MUSEUM REPORTS.— I.
MUSEÉ ROYAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE DE BELGIQUE:
BRUSSELS.
By G. Severin, Aide-naturaliste au Musée.
I am unable to report as to the whole of our zoological collections. At a standstill, except in the palæontologieal series, our Museum has not advanced for some years, except in Entomology, of which I will gladly speak. My aim on my arrival at the Museum was above all things to have a collection useful to everybody, and it will perhaps be of some interest to state how I worked for that purpose, and with what result.
It must be remembered that I have been at the Museum only six years, but these have proved to me that collections, even the most important, can in a short time be brought to complete order. Above everything I have abandoned all idea of specialising a group or family of insects. I am interested as much in Coleoptera as in Hemiptera, or in Crustacea as in Arachnida. I determine nothing myself, except any well-known species of which I know the name, and of which there can be no doubt. All our entomological collections are determined by distinguished specialists, and I prefer to await the offer of assistance rather than to solicit it. When the insects are determined each receives a label with the name of the verifier and the year when verified, and a number is attached to the species repeated with all specimens, corresponding to the name given by the specialist, which name is written in a register-catalogue. If a second specialist should study the same insect his identification is indicated on another label without any change of number if his verification should agree with the former one. A new number below the former number indicates a divergence of opinion between the specialists. After a certain time the insects so studied will have a great scientific value and the collection a strikingly typical status. This system is com-
