REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1907. 43 



Dr. E. A. Mearns, U. S. Army, in the Philippine Islands are espe- 

 cially noteworthy. 



Although the amount of field collecting on behalf of the depart- 

 ment of biology was inconsiderable, yet important contributions in 

 several lines were secured by this means. The head curator, Dr. 

 F. \Y. True, as the result of visits made to Chesapeake Beach, Mary- 

 land, in November, 1906, and March, 1907, in search of the remains 

 of fossil cetaceans, obtained a nearly complete skull of a fossil por 

 poise, apparently representing a genus of Eurinodelphidse, a family 

 new to North America, and the humerus and sacrum of a fossil seal, 

 probably the recently described Leptophoca I* nis. 



Dr. Leonhard Stejneger spent about two months of the summer 

 of 1906 in making observations on living salamanders in the vicinity 

 of Stribling Springs, Augusta County, Virginia, preparatory to a 

 revision of the group. This region was selected on account of its 

 geographical position and the number of its springs and small 

 streams, and although the season proved unfavorable, a considerable 

 number of both adults and larva 1 were obtained. Mr. YV. L. Ilahn 

 made a zoological reconnaissance in the Kankakee basin of north- 

 western Indiana and Mr. Barton A. Bean a collecting trip to the 

 Florida Keys, the latter having been rendered possible through the 

 kindness of Mi-. W. H. Gregg, of St. Louis, in permitting the use 

 of his private yacht for that purpose. Dr. Paul Bartsch, in the 

 autumn of L906, visited the neighborhood of Wilmington, North 

 Carolina, where he obtained fine series of specimens of the rare large 

 land shell, Planorbis magnificus and of other species, including 

 some little-known and interesting forms. II is observations indicate 

 that the region is an important distribution center, which would re- 

 pay more extensive and detailed inquiries. Dr. Harrison (1. Dem- 

 and Mr. A. X. Caudell wen- in California at the beginning of the 

 year, engaged in an investigation of mosquitoes, the results of which 

 were published in the Proceedings of the Museum. Subsequently 

 Doctor Dyar conducted additional field work relating to the same 

 subject. 



Dr. J. X. Pose, associate curator of plants, continued his botanical 

 explorations in Mexico during the summer of 1906, returning with 

 over 1,000 herbarium specimens and about '200 living plants, the lat- 

 ter being deposited in one of the greenhouses of the Department of 

 Agriculture, as the Museum has no facilities for the care of such 

 material. Mr. W. R. Maxon, assistant curator of plants, spent about 

 two months in the spring of 1907 in botanical investigations at the 

 eastern end of Cuba, with headquarters at Santiago de Cuba. Mr. 

 Maxon worked mainly in the valley of the Rio Bayamita, on the 



