PROCEEDINGS OF THE EEGENTS. 129 



The board decided that gifts of lands, buildings, or funds to estab- 

 lish bird or wild animal refuges might be accepted and administered, 

 on condition that adequate provision for their proper maintenance 

 be made by the donor or donors or other agencies. 



secretary's statement. . .., 



The secretary also made the following statements : 



The National Gallery of Art received in July, 1915, a collection of 

 pictures which, though not of an elaborate nature, is remarkable for 

 the long list of eminent artists represented. The collection consists 

 of 82 drawings executed with various mediums, principally water 

 color, ci'ayon, charcoal, pencil, chalk, and pen, by as many of the 

 most prominent contemporary painters, sculptors, and engravers of 

 the French Eepublic. It came as a testimonial from the people of 

 France to the people of the United States in recognition of their 

 sympathetic efforts toward relieving the distress and suffering in 

 France occasioned by the war in Europe and is the result of action 

 by an organizing committee in Paris begim in March, 1915. The 

 collection was delivered to the American ambassador at the French 

 capital early in July, and immediately upon its receipt at the Depart- 

 ment of State in "Washington it was deposited in the National 

 Gallery. 



A catalogue of the collection has been printed and widely circu- 

 lated, and it constitutes a most distinguished honor roll. Of added 

 interest is the fact that the pictures are all signed, and, with very 

 few exceptions, each is also inscribed by the artist with an expression 

 of friendly feeling and gratitude. 



Bureau of American Ethnology. — During the summer and autumn 

 of 1915 important archeological excavations were conducted in the 

 historic Nacoochee Mound in "V^Tiite County, Ga., as well as in the 

 Mesa Verde National Park of southern Colorado, where a large ruin 

 exhibiting remarkable masonry was thoroughly excavated and re- 

 paired. 



Ethnologic investigations among the Creek and Natchez Indians 

 of Oklahoma, the Fox Indians of Iowa and Oklahoma, and the Chu- 

 mash and Mohave Indians of California, were prosecuted in the field 

 with excellent results, and equally successful efforts were made in 

 studying the languages of some of the tribes of Oregon that are 

 threatened with extinction. 



A reconnaisance of the ruins of pueblos in the Zuni Valley, New 

 Mexico, was made with a view to their excavation during the summer 

 of 1916. 



Addition of land to the National Zoological ParJc. — The sundry 

 civil act for the fiscal year ending Jime 30, 1914, appropriated 



