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



of the habitat and the acquirement of complete specimens of the rare 

 marsupial; Caenolestes, living representative of the otherwise extinct 

 family Epanorthidse and of which no perfect specimens had ever 

 before been taken. Work on the birds is in progress and will prob- 

 ably prove to include at least as many novelties. No other expeditions 

 of importance were conducted in 191 1. The Curator of Zoology made 

 a number of short field trips for the purpose of study in relation to 

 habitat groups and in studying habits of mammals in connection with 

 his forthcoming work. Artist C. A. Corwin accompanied an expedi- 

 tion from the University of Iowa to Laysan Island in the Pacific Ocean 

 west of Hawaii. Through his cooperation with their party, certain 

 birds and group material are to be obtained for exhibition groups in 

 this Museum. Through the kindness of Mr. Cyrus H. McCormick, 

 Messrs. L. L. Pray and C. F. Brandler spent two weeks in June at 

 White Deer Lake, near Champion, Michigan, where they obtained an 

 excellent series of beaver and ample material for a habitat group of 

 these animals. Mr. Friesser, taxidermist, has made various short 

 trips in the vicinity of Chicago for miscellaneous material needed 

 in his work. During the time from January i to May 24, the Assistant 

 Curator, Dr. Meek, was in Panama collecting fishes and reptiles with 

 representatives of the Smithsonian Institution, which is now engaged 

 in making a biological survey of the Canal Zone and the adjacent 

 region. Dr. Meek returned early in June to Chicago and has 

 since devoted the greater portion of his time to the preparation of 

 an account of the Fresh-water Fishes of Central America, with espe- 

 cial attention to the fishes listed from the fresh and brackish waters 

 of Panama, which is preliminary to a report of the Panama collection. 

 The collection made in Panama by the Assistant Curator and the 

 representatives of the Smithsonian Institution comprises 440 species, 

 about 25 of which appear to be new. This collection, at present in 

 the United States National Museum, is in an excellent state of pres- 

 ervation, and has already been catalogued and arranged for future 

 study. The larger fishes, more than 2,800 specimens, are supplied 

 with collector's tags, and are preserved in stone jars. The remainder, 

 about 15,000 specimens, are (with the exception of a small portion 

 of the fresh-water fishes which are in this Museum) in bottles, occupy- 

 ing a little more than 60 square feet of shelf-room. The small collec- 

 tion here (about 300 specimens) contains the apparently new species 

 of fresh -water fishes. The reptiles collected on this expedition are in 

 the U. S. National Museum. Dr. Meek reports these animals as far 

 from abundant on the Isthmus, and this collection contains only about 



