Report of the President 79 



lake, and later in the vicinity of Santiago, Chile, and at Men- 

 doza and Buenos Aires in Argentina. On the return trip the 

 Museu Paulista was visited in Sao Paulo, and the museum at 

 Rio de Janeiro. Here a successful collecting trip was made 

 to the Organ Mountains. Later, on the home voyage, several 

 weeks were spent at the Island of Barbados. 



Dr. Chapman was accompanied on the outward trip by Mr. 

 George K. Cherrie, who, after remaining with the expedition 

 through its active field work, crossed the continent to Buenos 

 Aires, to resume field work along the Rio Paraguay, in contin- 

 uation of the work of the Roosevelt Expedition of 1914, through 

 financial aid furnished by Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Dodge. In 

 Argentina Dr. Chapman met Messrs. Miller and Boyle, who 

 for the preceding nine months had been collecting at various 

 points in that country. They have now returned to New York 

 and are preparing for further work in South America. 



In the last report of this department, brief reference was 

 made to the work of Messrs. Miller and Boyle in Bolivia. This 

 was successfully continued to the end of the year, including 

 within its scope localities ranging in altitude from 13,000 feet 

 to the tropical lowlands. At the beginning of the present year 

 their activities were transferred to Argentina, where many 

 important localities have since been carefully worked, with 

 results of high importance, the department thereby receiving 

 for the first time birds and mammals from this portion of 

 South America. 



The Brewster-Sanford Expedition, in charge of Mr. R. H. 

 Beck, has sent to the Museum, during the past year, important 

 collections of birds from eastern South America and from the 

 West Indies, to which latter region the work of the expedition 

 has now been transferred. 



Early in the year the Curator finished the identification of 

 the South American mammals received prior to the closing 

 months of the year 1915, and has since published in 

 the Museum Bulletin summary reports on the collec- 

 tions received in recent years from Ecuador and Colombia and 

 from the Roosevelt Brazilian Expedition; a special paper on 

 the weasels of tropical America ; papers describing new South 



