REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. Al 
poreupines, and South American octodont rats, as well as the squirrel 
skulls and bat skeletons, were rearranged, and the cases and trays 
containing them furnished with typewritten labels. Considerable 
attention was given to the large and medium-sized skulls, and the 
alcoholic series, especially the large collection of bats, was much im- 
proved in arrangement and labeling. Some 3,200 skulls, chiefly large 
ones, were cleaned ; about 100 large skins were tanned and folded, and 
38 smaller ones made over. 
A practically complete skeleton of the very rare Baird’s beaked 
whale, Berardius bairdii, from California, about 40 feet long, was 
mounted for the osteological hall. It is probably the only one of its 
kind exhibited in any museum, and this and another received from 
the Pribilof Islands represent the largest beaked whales thus far 
recorded. A Kashmir stag was added to the series representing large 
game, and 9 small mammals were incorporated in the general ex- 
hibition series. It was found necessary to replace the floor in the 
large wall case on the east side of the south hall, requiring the tem- 
porary removal of all the specimens, which were overhauled and 
renovated. 
Dr. F. W. True, head curator of the department, and three assist- 
ants made several visits to the Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, in search 
of fossil cetaceans, of which they obtained a large amount of material, 
including a nearly complete skeleton of a fossil porpoise, discovered 
by Mr. William Palmer. Doctor True continued his investigations 
on the recent North American forms belonging to this group, pre- 
paring papers on some of the species, on the Zeuglodont genus Doru- 
don and on the classification of the Cetacea. He has also about com- 
pleted a manuscript treating of the recent beaked whales. Dr. M. W. 
Lyon, jr., assistant curator, prepared two papers, one on the horns 
and systematic position of the American antelope, the other on the 
mammals collected by Doctor Abbott along the east coast of Sumatra, 
the latter containing descriptions of 13 new forms. He also began 
work on Doctor Abbott’s latest collection from the Rhio-Linga Archi- 
pelago, and southwestern Borneo and nearby islands. A list of the 
type specimens of mammals preserved in the Museum, including 
those in the collection of the Biological Survey, was compiled for 
publication jointly by Doctor Lyon, Mr. W. H. Osgood, and Doctor 
True. 
To Dr. E. A. Mearns, who has begun studies preliminary to a 
manual of the mammals of the Philippine Islands, was sent a number 
of fruit bats, and specimens of the Almiqui (Solenodon) were lent to 
Dr. J. A. Allen, of the American Museum of Natural History, who is 
working up the Haitian species. Many European mammals were 
forwarded to Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., who is now at the British 
Museum, preparing a general work on the European fauna, and some 
