T. S. Palmer

The Death Valley Expedition: A Biological Survey of Parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, Part 2

Collection of reports on Death Valley, the bordering region of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Reports include birds, reptiles and Batrachians, fishes, insects, mollusks, trees and shrubs, cactuses and yuccas, and list of localities in the reports.

The Ornithological Collection of the Museo Nacional, Buenos Aires Its Origin, Development and Present Condition

T•E ornithological collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Buenos Aires began with the foundation of the institution in 1823. Four years later, according to an inventory of the objects in the Museum at that time, • it contained a collection of 150 birds. A few years later another accession purchased in France included 33 Raptores, 24 Gallinae, 50 Waders, 41 Palmipedes, 27 Scansores, and 84 Passeres. From this time on for many years the collection seems to have remained stationary with the exception of small donations made from time to time which consisted of isolated specimens of common species indigenous and exotic, generally without data, in bad condition, and consequently without scientitlc value. According to data found in the archives of the Museum, another inventory made on March 23, 1854, by those in charge, St. Santiago Torres and Dr. Miguel Garcia Fernandez, showed that the ornithological collection then comprised 445 mounted birds, 36 eggs and 3 nests. In 1862, when Dr. Herman Burmeister was made Director of the Museum, the institution received a greater impulse for progress and took on a character really scientific. This savant should therefore be considered the real founder of the collection now in the Museum, and particularly of the collection of birds in which he always took a special interest. The work of Dr. Burmeister as an ornithologist is well known to all who have been interested in the birds of South America and especially of the Argentine Republic. Several years prior to the time that he undertook the directorship of the Museum, he devoted himself to the study of Argentine birds, publishing descriptions of many new species and a list of those