Museum of Natural History. 



Report of the Curator. 



To the Directors and Members of The City Library Association : — 



The fifteenth annual report of the Museum of Natural History is 

 hereby respectfully submitted. 



Publications. 



Within the past few years it has been possible for the museum 

 officials to make a beginning in the publication of handbooks and 

 monographs on the results of various lines of research. The desire 

 has been to take, as far as possible, subjects of local interest, with 

 a view to making up a series of manuals serviceable to teachers in 

 the schools and to students of the natural history of the Connecticut 

 Valley. 



The handbook on Bird Migration, which gives the dates of 

 arrival of birds reported within ten miles of Springfield, has now 

 the complete record since 1901 to 1907, and in a new edition soon to 

 be issued the data for 1908 and 1909 will be entered. Such a tabula- 

 tion has scientific value and also does much to stimulate bird study 

 and give it definiteness. There is each year a good demand for the 

 booklet, and the receipts from the sales make good the cost of 

 publication. 



Some ten years ago, the museum published a guide to local 

 geology and physical geography called "Eight Geological Excursions." 

 It was illustrated with photographs of interesting formations in the 

 vicinity. An increased demand for this manual has sprung up for the 

 past two years in connection with the introduction of courses in the 

 upper grammar grades of our public schools in the study of the 

 physical geography of Springfield and the surrounding country. Plans 

 are under consideration for a new edition, enlarged and extended so 

 as to cover the Connecticut Valley. It is felt that such an outline 

 would be a great aid to progressive teachers in natural science in 

 the schools of the three river counties and possess interest for the 

 student of general geology. 



A more ambitious and technical treatise was the monograph on 

 "The Early Stages of the Carabidae," which embodied the results 



