30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
Dr. Charles O. Handley, Jr., associate curator of mammals, spent 
December 1 to 12, 1958, visiting the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard Uni- 
versity, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York 
to study types and other specimens pertinent to research projects in 
progress. Accompanied by Bernard R. Feinstein, museum aide in the 
division of birds, Dr. Handley continued his mammal survey of Pan- 
ama between January 15 and March 27, 1959, working in the portion 
of Darién adjacent to the Colombian boundary. Members of the 
party reached mountainous areas where zoologists have not previously 
collected. As a result of the trip, collections totaled more than 1,500 
mammals and several hundred birds, reptiles, and various insects and 
other animals. Conditions for netting bats were especially good, and 
new techniques were developed. No fewer than 45 species of bats 
were obtained, possibly a record high for this country. It is planned 
to continue this project, which is sponsored by the Gorgas Memorial 
Laboratory, Panama. In continuation of his research on the mammal 
fauna of the southeastern United States, Dr. Handley spent two pe- 
riods collecting in Virginia in May 1959. One of these trips took him 
to the peninsulas on the west side of Chesapeake Bay and the other 
to some of the northernmost ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains. 
The mammal specimens preserved on these trips will add to the back- 
ground material for his continuing research. 
Between March 18 and 23, 1959, Herbert G. Deignan, associate 
curator of birds, visited England, primarily to participate in the cen- 
tenary celebration of the British Ornithologists’ Union, which was 
held at Cambridge. The meetings were largely devoted to series of 
symposia on various aspects of ornithology. 
Dr. Ernest A. Lachner, associate curator of fishes, attended the 
annual meetings of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in 
Bloomington, Ind. While there he examined the fish collections of 
the university and on the return trip to Washington studied the fish 
collection at the University of Louisville. Dr. Lachner was accom- 
panied by Dr. William R. Taylor, associate curator of fishes. On 
their return east the two ichthyologists made collections in streams 
draining Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. 
Between November 8 and 8, 1958, Drs. Lachner and Taylor made 
a trip to the University of South Carolina to prepare and pack major 
portions of the fish collection of that institution for shipping to the 
Smithsonian Institution. This valuable collection, consisting of about 
25,000 specimens, is composed of preserved material that is sure to be 
very useful for future group revisionary studies, especially since it 
comes from an area of the country not too well represented in the 
national collections. On the return trip Drs. Lachner and Taylor 
