Report of the President 21 



specimens of birds and mammals to the Museum's collections, 

 and they have also secured important scientific data. The 

 second Roosevelt expedition will be sent out during the cur- 

 rent year, under the direction of Mr. George K. Cherrie. 

 Mr. Cherrie will collect in the marshes of the Paraguay. 



The expedition to South America, organized and financed 

 by Mr. Alfred M. Collins and Mr. Lee Garnett Day, crossed 

 South America through Bolivia and came 

 C_ ollins- XJ ay ^ own t ^ e Amazon. They were accompanied 



South- American __ __ . ,.■»*■ , 



Ex dition by Mr. George K. Cherrie as the Museum s 



representative, and Messrs. Collins and Day 

 have presented to the Museum the results of their work, 

 which comprise about 550 birds and 100 mammals. 



NORTH AMERICA 



The ancient history of the vertebrate life of North 

 America is being followed along the lines of the plan pro- 

 jected by Curator Osborn in 1891, of securing 

 Ancient Life , ;.. , * 



of the Continent ^ or t ^ ie Museum a complete representation of 

 the life of the Age of Amphibians, of the Age of 

 Reptiles, of the Age of Mammals and finally of the Age of Man. 

 A separate exhibition hall ultimately will be devoted to each 

 of these periods, carrying the visitor back step by step 

 through the long and extraordinary stages of past American 

 history. One period after another is being successively 

 explored until it gives up all its representative forms. In 

 1891 began our explorations of the Eocene, or first period of 

 the Age of Mammals, which have been continued from year 

 to year without interruption, so that the Museum now pos- 

 sesses by far the most complete Eocene history of North 

 America in existence. Later chapters in the Age of Mammals 

 and earlier chapters in the Age of Reptiles^ have been success- 

 fully explored, especially since 1909, during which time 

 Mr. Barnum Brown has been engaged in the exploration of the 

 remarkable dinosaur life of the Upper Cretaceous or closing 

 period of the Age of Reptiles in northern Montana and along 



