12 
Museum, and such field investigations and surveys as can be made by the 
limited staff of the Museum take account of the economic and practical 
aspects of the wild life of Canada, as well as the purely scientific side, 
and the museum officials are often called upon to co-operate with other 
departments, particularly the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, and 
Fisheries, in connexion with matters relating to wild life that are not 
adequately covered by any one department. 
R. M. Anderson and P. A. Taverner have served as members of the 
interdepartmental Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, and also 
attended the semi-annual Conference of Federal and Provincial Game 
Officials held in the lecture hall of the National Museum, Ottawa, April 
14 to 16, 1932, and the 5th Annual Meeting of the American Ornitho- 
logists Union held at Laval University, Quebec, October 18 to 21, 1932. 
Mr. Anderson also served as honorary advisory zoologist for the Gatineau- 
Lievre-Nation division of the Province of Quebec Association for the 
Protection of Fish and Game. 
Field Work 
Reduction in Museum appropriations for the year prevented field work 
from being done except in a small w^ay locally. Clyde L. Patch, C. E. 
Johnson, D. Blakely, Charles H. Young, and Miss W. K. Bentley col- 
lected fresh material from time to time for the making of habitat groups, 
and a number of small birds and mammals were collected and mounted 
to fill out the school loan collections. Charles H. Young collected about 
900 specimens of insects, including about 30 that are apparently new forms, 
most of this work being done at night. Many specimens of insect larvse 
were also collected and reared, to have fresh, unbroken material for dis- 
play cases prepared by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Young. 
The temporary cessation of field work in several lines has not been 
entirely detrimental in some ways. The staff of the Museum has always 
been so small that they have not always been able to prepare specimens 
as they came in, and an opportunity is being given to catch up with the 
routine work, as well as to enable the scientific staff to finish belated 
technical reports. Research w T ork on material from new regions usually 
takes more time than was consumed in collecting the specimens, and 
correspondence w r ork in relation to museum-building and in gathering data 
also takes much time. However, it must be recognized that field work is 
necessary to provide the basic material for research. Limited investiga- 
tions can be made for a time on material at hand, but if new material 
does not come in, advanced research on Canadian fauna and flora will 
ultimately come to a standstill. Moreover, as wild life conditions are 
constantly changing, lost opportunities for study of present conditions 
can never be entirely made up. 
Office Work 
R. M. Anderson continued systematic work on the mammal collec- 
tions of the museum, and finished determining and revising all the specimens 
of several families and genera. The 11 Check-List of Canadian Mammals ” 
