Page Seven 



THE NEWS 



The Museum has just received from Mr. Frederick F. Brewster a 

 gift of great value — a collection of 3,200 specimens of land-birds collected 

 by Rollo H. Beck in the West Indies and South America, under the 

 direction of Dr. L, C. Sanford. A very large part of this material is new 

 to our collections, and much of it is of a sort to be found in no other 

 museum in the world. The collection includes 1,500 birds from the 

 West Indies — chiefly the high mountoins of Santo Domingo, from which 

 little-known area there is included a series of the recently discovered 

 Cros<?bill and Patagonia Sparrow, known heretofore only from a few 

 specimens in the National Museum in Washington; a large series of two 

 distinct new species known only in the Brewster eollection; and the 

 unique type of a new genus of Goatsuckers. There are also 500 birds 

 from. Bahia — of great value, since this is a type localitv for many species 

 desoribed by the older vrriters; and s mewhat over 1,000 specimens from 

 the extreme southern part of South America, including a representative 

 series from Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, from which 

 localities the Museum was wholly without material. Dr. Chapman is 

 greatly delighted at the acquisition, and feels that the department has 

 never received a more valuable donation. 



As a result of tireless effort, the opponents of House Bill No. 12,466, 

 which provides for the building of two irrigation reservoirs in the Falls 

 River Basin of Yellowstone National Park, have succeeded in preventing 

 the passage of the bill in this session of Congress. In a recent letter 

 addressed to President Osborn, however, Eleanor E. Marshall, Secretary 

 of the American Civic Association, writes : 



'*The amount of pressure that was brought to bear on the Speaker 

 of the House and upon man}' members of Congress might have turned 

 the scales at an}- moment, and in the next Congress we shall have an 

 even harder fight, because in all probability the State of Montana will 

 be thoroughly organized to back a similar bill. A definite program of 

 education of not only the Congressmen of our nation but their constitu- 

 ents to the importance of maintaining our national park policy, is neces- 

 sary-. We shall call upon you for help in carrying out this program," 



