34 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



A new source of increment has been found in the willingness of 

 observers of the Weather Bureau, especially those in the West Indies, 

 to collect material desired bj^^ the Museum. 



Purchases were more frequent during the past year than formerly, 

 and the success in filling important gaps in various series was most 

 gratifying. Indeed, the zoological collections have reached the stage 

 where means to supply definite deficiencies by expenditure of money 

 is a matter of the greatest importance. Not less important, and pro- 

 moting the same end, is the employment of trained collectors to visit 

 localities selected for specific reasons. During the past year several 

 such opportunities were taken advantage of with most beneficial 

 results. 



While the Museum has never been in a position financially to main- 

 tain extensive field operations, members of the scientific staff have 

 nearly every year made collections of more or less magnitude. Sev- 

 eral such enterprises were entered into last year. In addition, oppor- 

 tunities occur, from time to time, to accompany field parties under 

 private auspices. Several members of the scientific staff' joined the 

 Harriman Alaska Expedition by invitation of Mr. Edw. H. Harriman. 

 At the close of the year, Mr. M. W. Lyon, jr., was detailed to accom- 

 pany Lieut. Wirt Robinson, U. S. A., to Venezuela. 



Duri'.ig the summer of 1890 Messrs. J. N, Rose and Walter Hough 

 were engaged for three months in a botanical expedition in central 

 and southern Mexico. They visited numerous places where collections 

 had been made previously, and obtained many plants from type locali- 

 ties, not a few of which were not represented in the herbarium, 

 besides numerous undescribed species. 



Mr. B. A. Bean pursued ichthyological investigations for the 

 Museum in Edgartown Harbor, Massachusetts, and obtained an excel- 

 lent series of fishes for the collection. 



The head curator spent some weeks, by the favoi' of the Cabot Steam 

 Whaling Company, at their station in Newfoundland, where he had 

 admirable opportunities to study fresh examples of finback and hump- 

 back whales. 



ACCESSIONS. 



The accessions of the year compare favorably in scientific importance 

 with those of preceding years, but were somewhat less numerous than 

 in 1898-99. 



Accessions to the collections are received from a great variety of 

 sources, among which the donations of numerous friends and corre- 

 spondents of the Smithsonian Institution are conspicuous. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott, whose name is associated in these reports with 

 so many valual)le donations, presented large zoological collections dur- 

 ing the year from the islands of the China Sea, from Trong, Lower 

 Siam, and Singapore. These collections comprised no less than 257 



