SECRETARY'S REPORT 41 



participating in fieldwork in widely separated areas. During most 

 of September and October he collected small mammals and their 

 ectoparasites in West Pakistan, particularly in the Kagan Valley and 

 in the vicinity of Lahore and Sialkot. From there he went to north- 

 ern Thailand for 4 weeks. Then, late in February, he spent a month 

 in Mexico collecting in the States of Veracruz, Guerrero, Mexico, 

 Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. 



From January to April Dr. Charles O. Handley, Jr., associate 

 curator of mammals, with the assistance of Frank M. Greenwell of 

 the Smithsonian's office of exhibits, continued his major project of 

 studying the mammals of Panama. The areas investigated this year 

 were the San Bias coast in extreme eastern Panama and the Bocas del 

 Toro Archipelago and adjacent mainland near the Costa Rican bound- 

 ary. The resulting mammal collection amounted to 1,914 specimens. 



In order to study the relationship of birds to arthropod-bome 

 virus diseases, especially eastern equine encephalitis, Dr. Philip S. 

 Humphrey, curator of birds, collected extensively in the vicinity of 

 Belem and in Braganga, Brazil, from the end of January to the end 

 of April. In this work he had the cooperation of the Belem Virus 

 Laboratory, Fundagao Servigo Especial de Saude Publica, and the 

 Museu Paraense "Emilio Goeldi," all of Belem. In addition to 986 

 skins and 1,035 anatomical specimens, he took over 1,100 liver and 788 

 blood samples. Since three or four different habitats are represented, 

 Dr. Humphrey hopes that the serological findings can be subjected to 

 ecological analysis. 



Field studies concerned with the birdlife of the Isthmus of Panama, 

 under Dr. Alexander Wetmore, honorary research associate and re- 

 tired Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, covered the period 

 from early in Januaiy to late in March. The first work of the season 

 centered on the white- winged dove colonies f oimd last year in the ex- 

 tensive mangrove swamps along the lower Rio Pocri, below Aguadulce 

 in the Province of Colce. These colonies were especially interesting, 

 since elsewhere the doves inhabit drier upland localities. Traveling 

 by dugout canoe along the river channels during these investigations, 

 Dr. Wetmore found also the rare rufous-cro^vned wood rail, Aramides 

 axillaris^ known previously in Panama only from a few reports 

 around Almirante Bay on the Caribbean coast. In addition, he ob- 

 tained information on wintering dowitchers among the many sand- 

 pipers, and on gull -billed terns, all migrants from the north. 



Late in January Dr. Wetmore was a guest on the small motor vessel 

 Pelican engaged in a study of the distribution of the spiny lobster, a 

 cooperative project between the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries of 

 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and agencies concerned with as- 

 sistance to the Panamanian Government. Their route through the 



