1883.] 349 [Annual Meeting. 



There are now on the shelves types of seventy-five families, and 

 two hundred and forty genera, four hundred species, and nine 

 hundred specimens. The number of families of fishes described in 

 Gunther's British Museum Catalogue is one hundred and sixteen, 

 so that we still need the representatives of about forty-one families. 



Dr. H. E. Davidson still continues to work for the benefit of 

 the Society in this direction, and has presented us during the year 

 with thirty more of his beautiful preparations of fishes. 



Progress has been made with the New England Collection, but 

 it is not yet completed as was anticipated. It contains at present 

 150 species, and 800 specimens. 



Birds. 



Mr. William Brewster, who is in charge of our Ornithological 

 Department, assisted by Mr. Henshaw, has thoroughly overhauled 

 the New England Collection, and materially improved its condition. 

 The specimens have been carefully re-identified and relabelled, a 

 task rendered necessary by the lack of uniformity, and occasional 

 erroneous nomenclature of the old labels; moth-eaten and worth- 

 less birds, have been replaced by perfect ones ; and those whose 

 origin was doubtful or unknown have been removed to the 

 general collection. 



This has occasioned many gaps, which may have excited the 

 surprise of those who have examined the list of desiderata issued 

 early in the year, but it was unavoidable in dealing with a collec- 

 tion intended to represent the fauna of New England by speci- 

 mens obtained, wherever possible, actually from within its limits. 

 Fortunately most of these vacancies can be easily filled, and 

 the present state of the collection is not discreditable to the 

 Society. 



There are about 370 species and varieties accredited to New 

 England ; the collection posseses 279 species represented by 634 

 specimens. This apparently leaves us about one hundred species 

 short, but it must be remembered that this hundred includes a 

 very large proportion of unique specimens, stragglers, and rare 

 species which we shall acquire with great difficulty and very 

 slowly. 



The accessions to the New England Collection during 1882 in- 

 clude specimens presented by Messrs C. A. Houghton, F. J. C. 



