6 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



"Scotia" (Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, William S. 

 Bruce, Leader), in the Antarctic regions, has been purchased for 

 the Pacific Room; by purchase, the Museum has also acquired 

 some hydroids specially prepared for exhibition and a series of 

 fossils from the Carboniferous of Belgium. 



( )wing to illness, Prof. K. Mitsukuri has been obliged to re- 

 linquish the preparation of a report on the holothurians collected 

 during the "Albatross" expedition to the Tropical Pacific. The 

 collection has been returned to the Museum. 



Exploration, one of the most legitimate functions of a University 

 Museum, has been fostered, to the great advantage of science 

 and of this Museum, by the scientific zeal and disinterestedness 

 of the present Director of the University Museum, since the founda- 

 tion of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and two modest 

 attempts in continuance of this policy have been undertaken during 

 the present year by the Museum. 



Mr. George Nelson, of the Museum staff, visited Santo Domingo 

 early in 1908 in search of the Agouta, Solenodon paradoxus, an 

 insectivorous mammal known to science since 1832, and repre- 

 sented in the museums of but two institutions, by four specimens, 

 all more or less imperfect. Mr. Nelson's efforts were most suc- 

 cessful, for the Museum has secured an excellent series of this 

 rare mammal, a series sufficient it is hoped to warrant a compre- 

 hensive memoir on the habits, structure, and affinities of the 

 Solenodontidae. 



On the plate accompanying this Report, four living Agoutas are 

 shown (Figure 1), and also an adult female (Figure 2), and a young 

 male (Figure 3), all from photographs taken in Cambridge by 

 Mr. Nelson. 



In July, Dr. H. B. Bigelow made a short trip in the U. S. F. C. 

 Schooner "Grampus" to the Gulf Stream. Dr. Bigelow's objects 

 were 1st, to study the fauna at intermediate depths, 2d, to compare 

 the surface fauna of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream with those 

 of the cold current, 3d, to test the efficacy of the Monaco Deep-sea 

 trap and lastly to collect and preserve material. 



From Martha's Vineyard the "Grampus" ran about 200 miles 

 S.S.E., then 140 miles N.W., and finally about 150 miles N.E. 

 Though the collections obtained were not large, some interesting 

 material was preserved, and the other objects of the Expedition 



