EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1912. 39 



sented by Dr. F. H. Mills, also represents a species new to the collec- 

 tion. The Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture 

 added to its collection, preserved in the Museum, many specimens 

 from the Isthmus of Panama and from Porto Rico. 



The rearrangement of the study series of birds, described in pre- 

 vious reports, was continued and completed for 27 additional cases. 

 As this work proceeds the species represented are noted in a check list 

 with the object of ascertaining and recording the desiderata. Of the 

 mounted birds eliminated from the older exhibition series a large 

 number were selected for dismounting, which necessitated their 

 cleaning, tagging, and removal from the stands. The collection of 

 bird skeletons previously stored in the bases of exhibition cases was 

 removed to the laboratory, where it is being placed in unit cases in 

 the adjoining corridor, and some progress was also made in the re- 

 arrangement of the alcoholic collection. The accessioiis of eggs and 

 nests received during the year were labeled, numbered, and stored 

 as such, the division not being provided with sufficient assistance to 

 permit of the systematic distribution of the specimens in the reserve 

 series. The labeling and cataloguing of specimens was extensively 

 carried on. The search for type specimens of species in the older 

 collections, the identity of which had been lost track of because of 

 the inadequate system of cataloguing and labeling followed in the 

 early days of the Museum, was continued and a number of such types 

 were disclosed. The recent discovery of the original field registers 

 of Mr. John Xantus has made it possible to add much needed infor- 

 mation to the catalogue of several thousand specimens collected by 

 him in Lower California and other parts of Mexico some 50 years 

 ago and entered without the proper data, and also to determine the 

 exact localities for a number of types, previously unknown. 



Part V of Museum Bulletin No. 50, entitled " The Birds of North 

 and Middle America," was issued during the year, and the author, 

 Mr. Eobert Eidgway, curator of the division, continued work on part 

 6, the manuscript of which was well advanced at the close of the year. 

 Much also was done on the manuscript for succeeding volumes as 

 materials and opportunities offered. Dr. C. W. Richmond, assistant 

 curator, whose time was almost wholly occupied with routine work, 

 prepared descriptions of five new species of birds from the islands of 

 western Sumatra. Mr. J. H. Riley, aid, mIio accompanied the Smith- 

 sonian expedition to British Columbia and Alberta in the summer 

 of 1911, reported on the birds collected, and a preliminary paper by 

 him, descriptive of three new forms, was published. Dr. E. A. Mearns, 

 United States Army (retired), associate in zoology, continued his 

 studies of African birds until his departure for Abyssinia with Mr. 

 Childs Frick. Mr. A. C. Bent, of Taunton, Mass., who is at work 



