BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 23 



CollectiTig Expeditions. 



The first year's work of the survey of the birds of Ceylon carried 

 out by Captain W. A. Phillips in conjunction with the Colombo Museum 

 resulted in the acquisition of about 400 well prepared bird skins ; and a 

 second grant was made towards the next season's work. Mr. G. M. 

 Henry, of the Colombo Museum, in the course of his expedition to 

 Southern India, obtained 7,700 specimens, 4,000 of which were Orthoptera, 

 for the Department of Entomology. Miss L. E. Cheesman on her 

 expedition to Dutch New Guinea obtained for the Museum some 26,000 

 specimens of insects, a large proportion of which belonged to species 

 hitherto unrepresented in the collections. The Museum received as the 

 result of Mr. Vladimir Martino's collecting expedition in Yugoslavia 

 300 mammal skins and 84 birds, the mammals including types of seven 

 new forms discovered and described by Mr. Martino. The Department of 

 Botany received over 1,000 sheets of plant specimens collected by Dr. 

 Nicholas Polunin in Southern Greenland. Miss Nancy Lindsay collected 

 816 botanical specimens and a number of insects for the Museum in the 

 course of an expedition in Iran. 



Dr. L. R. Cox, Assistant Keeper, spent two weeks in Southern 

 France, where he collected nearly 6,000 fossil invertebrates from classical 

 localities in Mesozoic and Tertiary formations. Dr. E. I. White and 

 Mr. K. P. Oakley, Assistant Keepers, obtained valuable geological material 

 on a collecting tour in Western Germany and Russia, and visited various 

 scientific institutions in both those countries. Mr. G. I. Crawford, 

 Assistant Keeper, on his return from the Percy Sladen Expedition to Lake 

 Titicaca, brought back extensive zoological collections for the Museum. 

 An entomological expedition to British Guiana, under the leadership of 

 Dr. O. W. Richards, of which Dr. J. Smart, Assistant Keeper, was a 

 member, collected over 10,000 specimens of insects. Mr. A. H. G. Alston, 

 Assistant Keeper, spent a month of his annual leave in Algeria in the 

 company of Mr. N. D. Simpson and collected about 1,000 flowering 

 plants and ferns, as well as other botanical material. 



Miss D. M. A. Bate again visited Palestine where she continued her 

 work on the Pleistocene of Bethlehem in conjunction with the Wellcome 

 Archaeological Expedition to the Near East. Remains of a gigantic 

 land tortoise, and a mammaHan fossil new to this locahty were found. 



The Trustees made financial grants towards the following expedi- 

 tions : — an entomological collecting expedition to the mountains of the 

 Yemen, Arabia, by Dr. Hugh Scott and Mr. E. B. Britton, Assistant 

 Keepers ; Mr. F. Tangier-Smith to Western China ; Miss L. E. Cheesman 

 to Waigeu and Japen, off the coast of New Guinea; Dr. G. Taylor, 

 Assistant Keeper, while accompanying the Sherriff- Ludlow plant- collect- 

 ing expedition to Tibet ; an Oxford University expedition to the Cayman 

 Islands under the leadership of Mr. W. G. Alexander ; Mr. H. G. Vevers 

 to the Faroe ; Messrs. C. G. and E.G. Bird in Greenland ; an entomological 

 collecting expedition to the Retyezat Mountains, Roumania, by Baron 

 B. Lipthay; to Cyprus by Mr. G. A. Mavromoustakis ; an expedition 

 to collect plants and insects in Southern Arabia by Mr. Amihud 

 Grasovsky; and to Dr. F. E. Zeuner to enable him to collect insects, 

 especially Orthoptera, in Italy. 



