104 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, to the supreme court of 
the State of New York, the contention of counsel being that the 
court of appeals did not give full faith and credit to the constitution 
of Ohio in respect to prohibiting the general assembly of that State 
from passing special acts conferring corporate powers. 
Avery estate——The Institution has continued in possession of four 
parcels of real estate in Washington City, received under the bequest 
of Mr. Robert Stanton Avery. Three of these parcels are improved 
with frame dwellings, under rental. 
Sprague and Reid bequests—As has been previously stated to the 
board, the residual legacies accruing to the Institution under the 
wills of Mr. Joseph White Sprague and Mr. Addison T. Reid are sub- 
ject to the demise of certain enumerated legatees, and it is probable 
that no actual income will be received from these bequests for some 
years to come. 
On motion, the report was accepted. 
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 
The secretary presented his report for the fiscal year ending June 
30, 1908, explaining that it had been already transmitted to the 
members of the board. 
On motion, the report was accepted. 
NATURAL HISTORY EXPEDITION TO AFRICA. 
The secretary read the following letter: 
THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, 
Oyster Bay, New York, June 20, 1908. 
My Dear Doctor Watcort: About the 1st of April next I intend to start for Africa. 
My plans are of course indefinite, but at present I hope they will be something on the 
following order: 
By May 1 I shall land at Mombasa and spend the next few months hunting and 
traveling in British and German East Africa; probably going thence to or toward 
Uganda, with the expectation of striking the Nile about the beginning of the new year, 
and then working down it, with side trips after animals and birds, so as to come out 
at tide water, say, about March 1. This would give me ten months in Africa. As you 
know, I am not in the least a game butcher. I like to do a certain amount of hunt- 
ing, but my real and main interest is the interest of a faunal naturalist. Now, it seems 
to me that this opens the best chance for the National Museum to get a fine collection 
not only of the big game beasts, but of the smaller mammals and birds of Africa; and 
looking at it dispassionately, I believe that the chance ought not to be neglected. I 
will make arrangements to pay for the expenses of myself and my son. But what I 
would like to do would be to get one or two professional field taxidermists, field natural- 
ists, to go with me, who should prepare and send back the specimens we collect. The 
collection which would thus go to the National Museum would be of unique value. 
It would, I hope, include specimens of big game, together with the rare smaller animals 
and birds. I have not the means that would enable me to pay for the field naturalists 
or taxidermists and their kit, and the curing and transport of the specimens for the 
