80 Report of the President 



American mammals, and a paper (in the Annals of the New 

 York Academy of Sciences) describing a new extinct genus of 

 rodents from Porto Rico. For the immediate future the deter- 

 mination of the mammals of the Congo Expedition will have 

 first claim upon his attention. Work upon the bats (about 

 1,000 specimens) is nearing completion. Assistant Anthony 

 has published papers on the life habits of the mountain beaver 

 (Aplodontia), on a collection of mammals from Panama and 

 on new fossil mammals from Porto Rico. Early in the year 

 Curator Chapman had so far finished the systematic portion 

 of his work on the birds of Colombia that it was possible to 

 have it put in type during his absence in South America; the 

 introductory portion, dealing with the life zones and faunal 

 distribution of the bird life of Colombia, is so nearly ready 

 that the early publication of this important volume is assured. 

 Mr. Cherrie has published several papers on new South Amer- 

 ican birds in the current volume of the Bulletin, but found it 

 desirable to defer the publication of his report on the birds of 

 the Roosevelt Expedition to Brazil till later, in order to include 

 the results of further work in the same field, for which oppor- 

 tunity was provided by Mr. Roosevelt. Assistant Chapin is 

 continuing his work on the birds of the Congo Expedition, 

 some of the results of which have already appeared in the 

 Museum Bulletin. 



The publications of the department during the year com- 

 prise 23 papers (21 in the Bulletin of the Museum and 2 in 

 the Annals of the New York Academy of Sci- 

 ences), of which 14 relate to mammals and 9 to 

 birds. The 21 articles published in the Bulletin aggregate 366 

 pages, with 90 text illustrations, 3 maps and 5 plates, as 

 detailed below (p. 97) under "Publications." There has also 

 been published a Bibliography of the Scientific Publications of 

 the Curator; and a Supplement to Dr. D. G. Elliot's "Check 

 List of Mammals of the North American Continent, the West 

 Indies and the Neighboring Seas" is in press, from manuscripts 

 left by Dr. Elliot, the means for its publication having been 

 generously furnished by his daughter. In addition to the 

 above, Assistant Curator Andrews has published a volume 



