30 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 
warbler were donated by Mr. George C. Embody, of Cornell University. 
Eleven birds of paradise were purchased for the exhibition collection. 
Twenty-nine skins and five skeletons of birds were received from 
the National Zoological Park. They included a male north African 
ostrich, presented to President Roosevelt by Emperor Menelik of 
Abyssinia, two examples of the Jabiru mycteria, one of the whooping 
crane, Grus americana, one of Burmeister’s cariama, Chunga bur- 
meisteri, one of the Timneh parrot, Psittacus tumneh, and a rhea, Rhea 
darwin. By transfer from the United States Biological Survey, 110 
birds’ eggs and three nests, chiefly from Mexico, were obtained. 
The reserve collection of birds was moved to the new building in 
August, 1909. The eggs had previously been transferred, but were 
not permanently placed until in December of the same year. The 
overcrowding of the skins in the old building had been so great that it 
was found necessary to immediately order over 70 additional cases to 
provide for a reasonable spreading of the collection, and soon there- 
after half as many more to accommodate the current accessions, 
including those from east Africa. Delays in securing all of the draw- 
ers and fittings for the new cases, however, prevented the completion 
of the arrangement of the specimens within the year. 
Much work of a routine nature, in addition to the above, was put 
upon the collection. During the earlier period of the Museum and 
before the present fine distinctions between species and varieties 
were recognized, much material now known to be of exceptional 
value was unfortunately included in the duplicate series which were 
widely distributed. A careful examination of the older records, with 
the object of determining as far as possible the location of desired 
specimens, has been going on for a considerable time, and some 
important types have already been recovered. ‘There has been the 
customary amount of labeling and cataloguing, and identifications 
were printed on 5,733 labels, including the remaining parts of Dr. 
Abbott’s collections. The specimens from all accessions of the year, 
including the African and Javan expeditions, were catalogued. A 
temporary assistant was employed for five months to help in the 
record work and the arrangement of specimens, but some time is still 
required to cover all of the arrearages and place the collections and 
records of the division on a thoroughly satisfactory basis. 
The fifth volume of the manual of North American birds, by the 
curator, Mr. Robert Ridgway, was completed except as to the family 
of woodpeckers, and it is expected that the manuscript will be ready 
for the printer by October, 1910. For examination in connection 
with this work, 6,529 birds were borrowed from other institutions. 
Dr. C. W. Richmond, assistant curator, added about 1,500 cards to 
the catalogue of genera and species of birds. Mr. H. C. Oberholser 
continued studies on the East Indian collections of Dr. Abbott. An 
