68 Report of the President 



The work of renumbering and recataloguing the reptile 

 study collection (heretofore reported as in progress), as well 



^ „ . , n , as cataloguing all new accessions, is 



Collections and Research -.,,,., 



finished to date with permanent refer- 

 ence catalogue and a corresponding department catalogue. 

 Similar work on the batrachian collection is still to be done. 



There has been much identification work carried on, inclu- 

 ding that on the Eugene Smith collection of ioo reptiles and 

 150 batrachians of North America and Europe. Research is 

 in progress, and papers will soon be published on the Santo 

 Domingo collection as well as on the Lower California mate- 

 rial obtained on the "Albatross " expedition. 



The department reports with regret the resignation of Miss 



S. R. Clemence as assistant. The reptile study collection 



_, . _ _ with its present admirable arrangement and 



Changes in Staff F , J s J . 



accurate catalogues stands as a credit to her 



two years of painstaking labor in getting it into ready refer- 

 ence condition. Miss Arline Field becomes keeper of the col- 

 lection in her place. 



MAMMALS AND BIRDS 

 DEPARTMENT OF MAMMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY 



J. A. Allen, Curator 



The safe return of Messrs. Herbert Lang and James P. 

 Chapin, the leaders of the Congo Expedition of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, after six years of uninterrupted 

 and eminently successful field work in tropical Africa, with 

 their immense collections of natural history material, is an 

 event that will long render the year 19 15 memorable in the 

 history of the Museum and especially in the history of the 

 Department of Mammalogy and Ornithology. The year 19 15 

 forms also the sixth year of continuous exploration in South 

 America in the interests of this department, under the direc- 

 tion of Curator Chapman. 



