32 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192*1 



portance. The latter point is emphasized by the addition of a large 

 number of species and genera new to the Museum, many gaps having 

 been filled and deficiencies supplied. This is particularly noticeable 

 in the division of birds, where the generosity of Bradshaw H. Swales 

 has made possible the acquisition of many forms hitherto unrepre- 

 sented in its collections. 



The most outstanding accession of the year is the donation by 

 Dr. J. M. Aldrich, associate curator of insects, of his private collec- 

 tion of nearly 45,000 specimens of dipterous flies, representing 4,145 

 named species and many unnamed, with type material in 534 species, 

 the fruit of a busy life of collecting and study of these insects by 

 one of the leading specialists in this important order. 



The activities so auspiciously begun in China, as noted in my 

 previous report, were continued with gratifying results during the 

 present year. I have to record with extreme regret the tragic death 

 of Charles M. Hoy on September 6, 1923, at Ruling, China. It will 

 be recollected that he was sent to China by Dr. W. L. Abbott for 

 the purpose of making collections for the National Museum, and it 

 was during the first trip that the Museum suffered the loss of this 

 intrepid field naturalist. Rev. D. C. Graham continued his explora- 

 tions in the western part of the Province of Szechwan. During the 

 summer of 1923 he made an expedition to Mount Omei and Tat- 

 sienlu. The collections received contained a large number of topo- 

 tvDes of species previously described, in addition to many new ones, 

 some of them from very high altitudes near the Tibetan border. 

 The National Geographic Society's expedition under F. R. Wulsin 

 during 1923 reached the famous Tibetan Lake Kokonor, but the 

 collections, which are of considerable magnitude, have not been 

 received as yet. Dr. W. L. Abbott during his expedition to the 

 island of Santo Domingo during the early winter, though paying 

 attention chiefly to the Samana region, secured a large number of 

 plants, reptiles, and amphibians, but the great prize was a series 

 of skins, skeletons, and embryos representing a genus of rodents 

 which has not been found alive for nearly 100 years. Dr. Hugh M. 

 Smith's activities in Siam, Dr. Casey A. Wood's visit to the Fiji 

 Islands, Dr. T. D. A. Cockerell's expedition to eastern Siberia, and 

 Secretary Charles D. Walcott's Canadian expedition also added 

 materially to our collections. Dr. Paul Bartsch and Gerrit S. Miller, 

 jr., brought back extensive collections from the Bahamas and the 

 Lesser Antilles, respectively. The National Herbarium was greatly 

 enriched by three major expeditions to tropical America, namely. 

 Dr. A. S. Hitchcock's to Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia; Paul 

 C. Standley's to the Canal Zone and Costa Rica ; and Dr. William R 

 Maxon's to Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. 



