REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1918. 37 



among the skeletons and arranged that part of the collection cover- 

 ing the passerine and picarian birds, the owls, the birds of prey, as 

 well as the pelicans, the cormorants, and related birds, 20 new 

 quarter-unit cases having been provided for their accommodation. 

 There still remains a large accumulation of skeletal material which 

 needs to be cleaned before being distributed in the collection and 

 becoming available for study. 



As in former years the curator, Mr. Robert Ridgway, devoted all 

 his time and energy to the continuation of Bulletin 50, on the " Birds 

 of North and Middle America." The manuscript of Part 8, consist- 

 ing of 2,060 pages, was completed and in proof at the close of the 

 year, and some progress had been made on Part 9. 



The assistant curator, Dr. Charles W. Richmond, spent consider- 

 able time in filling out and verifying references for Bulletin 50, and 

 also in a careful examination of all proof as well as of the illustra- 

 tions of Part 8, and determined provisionally for cataloguing and 

 other immediate needs the collections received from West Africa 

 and Celebes. One thousand five hundred species cards, compiled in 

 his leisure hours at home, were added to the office card catalogue. 

 The aid, Mr. J. H. Riley, besides assisting in compiling and verify- 

 ing references for Bulletin 50, completed a paper on the Copley 

 Amory, jr., collection of birds from northeastern Siberia. The work 

 of reporting upon the African collections, began by the late Edgar 

 A. Mearns, remains as he left it, efforts to find a competent person to 

 finish it having thus far failed. As usual, members of the Biological 

 Survey, including Messrs. Vernon Bailey, I. N. Gabrielson, Francis 

 Harper, A. PI. Howell, and E. A. Preble, have had free access to the 

 collections in connection with their official work; Dr. H. C. Ober- 

 holser made almost constant use of the Abbott and other East Indian 

 collections and submitted several reports on them for publication; 

 and Mr. Alexander Wetmore likewise consulted the skeleton, skin, 

 and alcoholic material in connection with various investigations. 

 Since his arrival in Washington, Mr. B. H. Swales, of Grosse He, 

 Michigan, has spent considerable time in the division, in continuance 

 of his studies of Michigan birds. Dr. L. P. de Bussy, director of the 

 Colonial Museum of Amsterdam, Holland, while here on his return 

 trip from Sumatra, examined the birds from that island. Among 

 other ornithologists who visited the division at various times con- 

 sulting specimens in the study series may be mentioned Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott, of Philadelphia; Mr. A. C. Bent, of Taunton, Massachusetts; 

 Dr. Jesse D. Burk, of Los Angeles, California ; Mr. A. M. Collins, 

 of Philadelphia; Mr. J. M. Neill, of Austin, Texas; Mr. W. E. Clyde 

 Todd, of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh ; Dr. Charles H. Town- 

 send, director of the Aquarium, New York City ; Mr. John P. Weth- 



