74 Report of the President 



Field and Stream, and has in hand the study of a fresh-water 

 collection, mostly catfishes, from South America, loaned by the 

 Museum at Sao Paulo, Brazil. A thirty-one page Bulletin 

 issued in September is by Mr. Carl L. Hubbs of the Field 

 Museum, Chicago, on "The Fishes of the Genus Atherinops, 

 their Variation, Distribution, Relationships and History." 

 This study was based partly on Lower California material 

 borrowed from the American Museum, and partly on speci- 

 mens from Mr. Hubbs' collection, a representative series of 

 which has since been exchanged with this Museum. 



REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



The measure of accomplishment throughout the work of the 

 department has been lowered during 1918 by the absence of 

 assistants in various war capacities. This has affected espe- 

 cially the research on collections and bibliography; even local 

 field work has been cut out altogether, and necessarily the work 

 on exhibitions has been curtailed to some extent 



The additions to the catalogued collections for 1918 total 

 ^985 batrachians and 1,252 reptiles. Among these accessions, 



the most noteworthy are the following : 

 Accessions First in importance, perhaps, is the Costa 



Exchanges Rican and Colombian Cope collection received 

 from the Philadelphia Commercial Museum in 

 exchange for preparation in wax technique of cotton plants 

 for a commercial exhibit. This exchange was negotiated just 

 at the close of 19 17, the work of the American Museum's part 

 of the exchange, however, not being carried out until the first 

 half of 1918. This Cope collection consists of 714 specimens 

 and includes 24 types. It is not only of unusual historical in- 

 terest because of Cope's work on it, but will prove of great 

 value in connection with the department's researches on Central 

 and South American faunas. 



Second in importance of newly accessioned material is the 

 Hallinan Chile collection of 668 specimens. This was received 

 in an exchange for a series of 29 plaster casts of reptiles and 

 amphibians (mainly local) to be used in the foundation of a 

 Natural History Museum at Paterson, New Jersey. Among 



