39 



REPOET OF THE DIRECTOR. 



To the Trustees of the University of Illinois: 



Gentlemen: — In accordance with your requirement as expressed in your 

 action concerning the status of the State Laboratory of Natural History, 

 taken June 8. 1892, I beg to submit the following report on the work of 

 the Laboratory during the two years just passed. 



The points of principal interest In our recent operations are (1) the 

 Columbian Exposition exhibit of the zoology of Illinois, made by the 

 Laboratory in 1893, under the auspices of the State Board of World's 

 Fair Commissioners, and the accumulations of material coming into our 

 possession at the close of the Exposition; (2) the establishment, con- 

 jointly with the LTniversity, in 1894. of a biological station "for the con- 

 tinuous investigation of the aquatic life of the Illinois river and its 

 dependent waters, near Havana; and (3) an elaborate experimental work 

 done this year with measures for the destruction of the chinch bug-, and 

 especially for the dissemination of the contagious diseases of that insect, 

 undertaken by the Laboratory staff, with the cooperation of the State 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. 



COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION EXHIBIT. 



Our zoological exhibit, occupying 3,000 square feet of floor space in the 

 Illinois State building at Jackson Park, was so planned as to present the 

 main and most attractive features of the native animal life of the State, 

 and, at the same time, to illustrate the operations of the State Labora- 

 tory of Natural History, and of the State Entomologist's office associated 

 with it. The exhibit was thus limited to specimens of the birds, fishes 

 and insects of the Stale. 



The relations of the Laboratory to the University of Illinois were 

 shown by the position of this exhibit — immediately beside that of the 

 University College of Science, and opposite the exhibits of the College of 

 Agriculture and of Agricultural Experiment Station, with only an aisle 

 intervening. 



The leading features of our display were a most excellent collection of 

 the birds of the State and of tlieir eggs; a series of entomological collec- 

 tions, scientific, educational and economic; a model economic entomolo- 

 gists office and insectarj^ and a nearly complete display of the fishes of 

 Illinois in alcohol. 



The entomological collections were shown in connection with the model 

 entomologist's office, which contained five hundred and forty square feet 

 in one room, with an annex twenty feet long by eleven feet wide for an 

 iusectary. Into this room was put a select and' carefully arranged equip- 



