REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 27 



nique of the American Indians, publishing one short paper on the sub- 

 ject. He has also completed a study on American aboriginal harpoons, 

 and has given much time to the ethnology of the Philippine Islands, 

 in this connection having arranged and labeled, primarily for the Pan- 

 American Exposition, the large Philippine collection brought back by 

 the late Col. F. F. Hilder. The range of studies conducted by the 

 Curator of Prehistoric Archaeology, Dr. Thomas Wilson, may be indi- 

 cated by the papers published or presented by him during the year, 

 which were as follows: " Prehistoric archaeology in America," "A, 

 classification of arrow points, spearheads and knives of prehistoric 

 times," "Jade in America," " Criminology," and "Prehistoric tre- 

 panation." Dr. Wilson has also made an extensive examination of 

 prehistoric tools and implements in furtherance of the inquiry as to 

 whether prehistoric man was ambidextrous or not. 



In Biology the number of investigations under way was especially 

 large. The first volume of Mr. Robert Ridgway's exhaustive work on 

 the birds of North and Central America, mentioned in the last report, 

 was put in type, and the manuscript of the second volume was nearly 

 completed. Some new genera and species of tanagers and orioles 

 were also described by Mr. Ridgwav. The preparation of a card cat- 

 alogue of the genera and species of recent and fossil birds was contin- 

 ued, and three papers on the nomenclature of birds were published by 

 Dr. Charles W. Richmond. The work of completing Bendire\s Life 

 Histories of North American Birds, of which two parts were issued 

 a few years ago as Special Bulletins No. 1 and 3, has been taken up 

 by Dr. W. L. Ralph, Honorary Curator of the Section of Birds 1 Eggs. 

 The researches on mammals by Mr. G. S. Miller, jr., have resulted in 

 twenty published papers, mainly descriptive of new species in the 

 East Indian collection of Dr. W. L. Abbott, and of new European, 

 African, and South American forms. Among them, however, were a 

 revision of the red-back mice of Europe, and a key to the land mam- 

 mals of eastern North America. Mr. M. W. Lyon, jr., completed a 

 study of the osteology of the Jerboas and jumping mice. The investi- 

 gations of Dr. L. Stejneger related mainly to the reptiles of Japan, 

 Porto Rico, and Cuba, on which he has papers in course of prepara- 

 tion, the illustrations being already made. Dr. Stejneger also reported 

 on the reptiles collected in Venezuela by Messrs. Robinson and Lyon, 

 and published two papers on the group of birds known as Wheatears. 

 Flightless birds and the osteology of the tile fish and its allies were 

 among the subjects investigated by Mr. F. A. Lucas. 



The publications of Mr. William II. Dall comprised synopses of the 

 molluscan families Telliriidae, Cardiidae, and Lucinacea, eleven shorter 

 papers on mollusks, and a report, in conjunction with Mr. Charles T. 

 Simpson, on the mollusks collected in Porto Rican waters by the Fish 

 Commission steamer Fish Hawk in 1899. Mr. Simpson continued his 



