94 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1919. 



division of mammals and the Biological Survey back to the ground 

 floor. As a consequence, the entire north and northwest range are 

 inaccessible to the public, and the whale hall, although open to 

 visitors, is still filled with a large amount of heterogeneous exhibits, 

 mostly part of the synoptic series and the District of Columbia 

 fauna. 



As soon as the cases were back in their former positions, a thor- 

 ough overhauling of the collection was made. Some repairs, of 

 course, had to be made, but as already remarked, on the whole, the 

 specimens had suffered but little. The specimens mounted in the 

 meantime were then placed in their respective cases, thus the tapir 

 in the great tropical American floor case filling a serious gap in the 

 series. The floor of the North American bear case was sanded, and 

 the specimens on polished walnut bases dismounted from their 

 stands. At the same time a new arrangement was undertaken by 

 which the appearance of the case was greatly improved. The ungu- 

 late case on the north side of the same hall was similarly improved. 



Explorations. — The expeditions mentioned in last year's report 

 have come to an end during the present year. Mr. H. C. Raven, 

 who had been doing field work for the Museum in Borneo and 

 Celebes, under the direction of Dr. W. L. Abbott, returned to this 

 country on September 20, 1918, having been called home on account of 

 the war. This closes, at least for the time being, a work that has been 

 of the utmost value to the Museum, not only because of the richness 

 of the collections, comprising as they do about 1,500 mammals and 

 2,800 birds, many of which are new to science, besides an extensive 

 series of ethnological specimens, but especially because this material 

 admirably supplements the collections previously made by Doctor 

 Abbott himself in the more western part of the Malay Archipelago 

 and by Doctor Mearns and others in the Philippines. The collec- 

 tions which Mr. Raven brought back with him cover the period from 

 August 1, 1917, to February 28, 1918, and were made chiefly at 

 Gimpoe, Rano Rano, and Pinedapa, in the middle region of Celebes. 

 Dr. W. L. Abbott undertook a short expedition to Santo Domingo 

 in the early part of 1919, reaching there at the beginning of Febru- 

 ary and returning to New York on June 14. He spent some time 

 working in the region of Samana Bay, after which he visited the 

 mountains, making Constanga his headquarters, whence he made 

 several brief excursions to neighboring localities. Among the col- 

 lections received were the eggs of the palm chat already alluded to 

 and about 500 mollusks. Dr. C. D. Walcott's explorations in the 

 Canadian Rocky Mountains during the field season of 1918, although 

 primarily geological, resulted in several desirable additions to the 

 mammal collection. Mr. "Waldo L. Schmitt, of the Division of 

 Marine Invertebrates, spent the months of August, September, and 



