28o Field Columbian Museum — Reports, Vol. i. 



value as if undescribed. and will prove of great assistance in settling 

 questions of geographical distribution and others of equal importance. 

 Snakes and batrachians are not plenty in the range, but wt- have 

 secured some of both, which I am sure will prove of much interest, 

 and I hope to be able to obtain somt- of the fishes of this region. All 

 these, whether known or unknown, will be valuable additions to our 

 Museum, where they are entirely unrepresented." It is expected that 

 this expedition will return to Chicago the first of the coming month, 

 and the results of the expedition will undoubtedly appear in the pub- 

 lication series of the Zoological Department. During the year the 

 Assistant Curator of Zoology made a few collections, one in north- 

 eastern Wisconsin, one at Havana, 111., and a few in the vicinity of 

 Chicago. A small collection was also obtained by the Assistant 

 Curator while attending the National Fishery Congress at Tampa, 

 Florida. The collections from Wisconsin and Havana, 111., are being 

 used in making excnanges. One set has been sent to Stanford Uni- 

 versity ; other sets are being prepared for the British ^Museum, 

 the United States National Museum, and the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology, Cambridge. During the year, Mr. Chope, Assistant 

 in the Department of Zoology, has been very energetic in collecting 

 insects in the vicinity of Chicago. He visited La Crosse and Juneau 

 counties, Wisconsin, in the same pursuit, procuring over i,6oo speci- 

 mens. He has collected many cocoons of moths and butterflies in 

 the vicinity of Chicago, from which 148 specimens have been hatched 

 in the laboratory of the department, thus obtaining more perfect 

 examples than could be secured in any other manner. Several 

 species have been reared from the egg. Those of one brood have 

 been killed at different times, thus securing a verj- complete series 

 from the egg to the imago. 



Installation, Rearrangement, and Permanent Improvements. — 

 The jtermanent improvements within and about the Museum build- 

 ing during the past year have been quite extensive, and have in a 

 measure been brought about by the demands for greater convenience 

 and better facilities for the prosecution of the daily work of the insti- 

 tution. New offices have been constructed in the east and west 

 courts respectively for the Curators of Anthropology and of Orni- 

 thology, while the offices and laboratories of the Departments of 

 Botanv and of Zoology have practically been reconstructed, largely 

 extended, and rearranged in the interior. A new studio, complete 

 and modern in every respect, has been constructed in the third 

 gallery of the east court for the section of Photography. A poison- 



