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



None of these genera had hitherto been represented in the Museum 

 collections. About seventy-five specimens of modern reptiles were also 

 collected and some representative specimens of the gilsonite mined in 

 this locality. The Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology spent 

 about three weeks in July in northeastern Iowa, collecting Ordovician 

 and Devonian fossils. Near Clermont strata of Trenton and Lower, 

 Middle, and Upper Maquoketa age afforded representative collections, 

 the Trenton fossils being principally gastropods and cephalopods, and 

 the Maquoketa brachiopods, trilobites, sponges and worm tubes. Not 

 only was the quality of the fossils obtained from these localities partic- 

 ularly good for exhibition and study purposes, but also several species 

 obtained will doubtless prove to be new. About 1,200 specimens re- 

 presenting 80 species were in all obtained from these strata. The 

 kind assistance of Dr. Frederick Becker and his son A. G. Becker, both 

 in giving information and in taking part in the actual work of collecting 

 in this locality, was of much value. In search for Devonian fossils 

 localities near Independence, Randalia, West Union, and Fayette were 

 visited and desirable material obtained from all of them. Near Indepen- 

 dence seven quarries were visited and about 500 specimens secured, 

 representing 54 species of brachiopods, corals, etc., and seven spec- 

 imens of a rare Devonian sponge. A number of specimens of agates, 

 concretions, rocks, and clays were also collected here. The locality near 

 Randalia yielded about 500 specimens of brachiopods, representing 15 

 or 20 species, and at West Union and Fayette small, representative 

 collections were obtained. All the material collected was practically 

 new to the Museum collections and some, as has been stated, will 

 probably prove to be new to science. 



No important field expeditions were conducted in 19 10 by the 

 regular members of the Zoological staff. Assistant Curator W. H. 

 Osgood left early in January for London, England, taking with him 

 for study and determination the greater part of the large collection of 

 African mammals secured by the Museum African expedition of 1905-6. 

 He returned in March having been most courteously received by the 

 officials of the British Museum of Natural History and having satis- 

 factorily identified the material by comparison with the many types and 

 historic specimens in the London institution. Owing to the confused 

 and incomplete state of the knowledge of African mammals, especially 

 those of small and medium size, and to the almost total lack of spec- 

 imens on this side of the Atlantic, this was the only way in which the 

 collection could be thoroughly studied and authoritatively named. 

 Its value to science and as a standard of reference for future study in 



