MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



53 



REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF VERTEBRATE 

 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



By Charles R. Eastman. 



The work in this Department has been carried on in accordance 

 with the lines laid down in the last Report. The greater part of 

 the Assistant's time has been devoted to the care of the collec- 

 tions ; incidentally a selection has been made of specimens to be 

 placed on exhibition, and some attention has been given also to 

 the detailed study of certain groups of fossil Fishes. The task of 

 identifying, labelling, and cataloguing the collection has pro- 

 gressed uninterruptedly. xVs a record is kept of the transfer of 

 each specimen from the study series to the Exhibition Rooms, or 

 vice versa, the location of all catalogued material in the Museum 

 is apparent from a mere inspection of the cards. A quantity of 

 broken or oxidized specimens have been repaired, and numerous 

 others have been put in readiness for exhibition. 



The Mesozoic Exhibition Room having been placed in order 

 during the winter, it was thrown open to the public in March. A 

 suite of fossil Fishes and Amphibians will shortly be installed in 

 the new Palaeozoic Exhibition Room. 



Some very notable additions have been made during the year. 

 Certain interesting reptilian casts and one of Dinotherium were 

 purchased in England, and the majority of them are now on exhibi- 

 tion. By its acquisition of the Whitney Collection the Museum 

 was enriched with a large number of specimens possessing great 

 intrinsic and historical value, many of them being types. No less 

 than thirty-five boxes of fossils, besides twenty-five of minerals 

 and books, were brought down from Northampton last fall, where 

 they had been stored since the date of Professor Whitney's con- 

 nection with the various State geological surveys. One box of 

 Vertebrate fossils from California was accompanied by the manu- 

 script determinations of Professor Leidy, but no description of the 

 remains has ever been published. 



The purchase of the Enniskillen and Worthen Collections also 

 secured to the Museum some valuable material. The first named 

 was sent in exchange by the Right Honorable the Earl of Ennis- 



