OF WASHINGTON. 



Munich, surrounded by its vast flat area of farmlands, devoted 

 chiefly to the culture of annuals, has little to offer entomologically 

 in the late fall. The region about Salzburg is interesting as a 

 forest district, and as exhibiting the system of forest management. 

 The trip from Linz down the Danube to Vienna, through the vast 

 agricultural region bordering this river, marked here and there 

 by little rural villages, was very interesting and novel to Ameri 

 can eyes from the absence of scattered farm-houses the village 

 life predominating. This region w r as instructive as giving an idea 

 of the agricultural and forestry conditions of the valley of the 

 upper Danube. 



In Vienna better fortune was had in finding in town most of 

 the entomologists connected with the Kaiserlich Koniglich Natur- 

 historisches Hofmuseum, and some very instructive interviews 

 were enjoyed with several well-known students of insects at the 

 Austrian capital. The u Imperial, Kingly Natural History Court 

 Museum," a splendid, palatial edifice, just off the famous " ring 

 strasse," and fronting and exactly duplicating the Art Museum on 

 Maria Theresa Platz, is undoubtedly the most magnificent natural- 

 history museum building in the world. The Department of In 

 sects is most liberally provided for, having a number of very large 

 rooms, amply furnished with large cases for the collections; 

 There is no crowding, and ample space is present for immense 

 additions of material. The collections seem to be well arranged 

 and classified, and are perhaps in better condition than the similar 

 collections in any other museum visited. It may be doubted if in 

 any museum in Europe better conditions prevail or are the col 

 lections better housed and arranged. The value and character of 

 the collections as depositories of types will not be discussed, but 

 it may be merely mentioned that they contain Signoret's collec 

 tion of 30,000 specimens in Hemiptera and most of his types, and 

 in Diptera the collections of Schiner, Meigen, Low, Brauer, 

 Rondani, and others. 



To those who are more or less intimately associated with natu 

 ral-history museum work in this country, a brief statement of the 

 conditions governing the official staff and of the civil-service rules 

 of this institution will be of interest. One sees here the princi 

 ples of civil service carried out to their fullest legitimate extent 

 The higher positions of the museum are filled by regular promo- 



