MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 19 



REPORT ON THE BIRDS. 



By William Brewster. 



The total number of bird skins acquired during the year falls 

 somewhat short of 1,000 — or, to be more precise, is about 940. 

 Of these, 507 representing 149 species and subspecies, of which 

 73 are new to the Museum and several equally so to science, were 

 obtained in northwestern Peru by Mr. G. K. Noble while associ- 

 ated with the Expedition to Peru. Early in this same year 

 Messrs. Barbour, Brooks, and Warner collected, in Cuba and the 

 Isle of Pines, 164 birds many of which possess exceptional rarity 

 or interest. 



The Curator has transferred to the Museum, by gift from his 

 private collection, a pair of Labrador Ducks, five California Con- 

 dors, four Heath Hens and some other North American birds 

 together with 172 specimens originally given him by the late Dr. 

 James C. Merrill, U. S. A., who collected them, during years now 

 long since past, while stationed at various western army posts 

 including Edinburgh and Fort Brown, Texas, Fort Sherman, 

 Idaho, and Fort Reno, Indian Territory. 



Two House Sparrows, Passer domesticus (Linne), received from 

 Drs. Walter Faxon and W. M. Tyler deserve especial mention 

 because of their peculiar coloration. This is very generally bright 

 vinaceous russet tinged here and there with rosy and shading into 

 bright terracotta or testaceous on the wing-bars, sides of throat, 

 and middle of belly. These tints pigment the skins as well as the 

 plumage. Both birds were members of a large flock of normally 

 colored Sparrows which frequented a poultry yard at Lexington, 

 Mass., in March, 1917. 



For gifts of bird skins in small series or singly the Museum is 

 indebted to Miss Mabel P. Cook, to the Massachusetts Commis- 

 sioner of Fisheries and Game (for a Heath Hen from Martha's 

 Vineyard), to the New York Zoological Society, and to Messrs. 

 Outram Bangs, E. N. Fischer, A. B. Fuller, George Nelson, T. E. 

 Penard, J. L. Peters, J. C. Phillips, W. M. Tyler, and C. C. Wil- 

 loughby. By exchange we have received from the Brooklyn 



