8 



COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



[Jan. 



Baron Osten-Sackeu has continued to take charge of our 

 collection of Diptera. I regret, however, to state, that, for 

 the present, at least, his absence from Cambridge will deprive 

 the entomological department of his services. 



To Messrs. Nathaniel Thayer, Geo. B. Emerson, and Theo- 

 dore Lj^man, the Museum is indebted for means to carry on 

 specific parts of the current work. 



The publications of the past year have been limited to a 

 paper on Ophiuridae (No. 10, Vol. III. of the Bulletin), pub- 

 lished by Mr. Lyman for the Museum. 



The Museum collections have, however, formed the basis 

 of several papers by Dr. Steindachner, issued in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Vienna Academy. They were mainly devoted to 

 the fresh- water fishes of Southern Brazil, the Characines and 

 Chromids of the Amazons, and a shorter paper on some of 

 the species of Doras. 



A large series of the duplicates of the Thayer and Hassler 

 expeditions were sent to the Vienna Museum to enable Dr. 

 Steindachner to describe the principal novelties of these col- 

 lections. 



The collections (referred to above) forming a part of the 

 late Prof. Wy man's Anatomical Museum in Boylston Hall, 

 have been deposited in the Museum by the corporation of the 

 College. It is particularly rich in isolated mastodon bones ; 

 it has also a fine series of skulls in difierent stages, and forms, 

 with the nearly perfect skeleton of a mastodon, found at 

 Racket's Farm, Warren County, N. Y., an invaluable addi- 

 tion to our pala^ontological series. 



The great pains always taken to secure the authenticity of 

 original specimens in our collections, as well as the care in 

 preserving intact our more perishable material, are beginning 

 to be appreciated by specialists. During the past year we 

 have received the promise of three separate collections, all of 

 which have been accumulated during long-continued and suc- 

 cessful scientific work. It is with great pleasure I am able 

 to announce the donation, by Dr. John L. Leconte, of Phila- 

 delphia, of his collection of Coleoptera, under conditions of 

 a most generous nature, showing a flattering appreciation of 

 the aims of our institution. Dr. Leconte's collection must 

 always form the basis of any extensive original study of 



