34 Field Museum of Natural History — Reports, Vol. IV. 



prepared and mounted, one skeleton of Promerycochaerus mounted 

 and installed, one skeleton of Oligobunis, one skull and lower jaw of 

 Hyaenodon horridus, one skull and lower jaw of Merycoidodon gracilis, 

 two skulls and lower jaws of Leptauchenia, and one skull and lower jaw of 

 Telmatherium prepared for exhibition and numerous specimens prepared 

 for identification. The fossil vertebrate material in storage has been 

 thoroughly overhauled and the wrappings of many of the specimens 

 poisoned to enhance their preservation. About one thousand feet of 

 new storage shelving have been erected and the specimens placed upon 

 it in order of their field numbers. Thus the frequent moving of the 

 specimens which has been necessary hitherto when any particular 

 specimen was desired, and which was more or less destructive to the 

 specimens, will be largely avoided. Of invertebrate fossils about one 

 thousand specimens collected in Wilmington, Illinois, have been 

 cleaned and identified in the laboratory during the year, and some other 

 preparatory work of the same nature has been done. 



The storage collections of both birds and mammals have received 

 thorough disinfections and the exhibits of mammals, especially the 

 large groups, have also been treated with insecticide. Considerable 

 scattered material consisting of undressed hides of large mammals and 

 rough skins of smaller mammals remain to be cared for, but the great 

 mass of it has been cleared away and it seems probable that the one man 

 now left for this work will be able to keep abreast of it. During the year, 

 the entire serial collection of birds on exhibition have been overhauled. 

 These specimens were in temporary cases, not dust proof, and in the 

 course of time had become soiled and dusty. All of them have been 

 thoroughly cleaned and such as needed it have been remounted and 

 installed in new cases. Early in the year the first results of the Stanley 

 Field Ornithology Fund were installed and placed on exhibition in the 

 West Court of the Museum. They consist of four large groups of North 

 American birds in one large case divided into four sections, each with a 

 large painted background and reproduction of foliage, soil, rocks, and 

 natural conditions in which birds live. The groups are as follows: 

 (i) the California Condor, showing two adult birds, one standing near 

 its nest in a recess of a cliff and the other with wings at full spread 

 about to alight. Scene in the mountains of southern California. (2) 

 The American White Pelican, showing several adult birds with their 

 nests and eggs, together with other species, such as Cormorants, which 

 breed with them, and characteristic surroundings on a sandy islet in 

 a Saskatchewan lake. (3) The Wild Turkey, four adult birds in the 

 heavy woods of northern Louisiana. The season represented is autumn 



