REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 33 



Collections of an Anthropological Miisenni. Prof. O. T. Mason, 

 Curator of Ethnology, made considerable progress in his researches on 

 aboriginal basketry, on which subject he is preparing an important 

 monograph. Dr. Walter Hough, Assistant (yurator, was mainly occu- 

 pied in working up the results of his explorations with Mr. Peter G. 

 Gates in Arizona during the summer of 19(»1. 



Some of the visiting specialists to the Department of Anthropology, 

 with the objects of tlieir inquiries, were Dr. Franz P)oas, of the AmiM'i- 

 can Museum of Natural History, New York City, mainly the Indian 

 tribes of the northwest coast of America; Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Pueblo tril)es; Liei;t. W. E. 

 Safford, U. S. Navy, for several years stationed on the island of (Tiiam, 

 collections of ethnology from the South Sea islands; Dr. (). F. CJook, 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, ethn()])otanic material from 

 Mexico; Dr. Washington Matthews, IT. S. Army, the industries of 

 the American Indians; Prof. W. T. Brigham, of Honolulu, the Poly- 

 nesian collections; and Prof. A. C. Haddon, of Cam})ridge, England, 

 ethnological material in several branches. A collection of Hopi games 

 and ceremonial objects was lent for study to Mr. Stewart Culin, 

 director of the Free Museum of Science and Art of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. 



In all divisions of the Department of Biology a consideral)le amount 

 of research work was accomplished. Mr. G. S. Miller, jr., published 

 five papers on mannnals, based mainly on collections recently received 

 from Dr. W. L. Abbott, several notes on nomenclature and classilica- 

 tion, and jointly with Mr. James A. G. Rehn a list of th(^ land mannnals 

 of North America. Dr. M. W. Lj^on, ji*. , completed two papers on ])ats 

 and one on the Venezuelan mannnals, collected by C^apt. Wirt Robinson 

 and himself, and has also studied the skeletons of American hares and 

 pikas. 



Good progress has been made l)y INIr. Robert Ridgway on his Manual 

 of the Birds of North and Middh^ America, the first volume of which 

 was published during the year, the second being now nearly ready for 

 the press. The birds from the Andaman and Nicol)ar islands, pre- 

 sented by Dr. Abbott, have been reported on, and those from Linga 

 Island identified l)y Dr. C. W. Richmond. 



The general collection of reptiles and batrachians has been reidenti- 

 fied, preparatory to their rearrangement in new cases, by Mr. Leonhard 

 Stejneger, who also continued his researches on the reptile faunas of 

 the Antilles and Japan. Sixteen papers on the fishes of Japan, by 

 President D. S. Jordan and Messrs. J. O. Snyder, E.'C Starks, and 

 M. Sindo, were published in the Proceedings, types of the new species 

 described being presented to the Museum. A collection of fishes 

 made in Japan in 1883 and 1885 for the Museum l)y Mr. Pierre L. Jouy 

 was also worked up by Messrs. Jordan and Sn3^der. Dr. Tarleton H. 

 NAT MUS 1902 3 



