REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1921. 51 



Smithsonian African expedition, in conjunction with the Universal 

 Film Manufacturing Co., form a valuable general collection sup- 

 plementing, in an important manner, the large African collections 

 already in the Museum. The Bureau of Fisheries transferred to the 

 division 4:0 skulls and one skeleton of the Alaskan fur seal from the 

 Pribilof Islands. These skulls, which were collected by Dr. G. D. 

 Hanna, are of very great importance, as they are supplemented with 

 very detailed data as to age, size, etc., and form the basis of Doctor 

 Hanna's studies of the development of this economically important 

 species. Several large Canadian mammals, including mule deer and 

 mountain goats, were collected by Secretary Walcott of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution for the Museum. Mr. A. F. Bearpark, of Cape 

 Town, South Africa, donated a fetus of a whale from South Africa. 

 Bii'ds. — That Dr. W. L. Abbott's interest in the fauna of the farther 

 India is as keen as ever is evidenced by the fine collection of 496 

 birds made by Mr. C. Boden Kloss, of the Federated Malay States 

 Museums, Kuala, Ijumpur, in Siam, Cochin China, and Anam, which 

 he presented to the Museum. The region was only slightly repre- 

 sented in our collection, so that naturally there are a considerable 

 number of forms new to the Museum, approximately 90 species and 

 subspecies and 3 genera. The collection also contains the types of 

 6 species recently described by Mr. Kloss. Hoy's Australian birds 

 number 487 skins and 47 alcoholics and skeletons, and contains also 

 a generous proportion of species new to the Museum, though no figures 

 can be given at present. A genus of lyre birds {Hamiohitea) is new 

 to the Museum, as well as a number of local forms from Kangaroo 

 Island, South Australia. Of the several hundred birds personally 

 collected by Doctor Abbott in Haiti and Santo Domingo, several are 

 of particular interest. The thick-knee or stone-plover {Oedicnemus 

 dominicensis) and the local form of the grasshopper-sparrow {Ammo- 

 dramus savannarwrn intricatus) were new to the Museum; while a 

 whippoorwill is apparently new to science. Mr. Kaven, of the Smith- 

 sonian African expedition, collected 162 skins and 47 skeletons and 

 alcoholics. As the collection has not' yet been worked up, the niun- 

 ber of new additions are not known, but at least one genus, Megahias^ 

 has been recognized as hitherto unrepresented in the Museum. An 

 alcoholic specimen of Smithornis will be of great assistance in ascer- 

 taining the correct place of this genus in the system. From the 

 Department of Agriculture several important additions were re- 

 ceived, principally birds, alcoholics, and skeletons, the result of Dr. A. 

 Wetmore's explorations in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. 

 From the Swales fund, placed at the disposition of the division by 

 Mr. B. H. Swales as mentioned in last year's report, 41 skins of foreign 

 birds were obtained, representing about 38 species new to the Museum, 

 including seven genera not hitherto contained in the national collec- 



