28 Field Museum of Natural History — Reports, Vol. V. 



give greater rigidity and a more natiiral pose and it was placed upon a 

 new base. A sktill and jaws of the Miocene horse, Parahippus, were 

 prepared for exhibition and the mounting of a skeleton of the Miocene 

 camel Oxydactylus was nearly completed. The large collection of 

 fossil bones from the Los Angeles asphalt beds, numbering nearly 

 3000 specimens, was taken to Whiting, Indiana, where, through the 

 courtesy of the Standard Oil Company, complete facilities were pro- 

 vided for soaking the bones in naphtha and thus dissolving out the 

 tarry material. This treatment of the specimens was necessary to 

 avoid the slow exudation of the asphalt which experience had shown 

 would otherwise occur and cause injury to the interiors of the cases. 

 The generosity of the Standard Oil Company in this connection is 

 gratefully acknowledged. 



In the Department of Zoology the collection of mammals in alcohol 

 has been overhauled and fully identified. The collections of birds, 

 mammals and insects were disinfected. The skins of the large mammals 

 stored in the basement of the Museum are now reasonably accessible; 

 only little progress has been made in completing the tanning of such skins 

 as still remain in a raw state, the skin dresser having been occupied 

 the greater part of the year on fresh material. Three large groups of 

 birds, provided by the Stanley Field Ornithology Fund, have been 

 finished and placed on exhibition. They represent bird life in Tropical 

 America, (i) Oil birds, Steatornis caripensis. This group shows breed- 

 ing birds in a cave in which they live, and illustrates a form of bird life 

 of great interest. The material for the group was seciured by the Mu- 

 seiun South American Expedition on the Island of Trinidad in 19 14. 

 (2) Group of Screamers and Scarlet Ibis. A striking and instructive 

 group, also obtained by the Museimi Expedition near Lake Maracaibo, 

 Venezuela. This group contains specimens of both the curious Horned 

 Screamer and Crested Screamer, together with a ntunber of richly col- 

 ored Scarlet Ibis, and forms one of the most attractive groups. (3) 

 Group of American Flamingoes on their breeding ground on the Island 

 of Great Inagua, Bahama Islands. The group shows 7 adult Flamin- 

 goes, with their peculiar cone-shaped nests, eggs, and two young birds 

 in the nest. The painted background shows a continuation of the 

 "rookery" which in the Inagua Colony numbered about 1,000 nests. 

 The painted backgrounds of these groups greatly enhance their educa- 

 tional value, as the observer is able to become familiar with the natural 

 environment of the species. During the year the taxidermists have 

 been engaged in preparing an exhibition group of Alaska Moose, 

 which is now nearly ready for installation. Considerable preliminary 

 work has also been done on two other mammal groups, a group of 



