REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 41 



Dr. E. A. Mearns, Uuited States Army, coutiuiied his study of the 

 interesting and valuable collection of mammals, obtained by himself 

 and Mr. F, X. Holzner on the Mexican boundary, with a view to pub- 

 lishing an elaborate paper based upon this material. On account of 

 the valuable service which he has rendered to the Museum he was 

 accorded all of the privileges enjoyed by a regular curator in the ])rose- 

 cution of his work. Advance editions of two papers by 1 )r. Mearns have 

 been published during the year, one of which is entitled "Preliminary 

 diagnoses of new mammals from the Mexican border of the United 

 States," and the other " Preliminary description of a new subgenus and 

 six new species and subspecies of hares from the Mexican boundary of 

 the United States.'' 



In the department of birds Mr. D. G. Elliot, of the Field Columbian 

 Museum, was engaged for a time in certain investigations; Mr. L. M. 

 Loomis, of the California Academy of Sciences, studied various Pacific 

 Coast species of Shearwaters, Gulls, and, Horned Owls; Dr. Louis P. 

 Bishop, New Haven, Conn., studied the Western Night Hawks, Bit- 

 terns, Horned Larks, Song Sparrows, etc., in connection with speci- 

 mens which he collected in North Dakota; Mr. G. S. Miller, jr., of this 

 city, made an examination of the Mexican Jays of the genua A]ph el o soma; 

 Mr. Witmer Stone, of the Academy of Natural Sciences of PhiladeliJhia, 

 inquired into the status of various Horned Owls; Mr. H. C. Oberholser, 

 of the Department of Agriculture, made an investigation of the Downy 

 W oodiyeckavs, {Dri/ohates puhescens and subspecies) and arranged several 

 families of neotroj)ical Passeres in the study series; Mr. R. M. Ander- 

 son, Forest City, Iowa, spent two or three days in examining species of 

 North American birds, and Mr. J. H. Riley and Mr. C. G. Rorebeck, 

 Falls Church, Va., were occupied for several months in performing volun- 

 teer work and in familiarizing themselves with the birds of North 

 America. 



Although no one has been engaged in a regular course of study in 

 the department of mollusks, many persons have been permitted to 

 examine specimens in the study collection, and have received verbal 

 information from the curator or his assistants. Dr. R. R. Gurley having 

 been requested by the Hon. C. D. Walcott, Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey, to prepare a monograph of the American 

 Graptolites, all the facilities which the Museum affords in this direction 

 were placed at his disposal. Prof, Alpheus Hyatt, Cambridge, Mass., 

 spent some time at the Museum, in April, looking over the Paleozoic 

 Cephalopoda, and Prof. H. F. Osborn, of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, studied the skulls of Titanotherium. 



Miss Etta Braly and Miss Amanda Braly were engaged for about two 

 months comparing the insects collected by them in Arkansas with spe- 

 cies in the Museum collection. The former had in view the preparation 

 of a list of the Coleoptera found in that State, and the latter the prep- 

 aration of a list of the Hemiptera. 



