REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1907. 43 



l)i\ E. A. Meai'iis, U. S. Armv, in ihi.' Pliilippine Islands are esixi- 

 cially noteworthy. 



Alth()iio;h the amount of field collectinji; on hehali' of the depart- 

 ment of biology was inconsiderable, yet important contributions in 

 several lines were secured by this means. The head curator. Dr. 

 F. W. Ti-ue, as the result of visits made to Ciiesapeake Beach, Mary- 

 hnid, in November, IDOC), and March, 11)07, in search of the remains 

 of fossil cetaceans, obtained a nearly complete skull of a fossil po?-- 

 poise, apparently representing a genus of Eurinodelphidie, a family 

 new to Xorth America, and the humerus and sacrum of a fossil seal, 

 probably the recently described Leptophoca lenis. 



Dr. Leonhard Stejneger spent about two months of the summer 

 of 1906 in making observations on living salamanders in the vicinity 

 of Stribling Springs, Augusta County, Virginia, preparatory to a 

 revision of the group. This region was selected on account of its 

 geographical position and the number of its springs and small 

 streams, and although the season proved unfavorable, a considerable 

 number of both adults and larva? were obtained. Mr. W. L. Halm 

 made a zoological reconnaissance in the Kankakee basin of north- 

 western Indiana and Mr. Barton A. Bean a collecting trip to the 

 Florida Keys, the latter having been rendered possible through the 

 kindness of Mr. W. H. Gregg, of St. Louis, in permitting the use 

 of his private yacht for that pui'pose. Dr. Paul Bartsch, in the 

 autumn of 190G, visited the neighborhood of Wilmington, Xorth 

 Carolina, where he obtained fine series of specimens of the rare large 

 land shell, Planorhis inagnificus and of other species, including 

 some little-known and interesting forms. His observations indicate 

 that the region is an important distribution center, which would re- 

 pay more extensive and detailed inquiries. Dr. Harrison G. Dyar 

 and Mr. A. N. Caudell Avere in California at the beginning of the 

 year, engaged in an investigation of mosquitoes, the results of which 

 were published in the Proceedings of the jSIuseum. Subsequently 

 Doctor Dyar conducted additional field work relating to the same 

 subject. 



Dr. J. N. Rose, associate curator of plants, continued his botanical 

 explorations in Mexico during the summer of 1906, returning w4th 

 over 1,000 herbarium specimens and about 200 living plants, the lat- 

 ter being deposited in one of the greenhouses of the Department of 

 Agriculture, as the Museum has no facilities for the care of such 

 material. Mr. W. R. Maxon, assistant curator of i^lants, spent about 

 two months in the spring of 1907 in botanical investigations at the 

 eastern end, of Cuba, with headquarters at Santiago de Cuba. Mr. 

 Maxon worked niainlv in the vullev of the Rio Buvaniita, on the 



