EEPORT OP THE SEOEETAEY. 37 



Mr. Robert Ridgway continued 'the preparation of his monograph on the 

 birds of North and Middle America. The birds obtained by Dr. W. L. Abbott 

 on the islands ofE the west coast of Sumatra were the subject of study by Dr. 

 Charles H. Richmond, and those secured by the same explorer in Kilimanjaro 

 and the China Sea by Mr. H. C. Oberholser, of the Biological Survey. Mr. 

 J. H. Riley reported on a collection from the islands of Antigua and Barbuda. 

 Mr. Barton A. Bean, in conjunction with Dr. C. H. Eigenmann, of Indiana 

 University, worked up the specimens of fishes brought from the Amazon 

 River by Prof. J. B. Steere in 1901. The Characinidse have been referred to 

 Doctor Eigenmann, and the Pacific deep-sea fishes are being studied by Dr. 

 C. H. Gilbert, of Lela,nd Stanford Junior University. 



Dr. W. H. Dall completed a revision of the land and fresh-water mollusks 

 of North America north of latitude 49°, a review of the classification of the 

 American Cyclostomatidse, and papers on land and fresh-water shells from the 

 Bahamas and Central America. He also has in progress reports on the 

 Pyramidellidse, in joint authorship with Dr. Paul Bartsch; and on recent 

 collections from the Bureau of Fisheries. Dr. William H. Ashmead has about 

 completed his work on the superfamily Formicoidea or ants, and Mr. D. W. 

 Coquillett has been engaged upon a monograph of the North American mos- 

 quitoes. Miss M. J. Rathbun prepared for the Bureau of Fisheries two reports 

 on Brachyura and Macrura, collected at the Hawaiian Islands and in Alaska, 

 and continued her studies on the fresh-water crabs. Dr. Harriet Richardson 

 completed a comprehensive monograph of the North American Isopods, and 

 Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan gave much time to the madreporarian corals. 



Dr. J. N. Rose reports satisfactory progress with his researches on the fiora 

 of Mexico and on the Crassulacese and Cactacese of North America. Mr. William 

 R. Maxon prepared several papers on ferns, and Mr. J. H. Painter studied the 

 Mexican species of Meibomia. Capt. John Donnell Smith, associate in botany, 

 continued his investigations and the printing of his extensive work, and Dr. 

 E. L. Greene, under a grant from the Smithsonian Institution, began upon an 

 important paper to be entitled " Landmarks of Botanical History." 



Dr. George P. Merrill completed a contribution to a history of American 

 geology and conducted observations on the origin of asbestiform serpentine 

 and the weathering of building stones. Research work in mineralogy was 

 mainly confined to the study of the structure of meteorites by Mr. Wirt Tassin. 

 Dr. R. S. Bassler submitted a paper on the Bryozoa of the Rochester Shales. 

 The report of Dr. Anton Handlirsch, of Vienna, on the Paleozoic insects repre- 

 sented in the Museum collection was received during the year and will soon 

 be published. An important work, sent to press before the close of the year, 

 was a catalogue of the type specimens of fossil invertebrates contained in the 

 collections of the Museum. 



In Paleobotany, Prof. Lester F. Ward completed the second part of his mono- 

 graph on the status of the Mesozoic floras of the United States. Mr. David White 

 has made extensive use of the Lacoe collection in the preparation of a report 

 on the stratigraphic succession of the Pottsville floras in the basins of the 

 Appalachian trough, while Dr. F. H. Knowlton has been engaged upon the 

 flora of the Laramie group and in the study of material from Alaska. 



Distribution and exchange of duplicate specimens. — Duplicate invertebrate 

 fossils to the nuuiber of some 60,000 specimens, gradually segregated from the 

 reserve series during the progress of researches, were prepared for the use of 

 educational institutions, being made up into several hundred sets. There also 

 remained on hand for the same purpose a few sets of fishes, marine inverte- 

 brate animals, and geological specimens illustrating rock weathering and soil 

 formation. Of these several collections, which are recognized as very helpful 



