5<o Report of the President 



Eastern Andes, the Magdalena valley, and the headwaters of 

 the Amazonian drainage. The results are of the highest 

 interest, the number of new and rare species having proved 

 surprisingly large among both the birds and mammals, and the 

 facts obtained regarding the influence of environment upon 

 the distribution and evolution of local forms are of much 

 scientific importance. During the coming year the field of 

 exploration will be extended to the Bogota region and other 

 districts to the eastward. Curator Chapman will be in per- 

 sonal charge in the field during part of the year. 



The installations include the completion of the Wild Boar 

 Group and the transfer of the remaining local mammal groups 

 to the North American Mammal Hall. The domestic races of 

 dogs have been moved to the Darwin Hall. 



Collections on Deposit. — Dr. Dwight's collection, con- 

 sisting mainly of North American birds, now comprises about 

 35,000 specimens, and is especially rich in series illustrating 

 changes of plumage. During the past year he has installed in 

 the gallery of the room assigned for his collection new metal 

 storage cases at his own expense. 



Dr. Sanford's collection now numbers several thousand 

 specimens, chiefly North American water birds and the rarer 

 species of North American land birds. He is making a 

 specialty of Albatrosses and Petrels, with which all museums 

 have hitherto been poorly supplied. In order to extend this 

 feature of the collection he has sent into the field an excep- 

 tionally expert collector and preparator of bird skins, with 

 instructions to explore thoroughly the coast and islands of the 

 southern half of South America, devoting to this task as much 

 time as may be necessary, probably several years. During 

 the past summer Dr. Sanford has furnished one-half of the 

 floor space of the room assigned to his collection with the 

 most improved type of metal storage cases, at his own expense. 



These two collections add greatly to the ornithological 

 resources of the Museum, since they are available for use by 

 the staff of the department in the prosecution of research work. 



The cataloging of the collections has been kept up to 

 date, and much work has been done on the index catalog 



