MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. O 



rim with a large lagoon. It had, moreover, the advantage of 

 having been personally examined by Mr. Agassiz, whose notes, 

 together with the Report of the Coral Reef Committee of the 

 Royal Society, furnished Mr. Curtis with the data for his work. 



Though Funafuti lacks the scenic beauty of Bora Bora, Mr. 

 Curtis by his skillful use of color, shows most effectively the depth 

 of the ocean and the shallowness of the lagoon. The former 

 is represented by dark blue and the lagoon in varying tints of 

 blue and green. The atoll rises gently from a depth of 2000 

 fathoms while the lagoon ranges from four feet to twenty fathoms 

 in depth. 



For the case in which Funafuti is shown the Museum is in- 

 debted to Miss E. H. Clark. 



From Mr. John E. Thayer's wise generosity the whole Museum 

 benefits. Owing to his chief personal interest the greater number 

 of the additions received from him are birds, but Mr. Thayer's 

 liberality and broadmindedness are such that the expeditions he 

 fosters in unexplored regions yield material for the research col- 

 lections in all departments. 



For the exhibition collections Mr. Thayer has given a magnifi- 

 cent specimen of the California Vulture mounted with the wings 

 showing a spread of nearly nine feet. Two other notable additions 

 to the exhibition collections received from Mr. Thayer are : — 

 a superb male Reeve's Pheasant, Syrmaticiis reevesii, measuring 

 six feet, nine and three-fourths inches in length, with the tail 

 more than five feet six inches long; and a fine Tibetan Takin, 

 Budorcas tibetanus, a mammal rare in collections and obtained by 

 Mr. W. R. Zappey in the mountains at Liang How Kow, western 

 Szechnan. The Pheasant and Takin (Plate 2) were mounted 

 by the Museum Preparator, Mr. George Nelson. 



Drs. William Lord Smith, Glover M. Allen, and Mr. Gorham 

 Brooks spent about three months, July-September, 1909, in Brit- 

 ish East Africa collecting in the interests of the Museum. As the 

 result of their energetic industry and skill the Museum collections 

 have been enriched with series of small mammals, bird skins, rep- 

 tiles, amphibians, fishes, and of insects and other invertebrates, 

 together with about fifty specimens, skins with complete skeletons, 

 of large game mammals. The generous assistance of Messrs. 

 Shepherd Brooks and John E. Thayer made possible this African 

 expedition. 



