84 Report of the President 



National Geographic- Yale University Expedition to Peru we 

 have received a set of the birds collected by Mr. Edmund 

 Heller in the Urubamba Valley while on that expedition. 

 These were sent in return for Dr. Chapman's preparation of 

 a Report on this collection. 



From W. F. H. Rosenberg, a dealer, we have secured 

 numbers of species by exchange which were not before rep- 

 resented in our collections, and by exceptionally important 

 exchanges with the British Museum, and the Zoological 

 Museum at Tring, England, we have secured no less than 

 136 species of Neotropical birds which were new to us. 



All species received during the year have been entered in 

 our catalogue, given their serial number, and proper place 

 in the collections. 



After a year and a half of continuous work, chiefly by Mr. 

 Griscom, our entire study collection has been completely 

 Rearrange- reorganized, as outlined in the Report of the 

 mentof Department for 1920. The establishment of a 



Collections reference series, containing usually a pair of 

 each species, we find has added greatly to the practical use 

 of the collection through greater accessibility, and also has 

 increased its scientific value, since this arrangement brings 

 together — usually in one tray — all the species of a genus, and 

 permits of their ready comparison. 



The Curator has continued work on his Memoir on the 

 Birds of Ecuador, designed to be a companion volume to the 

 one already issued on the Birds of Colombia. 

 As by-products, various correlated lines of investi- 

 gation have of necessity been pursued, resulting in the prep- 

 aration of short papers. 



Mr. Miller has continued work on his Classification of the 

 Woodpeckers and Their Allies, investigating the ptilosis of 

 the wing, and related matters of birds in the flesh received 

 from the Zoological Park, and has rearranged the entire col- 

 lection of Hummingbirds. 



Doctor Murphy joined our staff on February 1. He has 

 devoted himself mainly to the study of the Brewster-Sanford 

 collections of South American marine birds, thereby laying 

 the foundation for an important Monograph on this group. 



