60 REPORT OF liTATIONAL MUSEUM, 15^2.1. 



ciate curator of insects, proceed to the interior of Alaska for the i:»ur- 

 pose of making a general collection of insects from this entomologi- 

 cally almost unknown part of the country. The first step has thus 

 been taken toward the realization of a plan which would eventually 

 extend these explorations into the adjacent parts of Asia, and pos- 

 sibly the entire palearctic regions. Without thoroughly representative 

 material from that part of the world it will be impossible to gain a 

 satisfactory knowledge of our own subarctic and boreal province. 

 T\nien last heard from Doctor Aldrich's expedition had reached the 

 field and begun collecting operations. 



About the same time Dr. William M. Mann, of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, and assistant custodian in the section of Hymenoptera, 

 division of insects, joined the Mulford biological expedition to South 

 America, which started on June 1, and which, it is hoped, will enrich 

 the Museum's collections materially. 



Allusion has already been made to Dr. W. L. Abbott's expedition 

 to Santo Domingo, chiefly in the interest of plant collecting. The 

 only other botanical expedition to be mentioned is that of Dr. A. S. 

 Hitchcock, custodian of the grass herbarium, who left in April, 1921, 

 upon an extended collecting trip in the Philippines, Japan, China, 

 and the Indo-Malayan region. At the request of Dr. E. D. Merrill, 

 director of the bureau of science, he will elaborate the grasses for a 

 proposed flora of the Philippines. The primary object of the trip 

 is to gather data for a revision of the bamboos of the world. 



WORK OF PEESEKVING AND INSTALLING THE COLLECTIONS. PRESENT CONDITION OF 



COLLECTIONS. 



The conditions which at present hamper the development of the 

 biological exhibition series and which were detailed in my report of 

 last year have continued. What was then said about lack of space ; 

 the closing of most of the exhibits on the second floor; the incon- 

 venience of the present arrangement to the specialists of the mammal 

 division; all these features remain unrelieved and explain the 

 apparent lack of progress in the exhibition halls, with the result 

 that the renewal of the bird exhibit, on the one hand, and the 

 development of the District of Columbia exhibit, on the other, 

 have come to a temporary standstill. The aim has therefore 

 been to improve, whenever possible, the quality of the specimens 

 already on exhibition, by remounting such skins as are still in good 

 condition or by substituting new material, whenever available, for 

 the old, faded, or poorly mounted animals. Some of the older speci- 

 mens, it must be remembered, date back to the early days when skins 

 were literally "stuffed," while others have come to the Museum in 

 later years ready mounted from dealers or other museums not prac- 

 ticing the most advanced methods of taxidermy. This art has under- 



