EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 43 



petrels, ducks, geese, shore birds, auks, jaegers, skimmers, and terns. 

 All the specimens received during the year, including over 1,100 

 Philippine birds presented by Doctor Mearns, wei'c also furnished 

 with standard labels. Seventy storage cases Avere marked Avith type- 

 written labels, giving their contents by families and genera, and also 

 noting the genera not in the Museum collection. Many imperfectly 

 prepared or damaged specimens of value were made over by the 

 taxidermist, but only a few minor changes were made in the exhibi- 

 tion series. 



Mr. Ridgwaj^ continued the preparation of the fifth part of the 

 manual of North American birds, giving special attention to the 

 humming birds and woodpeckers. Dr. C. W. Richmond completed 

 a supplement to Waterhouse's index of genera of birds, bringing the 

 subject down from 1901 to 1905, and also added over 3,000 cards 

 to the catalogue of genera and species of birds, on which he has been 

 at work for some time. Mr. Riley, besides assisting Mr. Ridgway, 

 contributed a paper on the West Indian forms of the hawk, Buteo 

 platypterus. AVork on Doctor Abbott's collection of INIalayan birds 

 was continued by Mr. H. S. Oberholser, of the Biological Survey, 

 who also prepared a paper on the kingfishers of the genus PeJargopsis. 

 based chiefly on Museum material. Bird skins to the number of 368 

 were lent for study to 8 ornithologists. 



Reptiles and hatrachians. — Dr. V. Brazil, director of the Instituto 

 Serumtherapico do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil, transmitted in ex- 

 change 13 specimens of snakes, representing 8 species, of which 7 

 are poisonous. They came from Butautan, and include one recently- 

 described form. An excellent collection of 40 salamanders from 

 North Carolina was purchased. Prof. J. Grinnell, of Pasadena, 

 California, presented a large series of the rare California lizard, 

 Xantusia vigilis; and Mr. W. T. Davis, of New Brighton, New York, 

 specimens of the two rare frogs, Hyla andersoni and Rana virgatipes, 

 from Lakehurst, New Jersey. 



Doctor Stejneger's extensive treatise on the reptiles of Japan and 

 the neighboring mainland of Asia, based chiefly on Museum material, 

 was completed and published early in the year. He later continued 

 the study of the reptiles of the Philippine Islands, describing several 

 new species, and conducted investigations regarding the geographical 

 distribution of Asiatic and North American species and the origin 

 of the reptilian fauna of Japan. He also spent some time on a 

 revision of certain North and Central American genera of snakes and 

 batrachians. 



Fishes. — The Eg^qDtian Government, at the suggestion of Dr. G. A. 

 Boulenger, of the British Museum, presented through its minister 

 of education an excellent collection of fishes from the River Nile. 

 Numerous types and cotypes of new species from Japan, the Philip- 



