8 
REPORT OF THE CURATORS. 
The past year has been characterized by a greatly increased in¬ 
terest on the part of the general public in the Academy’s Museum, 
owing to the better facilities for the exhibition of the collections 
afforded by the new museum building, the opening of which was 
recorded in our last report. New cases have been placed on the 
first and second floors of the new building, and much has been ac¬ 
complished in perfecting the arrangement of the various collections. 
The Curators are able to report the specimens at the present time 
in an excellent state of preservation, although the impossibility of 
the systematic arrangement and proper display of the collections 
in some departments, owing to the need of cases, seriously affects 
their examination and use by students. 
The most noteworthy change in the arrangement of the museum 
during the year has been the transfer of the wall cases on the bird 
gallery to the basement of the new building, where a commodious 
storage department has been arranged for the reception of the great 
bulk of the alcoholic preparations. 
The entire series of fishes and alcoholic mollusca have already 
been arranged in their new quarters, and are much more accessible 
to the student, besides being entirely protected from the dampness 
which, in their old situation, seriously affected the preservation of 
the labels. 
The entire collection of fishes, numbering upward of fifteen thou¬ 
sand, has been catalogued by Mr. Henry W. Fowler, and supple¬ 
mentary labels placed inside the jars to ensure the preservation of 
the data. 
The work of cataloguing and renovating the ornithological col¬ 
lection, which has been in progress for several years past, has been 
brought to completion. 
The remounted exhibition collection is ready for removal to the 
third floor of the new building, as soon as sufficient cases can be 
procured. 
A start has already been made in the furnishing of this floor, and 
one handsome plate-glass case has been placed in position, in which 
will be arranged a synoptical collection representing the principal 
orders of birds. 
A similar case has been placed in the Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey room for the accommodation of the Delaware Valley 
