20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



reconstruction of the newly found remains of the fourth Pithecan- 

 thropits were the principal acquisitions. 



Biology. — Biological specimens, many of great scientific value, 

 totaled 262,521, a considerable increase over last year, although these 

 came in fewer individual accessions. The most important mam- 

 malian accession was a complete skull and both sets of baleen of an 

 adult humpback whale {Megaptera novae-angliae) and a fetal whale- 

 bone whale skull from the North Pacific. Other mammals received 

 included 74 specimens from Liberia; 102 from South Carolina; 85 

 cavernicolous bats ; other bats from Mexico, the Virgin Islands, and 

 Puerto Kico ; 2 fetuses of humpback whales ; a baby walrus skeleton ; 

 and other specimens from Indo-Chlna, Ecuador, Korea, Costa Rica, 

 Bolivia, and Brazil. Of nearly 100 mammals received from the 

 National Zoological Park, the most important was a gayal {Bos 

 frontalis) . 



Large representations of birds came from Indo-China, Costa Eica, 

 Brazil, Antarctica, Mexico, and Manchukuo. Field work of the Mu- 

 seum in South Carolina yielded 1,205 bird skins for the study collec- 

 tions. 



Incorporated in the collections during the year were 4,201 Mexican 

 reptiles received from the Smithsonian Institution as the major part 

 of the collections made by Dr. Hobart M. Smith, under the Walter 

 Eathbone Bacon scholarship, among them being types of many new 

 forms and representatives of species hitherto not contained in the 

 Museum. The second installment of Dr. W. M. Mann's reptilian and 

 amphibian collections in Liberia consisted of 472 specimens, represent- 

 ing several new forms and much valuable comparative material from 

 territory hitherto little known. 



Nearly 2,000 Liberian fishes also resulted from the Smithsonian- 

 Firestone Expedition headed by Dr. Mann, in addition to those acces- 

 sioned last year. Among other ichthyological specimens received 

 were 900 fishes from Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, 420 from Alaska, 

 and 60 sharks from Florida and Texas. 



The most important accession in insects was the Nevermann collec- 

 tion of Costa Eican Coleoptera, comprising about 33,000 specimens 

 and including much type material. Other important entomological 

 material came in many miscellaneous lots, the largest being 64,000 

 insect specimens transferred from the Bureau of Entomology and 

 Plant Quarantine. A collection of nearly 3,000 beetles from Panama 

 was donated by Assistant Curator Eichard E. Blackwelder, who col- 

 lected them several years ago. 



About 500 marine invertebrates from the west coast of Greenland 

 came as a result of the Bartlett Greenland Expedition of 1940. 

 Through Curator Waldo L. Schmitt there was accessioned a large 



