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SECRETARY’S REPORT 2 
During April and early May 1959, three members of the staff of the 
Museum of Natural History accompanied the 1959 Smithsonian- 
Bredin Caribbean Expedition, made possible through the generosity 
of Mr. and Mrs, J. Bruce Bredin, of Wilmington, Del. This was the 
fifth of a series of expeditions organized by Mr. Bredin in collabora- 
tion with the Smithsonian Institution, and the third in which he has 
personally taken an active part. As on the previous expeditions, 
Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, research associate, was in charge of field opera- 
tions. The other Smithsonian scientists participating were Dr. 
Thomas E. Bowman, associate curator of marine invertebrates and 
specialist on copepods, and Dr. Richard S. Cowan, associate curator 
of phanerogams. Dr. Cowan left in advance of the other members 
and spent the period between March 19 and April 2 on the island 
of Trinidad, where he made headquarters at the Imperial College of 
Tropical Agriculture, near Port-of-Spain. Excellent facilities pro- 
vided by this college enabled him to reach several areas in Trinidad 
from which our department of botany had only limited collections 
heretofore. 
The expeditionary party included, besides Mr. Bredin, John Finlay 
of Varadero, Cuba, expert malacologist; Dr. Richard F. Darsie, Jr., 
entomologist of the College of Agriculture of the University of Del- 
aware, especially interested in tropical mosquitoes and their life his- 
tories; and William H. Amos, head of the science department of St. 
Andrews School, Middletown, Del., photographer to the expedition. 
They departed from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, on the yacht Caribee 
on April 8 for the island of Tobago. Following several days of inten- 
sive work on the famed Bucco Reef off the west side of Tobago, where 
they obtained valuable invertebrate material, and a visit to the bird- 
of-paradise sanctuary on Little Tobago, the party made brief stops 
at Dominica, St. Lucia, Montserrat, Barbuda, and Antigua, where 
the labors of the expedition were concluded on May 5. Most interest- 
ing specimens of reef fishes were obtained off the windward side of 
Barbuda. On this island a series of caves explored by earlier Smith- 
sonian-Bredin expeditions had yielded several] unknown species of 
crustaceans, of which more extensive material was much desired; 
supplementary specimens were taken in traps carried along this year 
for the purpose. Many bats inhabiting a large cave on Antigua were 
captured primarily for a study that Dr. Darsie wished to make of 
their ectoparasites. This third trip to the Lesser Antilles sponsored 
by Mr. and Mrs. Bredin has still further enhanced the collections of 
the Smithsonian Institution from that important area, in which still 
further undescribed species of marine life have been discovered. 
