1 88 Field Museum of Natural History — Reports, Vol. IV. 



this large collection, which will naturally involve a great deal of time 

 and labor and eventually present an unexampled exhibit in this material. 

 Assistant Curator Greenman of the Department of Botany has resigned to 

 accept a position with the Missouri Botanical Garden of St. Louis, leaving 

 this Institution with the best wishes of his colleagues. Assistant Curator 

 Riggs has made marked progress in working up the splendid result of 

 his last paleontological expedition in the Uintah desert in northeastern 

 Utah, and there is now on exhibition probably the most complete collec- 

 tion of skulls from this formation in the world. The purchase of the 

 meteorite collection of the late Henry A. Ward, which for several 

 years has been on exhibition at the American Museum of Natural 

 History, has established the Museum in the first rank in this interesting 

 division. The material is being installed in the cases accompanying 

 the collection, but will not be placed on exhibition in the present 

 building. The most important field expedition this year was that under 

 Mr. Osgood, Assistant Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology, to 

 South America, the results of which expedition are more specially set 

 forth under the proper heading. The work is being conducted in charge 

 of two assistants, although Mr. Osgood has returned to the Museum. 

 Assistant Curator Meek has completed his second survey in the Panama 

 Canal Zone in connection with Smithsonian Institution, with excellent 

 results and abundant material for the study collections and for publica- 

 tion. Mr. Carl E. Akeley has commenced work upon large African 

 mammal groups in performance of his contract entered into with the 

 Museum a year or more ago. His first group will be the Cape Buffalo, 

 consisting of five individuals. Under the patronage of Mr. Stanley 

 Field and Mr. Albert A. Sprague II four most striking, brilliant four- 

 section bird groups have been acquired. In response to the demand 

 from the Curators for exhibition cases, the Trustees transferred the sum 

 of $105,000 to a ''New Exhibition Cases Fund," and it is believed 

 that this provision will give to the Museum all the cases it will be con- 

 sidered advisable to install before the occupation of the new building. 

 There is not sufficient exhibition space remaining in the entire Museum 

 to accommodate this number of new cases, approximating 600, and, 

 therefore, as the cases are installed, instead of being introduced in their 

 proper halls or suites they will be stored in the West Annex and not be 

 accessible by the public until placed in the proper position in the new 

 building. Among the publications of the Museum, listed hereafter, 

 that on "Jade; A Study in Chinese Archaeology and Religion," by Dr. 

 Laufer, has created a demand from the public exceeding that of any 

 publication issued by the Institution. It has been widely reviewed and 

 highly complimented. Mr. Richard T. Crane, Jr., has resigned from 



