34 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1911. 



most important is the shoe-bill heron, Balcenieeps rex, a form not 

 hitherto represented in any American museum. It also contained 

 other genera new to the collection, including Anastomus, Dicrocercus, 

 Macrodipteryx, Scotornis, Cnjptorhina, Sorella, and Ehninia, and 

 numerous species and subspecies which are now first obtained from 

 this source. Ninety skins of Chinese birds were received from the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology in exchange, and 83 skins from 

 Luzon, Philippine Islands, were presented by Dr. H. C. Curl, United 

 States Navy. The last consignment from the Java expedition of 

 Mr. Owen Bryant, consisting of skins, nests, and eggs, contained 

 several examples of the interesting; Weaver birds (Ploceidse). Skins 

 of North and Central American species to the number of 1,240, among 

 which are many well-prepared specimens of water birds and waders, 

 were obtained from Mr. Edward J. Brown, of Washington, partly 

 by gift and partly by purchase. In the course of a hunting trip to 

 the coast of South Carolina near Charleston, lasting five weeks, Dr. 

 E. A. Mearns, United States Army, Mr. J. H. Riley, and Mr. E. J. 

 Brown made for the Museum an interesting collection consisting of 

 607 skins, 52 eggs, and 2 nests, and including topotypes of numerous 

 species originally described from the drawings of Mark Catesby. 

 Several important forms new to the Museum and desired for the 

 exhibition series were purchased. Among them are 2 birds of 

 paradise, Astrapia rothschildi and Parotia carolce, a hornbill, Blxy- 

 ticeros narcondami, and a jay, Lalocitta lidthi, and specimens of 

 Globicera wilkesi, Globicera auroral, and other species from 

 Polynesia. 



The reserve collection of bird skins and eggs occupies 420 large 

 standard cases. The rearrangement of the skins, which had become 

 exceedingly crowded in their quarters in the Smithsonian building, 

 was completed for 96 cases, 52 of which were also furnished with 

 case labels. Labels indicating the contents of each drawer were 

 prepared for the North American eggs, and a beginning was made 

 in assembling the data for those required for the skins. Specimen 

 labels were written for about 2,700 skins. Some 3,500 mounted 

 specimens withdrawn from exhibition several years ago were 

 examined, and those considered desirable to return to the reserve 

 series were set aside for dismounting About 30 types reclaimed 

 from the general collection were suitably labeled and placed in the 

 type cases. The alcoholic specimens, now stored on the ground floor 

 in the same compartment as the reptiles, were extensively renovated 

 and rearranged, and much was done toward completing their labeling 

 and recording. The collection of skeletons, skulls, and sterna remains 

 to be overhauled. The card catalogue serving as an index to the 

 alcoholic specimens and skeletons has, to a large extent, been verified 

 and the nomenclature revised. 



