CURATOR’S REPORT. 
This is the third annual report which I have had the honor to 
lay before the Society, and the first one in which a distinct step 
can be recorded, in the direction of arrangement. 
In October, 1SS6, we hired from the Historical Society, a space 
in their Barney street Hall, sufficient to permit the erection of 
two small glass cases, and some shelving suitable for the recep¬ 
tion of specimens. Shortly afterwards, the removal of our pos¬ 
sessions from their temporary place of storage in Travers Block 
took place, and, during the past six months, they have been un¬ 
packed and placed in position. 
Professor T. Nelson Dale having kindly offered his valuable 
services as a geologist to name and classify the local rocks, fossils 
and minerals, his offer was gladly accepted, and the result can 
now be seen in a series of twenty-six different geological speci¬ 
mens carefully named and arranged in one of the cases. A spec¬ 
ial book, to serve as a catalogue of reference, has also been 
opened and commenced by Professor Dale with a full record of 
these specimens. 
Another branch of our local natural history has been started by 
my having arranged, in the same case, a small collection, duly 
named, containing some twenty species of our Rhode Island 
shells. 
Some specimens of our native birds, and of their eggs, of 
mammals and reptiles, fishes, insects and plants, have appeared 
sparingly from donors, so as to warrant the hope that, in due 
time, some of our members will determine on taking up system¬ 
atically some one of the groups indicated and endeavoring to 
gather for the Society a representative series of specimens. It 
will be by quiet and assiduous efforts that our collections must 
grow, and through the personal study and investigations of our 
members, if one of the objects of our Society, namely, self-improve¬ 
ment in the knowledge of natural history, is to be attained. 
To be practical and direct, I would therefore venture to sug¬ 
gest that our local ornithologists should undertake, before this 
day twelvemonth, to present to the Society a few specimens illus- 
