78 Report of the President 



fairly accessible and in safe storage. The cleaning of all the 



osteological material from the Congo Expedition has been 



completed and the specimens are being cata- 



£ tu f ?y . logued. The skeletons prepared during the 



Collections & . , , « , , • «• 



present year include several elephants, giraffes, 



giant elands, buffaloes, forest pigs, okapis, and white rhinoce- 

 roses, the series of the latter being nearly complete from the 

 fcetal to the senile stage. More than 1,400 skulls and 250 skele- 

 tons have been cleaned during the present year. Much valuable 

 osteological material still remains unavailable for use, some of 

 it accumulated many years ago and held in storage till such 

 time as it could be prepared. The tanning of skins of large 

 mammals has been carried on successfully, comprising 255 

 from the Congo collection and 122 from the Asiatic collection. 

 The cataloguing of the bird collection has been forwarded 

 as rapidly as possible, under the superintendence of Associate 

 Curator Miller, who has had especially in hand the Nicaragua 

 collection made by him in 19 17. Many duplicates from the Co- 

 lombian collections have been selected for exchange. The 

 birds received in the flesh, from various sources, numbering in 

 all some 200 specimens the present year, have been utilized by 

 Mr. Miller for the study of the pterylosis and viscera. 



The rearrangement of the exhibition collection of mammals, 



under the direction of Director Lucas, has made good progress 



during the year, as noted in the Director's report, 

 Installations ^„ _ Q . i( - 



pages 38 to 46. 



A striking addition to the ornithological exhibit is a Hornbill 



Group, showing the peculiar nesting habits of these curious 



birds. An actual nesting site, in a section of a large mambao 



tree from the Belgian Congo, obtained by the American 



Museum Congo Expedition, illustrates their peculiar methods. 



They breed in holes in trees, and when the female begins to 



sit on the eggs the male plasters up the entrance to the nest and 



feeds the female through a small hole left for this purpose, she 



remaining a willing prisoner during the period of incubation. 



Research work in mammals has been confined chiefly to the 

 Congo collection, of which about one third has now been criti- 



