﻿8o SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. y8 



gap in the collection, for prior to Dr. ."smith's enterprise few mol- 

 lusks from that region were found in our collection. The sendings 

 in 1924 amounted to almost 2,000 specimens, while during the present 

 year over a thousand specimens have heen received, among them 

 two new species of shipworms as well as other novelties not yet fully 

 determined." 



Count Nils Gyldenstolpe. a Swedish naturalist, has recently pub- 

 lished a list of the birds of Siam, enumerating about 730 species and 

 suljspecies, of which 113 are water birds and waders, the remainder 

 land birds. The list is confessedly only an incomplete one, for much 

 additional ornithological work must be done before the birds of 

 Siam may be regarded as well known. 



Among the birds sent in by Dr. Smith is a specimen of the Open- 

 bill or "Shell ibis" (Anastoiiius oscitaiis), a remarkable species of 

 stork, i>eculiar for the character of the bill, wdiich is said to be " the 

 result of w^ear, caused by the shells of the mollusca, on which the 

 l)ir(l feeds." In the young bird the lines of the bill are straight, and 

 show no gaping space as in the adult. Several species of fruit 

 pigeons are represented in the collection, a group of birds usually 

 of bright colors, green predominating in many of the species. They 

 are native to the Eastern Hemisphere, a few species in Africa, an 

 increasing number in southern Asia, with the majority in the Dutch 

 East Indies and Polynesia. About 13 species have been recorded 

 from Siam, of which five are restricted to the northern parts of 

 that country. 



BREEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH CERIONS 



Dr. Paul Bartsch, curator of mollusks, U. S. National Museum, 

 spent the period from August 10 to August 21 at the Tortugas and 

 from August 21 to August 24 examining the Cerion colonies planted 

 on keys between the Tortugas and Miami. An examination of the 

 small island colonies yield the following results : 



Island I. Twenty-five Cerion incanum and 25 of a new species of 

 Cerion with spiral sculpture were planted here 2 years ago. Last 

 year, 22 of the ineamini were found dead ; this year no additional 

 specimens of this species were noted. Of the Cerion new species, 18 

 were dead last year and i dead and 2 living this year, which accounts 

 for 21 out of 25 of these specimens. The missing individuals may 

 be buried in the sand, dead or alive, or they may have been carried 

 away by some agency as, for example, the little Sparrow Hawk, 

 which occasionally indulges in that pastime. In this island were 



