EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1921. 37 



distinction of adding two species of birds to the known avifauna of 

 this continent, in addition to describing several previously unrecog- 

 nized subspecies. 



Palmer's skill and knowledge as a natural history collector caused 

 him to be detailed on various expeditions where the best results 

 were required, and in this capacity he visited Funk Island in 1887 

 with Doctor Lucas in a very successful search for remains of the 

 extinct great auk. In 1890 he was detailed to make collections on 

 the Pribilof Islands, and in 1900, 1902, and 1916 to visit Cuba. He 

 accompanied Mr. Owen Bryant on a very productive collecting 

 expedition, though one fraught with numerous privations, to western 

 Java, in 1909 and 1910. In the aggregate, he collected many 

 thousands of specimens of animals and plants, as well as fossil 

 remains and miscellaneous material, not only on official expeditions 

 but on those prosecuted on his own account, and most of this material 

 has found its way into the National Museum series over a long period 

 of years. By the terms of his will, Mr. Palmer has also bequeathed 

 his private collection of birds to the Museum. 



In recent years Mr. Palmer had become much interested in 

 vertebrate fossil remains in the deposits at the Calvert Cliffs, near 

 Chesapeake Beach, Md., and made many trips there in search of 

 material, both officially, and in his own time. He was engaged 

 in studies of cetacean remains from this locality at the time of 

 his death. 



Mr. Palmer was a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 a member of several scientific socities, and the author of over 50 

 papers and notes on ornithological and other biological subjects. 



