SECRETARY'S REPORT 25 



took a collecting trip through parts of northwestern Georgia, northern 

 Alabama, and Tennessee. While assembling more than 1,500 speci- 

 mens of crayfishes. Dr. Hobbs intensively surveyed the Hiwassee 

 drainage system in North Carolina and Georgia, the Tennessee River 

 system in northern Alabama, and the Cumberland in northern Ten- 

 nessee. It is hoped that the materials collected in these areas will be 

 helpful in clarifying several problems in the genus Cambarus that 

 have puzzled students of crayfishes for some 60 years. 



In October Dr. Henry W. Setzer, associate curator of mammals, 

 accompanied by museum aide Gary L, Ranck, traveled to Benghazi, 

 Libya, to begin field work on the mammals of Libya. With the aid 

 of every courtesy and cooperation from the 64th Engineer Battalion 

 (Base Topographic Survey), the Smithsonian field party made sub- 

 stantial collections in Libya. Toward the end of November Dr. 

 Setzer went to Aden to join Dr. Van Beek in the Wadi Hadhramaut, 

 leaving Mr. Ranck to carry on studies of the mammals of Libya, 

 which he continued throughout the fiscal year. In Aden, Dr. Setzer 

 spent 4 weeks collecting small mammals and attempting to obtain 

 skeletons of larger mammals for comparative purposes, in connection 

 with the archeological research conducted by Dr. Van Beek. 



For 3 months, between January and April, Dr. Charles O. Handley, 

 Jr., associate curator of mammals, continued his long-term study of 

 the mammals of Panama. During this period nearly 2,000 mammals, 

 together with their ectoparasites, as well as several hundred specimens 

 of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and snails, were preserved. Two 

 previously unsampled faunas were studied : in the high mountains at 

 the southern tip of the Azuero Peninsula and in the islands off the 

 coast of Bocas del Toro. In addition a good high-elevation collection 

 was made in Chiriqui, and previous collections at Cerro Azul were 

 supplemented. During this field study Dr. Handley was assisted by 

 F. M. Greenwell, of the Smithsonian's office of exhibits. Invaluable 

 local assistance in Panama was furnished by the Gorgas Memorial 

 Laboratory and by militaiy services that provided transportation 

 facilities. 



In June Dr. Handley spent a few days collecting small mammals 

 in extreme southwestern Virginia. His particular intent was to search 

 for the northern limits in the Appalachian region of some rodents of 

 the Mississippi Valley which have been shown in other areas to be 

 expanding their ranges. As an example, a specimen of the cotton-rat 

 Sigmodon hispidus was collected at Ewing, Va., well north of the 

 previously known limit of its range in Tennessee. 



Field work on the survey of the geographic distribution and varia- 

 tion of the birdlife of the Isthmus of Panama, under Dr. Alexander 

 Wetmore, honorary research associate and retired Secretary of the 



