14 BULLETIN 99, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the x>resent writer in 1910.' On subsequent trips IVIr. White adfle<1 

 to this collection. 



A few mammals collecte<^l by the Hon. Hoffman Philip, minister 

 resident and consul general, Adis Ababa, Abyssinia, were presented 

 by him to the Museum in 1910. 



The Hon. Alexander W. Weddell, American consul at Zanzibar, 

 sent to the National Museum as a gift a few mammals collected by 

 himself during the year 1911. 



By far the most important contributions to the East African col- 

 lection were made by two larger and more thoroughly equipped 

 expeditions in the field from 1909 to 1912 — the Smithsonian African 

 Expedition and the Paul J. Rainey Expedition. 



The Smithsonian African Expedition, which was fii-st oliicially 

 proposed by President Roosevelt in a letter to the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution dated June 20, 1908,^ was made possible 

 through the generosity of friends of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 who provided a special fund to pay for the outfitting and to meet the 

 expenses of the naturalists who accompanied the expedition. The 

 management of the expedition was under the direction of Col. Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt, who defrayed all of his own expenses and those of 

 his son, Mr. Kermit Roosevelt. The naturalists who accompanied 

 him iir the interests of the museum were Lieut. Col. Edgar A. Mearns, 

 United States Army, retired; Mr. Edmund HeUer; and Mr. J. 

 Alden Loring. Doctor Mearns gave special attention to birds; 

 Mr. HeUer to the preservation of the larger mammals killed by 

 Colonel Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt; and Mr. Loring devoted 

 his time mainly to the collection of smaU mammals. 



The party sailed from New York on March 23, 1909, landed in 

 Mombasa on April 21, and journeyed over the Uganda railroad to 

 Kapiti Plains, British East Africa, where a preliminary camp was 

 established. Actual work commenced on the near byAthi Plains on 

 April 24, when Colonel Roosevelt procured the first antelopes for the 

 collection. Hunting and collecting were carried on in this general 

 region until almost June 1, during which time the country east and 

 northeast of Nairobi was well covered. 



After several days' collecting at Nairobi the party left on the rail- 

 road for Kijabe, June 3. On June 5 the safari started for the Sotik. 

 Collections were constantly made throughout the journey southwanl 

 to the Loita Plains, tlie members of the exjjedition separating mto 

 groups and making camps at the most favorable localities for special 

 W(>rk. On the return trip to the raOroad, which was reached at 

 Nalvashji Station about August 1, considerable time was spent in 

 work at Lake Naivasha. The safari left Naivasha for the north on 



> Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 66, No. 2, pp. 1-12. March 31, 1910, 



2 Report of the Secretary of the Kmithsoiuan Institution for the year endinjc June 30, 190<*, p. S. 19t». 



