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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 
ADDRESS REPLY TO 
CHIEF, BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY, 
AND REFER TO 
BI-SZ 
Dr. Alex Wetmore, 
c/o Consul General of the 
United States of America, 
Calle Lavalle 341, 
Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
Dear Wetmore: 
Your letter of June 25 has “been received, and I 
am glad to learn that you reached Buenos Aires safely. 
Also that Dr. Dahbine has shown a disposition to assist 
you in your work, and that you will he able to proceed 
on your way north shortly into the provinces of Chaco and 
Formosa. 
Your description of the conditions at the Zoological 
Gardens is very interesting. It had not occurred to me 
that English Sparrows abounded in that region. Is there 
any species with which they are commonly associated as they 
are in some other countries, for instance, in the western 
United States and on the table land of Mexico, where, when 
they occur, they compete to some extent with the House Finches, 
and in Europe where they are closely associated with, and come 
in competition to a certain extent at least with, the Chaffinches? 
Are they considered such a general nuisance as in this country? 
1 ■ v ' ■ ' ( : - 
I judge from what you write regarding hotels that your v 
expenses are likely to be similar to what they would be if you 
were traveling in the United States. Is this likely to prpve 
true? 
Do not forget, of course, that you are to collect some 
small mammals. I wish you would look out especially for bats. 
I think I mentioned to you the desirability of securing additional 
specimens of fish-eating bats of the genus Noctilio from that 
region. We have a specimen which I believe came from extreme 
southern Brazil, and they quite probably occur in northern Argentina. 
This specimen is somewhat unlike typical material of Hoetilio 
leporinus and may represent a southern geographic race, but additional 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
July 28, 1920. 
