12 
DIVISION OF BIOLOGY 
R. M. Anderson, Chief of the Division, reports: 
Owing to lack of appropriations for field work the activities of the staff 
were limited almost entirely to office and laboratory work, although some 
local investigations were made in the Ottawa district by members of the 
staff, mainly outside of office hours. At the end of the year the catalogued 
specimens of mammals numbered 12,304, an addition of 654 specimens during 
the year; the birds numbered 25,727, an addition of 548 during the year; 
and reptiles and amphibians 4,561, an addition of 79 during the year. 
It is generally recognized that systematic work in zoology and botany 
is primarily based on collections made in the field, and without specimens 
for detailed examination there is little progress. Experience has also shown 
that to carefully study, determine, and correctly label a collection made in 
the field takes at least as much time as is required to collect the specimens. 
During the past year the opportunity has been taken to make considerable 
progress in studying, identifying, labelling, and arranging the accumulated 
reserve collections and recent accessions, making them more useful and 
convenient for reference in further studies. A scientific natural history 
museum is much more than a repository for curios of more or less scientific 
interest. A collection of selected scientific specimens, tastefuly exhibited, 
has considerable value in popular education, and the reserve collections are 
as important as the scientific library for “ source material ” in more 
advanced studies, and should be preserved as carefully as other historical 
archives for revisionary work as science progresses in the future. 
The Biological Division specialists are always glad to identify speci- 
mens of mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians which are taken in any 
part of Canada, and correspondence on any specimens of interest is wel- 
comed in regard to economic aspects, as well as for the purpose of obtaining 
authentic records of the distribution and spread of different species. Speci- 
mens have been determined from time to time for other Dominion and 
Provincial departments, institutions, private collectors, and other persons. 
During the year specimens have been obtained on loan from the Smith- 
sonian Institution, U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C. ; American 
Museum of Natural History, New York; Provincial Museum, Regina, 
Saskatchewan; Experimental Fisheries Station, Halifax, Nova Scotia; Grand 
Coteau Museum of Canadian Club, Shaunavon, Saskatchewan; Kenneth 
Racey, Vancouver, B.C.; Stuart Criddle, Treesbank, Manitoba; Wm. H. 
Moore, Scotch Lake, New Brunswick. Reciprocally, specimens have been 
loaned to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Bureau of Bio- 
logical Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.; Museum 
of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Museum 
of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California; 
Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.; American 
Museum of Natural History, New York; and to various private investi- 
gators. 
The Biological Division of the National Museum is charged with part 
of the work which in some countries is covered by a regularly organized 
Biological Survey, and in this capacity makes such investigations and sur- 
veys of the status of wild life in Canada, as time and a limited staff will 
