EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1909. 37 



Europe that it has become one of the largest and most vahiable in 

 the world. The department is again indebted to Dr. W. L. Abbott 

 for a contribution from Borneo consisting of some 700 mammals and 

 200 birds, a few eggs and nests, and other specimens. Mr. Owen 

 Bryant, of Cohasset, Massachusetts, generously presented about GOO 

 invertebrates obtained by him during a trip to Labrador, and also 

 an egg of the Great Auk, together with other fragments of these 

 eggs and some of the soil in which they were embedded. On behalf 

 of the Peruvian Government, Dr. R. E. Coker donated a large col- 

 lection of Peruvian crustaceans, about 300 sponges and 20 reptiles, 

 and specimens of some 95 species of mollusks, being a part of the 

 material secured during his investigations of the fisheries of that 

 country. A small collection of Australian reptiles and fishes was 

 received from Mr. Henry J. Brown, through the Hon. T. G. B. Kill- 

 master, United States consul at Newcastle, New South Wales. 



The United States Bureau of Fisheries transferred an exceptional 

 amount of valuable material. In connection with its explorations 

 among the Philippine Islands, Dr. Paul Bartsch, a member of the 

 Museum staff, was detailed to serve for a jear as one of the natural- 

 ists on the steamer Albatross. The collections, to the assembling 

 of which Doctor Bartsch, with the hearty and effective cooperation 

 of the staff of the steamer, jDaid special attention, comprised about 

 100,000 specimens of mollusks, 48 lots of medusa?, several hundred 

 birds, about 100 reptiles, etc. Other large and important collections 

 transferred by the bureau included 243 lots of medusa?, obtained 

 during the Albatross expedition to the eastern Pacific in 1904-5, 52 

 lots of alcyonarian corals taken off the coast of California by the 

 Albatross in 1904, and more than 400 sea urchins, 23 lots of sponges 

 of the families Geodidse and Erylidse, and several hundred samples 

 of sea bottom from different parts of the Pacific. A large miscel- 

 laneous collection of fishes, including about 600 specimens from New 

 York and Ohio and a series from Panama, should also be mentioned. 



Two field parties in which the Institution and Museum are greatly 

 interested left this country during the year for important collecting 

 regions, from both of which especially valuable results may be ex- 

 pected. The first, which will explore in Java and some of the ad- 

 jacent islands, is being conducted by Mr. Owen Bryant, of Cohasset, 

 Massachusetts, entirely at his own expense. He is accompanied by 

 Mr. William Palmer, of the Museum staff, and will present to the 

 Museum a large share of the specimens obtained. The party sailed 

 at the beginning of the calendar year 1909. The second expedition 

 is that organized by Col. Theodore Roosevelt as a hunting trip into 

 British East Africa and more inland districts. It has attached to it 

 three well-known naturalists, Lieut. Col. Edgar A. Mearns, U. S. 

 Army, Mr. E. E. Heller, and Mr. J. Alden Loring, whose expenses 



