REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1923 Al 
ZOOLOGY 
REPORT BY SHERMAN C. BISHOP, State Zoologist 
The report of the State Zoologist is presented in two parts which 
deal respectively with the activities of the Division of Zoology and 
with some proposals for expansion of the work along lines that will 
permit greater use of the educational facilities afforded by the 
Museum’s collections. 
Investigation. The Zoologist has continued the study of the 
amphibian fauna of the State and the preparation of a descriptive 
catalog of the spiders. The members of these groups are widely dis- 
tributed, easily found and cared for and furnish particularly valua- 
ble material for the use of teachers and students of nature study and 
biology. Salamanders have lately come into greater prominence as 
subjects of investigation in the problems of endocrinology and it is 
therefore desirable to collect more accurate data bearing on their de- 
velopment, life histories and habits. 
Field work. Many species not before represented in the collec- 
tions have been added during the year by intensive field work in the 
vicinity of Mount McIntyre, Keene Valley and Adirondack Lodge in 
the Adirondacks, in the Helderbergs, and at Ithaca and Canandaigua 
lake. During October 1923, Professor C. R. Crosby of Cornell 
University and the Zoologist collected in the Blue Ridge mountains 
of western North Carolina and brought together for the Museum a 
collection of 500 amphibians and reptiles and several thousand 
spiders and phalangids. Special reports which have been prepared 
on the salamanders and arachnids include descriptions of nine new 
phalangids and about twenty new spt “ers. 
Accessions. The museum is indebte. to Benjamin W. Arnold of 
Albany for a remarkable collection of Atlantic starfish selected and 
preserved by him in such a manner that the natural beauty of color 
and texture is largely retained. The series includes representatives 
of all the common species to be found on the New York coast. C.S. 
Brimley of the North Carolina Agriculture Department at Raleigh, 
presented a series of salamanders from the eastern part of the state 
to supplement the collections made in the Blue Ridge mountains of 
western North Carolina. 
New groups. The starfish presented by Mr Arnold have been 
arranged for exhibit by the assistant to the Zoologist, Maria Seguin, 
and exemplify in some half dozen species, the natural phenomenon 
of variation as it is expressed in form and color. 
