292 Naturalist at Large 



me the opportunity for acquaintanceship with a number 

 of distinguished men, many of whom have long been warm 

 friends. 



When I became Director of the Agassiz Museum, it was 

 obvious that I should be unable to take care of my old 

 pets, reptiles and amphibians. I was able to bring Mr. Ar- 

 thur Loveridge from the Nairobi Museum, and I have al- 

 ways been glad I did so. His collections are better indexed 

 and arranged than any other collection of reptiles in the 

 world. As a matter of fact, there is only one more com- 

 plete collection — the one in London. The collection of 

 reptiles and amphibians now contains typical material of 

 about 2300 species and there are something over 100,000 

 specimens representing the two groups. 



The collection of birds has grown enormously. There are 

 now about 300,000 specimens, and while this is not a large 

 collection in comparison with the collections in London, 

 New York, or Washington, it is singularly well-chosen 

 and reflects a great deal of credit upon the curatorial 

 capacity of its caretaker, James Lee Peters, who as a curator 

 is a worthy successor to Outram Bangs. 



I don't know why, but our collection of mammals has 

 never grown the way the collection of birds has done. It 

 amounts to about 60,000 skins. Nevertheless, it is a fine 

 collection and a useful one as shown by the constant ap- 

 plications to borrow specimens for study elsewhere. It is 

 now in the competent hands of Barbara Lawrence, whose 

 husband, WilHam Schevill, is our learned librarian. 



Our enormous collection of fish is at last getting organ- 

 ized. It is hard to estimate how many specimens we really 

 have, for it has been the custom in this department to 



