Dendrornis and its Species." f 



Nothing has yet been done towards the rearrangement of the 

 Alcoholic Collection of Birds, which at present is not in condition 



* See "A Review of the North American Ground Squirrels of the Genus 

 Tamias." Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. III., No. 1, May, 1890, pp. 45-116. 

 t The Auk, Vol. VII., No. 2, April, 1890, pp. 160-189. 



