REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 61 



The descriptive labels for vertebrates prepared for the Buffalo 

 Exposition were made use of in the permanent exhil)ition series as far 

 as practicable. The great series of labels of all kinds which had 

 accuujulated in the editor's office and was transferred to the custody 

 of the head curator some time ago, was examined ])y the curators of 

 tii€ .-f^voral divisions, and such labels as were no longer of use wei'c 

 picked out and c^/N^arded. Typewritten labels, many of them descrip- 

 ive, were prepared for the new exhibition series of North American 

 Coleoptera. 



KXPLORATIONS. 



As noted in last year's report, Mr. W. H. Ashmcad, Assistant Cura- 

 tor, Division of Insects, accompanied the U. S. Fish Commission expe- 

 dition to the Hawaiian Islands for the purpose of collecting insects. 

 He left Washington in May, lOOl, and returned in September, I'.HJl, 

 having been in the islands about three months. An expedition to 

 Arizona for the purpose of collecting insects was undertaken by Mr. 

 E. A. Schwarz, Custodian of Coleoptera, at his own expense. He also 

 paid the expenses of an assistant, and very generously turned over to 

 the Museum the large collection made. He was in the held from May 

 to August, 1901. Dr. H. G. Dyar, Custodian of Lepidoptera, accom- 

 panied l)y Mr. A. N, Caudell, who was detailed from tlie LT. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, made a very successful expedition to Colorado 

 for collecting Lepidoptera. The work occupied a1)out two months — 

 from May, 1901, to July, 1901. By invitation of Dr. Edward Palmer, 

 Messrs. C. L. Pollard and William Palmer, of the ]\Iuseum, spent two 

 months in eastern Cuba in the spring of 1902, and collected plants, 

 birds, bats, insects, and marine invertebrates. The Head Curator vis- 

 ited the whaling station of the Cabot Steam Whaling Company on the 

 south coast of Newfoundland in June, 1901, and obtained nuich valu- 

 able information regarding the Sulphurbottom whales there taken, 

 and many photographs. He made arrangements for obtaining a skel 

 eton of one of these large animals at a later date. B}" arran<,'; -ment 

 with the War Department, Mr. B. S. Bowdish, a private isi the Army, 

 was detailed to make collections of birds in Porto Ei';o, Mona Island 

 and eastern Cul)a. This work was carried on in the winter of 1901-02 

 and occupied al)out seven months. Late in the fiscal year Mr. R. 

 Ridgway, Curator, Division of Birds, spent two months in .southern 

 Illinois in collecting birds for t'lG Museum. In the summer of 1901 

 Dr. J. N. Rose, Assistant Cr <,tor, Division of Plants, accompanied 

 by Mr. Robert Hay, assistant, spent ten weeks in central Mexico in 

 botanical explorations. He :: icended Mount Orizaba and Mount Popo- 

 catepetl, and from each mi untain obtained a large series of plants, 

 some of which were broi ghc. living to the United States and deposited 

 in greenhouses of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, where they 

 are now gTowing. 



