2 2 Report of the President 



"Albatross," under the scientific command of Acting Director 

 Townsend, for a cruise off the southwest coast of California 

 during the spring months of 191 1. The funds for the 

 Museum's participation in this important work were contrib- 

 uted by Mr. Arthur Curtiss James. The work was in 

 cooperation with the New York Botanical Garden and the New 

 York Zoological Society, and resulted in securing for the 

 Museum a fine collection, especially of elephant seals, of deep- 

 sea fishes and of new forms of mammal, bird and reptile life 

 on little explored islands. 



Whale Court. — Plans for a superb hall for the exhibition 

 of models and skeletons of whales have been prepared under 

 the Committee on Building and Plans by the architects. The 

 hall will occupy the Southeast Court, leaving space so as not 

 to interfere with the ventilation and lighting of the buildings 

 surrounding the court. The Museum's collection of whales, 

 especially enriched through the donations of Mr. George S. 

 Bowdoin, is now the first in this country and promises to be one 

 of the most complete in existence as a result of the expeditions 

 which are now in progress under Assistant Curator Andrews 

 along the Atlantic coast and in the seas of. Japan. The 

 Museum is especially indebted to the Toyo Hogei Kabushiki 

 Kaisha of Shimonoseki, Japan, for generous cooperation. 



Asiatic Hall. — Through Colonel Anthony R. Kuser, a 

 Trustee of the Zoological Society, an important expedition was 

 sent to Asia and the East Indies under Curator C. William 

 Beebe of the Zoological Park, which resulted in the securing 

 of a unique collection of pheasants. It is Colonel Kuser's 

 intention to present the collection to the Museum for study 

 purposes and also for exhibition in four large habitat group 

 cases. This indirect result of cooperation with the Zoological 

 Society is a welcome beginning of exploration in Asia which 

 must have for its object the securing of the great living types 

 of that continent for the Asiatic Hall of the future, which will 

 adjoin that of Africa. 



Ichthyology Hall. — The greatest apparent progress, 

 so far as exhibits are concerned, has been in the Department of 

 Ichthyology and Herpetology. Up to the present year the 



