80 Report of the President 



BIRDS* 



Frank M. Chapman, Curator 



The outstanding features for the year 1921 in the Depart- 

 ment of Birds are, the addition to our staff of Doctor Robert 

 Cushman Murphy, the inauguration of weekly staff meetings, 

 the completion of the rearrangement of our study collection, 

 the success attending the explorations of the Whitney South 

 Sea Expedition and the purchase of a vessel for its further 

 development, the visits to foreign museums by two members 

 of the staff, and the progress made in the important pieces 

 of work which were inaugurated the preceding year. 



Before the beginning of 1921, the field work of the Whitney 

 South Sea Expedition, made possible through the generosity 



of Mr. Harry Payne Whitney, had been well 

 Whitney started, and, during the present year, Mr. Beck 



Exoeditio anc * ^is ass i stant > Mr. Quayle, have devoted 



themselves to uninterrupted collecting, with re- 

 sults that are highly gratifying. Relying altogether upon 

 small trading vessels, or upon launches which they were 

 able to obtain at Tahiti for short periods, they have covered 

 a surprisingly large portion of eastern and central Polynesia, 

 from Christmas Island, north of the equator, southward to 

 Rapa, in about 25° S. Lat., and from the Western Islands of 

 the Society group eastward as far as the Austral Islands and 

 the Tuamotus. No less than eight islands of the last-named 

 group have been touched at, and two trips have been made 

 to the Marquesas. With the thoroughness which is so char- 

 acteristic of him, Mr. Beck has gone back repeatedly to 

 certain stations until he has discovered the season or the 

 particular locality which would enable him to collect the 

 rarities which his instructions told him he should expect to 

 find. 



So far as we know, all shipments of material, photographs, 



Under the Department of Ornithology (see also pages 210 and 211). 



