15 



REPORT ON THE MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



By J. A. Allen. 



Mammals. — The additions during the year indude sixty-five 

 mounted and thirty unmounted skins, twenty mounted skeletons 

 and about the same number of skeletons unmounted. Amons; 

 the stuffed specimens are a fine Indian elephant, a gaur ox, a 

 Bactrian camel, a nilghau, a kob antelope, a brindled gnu, a pair 

 of chimpanzees, a lion, an ibex, two species of porpoise, and a 

 number of monkeys and antelopes. The mounted skeletons also 

 include several large pieces. 



Birds. — The number of skins added is seventeen hundred and 

 forty-four, and includes about six hundred mounted specimens. 

 Among them are various species of pheasants, birds of paradise, 

 pittas, humming-birds, manucodias, etc., as well as many less 

 showy species of considerable rarity. There have been added 

 also twenty-five mounted skeletons, besides nearly as many un- 

 mounted, and fifty sets of eggs, representing as many species. 

 These are especially noteworthy as being nearly all from the 

 Argentine Republic, thoroughly identified and beautifully pre- 

 pared. The principal additions are from the West Indies and 

 South America, including three hundred skins from Santa Lucia, 

 British West Indies, three hundred and seventy from Trinidad 

 and the island of Grenada, and five hundred from the Argentine 

 Republic. The latter were all collected near Concepcion del 

 Uruguay, and represent over two hundred species, forming an 

 excellent suite of the birds of that immediate vicinity. 



In general, it may be stated that the increase of material for 

 the Faunal rooms has progressed satisfactorily. The South 

 American room, though still incomplete, has been opened to the 

 public, and there is a large accumulation of material for the 

 Indian and African rooms, which only awaits the completion of 

 the cases, to be transferred to the exhibition rooms. 



The preparation and identification of the fossil mammals 



