36 Report of the President 



but considerable progress has been made b)^ the members of 

 the staff in their respective investigations. 



The department has been well represented in the field. 

 Dr. Crampton visited several groups of islands of the South 

 Pacific in order to extend his studies upon the evolution of 

 terrestrial snails. Among the localities visited were the 

 Society Islands, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Tonga 

 Islands, Samoa, Fiji, and Hawaii. In addition to zoological 

 collections, Dr. Crampton secured considerable anthropologi- 

 cal material. 



A trip to Mexico and Texas was undertaken by Dr. Alex- 

 ander Petrunkevitch during the months of July and August, 

 in order to collect spiders and to investigate their habits. 

 Dr. Petrunkevitch brought back with him a valuable collec- 

 tion comprising many fine specimens not only of spiders but 

 of other invertebrates and also of reptiles and amphibians. 

 His collections were made in spite of extremely adverse con- 

 ditions caused by unexpected floods. 



An expedition to Dry Tortugas was undertaken by Prof. 

 Aaron S. Treadwell during the summer months. Professor 

 Treadwell'secured a valuable series of the annulates of these 

 islands. 



Mr. Miner spent the months of July and August in the 

 Woods Hole region collecting invertebrates for the Museum's 

 study collections and gathering data for models and groups 

 for the exhibition series. With the aid of several members of 

 the preparation staff many sketches of living invertebrates 

 were secured, and a large collection of preserved material was 

 brought back to the Museum. 



The fifth expedition was to the vicinity of the Ashokan 

 Watershed, under the direction of Professor Treadwell, who 

 ■undertook the work of making a biological survey of that 

 region. The funds for financing the expedition were contrib- 

 uted by Mr. S. D. Coykendall. 



EXTINCT INVERTEBRATES 



Department of Geology and Invertebrate Paleon- 

 tology. — It is with regret that we announce the retirement 

 at the end of the year of Professor R. P. Whitfield from active 



