Jan., 191 2. Annual Report of the Director. 121 



Guinea and New Hebrides. He reached Sydney in time to catch 

 the steamer for New Hebrides on April ist. It takes six weeks to 

 make a round trip of the islands and return to Vila, the chief port. 

 In addition to this trip he spent two months in Malekula and Ambrym. 

 Here he succeeded in getting a number of very rare specimens, includ- 

 ing some of the large drums and carved wood figures, most of which 

 have been forwarded to the Museum, but unfortunately, owing to 

 bad weather, the steamer was not able to stop at one place where he 

 had a number of specimens so he arranged for these to be sent on later. 

 He reports that arrangements with a missionary in the Santa Cruz 

 group were made to send a collection to the Museum, as it would 

 have taken too much time for him to have gone there. After packing 

 his collections at Vila he proceeded to New Caledonia, wherfe he spent 

 a month visiting the wildest portions of the northern end of the island 

 and getting a very interesting, though not a very large collection. He 

 then returned to Sydney and there purchased a few rare specimens 

 which he had not been able to get in the islands. He further reports 

 that he has also arranged for a further collection from New Caledonia, 

 which will probably not be ready for some months, as it will take some 

 time to get it together. The collector who has agreed to do this has 

 done quite a little collecting and made the collection for the Paris 

 exposition among others. Dr. Lewis reports that he cannot, in the 

 time he has, either make these collections himself or wait for others 

 to make them. The region is too vast. Specimens are getting scarce 

 in these islands, and unless things are obtained at once there will be 

 nothing left. Dr. Lewis is now on his way to Simpson Hafen, where 

 he hopes to buy a collection which will nicely fill out the collections 

 from the German colony, it being from those islands he was unable 

 to visit. From there he proposes to proceed to British New 

 Guinea as soon as possible. Assistant Curator W. H. Osgood with 

 S. G. Jewett, assistant, conducted an expedition to Venezuela 

 and Colombia from January to April. They entered the port of 

 Maracaibo, Venezuela, and, working in that vicinity a short while, then 

 proceeded inland, finally reaching the high country lying on the boun- 

 dary between Venezuela and Colombia some 200 miles south of Mara- 

 caibo. Their collections, while not particularly large, are unusually 

 varied and valuable. They number 232 mammals and 462 birds, 

 besides a few fishes and reptiles. Among the mammals are 10 species 

 and subspecies new to science and some eight genera new to Field 

 Museum, while practically all the species were previously unrepresented 

 in th^ collections and a considerable number are not seen in museums 

 outside of Europe. Of particular interest and value were the discovery 



