EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1907. 39 



Middle America, by Mr. Ridgway; the Mammals of the Mexican 

 Boundary, by Doctor Mearns; the Families and Genera of Bats, by 

 Mr. Miller; the Plerpetology of Japan, by Doctor Stejneger; and the 

 Madreporarian Corals of the Hawaiian Islands and Laysan, by Doc- 

 tor Vaughan. 



Doctor Lyon, assistant curator of mammals, completed or had in 

 preparation papers on Doctor Abbott's recent collections of mam- 

 mals from western Borneo and the coast and islands of northeastern 

 Sumatra, on Burchell's zebra, and on manmials from Mount Rainier, 

 Washington, and Kan-su Province, China, The catalogue of type 

 specimens of mammals, mentioned in previous reports, was made 

 ready for printing. A number of specimens of mammals were sent 

 1() naturalists connected Avith the British Museum for study and 

 comparison, and a few to American naturalists. As in previous 

 years, the membei-s of the Biological Survey made considerable use 

 of the collections. 



The head curator of biology. Doctor True, examined the types of 

 fossil cetaceans in the collections of Johns Hopkins University, the 

 Woman's College of Baltimore, the Maryland Geological Survey, and 

 the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, preliminary to the 

 study of the related material in the National Museum, and to a re- 

 vision of the North American genera and species. He prepared an 

 account of the tyj)e specimen of Agorophhii^ 'pyginwus, to accompany 

 an unpublished plate which had been engraved for the Smithsonian 

 Institution some fifty years ago, and a description of the type of 

 ArioploiU(.ssa forcipata, of which a cast has been presented by the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology. He also continued work on the 

 National Museum collection of recent species of beaked whales, giv- 

 ing special attention to the genera Mesoplodon and Berardius. 



Mr. Ridgway, curator of birds, began the writing of Part V of his 

 work on the Birds of North and Middle America, his investigations 

 in that connection relating especially to the humming birds. He was 

 assisted in the measuring of specimens and the preparation of refer- 

 ences for the synonymical tables by Mr. Riley, aid. Doctor Rich- 

 mond, assistant curator of birds, added about 3,500 cards to the card 

 catalogue of genera and species of birds, on which he has been en- 

 gaged for some years. He also began upon an ornithological biblio- 

 graphy supplementary to that of the Zurich Concilium. Mr, H. C. 

 Oberholser, of the Biological Survey, continued his studies on the 

 collections of birds from Sumatra, Borneo, and the China Sea, con- 

 tributed by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Mr. Austin H. Clark, of the Bureau 

 of Fisheries, spent some time during the winter in working up the 

 birds collected by the Fisheries steamer Albatross during the expe- 



