THE TROPICAL RESEARCH STATION 
Bartica District, British Guiana. 
William Beebe, Directing Curator; G. Innes Hartley, Research Associate; 
Paul G. Howes, Research Assistant; Donald Carter, Collector; 
Anna Taylor and Rachel Hartley, Artists. 
This undertaking is a direct outcome of the dynamic inter- 
est in scientific research in the Department of Birds. Inaugu- 
rated as a suggestion of the Curator, the idea was favorably 
received by the Executive Committee and Director Hornaday, 
and the plan has now crystalized into achievement. Even the 
first year’s work may be regarded as thoroughly successful. Mr. 
Beebe, with a party of five assistants, left New York on the 
Mayaro on January 24, 1916, and returned on the Guiana on 
August 28, 1916. 
After a short stay at Georgetown,* the Society accepted 
the offer of a house near Bartica, forty miles up the Essequibo 
River, at the very edge of the jungle. This was on the Hills 
Rubber Estate, and the manager, Mr. G. B. Withers, kindly al- 
lowed the use of “Kalacoon” for a period of six months. This 
house proved to be satisfactory in all respects, and within a 
week after acceptance we furnished it from the Georgetown 
stores in time to receive our first visitors, Colonel and Mrs. 
Theodore Roosevelt. Colonel Roosevelt had been interested in 
this idea from its inception, and the extension of his trip to 
British Guiana was with the idea of seeing the work started. 
His experiences at the Station and his opinions of the under- 
taking have been incorporated in an article in the January, 
(1917), issue of Scribner’s Magazine, entitled ““A Naturalist’s 
Tropical Laboratory.” 
During the course of the next few months, we entertained 
a number of visitors from New York, and also many of the offi- 
cials of the British Guiana Government, including the Governor, 
Sir Walter, and Lady Egerton, the Hon. Cecil and Mrs. Clementi, 
and the Hon. J. J. Nunan. It is impossible even to mention all 
those who placed us under obligation, and whose hospitality and 
* Many of the less important details of the establishment of the Research 
Station may be found in an article in the Zoological Society Bulletin for July, 
1916. 
