MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 37 



REPORT ON THE REPTILES, BATRACHIANS, AND FISHES. 



Br Samuel Garman. 



Two large additions to the collections of fishes have been re- 

 ceived, one from the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, consisting of a 

 series of pelagic and shore fishes, not including any of those 

 commonly described as deep sea fishes, secured during Mr. Agas- 

 siz's researches in the Pacific Ocean; the other from the Carnegie 

 Museum, Pittsburgh, contains a set collected in British Guiana 

 by Professor Eigenmann and his aids. Other contributions were 

 received from Messrs. Thomas Barbour, William Brewster, 

 S. M. Johnson and A. P. Morse. Purchases of mounted speci- 

 mens have made large additions to the material in the exhibition 

 rooms. Central American specimens were purchased of Mr. 

 Wm. B. Richardson. A number of large serpents, some tortoises, 

 and a caiman were presented by the New York Zoological Society. 

 The tortoises loaned to Mr. Walter Rothschild for study have been 

 returned and the purchase of a series of mounted specimens, some 

 of them among the largest yet known, has greatly increased the 

 Museum's representation of the Testudinata of the Galapagos 

 Islands. By means of exchanges with the Museum Sencken- 

 bergianum important series of reptiles and batrachians from 

 Africa, Madagascar, and parts of Asia were obtained. Mr. 

 John E. Thayer's collections in central China furnished a large 

 number of valuable specimens, especially of fishes. With few 

 exceptions the new material was received in excellent condition; 

 the greater portion of it is already classified and named. 



