REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



vanced state of preparation. Moreover, it has been thouglit desi- 

 rable as introductions to these catalogues to give an account of the 

 best methods of capturing the insects and preserving them for the 

 cabinet as well as for breeding the larva3 with a view of studying the 

 habits and peculiarities of the species, and with this object arrange- 

 ments have been made with gentlemen particularly acquainted with 

 different orders lor articles relating to them. 



A commencement has already been made in the preparation of mate- 

 rials for these works, a part of which will be given in an article to be 

 found in the appendix to this report. 



The description of the method of capturing insects and preserving 

 them will be widely distributed, and it is to be hoped that the different 

 correspondents of the Institution interested in this branch of natural 

 history will assist in completing the collections. 



Specimens of Neuroptera were lastyear referred to Dr. Hagen, consist- 

 ing chiefly of those collected by Captain Pope's expedition, in New 

 Mexico as well as by Baron Ostensacken in the Disti ict of Columbia 

 and elsewhere^ together with various series from other sources. Three- 

 fourths at least of all the specimens of the collection sent to Dr. 

 Hagen have never before been described. For example, among thirty- 

 four species of Odonata (dragon flies) twenty-seven were found to be new. 

 " The materials for study which I have thus received from the Smith- 

 sonian Institution," says Dr. Hagen, "are the richest I have ever ob- 

 tained at one time before." 



Bleteorology . — The arrangement between the Patent Office and this 

 Institution in relation to the collection of meteorological statistics still 

 continues, and is, we think, producing good results. The number of 

 observers now reporting is about three hundred, and it is only in re- 

 gard to the want of persistency on the part of some of these that there 

 is room for the expression of regret. Incomplete and irregular records, 

 however, are of importance in furnishing data for tiie general in- 

 vestigation of the subject — an investigation which is based, as was 

 stated in a former report, upon the preparation of a series of maps of the 

 United tStates for each day in the year, on which are represented with 

 different colors the portions of the country over which the sky is clear, 

 cloudy, snowing, raining, &c., and, by arrows, the direction of the 

 wind. These maps indicate the place of commencement, the succes- 

 sive stages of development, the changes and the final disappearance of 

 storms. Any person, therefore, who may furnish a daily record of the 

 face of the sky, of the beginning and ending of rain, snow, hail, and 



