DEPARTMENT OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 121 



bird hall, in order to concentrate them and render them more conven- 

 ient for reference. Four of the standard half-unit cases were allowed 

 the department, and were placed in this hall, together with four of the 

 old style of table-cases formerly used for shells. These have afforded 

 convenient storage space, which has been devoted mainly to the dried 

 collections of Crustaceans, Gorgonian corals, and Bryozoa. The greater 

 portion of the dried collections has, however, been kept in separate unit 

 trays, arranged in piles on the floor. The tops of the exhibition cases 

 have been used for the storage of alcoholic specimens, for which there 

 was no room in the basement. 



It was decided in June to give this department the use of the north- 

 west gallery in the bird hall as a general storage and work room ; and 

 in order that the invertebrate exhibition hall might be opened to the 

 public during the summer, all the specimens stored in the latter, except 

 such as were contained in cases, were transferred to that gallery. As 

 there was no time to fit up the proper cases in the gallery, the trays and 

 boxes have been piled on the floor, pending a better arrangement next 

 fall. 



My only assistants during the past six months have been Mr. A. H. 

 Baldwin and Miss M. J. Eathbun, but through their faithful attention 

 to duties, it has been possible to transact promptly all the necessary 

 business of the department and to retain the collections in exceptionally 

 good condition. Arrangements for the summer explorations of the Fish 

 Commission were begun in May and continued through the first half of 

 June, and on June 18 the curator and both his assistants left for the 

 Wood's Holl station of the Commission to take part in the work of in- 

 vestigation. 



RESEARCHES. 



In such intervals as could be spared from the routine work of the 

 department, the curator has given most of his time to the identification 

 of the Echini contained in the general collection, and those obtained by 

 the steamer Albatross in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, in 1884 

 and 1885. Work upon the collection made by the Albatross in 1881 was 

 completed in February, and a report upon the same was published in the 

 " Proceedings" of the Museum for this year (pp. 83-89). Twenty-three 

 species were recognized, but none of these were new to science. The 

 second collection of the same character, made by the Albatross this 

 year, was not received until April, but before leaving Washington for 

 Wood's Holl, in June, the curator had identified all but a few doubtful 

 forms, which latter were to be taken to Cambridge, Mass., for compar- 

 ison with the types of Mr. Alexander Agassiz. In the same way, the 

 determinations of the general collection of Echini has been finished, so 

 far as could be done in Washington, but by arrangements with Mr. 

 Agassiz it will be possible to compare the doubtful species with the 

 very full collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology some time 



