606 
Another expedition which has yielded 
results of considerable geological and zoo- 
logical interest is that undertaken this sum- 
mer by Dr. J. W. Gregory, of the De- 
partment of Geology, to the West Indies, 
special leave of absence being granted to 
him by the trustees. The particular object 
of Dr. Gregory’s journey was the exami- 
nation of the geology of the island of An- 
tigua, but in the course of his voyage he 
visited such little-explored and out-of-the- 
way islands as Anguilla, Barbuda, and St. 
Kitts. The first-named was once a flourish- 
ing British colony, but is now derelict by 
whites. During his stay on this islet Dr. 
Gregory made a collection of fossils and of 
the fauna of the place which promises to 
be of remarkable interest and quite new to 
the Museum. He also brought back a very 
large series of specimens from other West 
Indian islands, and obtained data which 
will enable him to make an important con- 
tribution to our knowledge of their geo- 
logical history. 
The Museum availed itself of the oppor- 
tunity of making some acquisitions of par- 
ticular interest by means of the expedition 
sent out by the Hon. Walter Rothschild to 
the Galapagos Archipelago, off the coast of 
Keuador. The fauna of these islands is a 
rapidly expiring one. Many of the species 
of birds discovered by Darwin during the 
voyage of the Beagle, no longer exist, hav- 
ing been exterminated by the convicts who, 
to the number of about 200, are sent to 
work on the Galapagos. The giant tor- 
toises peculiar to the group have almost 
disappeared. Dr. Gunther has told us that 
at the time of the discovery of this archi- 
pelago, in the 16th century, the tortoises 
were distributed in immense numbers over 
mostof the islands ; they are now restricted 
to three only—Albemarle, Duncan, and 
Abingdon. A search in which four persons 
were engaged for ten days, rewarded Dr. 
Baur, who visited Albemarle, the largest 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 252. 
island of the group, in 1891, with the cap- 
ture of fiveadultspecimens. The Museum 
obtained four very fine examples of this in- 
teresting and rapidly diminishing type of 
Chelonian, generally known as ‘ gigantic 
land tortoises,’ besides a series of five hun- 
dred birds and a large collection of reptiles 
as its share of part of the results of the 
Rothschild expedition. 
The ornithological section has just been 
enriched through the generosity of Mr. 
Weld Blundell and Lord Lovat, who have 
presented to the trustees the very fine col- 
lection of birds made by them during their 
recent adventurous journey in Abyssinia. 
In the course of their travels through the 
Galla country and Southern Abyssinia they 
passed over about 300 miles of country 
which had never been previously explored. 
The collection, which consists of 530 speci- 
mens, has not yet been thoroughly exam- 
ined, but the ornithologists of the Museum, 
Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, 
are already convinced that it is of very 
great interest. It includes 234 species, at 
least 18 being either new to science or not 
represented in the Museum series. The re- 
markable feature of this collection of Abys- 
sinian birds in the extraordinary number 
of species obtained as compared with the 
number of specimens—a fact which says 
much for the discrimination of the ex- 
plorers, who, being handicapped by want of 
cartridges, had to be cautious in not wast- 
ing shots. An idea of the prolificness of 
the country in bird life may be gathered 
when it is stated that on entering a new 
valley the two travelers, having already ob- 
tained over 200 species, secured a starling, 
two small finches, a kingfisher, a reed- 
warbler, a swallow, and a weaver, all new 
to their collection and six of the birds not 
even seen before. The value of the gift is 
much enhanced by the perfect manner in 
which the skins were prepared for the 
cabinet. Credit for this must be given to 
