Annual Meeting.] 6 [May 3, 



Birds. 



Mr. William Brewster, who at my request most kindly assumed 

 the charge of the Ornithological collections of the Society, has 

 together with Mr. Henshaw completed the identification and 

 arrangement of the New England collection, and will probably 

 be able to make a iinal report before the next annual meeting. 



The labelling of the collection of Humming Birds has been 

 finished by Mr. Henshaw, and a revision of the Gulls and Terns 

 begun by Mr. Brewster. Donations in addition to those to be 

 noted further on from the Arethusa expedition, have been 

 received from Messrs. Brewster, M. P. Barnard, A. J. Lewis, F. J. 

 C. Swift, and Mrs. R. H. Gardner. 



Mammals. 



This collection has received some additions due to the bequest 

 of Sydney Homer ; six specimens in all, among which may be 

 mentioned the rare Mustela Pennantii, male and female, a very 

 fine Black Bear and an excellent specimen of the Beaver. To 

 these must be added the young specimen of Elephas indicus 

 already described in the remarks on the Synoptical collection. 

 These additions will, with others yet to be added from the same 

 source, make our New England collection presentable ; but we 

 still have no occasion for congratulating ourselves upon the pros- 

 spects of this department, which is far below comparison with 

 that of any other in the Museum. 



Teachers' School of Science. 



The last annual report contained an announcement that Mr. 

 Augustus Lowell would take the larger public course given in 

 this department under the protection of the Lowell fund. This 

 promise has been carried out with characteristic thorough- 

 ness, and greater generosity than we had anticipated. He has 

 granted the Society the privilege of making its engagements, and 

 announcing its lessons in advance during the winter preceding 

 their delivery, and also allowed the use of Huntington Hall in 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the winter of 1882- 

 1883. These privileges are of such value that they will doubt- 



