84 Report of the President 



The Curator has concentrated his available time for research 

 upon the Congo collection of mammals. The identification of 

 the bats, begun in 19 16, was concluded early in 

 Research and 19 17, and a report upon them, in cooperation 

 with Messrs. Lang and Chapin, has been pub- 

 lished in the Museum Bulletin, forming an article of about 159 

 pages, illustrated with drawings by Mr. Chapin and field photo- 

 graphs by Mr. Lang; about one-half of the text consists of a 

 systematic list of the species, the ecological and field notes by 

 Messrs. Lang and Chapin constituting the remainder and form- 

 ing an important contribution to the bionomics of the subject. 

 Later a paper was prepared and published by the Curator on 

 the remarkable skeletal characters of a peculiar shrew (Scuti- 

 sorex Thomas) based on a fine series of specimens in the 

 Lang-Chapin collection. This is followed in the Bulletin by 

 a paper based on the same material by Dr. H. von W. Schulte, 

 on the lumbar vertebra? of Scutisorex. A report on the Insec- 

 tivores of this collection has been prepared and awaits publi- 

 cation, and a report on the Sciuromorphs is nearly finished. 



Mr. Anthony, on returning from field work in Cuba, re- 

 sumed the elaboration of his Porto Rico material, the results 

 of his investigations being already in press as a contribution to 

 the Museum Memoirs, under the title "The Land Mammals of 

 Porto Rico, Living and Extinct." The subject is treated mono- 

 graphically, and, illustrated with numerous excellent text fig- 

 ures and plates, forms an important contribution to science, 

 based mainly on the author's personal explorations in Porto 

 Rico. Mr. Anthony has also published during the year three 

 preliminary papers in the Bulletin on the same general sub- 

 ject. 



Curator Chapman's account of his work in Colombia, an- 

 nounced in last year's report as in press, was published in 

 November, under the title "The Distribution of Bird-Life in 

 Colombia ; A Contribution to a Biological Survey of South 

 America," and forms Volume XXXVI of the Museum Bul- 

 letin. It comprises 740 pages of text, numerous maps and other 

 text illustrations and forty-one plates, of which six are colored, 

 the remainder being half-tones from field photographs illus- 

 trating the topographic features and faunal conditions of the 



