26 Report of the President. 



specimens, including many new as well as many very rare 

 species. Mr. Beutenmliller has in preparation a monograph 

 on "The Insect Fauna of the Black Mountains, North Caro- 

 lina." On account of certain peculiarities, the study of the 

 insect fauna of this restricted region is of high importance to 

 science, and it is to be hoped that some friend of the Museum 

 will enable him to carry his investigations in the region to 

 satisfactory completion. Field work in the vicinity of New 

 York City has been done by the Curator and his assistant, 

 Mr. C. Schaeffer, and has added many specimens of several 

 species to the local collection. 



Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology. — The chief 

 event of the year was the establishment of a fund by one of 

 our Trustees, Mr. William C. Whitney, for obtaining material 

 to illustrate the evolution of the Horse. This enabled the 

 Curator to send two expeditions into the field — one to eastern 

 Colorado and one to Texas, both of which were highly suc- 

 cessful. The Colorado party found a superb skeleton of the 

 three- toed marsh-living Horse, Anchitherium, besides portions 

 of several skeletons of the plains-living Horses and Asses. 

 The Texas party discovered a rich quarry of Horse remains 

 of more modern type, including the ancestor of the South 

 American Hippidium. The Curator hopes to secure every 

 step in the wonderful evolution of the Horse from the small 

 ancestor, less than four hands high, from the lower Eocene, to 

 the larger Horses of the lower Pleistocene, which were finally 

 destroyed during the Ice Age. A skilled osteological pre- 

 parator also has been engaged upon an exhibit of the varieties 

 of the modern Horse produced through the agency of human 

 selection; such as the Shetland, the Percheron and the 

 various race horses. Together with this series are prepara- 

 tions of the skull illustrating the growth of the teeth and of 

 the limbs and other parts illustrating the entire mechanics 

 of the skeleton. Mr. Charles R. Knight has painted a set of 

 water colors of the living types of Asiatic and African horses. 

 Altogether this exhibit promises to be one of the most popular 

 and instructive in the Museum. 



