23 



From the National Museum at Washington has been received 

 a collection of about fifty skins and a small lot of skulls of Sciu- 

 ridoe^ embracing about twenty species and varieties, chiefly from 

 Mexican and Central American localities ; also, a considerable 

 series of skulls of North American Carnivora. About ninety 

 skins of mammals have been added through exchanges with the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. Also, by exchange, a skeleton 

 of an African Ostrich ; a skull, an entire skeleton, and an em- 

 bryo of the Dugong ; several eggs of the Emeu, and of the Bush 

 Turkey ; and two eggs and a bower of one of the Australian 

 Bower Birds (^CJdamydodera nuchalis). Captain Charles Bryant 

 has presented several embryos of the Northern Sea-Lion (^Eume- 

 topias stelleri). 



A large part of the skeletons sent last year to Professor H. A. 

 Ward, of Rochester, for preparation have been returned ; some 

 of them mounted, but the greater number as disarticulated 

 skeletons. A considerable number of mammal and bird skins 

 have been mounted from specimens previously in the collection. 



The work on the collections has consisted in the identification 

 and cataloguing of the additions, the marking of the osteological 

 material recently added, and the re-marking of that returned by 

 Mr. Ward. Among the noteworthy changes in the condition of 

 the collection is the substitution of tight, glazed cases for the re- 

 ception of the glass-stored alcoholic collections in the cellar, and 

 the osteological collections in the attic, in place of open shelves. 

 The systematic collection of mounted specimens has been re- 

 arranged, and a new room, devoted to the North American fauna, 

 has been opened to the public. A collection illustrative of the 

 South American fauna has been begun, material for which is 

 rapidly accumulating. 



Several small lots of mammals and birds have been sent out 

 as exchanges ; and others loaned for study, chiefly to Mr. Robert 

 RidgAvay and Dr. Elliott Coues of Washington. The Rodentia 

 in the collection have been of great use to the writer in the 

 preparation of monographs (published under the auspices of the 

 General Government, in the Reports of the United States Geo- 

 logical and Geographical Survey of the Territories) of several 

 families of the American representatives of this order. 



