MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



9 



REPORT ON THE MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



By William Brewster. 



The following additions have been made to the collection of 

 birds : — 



By purchase from Oliver Spanner & Co., of Toronto: Two 

 Kiwis, one a mounted specimen (Apteryx lawryi) from Stewart 

 Island, New Zealand, the other a skin (Aptcryx hamti), from 

 Middle Island, New Zealand, and the skins of a pair of " wing- 

 less " D acks (Nesonetta aucklandia) from the Auckland Islands. 



By gift : From the British Museum, the final instalment of a 

 valuable series of Indian birds from the Hume Collection, includ- 

 ing a number of Parrots, Hawks, Pigeons, and Water Birds ; 

 from Mr. R. L. Agassiz, a Wilson's Thrush {Tardus fuscescens), 

 a Northern Eider (Somateria mollissima borealis"), three King Eid- 

 ers (Somateria spectabilis), and a Cory's Shearwater (Puffinus 

 borealis), all in the form of skins and all taken at or near New- 

 port, Rhode Island ; from Mrs. G. H. Bo lit well, a male Silver 

 Pheasant (Euplocamus nyctliemerus) received in the flesh, and 

 mounted at the Museum by Mr. Michael Reitz ; from Mr. Samuel 

 Henshaw, a nest of the House Sparrow {Passer domesticus) from 

 Cambridge ; from Mr. William Brewster, seventy skins, repre- 

 senting thirty-eight species of birds, most of which were taken in 

 the United States and the West Indies. 



No mammals have been received during the past year. As I 

 stated in the Report for 1895-96 (p. 46), the systematic as well 

 as faunal collections of mounted mammals were long since so 

 nearly completed along the lines which govern the general plan 

 of the exhibition collections, that it is neither practicable nor de- 

 sirable to add largely to them in the near future, but some of the 

 specimens which have been long exposed to a strong southern 

 light have become so badly faded that they will have to be re- 

 placed at no distant day. A pressing need, however, is that of ;i 



