1 6 Report of the President. 



The accessions altogether include about 1,900 mammals and 

 over 6,000 birds, 278 of the latter being by donation, and 

 include 136 birds from Ecuador, presented by Dr. S. Austin 

 Davis. The Museum is indebted to Mr. N. D. Bill, of Spring- 

 field, Mass., for the use of the schooner yacht Gloria for Mr. 

 Chapman's work in Florida and the Bahamas. The Museum 

 is also indebted to the New York Zoological Society and to 

 the Central Park Menagerie for many valuable specimens 

 received in the flesh. 



The Curator, in addition to his editorial supervision of the 

 Biriletin, has been able to devote considerable time to the 

 preparation of papers on mammals, and during the year pub- 

 lished reports on a number of important collections received 

 during recent years and now for the first time critically identi- 

 fied. A list of these, twelve in number, will be found in the re- 

 port of the " Department of Books and Publications " (page 33). 

 The Associate Curator, besides his important field explora- 

 tions and constant supervision of the work on the bird groups, 

 has published a description of a new grouse from the Sierra 

 Nevada of California and a report on the birds collected by 

 the Andrew J. Stone Expedition to Alaska in 1903. He has 

 also given many lectures in the Museum courses and also 

 elsewhere in the interest of the Museum. 



Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology. — Nearly 

 600 specimens of fossil vertebrates have been added to the col- 

 lection during the year, principally as a result of "the following 

 expeditions: 



Expeditions for Cretaceous reptiles 17 



Bridger expedition for fossil mammals 388 



Big Badlands expedition for fossil mammals 129 



Completed exploration of Pleistocene cave deposit 49 



The total number of catalogued specimens in the collection 

 is now a little over 15,000. 



The most important addition to the collection was the 

 nearly complete skeleton of the Columbian Mammoth, dis- 

 covered near Jonesboro, Indiana, and purchased by the 

 Museum. This splendid specimen will be mounted and placed 



