MUSEUM NOTES 239 



Dr. J. A. Allen has been working at the British Museum during the past six 

 weeks on the mammals of Korea and South America. His work is particularly 

 complete on South American squirrels, the material which Mr. Chapman's expedition 

 secured in Colombia and the large unidentified collections of the British Museum 

 providing for an entire revision of the group. The work on the Korean mammals 

 collected by Mr. Andrews in northern Korea had the benefit of comparison with 

 British Museum specimens secured by the Duke of Bedford's earlier expedition to 

 Korea, the British Museum being practically the only institution in the world which 

 contains any series of mammals from the region. 



Dr. Arthur B. Emmons of Harvard University, has published an article in 

 Biometrika on "The Variations in the Female Pelvis, based on observations made on 

 217 specimens of the American Indian Squaw." This study is founded largely 

 upon skeleton material in the American Museum. The results were so important 

 that the author was awarded the Boylston Medical Prize for 1912. 



The Museum's zoological expedition to Colombia returned early in May, after 

 an absence of four months. The objects of the expedition were first, to collect 

 material for a habitat group illustrating the bird life of the Magdalena Valley; second, 

 to complete the ornithological survey of the Colombian Andes, begun in 1910; . third, 

 to ascertain definitely the limits of the so-called Bogota region whence, for the past 

 seventy odd years specimens collected by natives, but unaccompanied by data of 

 any kind have been received; fourth, to collect a series of topotypical specimens from 

 the Bogota region. The expedition included Mr. Frank M. Chapman, and Messrs. 

 George K. Cherrie, first assistant, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, artist, Thomas Ring, Paul 

 G. Howes, and Geoffrey O'Connell, volunteer assistants. This party left Barran- 

 quilla on January 19, and during the voyage of twelve days up the Magdalena River 

 to Honda, by taking advantage of every opportunity when the boat stopped for cargo 

 or fuel, collected three hundred birds. Studies for the habitat group were made at 

 El Consuelo, on the western slope of the Eastern Andes, 2700 feet above Honda; 

 from this point a superb view is had of the Magdalena Valley, through which the 

 river winds picturesquely, while in the background the Central Cordillera rises 

 crowned by the three great snow peaks, Tolima, Isabel, and Ruiz, each of which has 

 an approximate altitude of 18,000 feet. 



Having completed its work in this region, the expedition journeyed by mule to 

 Bogota, making this city its headquarters during the remainder of its stay in Colom- 

 bia. From Bogota it passed first to the eastward to Villivicencio, at the eastern base 

 of the Andes, stopping en route at all favorable localities. On reaching Villivicencio, 

 the section through the Andes from the Pacific coast to the upper drainage of the 

 Orinoco, was completed, and data are now in hand for the determination of the 

 altitudinal life zones of the Colombian Andes. A month later the expedition re- 

 turned to Bogota and passed southward to Fusugasuga, encountering there entirely 

 different species from those which it had met with in its journey to the eastward. 

 In all, some 2300 birds and about 100 mammals were secured, and the diversity and 

 richness of the avifauna is illustrated by the fact that no less than 505 species of 

 birds were secured during the comparatively brief period when the expedition was 

 actually in the field. 



Dr. P. E. Goddard is preparing for a trip to the upper Peace River country of 

 northwestern Canada to make a study of the Beaver Indians, a little known tribe 

 of the Northwest; and Dr. Herbert J. Spinden will spend the summer in New Mexico 

 on ethnological work among the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande Valley. 



