18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



includes material no longer obtainable and fills some gaps in the na- 

 tional collections. Outstanding in this series is a group of early 

 Eskimo skeletons collected by the W. B. Van Valin-John Wanamaker 

 Expedition, University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1917-19. These 

 Eskimo skeletons were found at Point Barrow, Alaska, and represent 

 the bearers of the well-known "Old Bering Sea Ivory Culture." 



Zoology. — One of the most valuable and largest single accessions, 

 comprising 600 specimens collected by Robert E. Elbel in Siam, was 

 received in the division of mammals. Included was an especially good 

 series of squirrels and carnivores from localities not previously repre- 

 sented in the collections. Several noteworthy African mammal col- 

 lections included 250 specimens from Libya collected by Dr. H. W. 

 Setzer; 61 specimens from the Belgian Congo obtained by Dr. Waldo 

 L. Schmitt in the course of the Smithsonian-Bredin Expedition ; and 

 smaller collections made in the Gold Coast by Donald Lamm and in 

 Kenya by John P. Fowler. From Ponape in the Caroline Islands, a 

 team headed by Dr. J. T. Marshall, Jr., investigating the ecology of 

 the local rat populations under the auspices of the Pacific Science 

 Board, sent in a collection of 103 mammals. Another welcome addition 

 consists of a skeleton of a large sperm whale and the types of three 

 baleen whales presented by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia. Worthy of notice also are the approximately 300 small mam- 

 mals collected by Dr. C. O. Handley, Jr., and John L. Paradiso at 

 selected sites in the Middle Atlantic States. Among the individual 

 accessions of outstanding interest is a Ross seal brought back by the 

 U. S. Navy's Antarctic expedition. Other interesting additions in- 

 clude a rare big-eared bat (Idionycteris phyllotis) from Arizona, a 

 rock wallaby from the introduced colony on the island of Oahu in the 

 Hawaiian group, the type of a new shrew from North Carolina ob- 

 tained by Dr. Albert Schwartz, and the type of a new bog lemming 

 from Kentucky sent in by Dr. R. W. Barbour. 



The more important of the year's ornithological accessions consist of 

 145 bird skins from the Gold Coast and 137 bird skins from Burma, 

 both lots collected by Donald W. Lamm. Two deposits were received 

 by the Institution : 890 skins, 12 skeletons, 2 alcoholic specimens, 5 sets 

 of eggs, and a nest from Panama collected by Dr. A. Wetmore; 261 

 skins and 32 skeletons of birds collected in Northern Rhodesia by E. 

 L. Haydock. A transfer from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 increased the Museum's North American collection by 1,400 bird skins. 



Through Dr. Hobart M. Smith, the division of reptiles and amphib- 

 ians received from the University of Illinois the gift of 25 paratypes of 

 of Mexican reptiles and amphibians. Other noteworthy gifts include 

 104 reptiles and amphibians from Germany and Cuba donated by Jerry 



