13 
has been virtually completed in card catalogue form and is nearly ready 
for publication. This work is very convenient for reference in study of 
Canadian mammals, as the nomenclature has been brought up to date in 
readily accessible form, and much new information has been collected on 
the distribution of the different species and subspecies of mammals of 
Canada, which are now known to number over 500 forms. Work has 
been continued on a bulletin on “ Animal Life and Life Zones of Southern 
British Columbia ” covering the four seasons’ work (1927-1930) of Museum 
field parties along the International Boundary line from the Strait of 
Georgia to the Rocky Mountains, with certain additions made during the 
past two years. The British Columbia mammals in the National Museum 
now number about 4,000 specimens, and many others have been obtained 
by loan, or examined in various other Museums. Considerable data have 
also been added to the file on “ Mammals of Canada,” which has been 
under way for several years, and C. E. Johnson has during the year 
made a few more coloured plates and a number of line drawings, picturing 
skulls and adding ranges of species to base maps. 
Mr. Anderson, by request, also prepared two papers for the Division 
of Biological Sciences, Fifth Pacific Science Congress, one on “ The Distri- 
bution, Abundance, and Economic Importance of the Game and Fur-bearing 
Mammals of Western North America ” (illustrated with maps of ranges of 
important species) ; and “ Effect of the Introduction of Exotic Animal 
Forms.” 
Some progress has been made in plotting records of species of Cana- 
dian mammals, with accompanying citations, on large maps, for the 
divisional scientific file. Valuable information on distribution, abundance, 
and habits of Canadian mammal species is derived almost daily from 
volunteer and solicited correspondents in different parts of the country, 
and considerable time has to be spent abstracting and transcribing such 
notes on cards under the proper species headings, so that the information 
is available when wanted. 
As P. A. Taverner, ornithologist, has done no field work for two 
years, opportunity has been given to carry on with office projects that 
have hitherto been proceeded with in a more or less desultory fashion. 
Principal amongst these has been the sifting out and filing of the biblio- 
graphical and distributional data on the birds of Canada. In the course 
of this work several thousand cards have been written and filed during the 
year, bringing the number of cards in this system up to nearly 55,000. They 
give a most valuable synopsis of ornithological conditions in the Dominion, 
and contain so far as can be estimated about three-quarters of the scientific 
information on the subject that has been published. Along with this card 
index has been carried the plotting of the ranges of Canadian birds on maps, 
one for each species, some five hundred in all. This work was started in 
1917 and the maps are as completely up-to-date as it is possible to bring 
them. Their value in giving at a glance a graphic view of the status of 
any species in the Dominion can hardly be estimated. 
Mr. Taverner in collaboration with Dr. George Miksch Sutton, repre- 
senting the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, has prepared a well-annotated 
