REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9 



At the next meeting of the Board of Regents on December 15, 1908, 

 the following resolutions were adopted, formally recording the ac- 

 ceptance of the President's generous offer and expressing the Board's 

 appreciation of the contributions of the friends of the Institution 

 which made this expedition possible : 



Resolved, That the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution express 

 to Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, its appreciation of his 

 very generous offer contained in his letter of the 20th of June, 190S, to the Sec- 

 retary of the Institution, with respect to his expedition to Africa ; and that it 

 accept the same. 



Resolved, .That the thanks of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution be conveyed by the Secretary of the Institution to the donors who have 

 so generously contributed funds to meet the expenses of the naturalists who will 

 accompany Mr. Theodore Roosevelt upon his expedition to Africa, the results 

 of which will be presented by the President to the Smithsonian Institution for 

 the National Museum. 



The party sailed on March 23, 1909, from New York on the steamer 

 Hamburg for Naples, whence steamer was taken to Mombasa, British 

 East Africa. Those accompanying Mr. Boosevelt were his son Ker- 

 mit and three naturalists — Lieut. Col. Edgar A. Mearns, surgeon, 

 U. S. Army; Mr. Edmund Heller; and Mr. J. Alden Loring. The 

 expedition arrived in Africa on April 21. 



A letter from Mr. Heller, dated at Nairobi May 31, announced the 

 shipment of 20 barrels of large mammal skins in brine, comprising 

 Colonel Koosevelt's first month's collection. The shipment consists 

 of 82 specimens, as follows: Lion, 7; leopard, 1; cheetah, 1; spotted 

 hyena, 1 ; Cape hartebeest, 14 ; white-bearded wildebeest, 5 ; Neumann 

 steinbuck, 5; Kirk dik-dik, 1; common waterbuck, 3; Chanler reed- 

 buck, 4 ; Grant gazelle, 9 ; Thomson gazelle, 5, impalla, 2 ; eland, 1 ; 

 Cape buffalo, 4 ; giraffe, 3 ; hippopotamus, 1 ; wart hog, 6 ; Burchell 

 zebra, 7; black rhinoceros, 2. While no new species, so far as is 

 known, is included in this first shipment, the collection will supple- 

 ment materially the specimens already in the National Museum. 



Together with this shipment are expected a large number of speci- 

 mens of small mammals, and also of birds gathered by Lieut. Col. 

 Mearns and J. Alden Loring, of the expedition party. 



Through the Smithsonian African expedition the National 

 Zoological Park has been presented by Mr. W. W. McMillan, of 

 Juja farm, near Nairobi, British East Africa, with an exceptional 

 collection of live African animals. A letter from Lieut. Col. Edgar 

 A. Mearns, dated May 20, states that the collection includes 11 large 

 mammals and 3 large birds, all in fine condition and for the most 

 part well broken to captivity, as follows : A male and female lion, 

 2 years old; a male and two female lions, 17 months old; a female 

 leopard, a pet of Mrs. McMillan; two cheetahs; a wart hog, 2 years 

 old; one Thomson and one Grant gazelle, well grown; a large 



