REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1922. 51 



while attached to the Yale University-National Geographic Society 

 Expedition of 1914-15, has finally been turned over to the National 

 Museum as a gift from the expedition. This material forms the 

 most important individual contribution of birds from Peru ever 

 received by us. It embraces 2 genera and 87 species and subspecies 

 new to the Museum, including the types of 10 new forms described 

 by Doctor Chapman in Museum Bulletin No. 117. B. H. Swales has 

 contributed (under several accessions) 296 skins and some skeletons, 

 nests, and eggs. Among these specimens are representatives of 17 

 genera and 131 species and subspecies new to our collection. Con- 

 spicuous among these additions are two genera of birds of paradise 

 and a skeleton of Darwin's rhea. By the terms of his will the late 

 William Palmer bequeathed the greater part of his collection of 

 birds to the National Museum. This collection is particularly rich 

 in specimens showing change of plumage by molt and in juvenile 

 plumages. It also included two skins of the Carolina paroquet, now 

 nearly extinct, and three specimens of the extinct passenger pigeon 

 obtained in the vicinity of Washington, one of them collected on 

 Rock Creek as recently as the autumn of 1889. Other accessions 

 worthy of mention are 235 skins and 5 nests, collected in Africa by 

 H. C. Raven; 47 specimens from the Dominican Republic, collected 

 and presented by Dr. William L. Abbott; 109 specimens from Aus- 

 tralia, collected by Charles M. Hoy and presented by Doctor Abbott; 

 46 skins collected in southern China by Arthur de C. Sowerby and 

 presented by Robert S. Clark; 163 specimens in alcohol, 131 eggs, 

 and 13 nests, chiefly from Argentina, Chile, Alaska, and British 

 America, transferred from the Department of Agriculture; 25 skins 

 and 22 alcoholic specimens from Samoa, collected and presented by 

 Lieut. Commander Richard C. Reed, U. S. N. ; 86 skins from 

 Szechwan, China, collected and presented by David C. Graham ; 134 

 skins from southern California, collected and presented by Edward 

 J. Brown. 



Reptiles and batrachians. — The Hoy Australian collection, pre- 

 sented by Dr. William L. Abbott, contained 26 specimens. Doctor 

 Abbott also contributed 77 reptiles and batrachians taken by him- 

 self in the Dominican Republic. As transfers from the Department 

 of Agriculture were received 6 specimens collected by Dr. Alex. 

 Wetmore in South America, 101 collected by Dr. W. P. Taylor and 

 G. G. Cantwell in Washington State, and 180 taken by F. P. Metcalf 

 and W. F. Kubichek in Minnesota. A transfer from the Bureau of 

 Fisheries, Department of Commerce, consisted of 170 reptiles and 

 batrachians from Lower California coKected by Dr. Charles H. 

 Townsend. 



Fishes. — Only three accessions are mentioned by the curator of 

 fishes as worthy of special comment. These are 500 specimens from 



