14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



EXPLORATIONS IN SANTO DOMINGO. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott, whose energies for nearly 30 years past have 

 been devoted to explorations in the Old World, made a short visit to 

 Santo Domingo (the scene of his earliest expedition, in 1883), where 

 he spent a few weeks in late summer and fall, 1916, at the eastern end 

 of the island, chiefly in the vicinity of the Bay of Samana, with 

 trips to several localities in the highlands of the interior, notably at 

 Constanza and El Rio. On this expedition he made a very interesting 

 collection of mammals, birds, reptiles, mollusks, insects, and Indian 

 relics. 



In the coast region, Doctor Abbott investigated numerous caves in 

 search of remains of an extinct mammalian fauna. One of the most 

 interesting mammals whose remains were found in these caves is a 

 large rodent, described from a freshly killed specimen in 1836, but 

 not captured since then. Whether it is extinct or not is at present 

 an uncertainty. At San Lorenzo Bay, on the south side of the Bay 

 of Samana, there are "many precipitous limestone hills," which, 

 Doctor Abbott writes, are "literally honeycombed with caves. The 

 cave (usually inhabited) near the pier of the abandoned railroad 

 is full of shell heaps, and contains many Indian carvings, more or 

 less obliterated by smoke and lime deposits." Here he uncovered 

 200 or more archeological objects, including terra-cotta images, frag- 

 ments of pottery, stone pestles, carved stone plates, and similar 

 material. 



After exhausting the caves in the vicinity of Samana, Doctor Ab- 

 bott visited the mountains of the interior, where, at El Rio, he made 

 a most surprising discovery in the bird fauna. He writes " I had 

 heard of a very small ' parrot ' which lived in flocks in the pines on 

 the pine cones. I suspected a crossbill — said to occur here at Jara- 

 bocoa. below 2,000 feet, but the pair I shot were at near 5,000 feet." 

 The bird proved to be a veritable crossbill and, what was most ex- 

 traordinary, a form closely related to the white-winged crossbill, a 

 species restricted in the breeding season to the Boreal zone of North 

 America (from Alaska to the higher Adirondacks), migrating in 

 winter at rare intervals as far south as North Carolina. 



The series of birds totaled about 250 specimens, of 50 or more 

 species, over 30 of which are peculiar to the island. The indigenous 

 species of this island have long constituted the Museum's chief de- 

 siderata among the birds of the West Indies, hence Doctor Abbott's 

 collection has proved of great interest, aside from the special dis- 

 coveries mentioned above. 



EXPEDITION TO CELEBES. 



Through the generosity of Dr. W. L. Abbott, associate in zoology 

 in the Museum, Mr. H. C. Raven has continued to make natural 



