7 



a general indication of its contents, and the contents clearly 

 explained. On entering the room containing the systematic 

 collection of Mammals, the visitor at once reads upon the walls 

 that he is in the room containing the Systematic Collection of 

 Vertebrates, the Class of Mammals. He will next find each 

 case labelled with the name of the order, and frequently that of 

 the suborder and even family. All this is done in each room 

 with large, distinct letters, either on the walls or on the glass 

 doors of the cases, arrows indicating the space to which the 

 labels refer. Judging from the comments of the visitors who 

 see this for the first time, the experiment has completely suc- 

 ceeded in its aim, — that of giving a clear and easily legible 

 explanation of the collections thus far placed on exhibition. 



For tlie past four or five years, no special attempt has been 

 made to increase the collections. The force at the Museum has 

 been occupied mainly in preparing our materials for exhibition, 

 and rendering the collections easily accessible. Only the acqui- 

 sitions demanded b}^ our immediate wants have been made. The 

 principal additions to our collections have therefore been among 

 Birds and Mammals ; a large number of skins and skeletons 

 having been added to our faunal and systematic series. The 

 additions to the Conchological and Entomological Departments 

 have been mainly made through exchanges. The Loew collec- 

 tion of Diptera, purchased some time ago with the Gray Fund, 

 has been received at the Museum ; and to Baron Osten-Sacken 

 the Museum owes a large addition in the same order. In the 

 Herpetological Department, the principal collection received, in 

 addition to an extensive series of exchanges, has been a number 

 of skeletons purchased in Europe. By far the most important 

 additions received for many years are the results of the dredg- 

 ings which I made during the past winter in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 in the United States Coast Survey steamer Blake." These, 

 added to the collections already in the Museum from the ex- 

 peditions formerly in the charge of the late Professor Agassiz 

 and of Count Pourtal^s, probably give the Museum, after that 

 made by the " Challenger," the richest deep-sea collection in 

 existence. 



It is now ten years since Dr. Hagen became connected with 

 the Museum. During his administration of the Entomological 

 Department, the collections have more than trebled in size ; 



