Vol.XXXIIIj Notes and Neivs. 113 



Government, and a part of the zoological material is to be turned over to 

 the Congo Museum at Tervueren. 



Messrs. Lang and Chapin sailed for the Congo in May, 1909, and have 

 collected across the entire breadth of the Belgian Congo. After ascend- 

 ing the river as far as Stanley Falls they continued eastward up into the 

 great Ituri Forest, and then northward to the Upper Nile as far as the 

 Lado Enclave and the Bahr-el-Ghazal. 



Conditions of transportation necessitated returning by much the same 

 route, and on the return journey much additional material was secured. 

 The greater part of the time was thus spent in the northeastern part of 

 the Congo, one of the most remote, most primitive, and most interesting 

 ))ortions of the continent. 



The collections comprise not only magnificent representatives of the big 

 game of the region, the Square-lipped Rhinoceros, the Okapi, the Derby 

 Eland, the Bongo, and the Ituri Forest-Hog, but also extensive series of 

 the mammals in general, birds, reptiles, amphibia and fishes, many thou- 

 sands of invertebrates and a great deal of ethnological material, with 

 numerous plaster-casts of faces from many different tribes, including the 

 Pygmies. All this is supplemented by Mr. Lang's remarkable collection 

 of photographs comprising some 7000 negatives. 



The vertebrate specimens alone number some 20,000, but we shall only 

 consider in detail the results of the work in ornithology. The specimens 

 of birds collected number over 6200, representing — it is estimated — 

 some 600 different species. They are accompanied by a collection of nests 

 and eggs, and many interesting notes on food, habits, voice, and migration. 

 These results will assuredly constitute an important addition to our 

 knowledge of the avifauna of the Congo, and it is hoped that a general 

 report on them will be published. 



For the present, the new species discovered are being described in the- 

 'Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History'; among them 

 is a Very distinct new genus, Ceriocleptes, a Honey-Guide. The study 

 of the bird collection has been entrusted to Mr. Chapin, junior mem- 

 ber of the party, whose long field experience should prove extremely 

 valuable. 



Above all Messrs. Lang and Chapin were fortunate in maintaining them- 

 selves in good health for such a long period in a country justly famous for 

 its disagreeable climate, insidious fevers, and sleeping sickness. 



A NATURAL history survey of the Yosemite National Park is now absorb- 

 ing the attention of several of the staff members of the California Museum 

 of Vertebrate Zoology. In fact, during most of the past year, one or more 

 representatives have been in the field, gathering specimens and information 

 which will be used as basis of a scientific report and of a semi-popular 

 account. Director Joseph Grinnell, Dr. Walter P. Taylor, Curator of 

 Mammals, and Mr. Tracy I. Storer, Assistant Curator of Birds, are con- 

 jointly engaged in compiling the reports. They, with several student- 

 assistants, have already been associated in the field-work. 



