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REPORT ON THE MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



By William Brewster. 



The collection of mounted Mammals has received the following 

 additions : — 



A Solenodon (Solenodon cubanus) from Cuba ; two Armadillos 

 (Dasypus sexcinctus and Tatusia novemcincta) from Brazil ; an ar- 

 boreal, prehensile-tailed Porcupine (Synetheres prehensilis) from 

 Costa Rica ; a Hare (Lepus nigricollis) from India ; a small Deer 

 QDorcatherium aquaticum) from West Africa ; a Tree Hyrax (Den- 

 drohyrax arboreus) and a small Rodent (Georynchus capensis) 

 from Cape Colony; and a Genet {Genetta vulgaris) from Alge- 

 ria (?). The last named is the gift of Dr. H. J. Bigelow. All 

 the others were bought of Ward. 



The collection of Mounted Birds in the North American Room 

 has long been an object of adverse comment on the part of vis- 

 itors critical in such matters, and a source of mortification to the 

 Assistant in this department. Made up chiefly of birds prepared 

 by a taxidermist, whose handiwork, although neat and smoothly 

 finished, is aggressively stiff and conventional, and containing a 

 number of moth-eaten, faded, and dust-stained specimens, con- 

 tributed years ago by the Harvard Natural History Society, this 

 collection, while perhaps not inferior in quality to the average 

 exhibits of American museums, has suffered by comparison with 

 the superior material in the other and more recently equipped 

 faunal rooms. 



It has been Mr. Agassiz's intention to remedy this defect, as 

 soon as opportunity offered and the funds of the Museum permit- 

 ted, by discarding all but a few of the very best or rarest of the 

 Birds in the North American Room, and replacing them by really 

 well mounted specimens. Such an opportunity has at length 

 occurred, and without the anticipated expense ; for Mrs. Greene 

 Smith, of Peterborough, N. Y., has just given to the Museum, 



