22 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



heads in the mountains to the north of El Valle de Anton, where col- 

 lections were made on the headwaters last year. Field work begun 

 on February 14 covered the coastal area inland to Chilar, and on 

 February 21 the party moved inland to the head of canoe navigation 

 at El Uracillo in northern Code Province. After two weeks' work 

 there, and a further week at the mouth of the river, work terminated 

 on March 12. 



The region is still one of forest, though clearing and cultivation are 

 going forward rapidly. Vegetation was heavy, and although this 

 was the dry season there were daily rains except in the immediate 

 area of the coast. The collections obtained give much valuable data 

 on distribution, particularly since the region has been unknown 

 ornithologically. 



Following this, the party worked from March 14 to 24 on Taboga 

 Island, opposite the Pacific end of the Panama Canal, a region as dry 

 as the Caribbean area was humid. The avifauna is extremely limited 

 but has yielded interesting and unexpected information that will be 

 embodied in a short paper covering Taboga and the adjacent islands 

 of Taboguilla and Urava, to be published during next fiscal year in 

 the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 



The ornithological survey of Colombia, carried on for several years 

 through M. A. Carriker, Jr., opened this season at the end of January 

 in the southern part of the republic near Purace. Operations in the 

 main covered regions accessible from Popayan, with one excursion to 

 the lowland areas in the Territory of Caqueta. The work has been 

 highly successful, and this season completes the survey. The speci- 

 mens obtained this year from the Departments of Cauca and Huila 

 will be especially important in assistance in the study of the earlier 

 collections from farther north. 



The detail of Dr. David H. Johnson to the Army Medical Service 

 Graduate School research unit, engaged in a study of mammalian and 

 other hosts involved in the transmission of scrub typhus in the vicinity 

 of Mount Kinabalu, British North Borneo, was continued from June 

 to August 1951. The ecological survey of the mammals of the Arctic 

 slope of Alaska, commenced by Dr. Henry W. Setzer under a coopera- 

 tive arrangement with the Arctic Kesearch Laboratory, Office of Naval 

 Research, Point Barrow, Alaska, was concluded in August 1951. 

 Charles O. Handley, Jr., in continuation of his studies on the mammals 

 of eastern United States, especially of the southern Appalachian high- 

 lands, conducted field work in the Great Smoky Mountains National 

 Park during April 1952. On June 15, 1952, Mr. Handley sailed from 

 New York as a member of an expedition, sponsored and led by 

 Laurence K. Marshall, of Cambridge, Mass., which will be engaged 



