MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



5 



as wood, two sections; leaf, seed, photograph of foliage and trunk, 

 and a map indicating the distribution of the species. 



Your attention is called to the excellent historical material now in 

 possession of the museum, or loaned to the institution, for which no 

 proper place can be found. If these interesting relics were on exhibi- 

 tion, many valuable memorials of early New England would un- 

 doubtedly be added to those now on hand. For people who now keep 

 these in attics would be likely to think of giving them where they 

 could be preserved. As it is each year witnesses a loss of colonial 

 and revolutionary relics. 



Additions to Collections. 



Mr. Robert O. Morris has rendered valuable service to the Museum 

 and the cause of local zoology by his gift of mammals of this region. 

 Mr. Morris has secured the expert assistance of William Dearden of 

 this city in the collection and preparation of the specimens. Many of 

 the varieties are rare and some are likely to be soon extinct. Among 

 the more important specimens of this collection are the water shrew, 

 with no previous record for this region; the long tailed shrew — the 

 smallest North American mammal, a frequenter of cool sphagnum 

 bogs; the black rat, once common but now often displaced by the 

 Norwegian or wharf rat; the red back mouse, and the northern 

 pine mouse, taken where the North branch enters Watershop pond. 

 There is one previous record of the latter, for Springfield. 



The museum has received from J. T. Bowne two alligator skele- 

 tons, two wild boar tusks, and two wild hog skulls from Lake Monroe 

 near Enterprise on St. John's River, Florida. Mr. William E. Par- 

 sons has given a crystal of garnet from Colorado. Acknowledgment 

 is also made of the gift of a collection of seeds, eggs, and reptiles 

 from Dr. George Dimmock. A complete list of accessions is given in 

 the appendix to this report. 



Lectures. 



Miss Emily B. Adams has given a course of three lectures on 

 Birds. 



Classes. 



Pupils and teachers of our public schools have visited the museum 

 as indicated by the following table: — 



