Jan., 1913. Annual Report of the Director. 



221 



electricity, compressed air and steam. The space is divided into two 

 rooms of about equal size and it has thus been possible to install the 

 hood and furnace in one room and the balances and reagents in another. 

 The hood has been provided with a sink and a lo-inch draft pipe. A 

 Weisnegg furnace 7 inches by 4 inches by 3 inches provided with gas 

 and compressed air furnishes sufficient heat for ordinary ignitions and 

 minor assays. Draft for this purpose is provided by a 3 -inch pipe sur- 

 rounded by an 8 -inch pipe, open at both ends for prevention of over- 

 heating. A blowpipe desk and small still for distilling water are in- 

 stalled in the same room with the hood and furnace. With the facilities 

 afforded some quantitative analyses have been made during the year 

 and many qualitative ones. The quantitative analyses included one of 

 a Chinese iron, two of Chinese glazes and a pottery body. In addi- 

 tion to chemical work it has been found necessary omng to lack of space 

 in the Museum bmlding to carry on some mechanical work in the 

 laboratory. The two blast furnace models were built there and some 

 of the work of preparing the petroleum collection performed. In the 

 Department of Zoology a small number of storage cans have been 

 installed. Space for this purpose is becoming limited and incoming 

 collections are cared for with increasing difficulty. Arrangements 

 are being made for storage of skulls of large mammals in discarded 

 exhibition cases and in various ways. Temporary and more or less 

 inconvenient methods are necessary to maintain the collection so that 

 valuable material may be safe and reasonably accessible. The skin 

 dresser has been occupied during the year with skins requiring special 

 preparatory to mounting, among which were certain large skins, 

 such as rhinoceros and hippopotamus, which it had not heretofore 

 been possible to remove from pickle. Four large habitat groups of 

 American birds produced under the Field-Sprague Ornithology Fund 

 have been completed and successfully installed in a handsome quadrip- 

 artite case of the style previously used for such exhibits. The principal 

 birds shown are (i) the Northern Loon, (2) the Great Blue Heron, (3) 

 the Whooping and Sandhill Cranes, and (4) the Golden Eagle. These 

 groups are, without doubt, better in workmanship and reproduction of 

 ?iatural conditions of environment than any previously produced. 

 They are all of the highest class, but the group of whooping cranes is 

 especially interesting, not only from the beauty of its accessories, but 

 also on account of the rarity of the birds which are practically on the 

 verge of extinction. In the Golden Eagle group the nest contains the 

 eggs of the species, but they will ultimately be replaced by a pair of 

 "nestling" birds. Another large bird group is well toward completion 

 showing a number of interesting pelagic species which nest on Laysan 



