THE TROPICAL RESEARCH STATION 

 Bartica District, British Guiana. 



William Bcebc, Directing Curator; G. Innes Hartley, Research Associate; 



Paul G. Howes, Research Assistant; Donald Carter, Collector; 



Anna Taylor and Rachel Hartley, Artists. 



This undertaking is a direct outcome of the dynamic inter- 

 est in scientific research in the Department of Birds. Inaugu- 

 rated as a suggestion of the Curator, the idea was favorably 

 received by the Executive Committee and Director Hornaday, 

 and the plan has now crystalized into achievement. Even the 

 first year's work may be regarded as thoroughly successful. Mr. 

 Beebe, with a party of five assistants, left New York on the 

 Mmjaro on January 24, 1916, and returned on the Guiana on 

 August 28, 1916. 



After a short stay at Georgetown,* the Society accepted 

 the offer of a house near Bartica, forty miles up the Essequibo 

 River, at the very edge of the jungle. This was on the Hills 

 Rubber Estate, and the manager, Mr. G. B. Withers, kindly al- 

 lowed the use of "Kalacoon" for a period of six months. This 

 house proved to be satisfactory in all respects, and within a 

 week after acceptance we furnished it from the Georgetown 

 stores in time to receive our first visitors. Colonel and Mrs. 

 Theodore Roosevelt. Colonel Roosevelt had been interested in 

 this idea from its inception, and the extension of his trip to 

 British Guiana was with the idea of seeing the work started. 

 His experiences at the Station and his opinions of the under- 

 taking have been incorporated in an article in the Januarj^ 

 (1917), issue of Scribner's Magazine, entitled "A NaturaHst's 

 Tropical Laboratory." 



During the course of the next few months, we entertained 

 a number of visitors from New York, and also many of the offi- 

 cials of the British Guiana Government, including the Governor, 

 Sir Walter, and Lady Egerton, the Hon. Cecil and Mrs. Clementi, 

 and the Hon. J. J. Nunan. It is impossible even to mention all 

 those who placed us under obligation, and wiiose hospitality and 



* Many of the less important details of the establishment of the Research 

 Station mav be found in an article in the Zoological Society BiiUetin for July, 

 1916. 



