40 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1912. 



upon the life histories of North American birds, in continuation of 

 the researches of the hite Maj. Bendire, examined the Museum collec- 

 tion of ptarmigans from the Aleutian Islands. 



The collections of the division were often consulted by the staff of 

 the Biological Survey, and Mr. H. C. Oberholser, outside of official 

 hours, worked on the specimens from Malaysia contributed to the 

 Museum by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Among visitors to the division who 

 spent more or less time in the examination and study of specimens 

 may be mentioned the members of the committee on nomenclature 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union ; Mr. F. M. Chapman, of the 

 American Museum of Natural History; Mr. W. E. Clyde Todd, of 

 the Carnegie Museum ; Dr. Thomas Barbour and Mr. Outram Bangs, 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology; Mr. Witmer Stone, of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; Mr. Anastasio Alt' aro, 

 of the Museo Nacional, and Mr. Jose C. Zeledon, both of San Jose, 

 Costa Rica; Mr. L. M. Loomis, of the California Academy of 

 Sciences; Mr. A. B. Howell, of Pasadena, CaL; Mr. C. W. Beebe, of 

 the New York Zoological Society; Mr. Charles Eogers, of New York; 

 Mr. B. H. Swales, of Grosse He, Mich.; and Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, 

 of Washington. The principal loans of specimens, to aid in investi- 

 gations, were made to the American Museum of Natural History, the 

 California Academy of Sciences, and the Carnegie Museum. 



Reptiles and hatrachians. — This division also derived its most 

 important additions, amounting to over 500 specimens, from the col- 

 lections of the Rainey African expedition. A number of species, 

 including several new to science, obtained by the Yale Peruvian 

 expedition of 1911 under Dr. Hiram Bingham, were received as a 

 gift; and Mr. Julius Hurter, sr., of St. Louis, presented cotypes of 

 his CJw^semys treleasei and a lizard from Arabia. Mr. N. R. Wood, 

 of the Museum staff, while in Florida, collected a large series of the 

 lizard recently described as Neoseps reynoldsi and mentioned in the 

 last report; and Dr. Paul Bartsch, while on the Bahaman expedition 

 of the steamer Anton Dohr7\ of the Carnegie Institution, secured 85 

 reptiles on Andros Island. Many species new to the collection; from 

 Cuba, South America, and Africa, were received from the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology through exchange. 



The division remains in charge of Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, the 

 head curator of the department of biology, and owing to his mani- 

 fold duties in connection with the latter office and the serious illness 

 for several months of the aid of the division less progress was made 

 in the rearrangement of the reptile collections than would otherwise 

 have been the case. The only important investigation by Dr. Stej- 

 neger was the study of the small but very interesting collection made 

 by the Yale Peruvian expedition. Mi'. D. D. vStreeter, jr., of New 

 York, a temporary collaborator in zoology, examined the Malaysian 



