REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 43 
petrels, ducks, geese, shore birds, auks, jaegers, skimmers, and terns. 
All the specimens received during the year, including over 1,100 
Philippine birds presented by Doctor Mearns, were also furnished 
with standard labels. Seventy storage cases were marked with type- 
written labels, giving their contents by families and genera, and also 
noting the genera not in the Museum collection. Many imperfectly 
prepared or damaged specimens of value were made over by the 
taxidermist, but only a few minor changes were made in the exhibi- 
tion series. 
Mr. Ridgway continued the preparation of the fifth part of the 
manual of North American birds, giving special attention to the 
humming birds and woodpeckers. Dr. C. W. Richmond completed 
a supplement to Waterhouse’s index of genera of birds, bringing the 
subject down from 1901 to 1905, and also added over 3,000 cards 
to the catalogue of genera and species of birds, on which he has been 
at work for some time. Mr. Riley, besides assisting Mr. Ridgway, 
contributed a paper on the West Indian forms of the hawk, Buteo 
platypterus. Work on Doctor Abbott’s collection of Malayan birds 
was continued by Mr. H. S. Oberholser, of the Biological Survey, 
who also prepared a paper on the kingfishers of the genus Pelargopsis. 
based chiefly on Museum material. Bird skins to the number of 368 
were lent for study to 8 ornithologists. 
Reptiles and batrachians.—Dr. V. Brazil, director of the Instituto 
Serumtherapico do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil, transmitted in ex- 
change 13 specimens of snakes, representing 8 species, of which 7 
are poisonous. They came from Butautan, and include one recently- 
described form. An excellent collection of 40 salamanders from 
North Carolina was purchased. Prof. J. Grinnell, of Pasadena, 
California, presented a large series of the rare California lizard, 
Xantusia vigilis; and Mr. W. T. Davis, of New Brighton, New York, 
specimens of the two rare frogs, Tyla andersoni and Rana virgatipes, 
from Lakehurst, New Jersey. 
Doctor Stejneger’s extensive treatise on the reptiles of Japan and 
the neighboring mainland of Asia, based chiefly on Museum material, 
was completed and published early in the year. He later continued 
the study of the reptiles of the Philippine Islands, describing several 
new species, and conducted investigations regarding the geographical 
distribution of Asiatic and North American species and the origin 
of the reptihan fauna of Japan. He also spent some time on a 
revision of certain North and Central American genera of snakes and 
batrachians. 
Fishes.—The Egyptian Government, at the suggestion of Dr. G. A. 
Boulenger, of the British Museum, presented through its minister 
of education an excellent collection of fishes from the River Nile. 
Numerous types and cotypes of new species from Japan, the Philip- 
