SECRETARY'S REPORT 29 



Zoology and at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 in furtherance of a monograph on the Indo-Pacific species of this 

 family. 



In mid-February Dr. Joseph P. E. Morrison, associate curator of 

 mollusks, acted as one of the judges of the annual show of the St. 

 Petersburg, Fla., Shell Club. The Smithsonian Institution offers an 

 annual citation for the best exhibit in this display. Subsequently, he 

 carried on some dredging operations in the upper end of Old Tampa 

 Bay, and at Long Bayou he found living Polymesoda clams in the 

 black muck under grass in the intertidal zone, where the local shell 

 collectors had previously seen only dead shells. 



The month prior to June 15 Dr. Morrison, accompanied by James 

 Watson of the exhibits staff, spent at two southeastern localities 

 photographing, sketching, and collecting specimens and materials for 

 shore-line habitat groups for exhibit in the proposed Hall of Oceanic 

 Life. Included were more than two weeks at the Gulf Coast Research 

 Laboratory at Ocean Springs, Miss. On the return trip they visited 

 the University of North Carolina Institute of Fisheries Research, at 

 Morehead City, N. C, and gathered materials and specimens for the 

 sand-beach shore-line group. The superb cooperation of the per- 

 sonnel concerned at both of these laboratories made possible the virtual 

 completion of this complicated work in considerably shorter time 

 than was originally planned and the gathering of additional scientif- 

 ic specimens of mollusks and other animals at various other localities. 

 For example, previously unknown Qgg characters and new locality 

 records of fresh-water mollusks were obtained from Virginia, Ten- 

 nessee, and Georgia on the way south. Several species and genera 

 were added to the known molluscan fauna of Mississippi, and topotype 

 specimens of the brackish-water snail genus Littoridinops were ob- 

 tained from near Darien, Ga. 



From July 6 to August 7, 1969, Dr. G. A. Cooper, head curator of 

 the department of geology, and Dr. Richard E. Grant, research assist- 

 ant, conducted fieldwork in w^est Texas in furtherance of their studies 

 of fossil brachiopods, a long-term project that is partially supported 

 by a grant from the National Science Foundation. They made 

 extended stays in the Glass Mountains, the Chinati ISfountains, the 

 Sierra Diablo, and the Carlsbad Caverns area. The expedition was a 

 success in every way, and many fine blocks containing important fossil 

 brachiopods were obtained that will yield much new information 

 and permit the correction of possible errors in earlier records. In 

 mid-June Dr. Cooper visited the American Museum of Natural 

 History to study a large and valuable collection of fossil corals, some 

 of which are being offered to the National Museum. 



