128 STUDY COLLECTIONS 
rocks; a complete series typifying the rocks encountered in driving the 
Simplon tunnel, Switzerland; many ores and economic specimens. 
Invertebrate Paleontology—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 
Newberry, the Cope and several smaller collections. 
Herpetology—rThe collection of frogs, salamanders and _ reptiles 
numbers about 15,000 specimens. 
Invertebrate Zodlogy—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. (6) 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 
of 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. 

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