06 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



Dr. E. A. Mearns, U. S. Army, in the Yellowstone National Park. It 

 comprises about 5,:^00 specimens, and was very generously donated to 

 the Museum by the collector. This is probably the largest scientific 

 collection of plants ever made in the park. Next in size was the col- 

 lection made by Mr. William R. Maxon, of the Museum staff, in 

 Jamaica, comprising about 2,000 specimens, chiefly ferns. 



It is a pleasure to record the continued activity of Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott in the exploration of the East Indies. The collections received 

 during the year were chiefly from the coast and islands of northwest- 

 ern Sumatra, as far south as Siboga, and from theRiou Peninsula, just 

 south of Singapore. The}^ comprise, as already mentioned, mammals, 

 birds, reptiles, and batrachians, fishes, and insects. The Sumatran 

 mammals, about 500 in number, were studied by Mr. G. S. Miller, jr., 

 who discovered among them a new ape {Macacns fuscus), four new 

 species of mouse deer (genus Tragulus), nine new squirrels, a new genus 

 and five new species of mice, and a new porcupine {Tricky s macrotis). 

 The birds from the same region also comprised about 500 specimens, 

 representing 152 species, of which 19 were found by Dr. C. W. Rich- 

 mond to be new to science. The collections from Pahang and the 

 Riou Archipelago have already yielded four new species of mouse 

 deer, and are probably as important as the preceding one for the light 

 they will throw on the distribution of Malayan species. The National 

 Museum has received from Dr. Abbott, since the beginning of his 

 explorations in the East Indies, no less than 2,500 mammals, 3,1)00 

 birds, 800 reptiles and batrachians, besides very numerous specimens 

 of other classes. 



In 1902 the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Alhatross was sent to 

 the Hawaiian Islands for the purpose of continuing the investigation 

 of the fisheries. In the course of this work large collections were 

 made in various branches of natural history and transmitted to the 

 Museum. Those received during the year covered by this report were 

 a valuable collection of birds' eggs, about 1,500 marine moUusks in 

 alcohol, many new to the Government collections, and about 100 species 

 apparently undescribed; a collection of corals, and a second lot of 

 crustaceans. The Commission also transmitted a collection of 85 birds, 

 mainly from Laysan Island, north of Hawaii, including the type of a 

 tern, ProceJsterma saxatilis Fisher. From the Alhatnm Samoan Expe- 

 dition of 1902 were received corals and crustaceans in addition to the 

 specimens transmitted last year. The Commission also furnished 

 about 800 specimens of the commoner species of marine invertebrates 

 of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, for distribution to educational estab- 

 lishments, together with a small collection of fishes from the same 

 locality, a specimen of the Tile fish {LopholdtUus), from 70 miles ofl' 

 Nomans Land, the type and cotype of a new species of white-fish 

 {Coregonus stanleyi), from Aroostook County, Maine, and a cotype of 

 a new fish {Hadropterus evermanni), from Tippecanoe Lake, Indiana. 



