154 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
taken by him in the field. After the lecture the students were 
taken to the flamingo group and were shown some of the practical 
results of the expedition which had been described. The major- 
ity of the students were public school teachers from Southern 
and Western States, and they were much interested in these 
phases of the Museum’s work. 
THE generosity of a friend of the Museum enables the De- 
partment of Ornithology to plan to assemble a special collection 
of Birds of Paradise. Many species of this remarkable family 
of birds are now becoming so rare that specimens can be secured 
only with difficulty. Mr. Chapman, Associate Curator of Or- 
nithology, while attending the Fourth International Congress of 
Ornithologists in London recently, took advantage of the occa- 
sion to examine the stocks of London dealers in Natural History 
supplies and was fortunate in procuring some most desirable 
material for use in the proposed group. 
THE collections of native birds were so popular last year that 
the Museum was unable to fill all the requests for them. The 
duplicate material in our study collections which could be used 
for this work has long since been exhausted, and during the 
summer the Museum has purchased more than six hundred bird 
skins to supplement our present collections. These have been 
mounted, and there are now two hundred cabinets of birds alone 
available for school use. 
Mr. J. H. Batry, who has been collecting mammals, birds, 
and reptiles for the Museum in Mexico for several years past, 
finished his work in southern Sinaloa in November last, going 
thence overland through Tepic to Jalisco, where he has since 
been making important collections. Several shipments from 
Jalisco have already reached the Museum, containing hundreds 
of birds and mammals, besides many reptiles and insects, ac- 
cessories for groups and a large number of valuable photo- 
graphs. During the last two or three months he has been 
exploring the fauna of Mount Colima and the adjacent regions, 
with very interesting results. His collections of birds and mam- 
