130 STUDY COLLECTIONS 



Invertebrate Palaontology. — Great numbers of fossil invertebrates, 

 too numerous and varied to particularize, but representing many of the 

 important groups and including a large number of types. 



Foremost among these is the James Hall collection comprising about 

 7,000 types of New York State fossils, though most important additions 

 have been made, especially during 1917. 



Ichthyology. — The collection of fishes comprises about 7,000 cata- 

 logued specimens, preserved in alcohol and kept in tanks and jars. 



The fossil fish collection is one of the largest, if not the largest, in 

 America, comprising about 10,000 catalogued specimens; it includes the 

 Xewberry, the Cope and several smaller collections. 



Herpetology. — The collection of frogs, salamanders and reptiles 

 numbers about 15,000 specimens. 



Invertebrate Zoology — General Invertebrates. — About 60,000 speci- 

 mens of protozoans, sponges, polyps, starfishes, sea-urchins, worms, 

 crustaceans, spiders, myriapods and chordates. 



Insects. — (a) Local collection comprising insects within fifty 

 miles of New York City, (b) General collection including more than 

 500,000 specimens, among them the types of many species. 



Shells. — The Molluscan collections of the Museum, exclusive 

 of fossils, include about 15,000 species, comprised for the most part 

 in the Jay and Haines collections. 



Mammalogy. — The study collection of mammals contains about 

 35,000 skins, skulls and skeletons exclusive of the material obtained by 

 the Congo Expedition which has not yet been fully catalogued, but 

 comprises about 5,800 mammals, 6,200 birds, 4,800 reptiles and 6,000 

 fishes, besides 3,800 ethnographical specimens and more than 100,000 

 invertebrates, the results of six years' work. 



The Museum is especially rich in South American forms. Mexico 

 and the Arctic are well represented; from the latter region there is a 

 large and unique series of the beautiful white Peary's caribou and of the 

 Greenland muskox, comprising about 150 specimens. The collection 

 of whales is one of the finest in the world. 



Ornithology. — The study collection of birds consists of approximately 

 130,000 skins and mounted birds, about nine-tenths of which are from 

 the Western Hemisphere, and several thousand nests and eggs. South 

 America is represented by a large collection from Matto Grosso, 

 Brazil, and very extensive collections from Colombia, Ecuador. Peru, 

 Venezuela and Trinidad. 



From North America, there are important collections from Mexico, 

 Nicaragua, California, Texas, Arizona and the Middle Atlantic States— 

 the Rocky Mountain region being most poorly represented. Of special 



