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important factor to be considered in estimating a local collection made in 
any one year. Species which are rare one year may be common two or 
three years later, or vice versa. The most important specimen collected 
was an eastern least weasel ( Mustela rixosa allegheniensis) , this being the 
most eastern point at which the least weasel or mouse weasel species has 
been taken in North America, according to the records available, and the 
only record of this eastern subspecies in Canada. 
LOCAL FIELD WORK 
Clyde L. Patch, Claude E. Johnson, and D. Blakely devoted some 
time to collection of local species in the Ottawa district to complete habitat 
groups of birds and specimens to fill out the systematic collection of birds 
and mammals. They were not able to devote much time to this work, as 
their time was mostly taken up in the preparation of material for exhibition. 
Mr. J. E. Perron, although devoting most of his time to tanning mammal 
skins, spent some time assisting in the preparation of the mammal groups. 
Mr. Blakely was kept busy most of the time in remaking and cleaning old 
skins and fresh salted skins that came in from some of the field parties, in 
which specialized form of work he has developed an excellent technique 
and has been able to salvage a lot of very valuable material. Mr. Jos. 
Rochon and D. MacDonald cleaned something over 1,700 skulls of mam- 
mals, as well as other bones and skeletons, and bones of a few birds. 
Publications 
J. D. Soper spent the time from January 1 to May 15 in preparing for 
publication an account of his work for the Museum in Baffin island during 
the summer of 1923 and for the period from July, 1924, to September, 
1926. It will be issued under the title of “A Faunal Investigation of 
Southern Baffin Island.” Mr. M. O. Malte prepared a paper on “Com- 
mercial Bent Grasses of the Genus Ardogrostis” P. A. Taverner prepared a 
paper on “Birds of the Belvedere Region, Northern Alberta,” covering the 
work of himself and H. M. Laing during the field season of 1926. H. M. 
Laing prepared a report on the “Birds and Mammals of the Mount Logan 
Expedition of 1925,” with critical notes on the birds by P. A. Taverner 
and on the mammals by R. M. Anderson. The papers by Malte and 
Taverner were published in the 1926 Annual Report of the Museum, and 
the paper by Laing appears in the present Annual Report. 
In preparing the report on Baffin Island fauna, a lack of definite 
published information on the animal life of this, the largest Canadian 
island, was found, there being very little in English outside of the report 
by Professor Ludwig Kumlien (“Contributions to the Natural History of 
Arctic America, Made in Connection with the Howgate Polar Expedition, 
1877-78,” by Ludwig Kumlien, naturalist of the expedition, Department of 
the Interior, U.S. National Museum, Bulletin No. 15, Washington, 1879, 
pp. 1-179, 21 pages being devoted to the mammals, and 36 to the birds). 
Having found some references to the work of a young German naturalist, 
Bernhard Hantzsch, who spent two years in Baffin island, 1909-1911, dying 
on the shores of Foxe basin in the spring of 1911, R. M. Anderson prepared 
a translation of Hantzsch’s “Beobachtungen liber die Saugetiere von 
Baffinsland” (“Observations on the Mammals of Baffin Island”), Sitz- 
