EEPORT OF NATIOISTAL MUSEUM, 1912. 53 



of obtaining specimens of marine invertebrates for the exhibition 

 series and of making color notes to be used in reproducing the natural 

 colors on the j^repared material. The objects of the trip were success- 

 fully accomplished, and extensive general collections were also made. 

 To the authorities and naturalists at both of these stations acknowl- 

 edgments are due for many courtesies, including the use of boats and 

 apparatus whenever needed. Occasional collecting trips in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia and to neighboring localities were made during the 

 year by Mr. B. A. Bean and Mr. A. C. Weed, assistant curator and 

 aid, respectively, of the division of fishes, Mr. Ernest B. Marshall, 

 and other members of the Museum staff. 



Three young naturalists, chiefly interested in the higher verte- 

 brates, who offered to engage in collecting work for the Museum 

 at their own expense, were designated as temporary collaborators, 

 and left for the field toward the latter part, of the year. They are 

 Mr. D. D. Streeter, jr., of New York, who proceeded to British 

 Borneo ; Mr. George Mixter, of Boston, Mass., who went to the Lake 

 Baikal region; and Mr. Copley Amory, jr., of Cambridge, Mass., 

 who joined the Coast and Geodetic Survey party under Mr. Thomas 

 Riggs, jr., on the Alaska- Yukon boundary. 



On the Yale Peruvian expedition of 1911, under the direction of 

 Prof. Hiram Bingham, extensive natural history collections were 

 made by Prof. H. W. Foote, and of these the reptiles and batrachians, 

 land shells, insects, and crustaceans were submitted to the Museum 

 for study and report, with the understanding that in return for this 

 assistance the Museum would receive the first set of specimens in 

 each group. The shells and the reptiles and batrachians have al- 

 ready been worked up. 



Preparation of speciirbens. — "WHiile the preparation of specimens 

 for the reserve collections demanded the usual amount of attention, 

 the work of the preparators related mainly to the several exhibition 

 series. Including the material for two of the important groups 

 from British East Africa, the buffalo and the zebra-oryx, the mount- 

 ing of 12 mammals of medium to large size was completed in the 

 Museum shops, and that of 4 others was well under way, the work 

 being done under the direct supervision of the chief taxidermist, 

 Mr. George B. Turner, and in accordance with his designs. The con- 

 struction of two additional groups of mammals from specimens ob- 

 tained by the Smithsonian African Expedition, one representing 

 Cooke's hartebeest, the other the white rhinoceros, was arranged for 

 by contract with Mr. J. L. Clark, of New York. The former was 

 finished and installed, but the latter required a much longer time 

 for its completion. 



Forty-eight specimens of birds, designed partly for the general 

 exhibition series and partly for the faunal exhibit of the District of 



