REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1919. 79 



The aid, Mr. J. H. Riley, besides attending to routine work, 

 studied the Celebes collection, publishing two preliminary papers 

 on the subject. As stated above, Mr. Swales has been engaged in 

 the various investigations. The report upon the African collections, 

 begun by the late Di'. Edgar A. Meams, has remained unchanged, 

 no successor having been found thus far. 



The subject of ornithology does not lend itself readily to actual 

 war work. However, some information on "protective coloration" 

 was given to an official connected with the military service who was 

 developing the camouflage work for the Army. In this connection 

 the associate curator calls attention to the interesting fact that at 

 the time the late Secretary Langley was engaged in solving the prob- 

 lem of mechanical flight in taking a soaring bird as a model, a 

 quarter of a century or more ago, he turned to the division of birds 

 for information, receiving many data and material as well as books 

 on the subject. References to literature on bird flight, descriptions 

 of soaring powers of birds, records of square-wing area in proportion 

 to weight, and data in relation to the center of gravity in birds were 

 supplied, and several birds of soaring types mounted in the attitude 

 of flight were used in his experiments. Living birds of high soaring 

 ability were secured for his investigations. This took place over a 

 period of 13 years, from 1887 to 1900. It may also be mentioned 

 that Mr. Pentz, who had submitted to the naval board a plan for 

 the use of gulls as a means of detecting the presence of submarines, 

 called at the office for information, and some time was spent looking 

 up literature on gulls and on their habits, searching for data bearing 

 on the project. 



As in former years, members of the Biological Survey, including 

 Messrs. Vernon Bailey, E. A. Preble, F. V. Eamshaw, T. T. Bloxsom, 

 Francis Harper, A. H. Howell, and Dr. Walter P. Taylor had full 

 access to the collection in connection with their work; Dr. H. C. 

 Oberholser worked largely through the year on collections both in 

 connection with survey business and in his own time on the various 

 East India and Malayan material; Mr. Alexander Wetmore like- 

 wise worked frequently among the various collections, partly upon 

 survey projects, but more particularly in his own time on various 

 anatomical investigations undertaken by him. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott on three occasions examined the recent accessions 

 from Celebes and Santo Domingo, especially the genera of possible oc- 

 currence in the last-named island. A large number of other ornitholo- 

 gists visited the division at various times consulting specimens in the 

 study series, namely, Dr. Glover M. Allen, of Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts; Mr. Edwin Ashby, of Blackwood, South Australia; Mr. 

 Harry B. Bailey, of Newport News, Virginia; Dr. Peter Brancato, 

 of Wyckoff, New Jersey; Mr. H. W. Brandt, of Cleveland, Ohio; 



