24 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Apr. 



and seventeen specimens. This does not show a very large in- 

 crease during the present term, but the accessions have been 

 mainly of a very superior character. We cannot hope, with 

 our large collection, to receive many new things, and it would 

 be unwise to overburden ourselves with useless duplicates ; 

 hence it has been our constant aim to solicit such species only 

 as were not already in our collection or but indifferently repre- 

 sented there, and this has also tended to limit the number re- 

 ceived. Thus restricted, our increase has necessarily been 

 slower but more useful, and we have had the pleasure of re- 

 ceiving several parcels of shells possessing no ordinary interest. 

 Among these we may mention a package containing the most 

 complete collection we have ever seen of the land shells found 

 in the Madeira group, but few species being absent of all those 

 which are known to occur there. These specimens were in a 

 most excellent state of preservation, totally unlike the ordinary 

 sub-fossil condition in which we so generally receive specimens 

 from those islands ; and the number was also considerable, being 

 one hundred and forty-four species and four thousand four hun- 

 dred and thirty specimens, all fluviatile and terrestrial. But 

 one regret was felt in receiving this most beautiful and welcome 

 addition to our collection, and that consisted in the fact that 

 they came unannounced and unaccompanied by any letter or 

 invoice through which the name of the donor could be with 

 certainty determined, thus preventing us from making due ac- 

 knowledgments to him for his valuable and timely present — it 

 is one of the most complete additions made to our collection for 

 many years. 



Mr. J. A. Allen, the Ornithologist of the Museum, having for 

 his health spent a period of last winter in the more genial 

 climate of Florida, has contributed a valuable addition of fresh- 

 water shells from a portion of our country to which we have 

 hitherto had very few opportunities of access. 



With the consent of Professor Peirce, Superintendent of the 

 Coast Survey, Count Pourtales has also deposited with us the 

 results of dredgings made in the Gulf Stream. These dredgings 

 are of a highly interesting character, bringing to light specimens 

 of many species hitherto considered only to exist in a fossil 

 condition, tending strongly towards a material change of opinion, 



