Report of the President 69 



the general exhibition collection of birds, and many new labels 

 have been installed in the mammal hall. The synoptic collec- 

 tion of mammals has practically been completed, but there 

 still remain a few special exhibits to be added. 



Considerable progress has been made in the rearrangement 

 . of the research collection of mammals, 



^ including both the skins and the skele- 



tons. The work is still delayed by lack of proper storage 

 facilities. 



Curator Chapman has devoted most of the year to the 



identification of the birds received during the last four years 



_ , „ y , from South America, a large part of 



Research Work , . , . , . . „ , 



,_>,,. . which have now been critically deter- 



and Publications J ' 



mined. As by-products of this work he 



has published four papers in the 19 14 volume of the Bulletin, 

 describing some 60 new forms, with often important revisionary 

 comment on the various groups to which the new forms are 

 related. Professor T. D. A. Cockerell, of the University of 

 Colorado, has an article in the Bulletin on the Auditory 

 Ossicles of American Rodents, based mainly on material 

 loaned to him for the purpose by the American Museum. Dr. 

 D. G. Elliot has contributed two short articles to the Bulletin 

 on various American Primates, based on Museum material. 



Assistant Curator Andrews' memoir on the California Gray 

 Whale appeared early in the year in the Museum Memoirs. 

 Mr. Andrews has devoted a large part of the present year to 

 the preparation of a monograph, for the Memoirs, on the Sei 

 Whale (Balcenoptera borealis), which is now nearly ready for the 

 press. The Curator has continued his studies of South Ameri- 

 can mammals, on which he has published five papers during 

 the year in the Bulletin, the first being a monographic revision 

 of the genus Microsciurus, the others, respectively, on new 

 mammals from Ecuador, and new South American bats, 

 squirrels and monkeys. He has also published a report in the 

 Bulletin on the Rainsford Collection of Mammals from British 

 East Africa, has completed for publication a monograph of the 

 South American Sciuridse, and has nearly finished a final report 

 on the mammals of Colombia and another on the mammals of 

 Ecuador. 



