RESEARCH COLLECTIONS 5 I 



John E. Thayer Expedition to China in 1907-09 yielded over 3000 

 birds, and was the first large collection of Chinese birds to come to 

 this country. The following year 2000 skins, collected by F. B. Arm- 

 strong, in northeastern Mexico, were received from John C. Phil- 

 lips. Since then several large collections from Mexico have been 

 made by W. W. Brown. Underwood and Stadelman in Honduras 

 have sent many thousands of birds to the Museum from both moun- 

 tains and lowlands of that country. Expeditions to the West Indies, 

 Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the East Indies have 

 increased the representation from these regions. Exchanges with 

 museums, both in this country and abroad, have added rare species 

 not obtained on the museum expeditions. The collection of William 

 Brewster, containing 40,000 skins from North America and Mexico, 

 was received by bequest in 191 8. The LaTouche collection of 

 Chinese birds, which has been received by purchase, and the great 

 collections made by Rock give the museum an essentially complete 

 representation of the birds of China. Another valuable accession 

 during the last few years is the Swann collection of hawks. The 

 collection of Baron de Lafresnaye, celebrated French ornithologist of 

 the middle of the nineteenth century, was turned over by the Boston 

 Society of Natural History in 1920. In 1923 Mr. Homer L. Bigelow 

 presented his collection of about 3000 skins of North American birds, 

 all beautifully prepared. The Thayer collection of 28,000 skins was 

 received in 1932. 



The study collection contains, at present, about 1350 type speci- 

 mens. In importance the collection ranks high among the great in- 

 stitutions of a similar nature in the world. In this country it is ex- 

 ceeded in actual number of skins only by those of the National 

 Museum in Washington and the American Museum in New York. 

 It is probably more complete than the former, while the latter is the 

 largest and most complete in the world, and the next only to the 

 British Museum in importance. Abroad our collection is exceeded 

 only by some of the very much older bird collections such as those at 

 London, and perhaps Paris and Leningrad. The collection of 

 Chinese birds here is one of the finest in the world, and the same 

 probably holds true of the birds of the West Indies. The representa- 

 tion of hawks is virtually complete. 



In 1926 Mr. A. C. Bent, of Taunton, Massachusetts, deposited his 



