MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



3 



of careful research by Dr. George Dimmock. This work was dis- 

 tributed among the principal museums and scientific societies of the 

 world. By this means a large number of valuable publications were 

 received in exchange and the local museum gained standing with 

 scientific institutions in many countries. 



The success of these first ventures in the line of publications has 

 enlisted further interest from friends, and the sum of $600 from the 

 Horace Smith estate has been placed in the hands of the curator 

 to meet the expense of two more monographs. One of these is now 

 ready, and the museum will soon put into the hands of the printer 

 the manuscript for a second bulletin. This bulletin, of which Miss 

 Fannie A. Stebbins is author, will be entitled 'Tnsect Galls of 

 Springfield, Massachusetts, and Vicinity," and will be a bibliographical 

 and descriptive catalogue of more than two hundred species of galls 

 observed, collected and studied. Of these species over thirty are 

 supposed to be undescribed, and will be given scientific names. The 

 bulletin will be illustrated with 32 plates, containing 112 half-tone 

 figures, all reproduced from photographs of galls. Especial attention 

 has been paid to the galls themselves, rather than to the insects 

 causing them, and these plant-deformities will be listed in the system- 

 atic order of the plants on which they occur, with an index in the 

 systematic order of the gall-producing insects. Over 160 publications 

 have been consulted in the preparation of this bulletin. 



It is hoped that other gifts may make it possible for the museum 

 to extend even further its activities in this important field of com- 

 munity service. 



Administration. 



The cataloguing of the contents of the museum on slips, men- 

 tioned in last year's report, has been continued. The mounted speci- 

 mens of North American birds are all numbered and catalogued ; 

 nearly all the curiosities and historical relics, and about one-half 

 the botanical specimens are already recorded on slips, while the new 

 accessions are numbered and catalogued as received. The slips are 

 duplicated as far as is necessary, and then classified much like the 

 card catalogue of a progressive library, thus enabling one to find, 

 without delay, what specimens the museum has to illustrate any 

 special subject. 



Attention has also been paid to keeping up the reports on bird 

 arrivals, the date of the flowering of plants and to the display of 

 special exhibits, and the placing of all possible facilities at the dis- 

 posal of teachers and classes who visit the collections. 



