Pearson - 1994 6 one has become an avid collector of mammals. With the possible exception of Julio Contreras, I doubt that a single one of them has prepared 50 specimens. The animals are available, the materials are available in every hardware store and drug store, yet none has been willing to sit down and prepare an appreciable number of skins. Does the role of itinerant taxidermist not appeal? Do they realize that the museums are are not safe repositories? Maybe Joe Gorman was right. Julio Contreras may have prepared 50 mammal specimens, although his "slave" Yolanda may have done most of the preparing, and Julio is now into birds rather than mammals. One of my students is Curator of Mamals at the National Museum, but I doubt that she has prepared a skin and skull in years. Another student has helped the Minnesota group to collect, but the minute they are gone he stops preparing specimens. The conclusion seems to be that if left to themselves, the Argentines will never get to know their own fauna. Although attracted to the newer techniques such as kayotypes, enzymes, and DNA, where will the voucher specimens be? November 12- Left Vaquerias 7:30 a.m. and drove to Los Cocos and had breakfast with Maurice and Diane Rumboll and their three kids. Short walk with Maurice to see some Quebracho Colorado trees nearby. Dropped one of their sons off at a birthday party at 2 p.m., then headed south and camped for the night along the Rio Tercero just below the Dique near the town of Rio Tercero. We were in a city park with picnic benches under big groves of Chinese elm, mulberry, etc. Very pleasant. Saw one big lizard (Tupinambus) squashed on the road, and another basking nearby. November 13- Left Rio Tercero about 7 a.m. headed south. Saw a live huron on the shoulder of the road near Alcira, and two batches of rheas (4 and 2 individuals) between Mercedes and Buena Esperanza, in agricultural plowed fields. I was impressed with how lush and how agriculture the route is between Cordoba and Buena Esperanza, and then south and east toward General Alvear. Alfalfa, grain, corn, and lots of cattle. They have removed the thorn scrub, and apparenty crops do well. Enormous fields. Saw another batch of 7 rheas along the Fortuna - General Alvear Road; they wee in grazed but not plowed grass and thorn scrub; A small area of what may be mima monds on this road